Digital comics - I disagree

[Jacob Berget]

No way - i simply hate to read a story on the internet - there is something special about sitting in chair or something and reading a comic from 1952 - but not on the monitor...

A comic IS a magazine, that you read, not something on the internet - !!! I don't see the idea in reading comics on the internet... I can see, that it is smart that you can read them before you buy them, but then the publishers wilil have to high the prices.. and THAT's some BULLSHIT!!!

Best Regards/
Jacob Berget
Donaldisten.dk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Fabricio Grellet 
To: dcml at stp.ling.uu.se 
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 5:44 AM
Subject: Digital comics - I disagree


Hi!

I was reading what Cord wrote, and I couldn't resist to manifest myself:

Digital Comics, as he mentioned: 

> - they take no space

They will take LESS space, but they'll take space anyways. In CD-Roms or in the HD of your computer...

> - comics would always remain in print

This isn't something that you can count for sure. It all depends of the politics of the publishers. Some of them make the comics available, like DC Comics actually does with its paperbacks. Any kind of stuff can get discontinued... you even can't find some "old" CDs and CD-Roms today...!

> - all the great comics of the past would always be available

See what I've mentioned above;

> - I could buy any comic instantly over the internet

If this "digital comic" is delivered on-line, in this case you're right... this is something that's completely different from "our" comics actually. That's why they're "digital", and not regular comics. But I prefer the other format!

> - it could be possible to try a comic before you purchase it.

But you can do it, anyway! It's just a matter of checking it...!


> - I could take my comics with me wherever I go

Why can't you go with your comics to any other place?

> - they could be much cheaper as production costs are much lower

More or less. You would cut costs with printing. Maybe with distribution - you would need a distribution in case of CD-Roms or DVD-Roms. And you would pay the creative team...

The costs don't decrease so easily in a digital format. 


> - they do not collect dust, yellow and deteriorate of the years

Buy those special plastic bags!!

> - I could find any comic in my collection instantly


You can do this if you catalog them and if you put them in the proper manner in a collection box.

> - I could reread any comic at any time

Why can't you reread the stories in your "paper" comics?!


> - colors ould be better as digital displays can display millions of
>  colors and are more brilliant than print.


The monitor shines. That's why the colors are so vivid. But printers can reproduce the color tones better now.

> - I could make my own "best of" collections

It's only a matter of putting them aside in your collection!

> There would of course be a few comics I would like to keep because
> they are beautiful books or because I became sentimentally attached
> to them over the years, but this would just be around 20-30 books.
> The others I would trade in for digital versions at any time.

I don't wanna be against you, but being a comic professional I tend to see the medium as the books that we see these days. I"m also not against better technologies or innovation... but I don't see comics going to other formats by now. If you can't "control" the storytelling, then it won't matter... it won't be a comic.


What do you think?

Thanks.


Fabricio Grellet