Spiderbite

I did a search and didn't really find anything talking about this on the forum here. I recently have gotten back into comics and found out that Marvel has just started putting out loads of comics onto DVD-ROM for a list price of $50. I read several reviews and decided to take the plunge.

They released an 11 CD-ROM set of Spider-man covering 40 years 2 years ago but then released 44 Years of Fantastic Four just last year on one DVD-ROM. They recently released 40 years of X-Men and 40 years of The Avengers is set to come out on the 31st of this month.

Talesofwonder.com also show a May release for 50 years of Mad Magazine and and revised DVD-ROM release of 40 years of Spider-Man this coming June. I also read reports that other major characters are to follow such as The Hulk, Captain America, etc.

You can find all of them for 40 bucks or less, which in my opinion, after going thru Ebay and other places looking for full runs, is a unbelievably fantastic price. I am more of a reader and not a collector as I was when I was a teenager so I mainly want these strictly for content. Watching my Batman collection steadily decline in value over the years as shown me that you can't think of retiring on your comic collection.

Is this the future? I know everybody mentions (epecially us old guys) wanting something tangible to hold in their hands but kids nowadays have tossed album artwork, liner notes and cds to the side. They download flicks and don't care if they have the original dvd.

Anyone tried these on the forum here? I plan to buy all of them and hope DC gets into the act. Will we see brand new comic collections (say a year's run of several titles) coming out soon after release? Will this kill (or at least maim) the back issue market? I know that it has saved me mucho dollars already as I recently decided to go back & buy a lot of older Spider-Man stuff.

The new Avengers set has 535 comics running from September 1963 to December 2005! FF, X-Men, and Spider-man all have similar runs.

Check this link for more details... http://talesofwonder.com//search/ses...dvd-rom&op=and

Thoughts, opinions, additions, deletions?

Jackskeleton

It's a nice thing for the old collection runs of an issue. But no matter what, people are still going to want hard copies of what they like. Have it be in hardcover collectors sets or the single issues. That's not to say these aren't a great idea and there's a market for them. Just that it's not the future. Not till the companies start doing online methods to purchase a sort of digital copy of the new issues.

Cameron

its a really easy way to catch up on things you missed out on....i was enjoying the dvd's they did a few years back that had the voice overs....i need to see if Toys R Us still has any of them.

DGibFen

It's not a bad idea, but I'd want more than the run of one title. Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, etc. have had two or more titles with their characters, so any crossover issues would lose some of their flavor.

Now, if DC offered the Ultimate Batman or Superman DVD-ROM collection, with every page from every Batman/Superman title, and any outside issues to complete crossover storylines, I'd be all over it. (Knowing them, though, they would charge 300 bucks or more... I like the Archive line, but 50 bucks for a hardcover copy of Four early issues of Batman?? I do realize the costs of recoloring, printing, etc, but there's got to be a slightly cheaper way of doing this.)

Blade

This is very tempting. I just wish the X-Men set included all the crossover issues.

I think I'll pick up the Avengers set when it comes out.

The X-Men and Fantastic Four DVD Roms are also at amazon.com for $40ea w/free shipping.

I'm very tempted to pick up the X-Men set just for the claremont and byrne issues.

Thanks for posting this. It's the first I've heard of it. And with my 17" widescreen laptop, I think I won't have a problem with the page sizes.

Cool.

Spiderbite

Blade, that's exactly why I posted it as I figured not many people have heard of these even existing. I figure the more people buy them, the more apt they are to put out more dvd-roms which do all a character's or group's titles.

It's my understanding that Marvel is listening to the fans. When they put out the original Spider-man stuff on the cd-roms they left out all the annuals. Fans got pissed and they will now be included in the upcoming dvd-rom reissue. I would love to see one with all of the Peter Parker: Spectactular Spider-man & Web of Spider-man issues. That would cure most of the crossover problems. Then do the same with X-men and so on.

I really wanted the Byrne run of FF issues since those are what I grew up with so having everything else is just a bonus.

Another cool thing about these that I have read about...they are exact scans of the original issues so every ad is included. From what I have read, many people are getting a kick out of just reading the ads again. Remember all those Hostess snack ads!

I ordered FF, X-men & Avengers so I will post a review once I receive them if anyone is interested. First time I have really been excitied about comics in awhile.

griffidm

What format are the files in? PDF?

fujishig

Just as an aside, Marvel has been reprinting the Byrne FF issues in collection recently... well worth it.

For me, I think I'd need some sort of nifty, easily-portable, comic-sized ereader to enjoy a digital representation of a comic. If I'm going to be stuck in front of a computer screen or TV, I'd rather be doing something else, like playing videogames or watching a movie.

