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iComics? Marvel Announces Online Comics Service

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Posts

  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    God damn, I get home to check this out some more and the site is getting hammered. They'd better get their load balancing shit together before I give them my monies.

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
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  • dangerdoomdangerdangerdoomdanger Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Fact: reading comics on the computer sucks.

    dangerdoomdanger on
  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Virral wrote: »
    Hayasa wrote: »
    Can you print out the digital comics yourself?

    Doubtful, although it's probably a matter of time before someone works out how to grab the comics off the website and view them offline.

    No point really, except as a hacker "let's see if I can do this" kind of thing. If you want the comics illegitmately, they're already out.


    For me, the biggest thing is paying for something and not being able to keep it. Maybe it is a kind of rental service like Blockbuster...but when it comes to comics, I'm not interested in renting them.

    Scooter on
  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Scooter wrote: »
    Virral wrote: »
    Hayasa wrote: »
    Can you print out the digital comics yourself?

    Doubtful, although it's probably a matter of time before someone works out how to grab the comics off the website and view them offline.

    No point really, except as a hacker "let's see if I can do this" kind of thing. If you want the comics illegitmately, they're already out.

    Again... hard to believe I know but some people actually prefer to pay for things than steal them O_o That doesn't mean you can't have a preference about how you use said content.

    Virral on
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  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    If you buy something with a form of copyright protection on it, and you break the protection somehow, it's as illegal as not paying for it at all.


    Edit: Especially since in this case, it's not just a question of the viewing format you're reading them in, but that they do not want you having any offline copies.

    Scooter on
  • HayasaHayasa Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Two more thoughts.

    If they acknowledge that the internet is where people talk about comics, how are people going to talk about comics when they have to wait 6 months to join in?

    Secondly, I reckon this subscription service will probably be at least 50% `guys too old to buy comics' with families or wives or similar. The nerd equivalent of online pornography. So maybe it doesn't really need to match hard copy release times.

    Hayasa on
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  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Scooter wrote: »
    If you buy something with a form of copyright protection on it, and you break the protection somehow, it's as illegal as not paying for it at all.

    Edit: Especially since in this case, it's not just a question of the viewing format you're reading them in, but that they do not want you having any offline copies.

    While that may be technically accurate, and I'm really not advocating it, there is a huge gap between paying a subscription, having full access to content and then managing to access it offline when you aren't supposed to just downloading everything from a torrent site and paying nothing. It would only become an issue in my mind if you then cancel the subscription and managed to keep the content that you are no longer paying for... then you're no different to a pirate. It's moot anyway since it's probably not possible without Marvel's consent, which you won't get.

    You're making it clear that you feel that pirating is free and easy and therefore somehow justified. That's really not an OK attitude, but whatever. People who feel that way are never going to stop pirating until being caught and punished is as likely as committing other types of theft.

    This is for everyone else, who might pirate stuff occasionally when they aren't given another option, but who when given the choice are quite happy to lay down a very small amount of money and get stuff legally.

    To Hayasa: If they could get comics online the same day they hit stores without screwing themselves and their retailers, they would. But it's just a simple fact that they can't do this without cutting their own throats.

    I totally agree about the second point, in fact I find myself turning into one of those poor bastards (first kid due next March, and I'm already kissing my life of disposable income goodbye). It's also perfect for everyone out there who would read EVERYTHING if they had the cash, and for deciding if you like a title enough to put it on your pull list, or catching up on what came before you started reading it in singles.

    Virral on
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  • HayasaHayasa Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Would anyone change their mind if it was only a one month delay for new comics?

    Hayasa on
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  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    I would!

    Edit: but then, I like the people in my LCS, so I'd feel bad about robbing them of the sales. I'd probably skip some of the drossy Marvel stuff to spend the monies on toys 'n' hardcovers instead though.

    Wildcat on
  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Hayasa wrote: »
    Would anyone change their mind if it was only a one month delay for new comics?


    It's gotta be within a week or it's no good for me. I take a few days to get comics as it is, and it's already tough having to avoid certain threads half the time so I don't end up hitting spoilers. If I had to read threads a month later, I'd just be too far behind and talking about awesome issues is half the appeal.

    Six months behind? Fucking forget it.



