Ok, this isn't really a Marvel VS DC situation at all. I had a Marvel related thing and a DC related thing that I didn't want to do separate posts for. Is that so wrong? Yes, it probably is.
Marvel Digital - I have subscribed to Marvel's Digital service for the past 2 years. A day or so ago I subscribed to the paid Pandora 'Radio' service, and canceled the marvel so it won't renew. Pandora is nearly half of the cost of Marvel, and while it doesn't provide me with conics, it does give me commercial free music that perfectly matches whatever my tastes might be on any given day, and It is easier to use it at work and not get fired than if I am reading comics online all day, which I wasn't.
I think the fact that I wasn't sitting around reading comics online all day is a sign that I wasn't really loving the service. It was never fun to read comics online through Marvel's interface, and the variety and the way comics were updated, and even the available back catalog were not really what I was craving. I want a pay service more like Rhapsody. I used to subscribe to that off and on, and on a whim I could pick a pretty wide variety of artists and listen to a pretty wide variety of their stuff in it's entirety. Yes it was also limited, but there was still the ability to listen to a majority of artists I might have heard about from friends, etc. or read about, whatever. Marvel's digital comics service never gave me that feeling, and in a lot of cases it seemed to withhold the issue I most wanted to read in a series or storyline. Also, I want to read newer stuff consistently if I am paying monthly. Don't give me anything to keep unless I pay extra for it, but do let me read current stuff on a larger scale. It wasn't terrible, but for me it didn't add up to value. If I were rolling in dough I would probably continue it anyway.
DC 75th Anniversary - DC Comics Year by Year
I borrowed this from the library, and it was a joy. It is a big beautiful book, and absolutely fun to read. It is just what it says it is. The book goes year by year since the early beginnings of DC comics, working its way to the present, giving us representative titles with cover shots and news about what characters and storylines were featured, and who the various artists were, and the high points of the era for the company, etc. It was cool to just soak up a lot of little historical details, and get a better feel for the artists and writers involved in the various time periods.
The other cool thing was that throughout the book there were issues featured that I have in my collection (a few from the sixties, and a TON from the seventies.) My copies are generally yard sale finds from when I was little, but that makes it no less cool. I would love to own this book, but probably won't buy it. I would far rather spend my money on trades for things I haven't read. This is an exceptionally fun read, and I recommend giving it a spin if your library has it, or you can borrow it from someone. Once you read it a few times it doesn't feel like something that I would feel a need to have, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't love it as a gift if my family reads this...
2 comments:
I haven't been able to bring myself to do the digital comic thing. One reason is that I like the thrill of finding the older comics and reading them myself. Another reason is that I am so cheap, that if I read a comic online, I probably wouldn't find the need to collect those comics even though it would leave a huge gap in my collection. I dunno. I'd rather have a subscription to a hard copy of a comic.
I like the idea of digital for certain events or big moments in the lives of characters that interest me but that I don't collect. It lets me have a broader based foundation on things I just wouldn't pick up in hard copy. That is for a subscription service that gives you access to a large catalog. I am not sold on digital copies of individual comics. If I want a comic, I want it that I can hold and read and bag and board if I want, and keep and love, etc. etc.
I am close to the point of looking into a good subscription service for hard copies at a disount or some such. I like to give my LCS business though, and I get 10% off from them.
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