Right now I'm trying to eliminate as much as my comic book collection as I can. I have about 20 boxes and I'm tired of all the room they take up, plus I could use whatever money I get selling them off. But, of course, there's stuff still dear to my heart that I'd want to be able to read again. So, I've started scanning various series. I can put at least 50 issues on one CD-Rom and I've realized this is a format that might make me enjoy comic books again. No more storage issue, no more shuffling stacks of boxes to get to the series I want, no more careful handling and rebagging. Also, with no more than a couple of color level tweaks, the scans look much better than the originals.

I would like to see books like DC Archives or Marvel Masterworks in this format. They are attractive books, but once you start collecting them, even focusing on one or two titles, they start to take up a lot of space as well.

"But sitting at a computer doesn't compare to the experience of curling up with some favorite issues", which is what I imagine some dissenters would say. Well, I'm not giving up everything. I can still get that pleasure with my hardback Watchmen, some of my Russ Cochran EC libraries or a Cerebus phone book among many other hardback or trade paperback collections. However, I would be more interested in buying a Legion of Super-Heroes series knowing that it would take a few inches of shelf space rather than many feet. And low production costs, making classic series' readily available at a low consumer cost might create a new surge of interest in the dying comic book market.

They could also do some cool Flash enhancement.

Good idea. I'm not sure how feasible it would work since comic book companies might think it would eat into their sales (since CD-ROMs can be pirated and copied), but it's a good idea....especially for archiving purposes.

Also, one of the "fun" things about collecting comics (I presume...since I no longer collect or read comics) is the fact that they might someday be worth some money. I don't think a CD-ROM would have the luster of a well-kept, mint copy of an early Spiderman comic.

I'm just speculating, but I'm guessing that you're not suggesting that CD-ROMs replace the hard copy comic books...I would say that maybe they could come packaged together, but then that wouldn't really solve the whole "lack of space" problem, now would it?

Anyway, like I said, it's a good idea. If I had the entrepreneurial spirit, I would steal your idea and look into starting a company that did such things. Also, assuming you could get someone to allow you to scan rare back issues, it would allow people to finally read the first issues (and entire series) of comics like Superman, Spiderman, X-Men, etc.

I would love Marvel and DC start putting out their old series in order on CD-ROM. Put a good amount of issues on disk for a decent price and I'll pick up most series.

Marvel and DC are not making any money off of old issues. Some make them money if they are a part of a famous story (and are reprinted) but most just sit there.

Still put out physical issues. I like holding the book in my hand for new stories but will never spend the $$$ to get all the origional issues. $4,000 for a 60's Spiderman issue..no way.

Crossgen is going to be doing this shortly, I believe there's an article somewhere on Newsarama. One thing you could try is scanning in your comics and burning them to CD rom. Sure, it would be time consuming, but it would save space.

Then may I recommend Marvel's great "Essentials" books, including five volumes of "Spider-Man" (with about 20 issues in each volume). True, they are only black and white reprints. But they're an inexpensive (about $15 each) way to read all those early issues. It's too bad that DC doesn't do this as well.

As for the question at hand, maybe it's the Luddite in me, but there's nothing like having the books in your hand. I just can't get interested in e-books, books on tape, and CD-ROMs.

There already was/is someone selling cd-roms containing X-Men and Spiderman comics on ebay. Currently he doesn't have anything up for auction, don't know if it is because ebay took the listings down or because he just hasn't listed anything recently. I did notice that he recently had to change his listings (to protect himself) to reflect that he was really selling the program on the cd rom that enables you to display the pages in different ways (actually pretty nice program) and not the actual content.

I think he has his email address for more info contained in a link in his current auctions

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...sort=3&rows=50

This seems like a great idea to me. If people do still want to read their comics, they could just print them out. Probably better quality than the original comics (except without the nostalgia and the "I have to be extra careful not to crease this comic")

god, I hope not.

someone mentioned this on a comic book documentary that I caught the end of last week..

for archival purposes? sure. for retail purposes? heck no.

This would be a great idea! Collectors would still have their individual comics, but people like me who would like to catch up on long-running series but are finding it difficult and expensive to get the (incomplete!) trade paperbacks would instead just be able to buy large portions of a series on one CD.

This is a cool idea. I have no interest in collecting comics since they really have no resale value for the most part. I would gladly buy CD roms though if they could put together several years of a comic on one CD Rom for a decent price.

If Marvel starting doing this with the 60's versions of the Avengers, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, etc I would gladly buy them up. You could have a great collection of comics without taking out your whole closet with back issues.

I bought the complete Mad Magazine CD-Rom collection when it was out and it was well worth the $30 I paid for it.

See, my main objection is that once they start doing this [mainly for "back issues"] that opens up a whole pandora's box that might "inspire" some board member [with no respect for the printed word] to decide that they don't need to print any more comics or some other "more profit with CD roms than actual comic books" line of reasoning..

I don't see a CD-Rom format replacing new comics, certainly not individual issues. After all, the companies are dependent on monthly sales and if monthly issues were on CD, it would be just as frustrating as it is with paper comics: eventually accumulating boxes and boxes of discs and having to shuffle CDs to read a series. Online distribution of new issues is a possibility, but not for several years and I don't see that totally replacing paper issues either.
I doubt that CD archives of old issues would hurt the collector's market. Collectors will still have as much desire for the original issues as they do now. Old Spider-Man issues have been reprinted in various formats several times over and that hasn't diminished the demand of the original comics.
However, since I am archiving my own issues to CD-rom, I will probably encounter more people who do the same. Eventually, I can trade and aquire issues and series that I'm lacking. I'm just wondering how popular this could be that the publishers might offer these themselves.

I know a lot of people are already posting scans of comics in newsgroups and (probably) IRC. If I could buy sets of full-color issues on CD-Rom for a reasonable price, I would do so, since I am a completist. I recently discovered the Essentials line from Marvel, where they collect 20 or so issues for about 15 bucks. They are only black and white, though.

I have a couple of CD-Rom comic books, although these are single issue things with enhanced features, such as audio (or even animation.) I haven't heard much about anything like this for a while, so I presume the idea died a painful death.

here is what I was refering to....

http://www.mcgillenterprises.com/cdcomics/cdcomics.html

I have a few of the would be CD-ROM comics that were made by Marvel (x-men and spidey), I can tell you one thing, those on that site look like just compiled comic art. a bootleg. I can tell you that cd-rom comics wouldn't work. for one thing the whole Collecting factor would be thrown out the window. for another thing folks want something to hold in their hand. something tangable. CD comics wouldn't see the same nor would a website. I remember they tried some stuff like this years back and it really didn't catch on that quickly.

I checked out Crossgen's online versions of comics and I agree with Jackskeleton, it's just not the same as having something to hold onto and read.