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[bryant]

It occurred to me this weekend, while I was contemplating buying a dozen Powers graphic novels, that we're probably not more than five years away from solving the comics life span conundrum. (Namely, the vast mass of the history of comics is not available for reading; you can't go back and check out Grant Morrison's early Marvel Universe work, for example.)

But let's say we live in a world in which all comic book pages exist in digital form, which is a world we may well live in already if that's a useful step in the printing process. So DC puts up a web page, which allows you to select a comic book title and a range of issues within that title. Click "Buy" and the pages of those issues are assembled into a single file and sent off to the print on demand printer.

Currently I'm pretty sure that the cost of color POD is too high. But give it five years.

Comments

[head58.livejournal.com]

But will there be any value in actually having the paper volumes, or in 5 years will they simply be transmitted to your laptop/palmtop in a digital format? I know some folks are sticklers for actually having the paper, but some folks were once sticklers for having an actual CD too instead of a bunch of MP3s.

I was thinking similar things this weekend when I found a link to Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men #1 this weekend, and thus no longer feel any need to actually buy the book if I can read it on my PC any time I want.

[bryant]

I think that cheap color POD will come before really good ePaper, but really good ePaper will come eventually.

[dancingshaman.livejournal.com]

It may be that comics will be more readily available in digital format in several years time, but for me there's a certain visceral need to be able to turn the pages. Whether that's anyone else's bag or not I can't say, but I'd be willing to shell out a couple of dimes more per title to get them printed and bound.