The Digital Comics Essay by Michael C. Lorah

Michael C. Lorah happened along in 2004, joining the Best Shots team early in its existence after I saw the incredible sharp and frequently witty observations he made about comics on the Newsarama message boards.  Michael's worked at DC Comics and these days works in the business world.  But he's still cool.  Aside from that, Michael's a whale of a writer, and you'll be seeing several things from him this week.  Here is an essay Michael dropped on the subject of Digital Comics . . .

The Digital Comics Essay

Dear Makers of Digital Comics, I have a few things I’d like to briefly (I know you’re busy) discuss with you.

Firstly, I don’t entirely trust you. I promise it’s not personal; I’d like to trust you, but when I hand you my hard-earned money, I’d prefer to own the file I’m buying from you. If you go belly-up tomorrow, I’d like to still have the stories that I’ve paid for. Personally, I promise to not do any pirating with those files, and I’m sorry that I can’t speak for anybody else on that particular matter.

But on to my main points. I can divide the rest of my thoughts into three easy categories.

1.       Omnibuses

Some of us aren’t big fans of the twenty-page-installments plan to reading. While I’ve no objection to the serial format, it’s not for me and, in twenty years of anecdotal experience at lending comics to people, it doesn’t seem very popular with potential comics readers.

For print collections, considerations including weight, binding, cost and shipping place certain limits on the dimensions of trade paperbacks. Yes, in digital files weight can be a factor, but not an insurmountable one. Print collections and digital collections don’t need to exist in a 1:1 ratio. Two or three five- or six-issue print volumes can easily fit into a single digital compilation.

Readers want a meaty reading experience. Give it to us. Make no mistake that there is a reason I’ve purchased the Planetary Omnibus or Scud, the Disposable Assassin: The Whole Schebang digitally. They’re offering what I want – hundreds upon hundreds of pages.

Manga publishers, you’re already giving us 200 pages, but you can go farther in digital. A seven-volume print series could be a one volume digital series. Marvel, how about Amazing Spider-Man by Lee and Ditko, all of it. DC, Swamp Thing by Moore, all of it. IDW, those Transformers and GI Joe Classics lines would look good in just a few digital sets. Hey, Fantagraphics, all those Complete Crumb books you have – how about just one Complete Crumb!

And will somebody put out a complete Maze Agency digital collection? Thanks.

Shotgun Reviews: A Welcome

Shotgun Reviews:  A Welcome

I can hear it now.  Some of you are saying, “How the hell did I get here?”  Some are saying, “Why does Sparkshooter link here?”  And others are saying, “Not this shit again.”  Well, those are all fair points I suppose.  Whatever the reason, whether you remember or whether you’re new, welcome to ShotgunReviews.com.

Who the Hell are These People?

My name is Troy Brownfield.  In 1998, after several years writing for my high school and college papers, booking a ton of musical festivals and one-off shows, and getting a job in Indianapolis, I started writing for Comic Kingdom, the website of my friend Nick Jankowski.  I put together two columns: The Big Question, which was an interview column wherein the subject would answer only one, frequently complex, question.  The other column was based on one of my regular college paper concepts.  I called it Shotgun Reviews because it spread out and covered a wide area.  I usually would throw in a movie, a comic, and a CD, maybe a TV show or something else.  As things kept rolling, I thought that maybe I should just put together my own site, maybe with the aim of giving other aspiring writers a house.

Troy and Shawn in 2004

In June 1999, with the help of original webmaster Shawn Delaney, that’s exactly what I did.  And really, it went pretty well.  The site kind of took off, more or less, and before we knew it, we were putting up booths at Wizard World shows, getting quoted on things like volumes of “Dragonball Z”, doing radio and TV appearances (ah, the great Jordana Green crowning) and generally having a great freaking time.

One of the great things about the site was the flexibility it gave everyone.  If you were into something, you could build on it.  Russ branched out and became the ring announcer for WCWO in Indianapolis.  Jonathan Birdsong and Oseye Boyd put together a great crew of reviewers in the Lyrical Lounge section.  Shawn, always a musician, played in local bands like The Shivers and Samsell, and I brought back my old booking skills by having the site sponsor or host package shows with Indy indie bands.  And that was just the tip.

My own writing stretched out, and I started contributing to places like Comicon.com’s The Pulse and Newtype USA magazine.  I wound up writing for Newtype more or less after meeting Ken Wiatrek of ADV in Chicago, and he was one of the forces behind my becoming acquainted with Corey Henson.  Corey was one of the early “second wave” Shotgun gang, along with The Rev. OJ Flow, whom I first “met” (along with Jim Beard) on the DC Direct boards at DCComics.com.  OJ and Corey would soon join me in another crazy endeavor.