    @Virral, I'm not trying to argue that piracy is awesome and everyone should do it, I'm just trying to state some facts. The fact is, the entire online comic 'marketplace' as it is right now is pretty much 99% run by pirates. The only officially released online comic I know of is the City of Heroes ones, and that series ended half a year ago (and was free anyways). And they've stated that competing with pirates is one of their primary motivations for this. So if they want to compete with that, they're going to have to do better than "you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside if you buy from us". And attracting the "pirates 3 or 4 issues a year that they can't find in stores anywhere" people isn't enough, it drops the pirate marketshare from 99% to maybe 97%.

    If they want to seriously compete with the pirates they need to offer a product that is at least almost as good. You can just go ahead and assume no pirate would use a legal alternative, but Marvel's stated goal here is to get them to do just that. The problem is, it's just not a real alternative if the comics are so slow and so temporary.

    Scooter on
  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    I don't think anyone seriously expects this to make an impact on the comics downloading. What it does, though, is give people a choice, so that people who are willing to pay will have an opportunity to do so. Sure, most people who download will continue to get the comics for free, but the small number who actually want to compensate Marvel will subscribe to the service and bring in revenue that wouldn't otherwise be coming in. It's better they try to make some money off of it rather than making no money at all by not trying.

    I honestly hope this succeeds because, if it's done right, I can finally live my dream of being able to read all available Marvel comics every month (albeit 6 months behind, but still). Hell, if DC would do something like this, I'd subscribe to that one too.

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
    Twitter - @liberaltruths | Google+ - http://gplus.to/wwtMask | Occupy Tallahassee
  • Kris_xKKris_xK Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Im moderately interested in it, only because it would allow me to read comics while in the office.

    And really, as others have said, 4.99 a month isnt that bad. God knows I've spent more money on worse things. While the 6 month waiting period for new comics isnt going to stop me procuring my comics in a different fashion, if they had a full archive I'd be sorely tempted to sign up...

    Right now Im sorta on the fence, and until my PSP dies or FF:T/Disgea ends, I dont think I'll need a new distraction at the office for a while.

    Kris_xK on
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  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Fuck them if the writers and artists don't receive royalties.

    Hooraydiation on
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  • AccualtAccualt Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Fuck them if the writers and artists don't receive royalties.

    That is what the whole writers strike in Hollywood is about right now. Considering comics are just now starting to see any form of distribution outside of the original run and TPBs I'd be a bit surprised if writers/artists get royalties off of digital distribution.

    So for those who have tried and hated this have you used the Smart Panels view mode? It isn't the default, even though it should be, because it makes the comics a million times more enjoyable to read on the PC than the alternative.

    As for pirates, fuck anyone who pirates comics and doesn't later buy them. That is worse than pirating movies and music, at least movies have their theatrical release and musicians have tours. Comic books have a hard enough time staying alive as is and dicks are out there pirating instead of buying? What the hell kind of worthless "comic fan" pulls that?

    I was really hoping this service would have more recent issues so I could participate in GV threads in a timely fashion but oh well. I hate buying singles, I don't have the room for them or the patients to bag and board. Much easier for me to pull a TPB off the book shelf when I want to re-read something. Hmmmm...maybe I'll get a subscription to some of my favorite singles and then donate them to a school or library when the TPBs come out.

    Accualt on
  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Kris_xK wrote: »
    Im moderately interested in it, only because it would allow me to read comics while in the office.

    And really, as others have said, 4.99 a month isnt that bad. God knows I've spent more money on worse things. While the 6 month waiting period for new comics isnt going to stop me downloading the latest DCP (I buy hardcovers), if they had a full archive I'd be sorely tempted to sign up...

    Right now Im sorta on the fence, and until my PSP dies or FF:T/Disgea ends, I dont think I'll need a new distraction at the office for a while.

    Uh, yeah, you should stop right now and never repeat this phrase (or any permutation of it) on this forum. It's the same as talking about downloading games or music in G&T.

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
    Twitter - @liberaltruths | Google+ - http://gplus.to/wwtMask | Occupy Tallahassee
  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    That is what the whole writers strike in Hollywood is about right now. Considering comics are just now starting to see any form of distribution outside of the original run and TPBs I'd be a bit surprised if writers/artists get royalties off of digital distribution.

    The Newsarama story had a Marvel spokesman stating that they were planning to offer royalties, but none of the talent interviewed had heard anything about such plans.

    Needless to say, without a WGA equivalent, the talent has no recourse if they feel they've been wronged by this move and, ultimately, it would fall to the fans to simply not utilize this service until everyone is rightly compensated for the distribution of their work.

    Hooraydiation on
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  • AccualtAccualt Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    I should of said new contracts would need to be made up to give any royalties for digital distribution since I highly doubt any current contracts have a stipulation about it, since it is a new frontier for comics.

