So this will be discussed by me on the upcoming episode of Accidental Survivors but between then and now I've actually gone ahead and signed up for Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
Long story short, Marvel has had comics on their website for some time, basically as free promotionals you could read online.
This new venture is MUCH more ambitious and is the first major foray by a comic company into online distribution.
What do I mean by ambitious? How does X-men #1-66, Fantastic Four #1-100, Spider-Man #1-100 and Avengers #1-50 sound for a first week upload?
They are also adding new comics weekly, and have some special "theme" additions that run in a scrolling banner at the top of the site, such as "Chris Claremont classics" and "Frank Miller's milestones".
For those who just want to browse, you can call up the entire collection by character or series title, and can view a series by either issue title and number (for example "Avengers #1") or by issue title and number along with a cover thumbnail.
If you look at an issue and want more by the same creator, each creator is hyperlinked and clicking on the creator's name will bring up all issues by that creator. Want to read everything written by Ed Brubaker in the digital collection? Everything drawn by Jack Kirby? Everything lettered by Tom Orzechowski?
The site is also linked with other viral networking sites, with links to rave or rant about an issue on facebook, stumbleupon, furl, newsvine, digg, reddit, tailrank and yahooweb.
Week 1, there are thousands of issues, from the first appearance of Captain America in 1941 through comics released in 2007.
Everything on the site is available for a flat rate, either 9.99 paid monthly, or 59.99 for the entire year.
Comics aren't downloadable but are streamed, which goes fairly quickly and smoothly for me (I have DSL, so not the fastest or slowest connection out there).
In general, by the time I am done reading the first page, the site has streamed three to my computer and from there stays ahead to the point that I never have to wait for a page to actually load.
The reading experience is also good. The default zoom setting is just about perfect for me to avoid eyestrain, and given the amount of time I spend staring at computer screens, that was a very impressive feat.
While some might prefer an Itunes-like set-up where you pay for individual issues and own them forever, I find this to be a great set-up for reading from home. Also, since accounts are not computer-specific, you can browse from anything that can connect to the internet anywhere you are.
I've even tested the service running it on multiple computers in multiple locations at the same time, something a lot of online services, such as Napster, don't allow you to do, but MDC does.
As you have probably gathered, this is a very positive review. I give this service the highest rating and have been having a blast reading through some great comics I never would have checked out otherwise.
If you're a comics reader, I highly recommend this service. Even without the ability to download its an unbeatable value, costing as much for a year's worth of comics as you'd pay for a single Marvel Masterwork.
Chuck
8 comments:
It's got Nextwave: Agents of HATE . . . right?
Lol, yeah, Issues #1 and #7 so far.
Which does bring up one complaint some folks have had about the service.
One of its purposes, from Marvel's point of view, is to help promote their actual print products.
So you see some situations, like with Nextwave, where they have the first issue of both trades.
Some folks are outraged by this in a pay service.
Since it doesn't seem terribly widespread (there are quite a few long runs of issues in the pay section that run uninterrupted), I'm not especially annoyed.
Also, since Marvel has committed to adding 20 comics a week to the service, my guess is that some of these will get filled in over time.
Okay, I went an signed up for this service. Very nice, I think I'm becoming addicted to it (as I'm getting really annoying when Marvel's servers are overloaded and keep giving HTTP 500 errors).
Charles, you are very evil man.
Yeah, it's sweet. I've been alternating back and forth between the real old Uncanny X-Men, Exiles, and Marvel Knights myself.
What are you reading?
I read the Marvel Knights 4 series (well the first 24 issues) and have been reading (or more like trying to) the She-Hulk series lately.
I'm hoping they upload all of the titles from Malibu's Ultraverse but I somehow doubt it.
Oh yeah, "4" is awesome, I've read some of that in trades.
Is this the original She-Hulk you're reading or some of the more recent ones?
Yeah, "4" was a great read, some of the best characterization of the FF that I've ever seen.
It's the 2nd series (I think), where she first gets into superhuman law.
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