Let me start by saying that I am very happy at the current selection of comics available, so I’m not complaining. Instead, I’m raising this thread as a question to find out if anyone knows the future of some titles I’ve loved when growing up.
When I was a boy, some of the titles I loved included:
- GI Combat (the Haunted Tank, specifically)
- Star Spangled War Stories (the old “soldiers vs dinosaurs” stories)
- Sergeant Rock
- Weird War
- Weird Western
- Weird Worlds (the old Edgar Rice Burroughs comics, especially)
- Tarzan
And I especially would like to know if we’ll see Mike Grell’s ‘Warlord’ series ever show up here (beyond the 2 tie-in issues already there). And old Phantom Strangers, Spectres, etc. would also be welcome.
If there are licensing issues preventing DC from digitizing these then so be it (Marvel told me they can’t digitize ‘Rom Space Knight’ to their Unlimited service for that reason). But since some of my favorite memories as a boy are reading those comics, I would dearly love to have a chance to read them again.
Any chance these may be coming in the future?
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@Heartshadow and @oldrocker99.49549 Thanks for letting us know that these are titles you’d like to see added! Though I can’t make any promises, I’ve made our team aware of your requests!
@Heartshadow: I was wondering why Rom hadn’t been digitized yet. Thanks for the information as disappointing as it is. (Yeah this post isn’t DC related but I still wanted to thank the OP for that tidbit of information anyway.)
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Oh and I’d also like to see the comics that @Heartshadow listed added to this service if possible.
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Out of the ones listed, only Tarzan (and maybe the Edgar Rice Burroughs comics) would fall under the same type of license problems as ROM.
Other DC titles that may never get digitized, unless stars align properly, include:
Atari Force
The '80s TSR titles (AD&D, Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms)
Star Trek
Dynamite was (supposedly) going to reprint Atari Force (which would’ve opened the door for digitizing) when they struck a deal with Atari. But for whatever reason, it didn’t happen.
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Star Trek and D&D titles would also be quite welcome!
I am don’t have any inside info on how DC archiving old comics works. But based on what I have read, observed, and what little the mods and others have said. The basic gist of the comics on here with some exception we have basically all the Main DC Digital library (with some exceptions but those are not relevant here so won’t go down that rabbit hole). DC just hasn’t digitized everything.
They seem to digitize around a dozen old comics (old being anything not released that week that hasn’t been digitized) a week give or take. It is not public knowledge exactly how the decision process works. But it is apparently based on what they think will sell as a digital copy on Comixology and the like, as well as viewed here and some other sides, how important the comic and characters in it are to the zeitgeist of DC and how relevant the book is, and in the case of the older comics if there is a good copy availiable to digitize from as DC doesn’t have the entire library of comics in their archives.
Based on your list I sadly would guess most would not be a priority. While there are obviously fans, especially of Seargeant Rock, when there are literally hundreds probably thousands of comics featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the JLA, characters currently on TV shows and movies out now and so much more not digitized. It seems something as niche as war, western and fantasy comics probably won’t be at the top of the list. And Tarzan might have licensing issues to keep it from ever being archived at least by DC and thus on this site.
The moderators have promised though that they will forward any comics people say they want to see digitized to the appropriate people who make the decisions, although they also say they don’t know how much impact it will have. And anything added to the archive is added here a day or two later. But probably bringing it up is the best you can do now, and just hope for the best.
Just be prepared, given how slowly they digitize expecting ANYTHING specific to come any time soon, even if it is specific issues of Batman or Detective not in the library is probably setting up for disappointment. Just have to be happy with what we do get and be glad they are adding more comics every week.
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Well said @DanTheManOne1
To add to what he’s said, DC started digitizing ‘current’ comics in 2011 with the launch of New52.
So, practically everything since September 2011 is digitized.
But at that point, they also started digitizing their back catalog, which extends from 1935 to 2011.
And as the process of digitizing is a tedious one, and they’re averaging about a dozen comics a week…
You can imagine how long it will take to digitize nearly 80 years of comics. Especially when consider how many comics per month DC released just in the last three decades of those 80 years.
Not to say things that are on the fringe won’t appear…
Amethyst and Arion have been digitized. As have Camelot 3000 and the original Omega Men run.
So, you never know what might appear.
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