    Accualt on
  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Ok, they look like ass at high resolution. Like, far worse than any scan I've ever seen. What the hell.

    deadonthestreet on
  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Do comic writers and artists get a royalty on comics now? I suppose big names on big books might, or creator-owned ones of course, but I wasn't aware that was a standard.

    Scooter on
  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Scooter wrote: »
    Do comic writers and artists get a royalty on comics now? I suppose big names on big books might, or creator-owned ones of course, but I wasn't aware that was a standard.

    Brubaker makes it sound like standard practice.

    Hooraydiation on
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  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    An interview with Quesada and John Dokes about the DCU service: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=328322464&Mytoken=99554885-60AA-4593-BA6819DDEB18137124684987

    I get the impression from the royalties answer by Quesada that they're not going to ignore the royalties. I'm hoping they work something out soon

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
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  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Scooter wrote: »
    Do comic writers and artists get a royalty on comics now? I suppose big names on big books might, or creator-owned ones of course, but I wasn't aware that was a standard.

    I remember Mark Waid saying he got a small check every time Impulse appeared in a comic/merchandise since he was co-creator.

    Munch on
  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    On the one hand, it's a non-committal response they can easily back out of that could very well just be in place to make Marvel look better.

    On the other hand, it's probably better for them to hash out details with the creators instead of announcing tentative plans to the fans first.

    Hooraydiation on
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  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    A_ccualt wrote: »
    So for those who have tried and hated this have you used the Smart Panels view mode? It isn't the default, even though it should be, because it makes the comics a million times more enjoyable to read on the PC than the alternative.

    Yes, and it helped, but it had the annoying habit of cutting off some word balloons and the like.

    Wildcat on
  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    So, has anyone signed up?

    I'm on the cusp, but then I go and look at the previews and et turned off by the godawful quality.

    deadonthestreet on
  • PbPb Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    I'm not 100% sold on this yet, but I'm fairly close. I don't mind being behind on comics by 6 months, that would actually catch me up. Quite frankly, if I read all the comics I wanted the cost would be a little high, and from my past experiences collecting, I never read many of them twice anyways. This service would let me read the ones I want and collect that ones that seem worthy of collecting for less than I would spend if I wanted to get everything.

    The thing I could really use would be an option to single page and then rotate my monitor (my LCD swivels easily) for a more proper page fit. It gave me the sign-in when I tried to select single page, but maybe you folks have tried it and can tell my if you can do that.

    Pb on
  • Jessie GarrettJessie Garrett Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    When I think about this I just have to shake my head.
    Yes the old issues that are not in print or are to pricey to purchase are a good idea, but what about the brick and mortar stores. Don't you think they will suffer a loss in revenue? I mean they take a hit now as it is with all the pirating that goes on.

    Jessie Garrett on
  • PatLaschPatLasch Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Well, considering my local shop is 25 miles away and only open 23 hours a week. 23 hours a week that I am already at work. I have pretty much given up on comics anyway. This looks like a good way for me to get back into it.

    PatLasch on
  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    So Rich Johnston's column gives me the impression that that oh-so-secure system Marvel is using is not quite as bulletproof as they may have thought.

    Wildcat on
  • wwtMaskwwtMask Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    When I think about this I just have to shake my head.
    Yes the old issues that are not in print or are to pricey to purchase are a good idea, but what about the brick and mortar stores. Don't you think they will suffer a loss in revenue? I mean they take a hit now as it is with all the pirating that goes on.

    I feel for you, I really do, but this is more or less a good thing if you're a consumer. Speaking for myself only, this is only going to take about $5 out of the $60-85 a month I'd normally spend at my LCS. I'd get a lot of value out of that $5 that I wouldn't get buying back issues at a store. Moreover, assuming that all of the archived comics that are accessible amount to lost sales sorta falls into the same fallacy that the RIAA and MPAA buy into. I honestly would not go spend lots of money to get the equivalent paper copies of most of those comics. Newer comics, sure, I can understand why that would be problematic, but I think they give enough lead time for new floppies to have gotten in the hands of consumers before they get on the DCU.