That being said, I do think they have the right idea, especially with the vintage nature of these things, and the relatively low price. I also thought the now-defunct Crossgen had an excellent idea in keeping an online archive of backissues that you could subscribe to... for a much lower cost.

In the last Previews, Antarctic Press solicited a similar Gold Digger DVD collection... I was tempted mightily, but I'll stick with my Gold Brick Trade Paperbacks.

Spiderbite

PDF. Adobe 6.0 or higher I believe.

Yeah, I saw that and almost bought them. Instead I got 550 issues for the price of 2 or 3 of the TPBs.

I agree with your point of having a comic-sized ereader. I actually started asking around after I found these and was surpised that there isn't such a thing for books, magazines, comics books, etc. like there is for an iPod. Why not have a magazine sized-reader that you can read a page or two at a time and size it how you want to. Have a dvd/cd-rom player in it & easy software like Adobe and boom, you have your ereader. A tech buddy of mine said that the problem is everyone wants to use their own software for the reader and no one will come to an agreement or strong-arm their way into the literature industry like the iPod has for music.

Blade

OK, now you're making me want to get FF too.

The ads I don't remember as much, but I do remember a page or half page part of the earlier (80s) comics with a short note from Stan Lee to the readers. He was always so earnest but with an oddly infectious nature about him. Stay tuned True Believers!

Yes, post reviews...Amazon's X-Men item has 3 reviews up I believe, but wouldn't mind hearing more. Then again, I might just buy them tonight already.

Blade

I would think it would be too large and expensive. The thing with the iPods or the PDAs that people are using for readers is that reading books is usually a secondary function for purchasing them. Most people can't justify spending $200+ for a book reading device. At least that would be my thinking on it. And I would think something large enough for comics or magazines would be even more expensive.

Blade

For new stuff, I agree with you. But for archival purposes, I think this is a great compromise.

I'm assuming you can print these out too? Not to mention cutting and pasting to other programs. This sounds better and better the more I think about it.

fujishig

There are actually major gains being made in the portable ereader territory... I think Sony is unveiling something soon. The format war is a problem, and at the base of it, just like the music industry, is copyright protection. For digital readers to be successful, they have to be easy to use... for instance, you'd want to be able to port your media from one computer to another, and from your computer to your reading device very easily. However, that also makes it very easy to "share" a single copy among hundreds and hundreds of users.

You'd think that the comic industry would be investigating this a lot more... the cost of printing is enormous for them. I mean, Marvel releases these collections, but seemingly does very little to hype them. How is the quality on these, anyway? I assume they're digitally scanned in from actual comics, as they probably don't have the original artwork at this point. Is the new Spiderman release going to only include the annuals, or more comics? If I buy, say, the X-men collection now, are they just going to come out with an updated version with more stuff, or will they just make a "volume 2"?

Spiderbite

From what I have read, the quality is pretty good but as you said, they are just digital scans. I read somewhere that the Spider-Man set from scanned from Steve Ditko's personal collection and you can see some of the wear on the early issues even though they are taken from near mint copies. Some have stated that the age wear kind of makes it cool as it looks like the real deal as opposed to a highly brightened, newly recolored reprint on super white paper.

All I know is I read that the annuals were going to be included and maybe a few surprises. Who knows what that means?

As far as future collections go...who knows. This is definitely in its infancy and could go anywhere or even die. I just plan on picking them up before they change their mind and possibly dump the idea.

And Blade...from what I have read, you can reprint all the pages. Though there is a watermark if you do not use Adobe 6.0 or higher I think.

I just ordered my sets at the first of this week but I am getting really eager now.

davidh777

I picked up the Marvel Comic Book Library vol. 1. Great price for what you get, but I found the issues hard to read on my screen. I ended up rebuying the Spider-Man and FF issues in book format because I found them cheap. Others I didn't really feel I needed to read them again.

musick

actually the Karate Kid (not Ditko)


to the question about printing them I believe they leave a sizable watermark if printed though there may be ways around

these are pretty cool for archival purposes but I found it harder to sit and read on the computer at long stretches compared to something like Essentials

I would suggest owning at least one collection just for the nostalgic ads throughout the years

Spiderbite

Ralph Macchio has a complete Spider-man collection?

musick

just kidding different Ralph Macchio

JustinCleveland

Marvel Editor Ralph Macchio, and I'm sure he's never heard that joke before.

Back on topic, I like the idea behind these and may pick up a few runs. But like others have said, crossovers would present a problem and I hope they are covered.

