Marvel Comics to go online.

Ice

Ice

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Newsrama reports:


Marvellogo.jpg



According to the CBC (and citing information from the AP), Marvel will make a big step towards embracing the internet as a distribution source for comics this week.

Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley hinted at it in February at the New York Comic-Con, and now it seems that it will become a reality as Marvel will reportedly make roughly 2,500 back issues available online starting tomorrow in a format that allows the comics to be viewed online only - through a browser. Downloads will not be available.




Read more by clicking on the link.
 
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Interesting.

I wonder if it will be Flash based...or if they mean a special viewer rather than browser (which I take to mean as a web browser).

It seems pretty obvious that this is the future, and Marvel is smart for starting with back issues and not jumping right in with new issues (and I'm sure shop owners would love that). But I'm surprised that they have a viable technology in place for this.

I guess I'm being cynical...we'll see.
 
Too soon to do this... Comics are an artform in a lot of ways. When Quesada says that he's sees the comic industry going to the internet or whatever I always disagree. It's not like TV or television where there are Tivos now. Those Tivos are essentially computers, harddrives, whatever... The comic medium doesn't conflict with the internet enough for them to be beaten by it.

I don't know, maybe there are more people pirating comics online than I think there are.
 
I don't think it's so much because of pirating, but because how the internet is such a huge place. I mean, so much comics are put online because it's easier for a lot of people to access them faster, and/or maybe the only way they can check out comics.

Marvel always has their online comics of comics to check out, as does DC and other companies.

Also, Marvel has released a lot of their properties in CD Roms for people to check out on their computers. What better way to keep doing that then already having it on the computer for them to check out by just going online?

I'm not too sure that the future for comics is online only, but it sure is another means of reading them for sure.
 
does this mean the digital comics they already have on there site will no longer be free?

cuz i was planning on reading NEXTWAVE #7 durring class
 
Kick *** , Living here where it's harder to get the comics you want this will come in very handy
 
this is a dumb move on marvel's part however they are going to make ALL the issues availble. But....
1. the 9.99 a month price is just too high
2. I want a book in my hand NOT online
3. How are you going to get more people to read comics on the internet how are you going to advertise? This will be the death of local comic shops everywhere.
4. some people (hackers, computer nerds) are going to figure out a way to download them anyway.
I will read online comics IF: they put EVERY SINGLE ISSUE ON LINE. take spawn for example issues 1-current MUST be availible. That INCLUDES: the neil giman issue and the dave sim issue
otherwise I want this to be gone NOW
nuff said
 
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Ultimate Warrior said:
Is it just me that have trouble viewing Marvel's homepage today?
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Not just you. I can't get there either.

a fan,
1] Considering collections of complete marvel runs are $50 dollars a piece, having them all eventually for just $10/month is just fine.
2] Buy the book, the internet is just another reprint medium like trades
3] I really don't see how those two connect, comic shops thrive on the newer comic anyway, and those won't be up for 6 months past the date.
4] Any hacker knows that its free anyway, why would they corrupt a system to get comics they can get without corrupting anything?

I can't wait to start this.
 
posted by ultxon:Any hacker knows that its free anyway
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How is it free if you have to pay 9.99 a month? the hacker(s) might very well figure out a way to make it downloadable for free (meaning not haveing to pay any montly fee)
 
a fan said:
1. the 9.99 a month price is just too high
2. I want a book in my hand NOT online
3. How are you going to get more people to read comics on the internet how are you going to advertise? This will be the death of local comic shops everywhere.
4. some people (hackers, computer nerds) are going to figure out a way to download them anyway.
Click to expand...


1) doesn't seem TOO unreasonable to me for what it is
2) Hey I'm with you on this HOWEVER what if like me it's hard to get the actual comics you want? here the only comic I'm 100% able to get is TPBS even then i'm using online shops like Amazon
3)advertise in comics , on their dvds as a leaflet , on their site.
4)People find away to download movies , music and games too. why sell them in shops if people can do that?
 
I can say this, they will make a real leap in the non-American market with this. People outside the US doesn't have the same advantage when it comes to Marvel comics as those in the US have. After the success of the Spider-Man trilogy people are curious in the comics too but doesn't have the means to find them easy or at all, now they do.
Trust me, I know. It was how I was lured into comics. :wink:
 
SSJmole said:
1) doesn't seem TOO unreasonable to me for what it is
2) Hey I'm with you on this HOWEVER what if like me it's hard to get the actual comics you want? here the only comic I'm 100% able to get is TPBS even then i'm using online shops like Amazon
3)advertise in comics , on their dvds as a leaflet , on their site.
4)People find away to download movies , music and games too. why sell them in shops if people can do that?
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While I always do prefer comics in hand, I still agree with Mole on this. It's like The Twilight Zone or something! :shock:

:lol:
 
Ice said:
While I always do prefer comics in hand, I still agree with Mole on this. It's like The Twilight Zone or something! :shock:

:lol:
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:lol:

ultimatedjf said:
I don't like the idea of online comics, either. It could be a good marketing move for Marvel, but real comic fans know it's not worthwhile.
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Hey I'm a real comic fan and I like the idea.
 
Something very interesting happened a couple days ago - the biggest comic torrent tracker on the web was served a cease and desist by Marvel and DC. We have rules here about discussing the downloading of comics so I won't name the site, but it's pretty prominent so this is a pretty major deal.

I've maintained for as long as I've been downloading comics (and yes, I do freely admit that I do so) that I *do* buy comics that I like in TPB/HC format, and only because I'm able to "preview" them by downloading them. So, again, pretty major thing for me to not be able to download the comics.

So today I looked into Marvel's digital subscription service. I would have no problem whatsoever paying a subscription fee every month or whatever in order to read the comics on my computer, and I would still buy the TPBs of my favorite books.

But what I discovered - and maybe it's been mentioned and I just didn't notice - is that they don't have new comics up for viewing. Just old ones. Some are only a few months old, but they have NO new books. And if the whole purpose is to combat the downloading of comics, it makes no sense whatsoever. There's no point.

On top of that, the comic reader is pretty crappy. The zoom, specifically. I would trust them to improve that so it's not a huge problem, but the lack of NEW books each week is a deal breaker.

Dumb idea. You suck, Marvel.
 
E said:
Something very interesting happened a couple days ago - the biggest comic torrent tracker on the web was served a cease and desist by Marvel and DC. We have rules here about discussing the downloading of comics so I won't name the site, but it's pretty prominent so this is a pretty major deal.

I've maintained for as long as I've been downloading comics (and yes, I do freely admit that I do so) that I *do* buy comics that I like in TPB/HC format, and only because I'm able to "preview" them by downloading them. So, again, pretty major thing for me to not be able to download the comics.

So today I looked into Marvel's digital subscription service. I would have no problem whatsoever paying a subscription fee every month or whatever in order to read the comics on my computer, and I would still buy the TPBs of my favorite books.

But what I discovered - and maybe it's been mentioned and I just didn't notice - is that they don't have new comics up for viewing. Just old ones. Some are only a few months old, but they have NO new books. And if the whole purpose is to combat the downloading of comics, it makes no sense whatsoever. There's no point.

On top of that, the comic reader is pretty crappy. The zoom, specifically. I would trust them to improve that so it's not a huge problem, but the lack of NEW books each week is a deal breaker.

Dumb idea. You suck, Marvel.
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Yes, it was mentioned that there are no new recent ones.

It was said so because as the programs starts out in its baby phase, they're "testing" this out with old/somewhat old comics to see how things goes.

Like a phase 1, you could say.
 
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