Paper or Plastic… an Open Discourse of Your Opinions on the Digital Era of Comic Culture

This is the first time I’ve heard of someone being from Alaska!

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Plastic or as a certain someone in Task Force X would say, Plastique

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Could be?! I don’t even have anything those cases would fit on and I still want them!

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I read mostly digital now. I still collect a few titles physically but I’ve kind of lost the spark lately after someone broke in to my storage unit about two months ago and stole decades worth of comics (along with about 90% of my collectibles). Most of the comics only held sentimental value, which really hurts more.

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I had a few of my boxes disappear once, and my collecting never was the same.

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I prefer physical in terms of collecting, but I like them in volume/graphic novel form, that way issues, like annuals, are included along with variant covers and artist notes at the end.

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Big mood. I was gifted this Magik book a couple years ago and loved it, but it got lost during a move and it made me so sad that I now tend to lean more towards the digital side of comics.

(I still buy paper comics sometimes though. The art’s just too good!)

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That reminds me. I was more upset because I lost my Absolutes/hardcovers.
Absolute Watchmen, Absolute Crisis, Absolute Kingdom Come, and the hardcover set of JLA/Avengers.
My long boxes I know were stolen, but these books were lost in a separate move. That’s a sore spot.

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I got lucky that my HCs and paperbacks were still there. I lost almost everything I’ve bought in the past 8-10 years (except for the last 5 months or so that are still at my house) plus a good amount of older stuff. My entire Legion of Super-Heroes collection was stolen along with every Marvel/DC and DC/Dark Horse Crossover which is stuff I’ve had since the 90s. Somehow I got lucky and he missed my Batman: Harley Quinn, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen single issues.

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That is an interesting point, there is infinite sustainability with a digital copy with less carbon footprint… HMMM…

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That’s just so crappy, I’m sorry to read about this. I have a private studio for all I collect (I’m also a HUGE Lego collector, as in I rent my Lego and DC Collection it’s own Apartment in NYC). I have Camera’s and locked cabinets, but I think about when I was younger and had my books in cardboard boxes. I lose my sh1t when I can find a sticker! I’m so sorry people have no respect… no respect I tell ya.

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Personally, I like having the physical book in my hand. In some of my perusals of this forum today, I’ve seen people complain about multiple-page “murals,” for lack of a better term. Say, a splash page that takes up both facing pages. On a screen, you can’t see both pages. You can likely zoom it out to catch them both, but the effect is essentially lost.

Also, since most screens used to view comics don’t come in the original’s dimensions, it’s necessary to pan around to get to everything.

The biggest one for me is: if you only “own” these things digitally (note the quotes), do you really, truly own them? You pay for them, but you have to trust that the person on the other end keeps them available, or the servers remain functioning properly. My take is, if you only buy things digitally, you don’t really own anything…

Getting off my soapbox, wiping the froth from my lips and putting the box away for another day…

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I’ve been all digital since around the start of the New 52. For awhile I’d still buy trades of stuff I really liked but drifted out of doing that. Like others here, space was a significant consideration. The portability of my digital “collection” is an added bonus. Between DCUI, MU, CMX unlimited and my comiXology library I could probably never buy another new comic and still never run out of stuff to read.

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You don’t own them - essentially you are licensing them. I get why that matters to some but there’s never been a time the difference affected me at all. I guess if comixology goes bust someday I might feel differently.

The double page spreads are not a problem. Turn the tablet sideways and you get both pages.

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You get both pages, but those pages are reduced to fit the screen.

It’s a matter of what you get used to and/or what you’re willing to accept for your chosen format and its advantages and limitations.

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Debatable given the infrastructure behind it.

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At the moment I have to say digital just for space. Back when I lived in the living room with my family, I had a small corner for myself with long boxes stacked on top of each other and a bookshelf of trades and hardcovers. I always thought when I got my own place, I could have more room for comics. Seven years ago I moved into my first place and found out quick that the limited space I had in my studio apartment was needed for stuff other than comics. I read comics through Comixology before, but a month into moving in I found Comixology and digital comics in general to be a godsend. I could buy and read all the comics my budget would allow for and not have to worry about where I was going to fit them or if I had bags, boards, and boxes to store them. I could just go to my Ipad and read. Also, digital has panel-by-panel viewing, which doesn’t sound like a lot at first, but then you notice a cool detail you missed on first viewing or something cute the artist put in the background.

I don’t think digital will supplant physical comics, because I’ll still pull out an old issue from a box or a trade/hardcover and enjoy holding it in my hand, but at the moment digital serves my purposes better because of space.

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There’s also the matter of available content, particularly for older material (if you’re into such things, that is). As has been pointed out in a couple of the threads that are about reading older series, you’re at the mercy of what’s been deemed important enough to scan into the database…

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Since I’m an Ultra member, it is safe to say I’m a fan of digital. I use it as a eay to help see which comics I like enough to actually own physical copies of

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I understand the financial and accessibility advantages of digital comics, but most comics are designed to be read on the physical page, and it just feels better reading a real comic.

I mostly read digital, however, because my nearest comic shop is too far away. I also usually don’t commit to a print subscription because you never know if it will be cancelled or interrupted by a big, dumb event that I won’t be following- but that’s a completely different rant.
As to not having access to shops, I think there should be comic shops in malls because a town is more likely to have a mall than it is to have a brick and mortar comic shop.

TLDR: Physical books are better when I can get them, but that isn’t often.

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