    I'm just curious: do you feel the same way about Marvel Direct and DC's direct subscription service as you do about this? Again, speaking for myself only, 10 of the 40 or so comics I get each month are direct from Marvel, so that's $30 the LCS isn't seeing as well. Which one is actually doing more harm to your bottom line?

    wwtMask on
    When he dies, I hope they write "Worst Affirmative Action Hire, EVER" on his grave. His corpse should be trolled.
    Twitter - @liberaltruths | Google+ - http://gplus.to/wwtMask | Occupy Tallahassee
  • Munkus BeaverMunkus Beaver You don't have to attend every argument you are invited to. Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited November 2007
    Yeah, I'd probably get this. I go to my comics store once every couple of months anyway to pick up my books (I support my hometown comic shop) and this would allow me to read everything.

    But uh, why would it be browser only? Isn't that one print-screen away from being saved?

    Munkus Beaver on
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  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Yeah, I'd probably get this. I go to my comics store once every couple of months anyway to pick up my books (I support my hometown comic shop) and this would allow me to read everything.

    But uh, why would it be browser only? Isn't that one print-screen away from being saved?
    This isn't a hypothetical, it is a running business.

    You can hit up Marvel.com right now and try it.

    Print screening a comic is a ton of work. No one is going to bother with that.

    deadonthestreet on
  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    But copying from an image cache is not, apparently.

    Wildcat on
  • Kris_xKKris_xK Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    I signed up for this, figuring it would be a good way to while away some boring winter hours at the office (we're not very busy this time of year) I've been using it for about 2 weeks now, and I've come to this conclusion:

    It fucking sucks.

    1) Incredible low image quality. On many of the comics, mostly the older ones, its almost impossible to read the text. (im using 1280x1040 btw). Sure, you can zoom in on the text, but that leads us to:
    2) The comic viewer is retarded. I've had it crash a couple times on Firefox and IE. It's bloody slow sometimes (taking up to 10 min to produce an entire comic book) and sometimes it just doesnt work. Added to that, zooming and changing pages can take a long time to load.
    3) Awful comic selection. Not only is it 6months behind, its so incomplete its not even funny. For example, Ultimate Spiderman goes from jumps from issue 3, to issue 7, to issue 14. Its like they just rummaged around the archives and just chose to scan issues at random. On top of that, many issues are mislabeled, and some have rather arbitary classification (some series are broken up for unexplainable reason.... like mid arc)

    IMO, its not even worth the 5 bucks a month, the service is complete and utter shit, and quite frankly the whole affair pisses me off. All I want to do is read comics, is that so hard to do Marvel?

    Kris_xK on
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  • HooraydiationHooraydiation Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    They're probably worried that complete runs of series will hurt trade sales.

    Hooraydiation on
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  • Kris_xKKris_xK Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Then offer single issues for free to create interest in the arc, dont skip issues midarc, its just fucking annoying.

    Kris_xK on
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  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    1) I'm sorry, but the image quality isn't "incredibly low". You do often need to zoom in to read text, but that's about resolution and scaling the image to fit on to your monitor, not image quality. If the image quality was poor, when you zoomed in it would be illegible, not crisp and easy to read (and in my experience it is). If you can rotate your screen 90 degrees try that, reading one page at a time. I predict vast improvements on your experience.

    2) I kind of agree on the viewer, it's not fantastic. I don't think it's awful, but that's me. Most of the problem comes from the fact you don't store local copies, it seems to stream them online (keep in mind those high resolution images would be pretty large if downloaded in a single hit). That's a whole different kettle of fish though.

    3) 100% agreement, it is absurd. I just don't think they should bother releasing a series if it keeps jumping randomly. I noticed the same thing with Exiles (literally the first comic I thought of that I want to read from the beginning without having to buy all the issues/trades). Until they flesh out their back catalog I'm not that interested, so hopefully they are working on fleshing out those books and not just trying to keep up with the newer stuff.

    Virral on
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  • Kris_xKKris_xK Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    Virral wrote: »
    1) I'm sorry, but the image quality isn't "incredibly low". You do often need to zoom in to read text, but that's about resolution and scaling the image to fit on to your monitor, not image quality. If the image quality was poor, when you zoomed in it would be illegible, not crisp and easy to read (and in my experience it is). If you can rotate your screen 90 degrees try that, reading one page at a time. I predict vast improvements on your experience.

    All I know is that when I read comics using Marvels thing, it sucks and I have a hardtime reading the text. This is especially obvious when I compare it to other comics that I read on my computer... I dont have to zoom in or rotate my screen for those, they're just perfect.

    Kris_xK on
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  • VirralVirral Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    If anything, that is the reader, not the image quality.

    Virral on
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  • deadonthestreetdeadonthestreet Registered User regular
    edited November 2007
    No, the image quality is pretty bad, really.

    deadonthestreet on
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