WhovianZorker

Those crossovers would add up to a lot of extra issues, though. At one end of the spectrum, you have such things as Fearful Symmetry: Kraven's Last Hunt, which was six parts--two each in Web, Amazing, and Spectacular. With issues of Amazing only, you would have parts two and five only. So only four issues to add, and they are essential. At the other end of the spectrum, you have "Annual Events" such as Atlantis Attacks and The Evolutionary War, which each had about 14 parts, one part in each of the particular year's Marvel Annuals. In that case you'd only get about 1/14th of the story, but the plots were pretty thin anyway. Those could probably be left out.

But what about "in-between" situations? The "Super-Powered Spidey" Saga ("You will believe a spider can fly!") and the "Powerless" Saga went through all three books, but (IIRC) it was different villains, not a continuing battle. That reminds me: I think that happened during "Acts of Vengeance," which crossed over into almost every single Marvel title, and so did Inferno, though it started as an X-story, and during Inferno, the Hobgoblin was turned into--oh, that's right, I almost forgot about the storyline about the Hobgoblin, which popped up in all three books and was almost resolved in Amazing #250, and the alien costume which started in Amazing #252, was explained in Amazing #258, and "resolved" in Web #1, until Venom came along in Amazing #298, and that costume really started in Secret Wars #8, and you really need Secret Wars #1-12 all together, plus Secret Wars II #1-9 for the continuation, and "Secret Wars #3" which was in Fantastic Four...#319, I think, which really explained what the Beyonder was, and Secret Wars II crossed over into everything from The Incredible Hulk to The Micronauts, and...I'm sorry, what was I saying? I seem to have lost track....

Spiderbite

Jeez...Whovian. My head hurts now.

Well, I just got my email that Tales of Wonder has finally shipped my stuff. It appears that the Avengers set was delaying everything & just finally got released.

I have also been picking up some dvds off the internet of complete collections of various titles not released by Marvel or DC yet.

What are other's thought about this? I know some people feel that downloading comics or buying discs with scans are wrong but I just don't feel bad about it. If a comic is out of print, not available from the manufacturer and you can download it, how is that any different than buying it used from a comic book seller? The writer, artist, publisher, etc make no money from the used comic book seller...how is that any different from the scanned comic book dvd seller? Just curious on opinions here.

darkside

I personally love this idea, but it may be too late. Bit torrent is full of comics now and you can download huge collections of Avengers, Spiderman and Fantastic Four for free.

That said I bought the complete Mad Magazine on CD-Rom in the 1990's and loved it. I will probably spring for all of these DVD-Rom sets as I get money. I love reading on my laptop.

The greatness in comics is the stories and artwork not the paper they are printed on. Nothing is lost by reading them digitally.

Spiderbite

Well, just got my sets in the mail today.

Very attractive boxes that house the dvd. Popped it in which takes you to a menu screen and you can choose from each decade. There are also bios of the various characters though I did not look at them yet. They also had a "coming soon in 2006" section which stated that 40 years of Spider-Man (updated dvd), Daredevil, The Hulk, and Captain America are coming. Cool.

Everything looks great and the quality is just like reading the original book in your hands. I love that they include every page. The ads and letters are definitely entertaining and have been some of the items I have missed on other discs I have recently bought.

I may have gotten too used to reading them on cdisplay though. Adobe seems adequate and maybe I just need to find out how to fix a couple of things. If any of you know how to fix the following, please post.

It seems they scanned the books in a two pages at a time. If you want to look at one page nice and magnified, there is no easy way to go to the next page. You have to either hit shift and the right arrow key and then scroll over to go to the next page or just keep it on two pages at the same time. While I don't mind have two pages showing, some of the bubbles can be difficult to read and sometimes I like to see the artwork nice and close.

They set it up so if you scroll too close to the top or bottom, it then goes to the previous or next page instead of just stopping. If you hit the left or right arrow keys without holding down shift you go back or forward a page (technically two pages).

So...anyone know how to change the left & right arrow keys to scroll instead of page up & down without having to hold down the shift key? That's my biggest beef so far.

darkside

This was my worry about the software. I want to buy it because I want all the ads as well and the highest quality to the image (not to mention I won't feel like I'm stealing from Marvel), but I don't like Adobe Reader. Cdisplay is just so fast and easy to use. Adobe has always seemed slow and cumbersome.

Let me know if you get these kinks worked out. I'm thinking of ordering the Avengers one soon.

Edit: Nevermind. I decided to bite the bullet and order. I will just deal with Adobe Reader and my credit card bill. They had $5 off and free shipping for a large order so I ordered the Avengers, Fantastic Four and X-men discs for $115. There was a time when I would spend that in a month at a comic book store so to get 40 years worth of comics for three great series its a steal.

Patman

I was cleaning out my garage, and believe it or not, but I found a box that contained all my Byrne FF issues from over 20 years ago. I was flabberghasted.