Last week I went to Berlin for Spring Break. While packing, I was thinking about the plane ride and my large stack of unread comics. I've always had those digital codes in the back of most of the Marvel comics, and decided to load them onto my iPad and read on the plane ride. I've never been a digital reader, but I sure didn't want to take the comics themselves because of the weight and mass of having them in my carry-on.
I did something wrong and it didn't work out. (Don't even ask what happened, because I have no idea.) But then last night I got it figured out while sitting in front of the TV and started reading through my virtual stack of about fourteen books.
I plowed right through about six of them. They looked great and read really well too. Yes, I had to turn the iPad a few times for the double-page spreads, but it didn't lose too much of the impact. And I love how comics look when they're backlit like that.
Now, I really don't want to go digital only, because I really do like having the physical copies. But when they come with the comic, I'm good with reading them that way.
Is there anyone who reads their comics this way on a regular basis? I never thought I would be even a little bit of a convert, but here I am.
Replies
Still can't afford and iPad.
I read a ton more Marvel comics yesterday and today on the iPad. I have to say that I really enjoy reading them this way. It's not a novelty, either. I like the way they look. I like how you don't even see the next page until you flip it. It's different. I still like my paper comics, but this experience isn't as subtractive as I thought it would be. I like the art, especially on that new HD screen.
But still, I wouldn't want to forego the paper copies for anything.
There are a few books I get/got digitally. I usually wait for sales on books I've missed. On the plane home from New Orleans the other day, I read five or six issues of Irredeemable in a row on my phone -- and man, it was a terrific experience. I set the reader to panel-to-panel view, with a view of the full page before zooming in, and it works great. And I like the way it makes me take a beat to "read" silent panels, so I don't just skim over them.
I also recently read the issues I'd missed of Mister Terrific after I dropped the book, when I had a chance to buy them for a buck each during DC's Black History Month sale... and frankly, it really became a solid superhero book by the end. It couldn't live up to the New 52 hype, maybe, but it was a good, solid book, hampered by a lackluster first storyline.
This evening at the LCS, I told my comic shop owner how much I loved reading those issues on my reader. Walking out, I think he thought I was buying them online, because he said, "Just make sure you tag us, then we'll still get paid." I need to tell him next week that all I'm doing is uploading the codes from the physical comics I'm buying from him. I buy nearly no DC now, and I don't want him to think I'm buying DC through Comixology or something like that.
Unless they were on sale for 99 cents, I wouldn't buy a comic online for full price.