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 . . .
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.
