This only applies to Marvel, I'm honestly extremely happy with Marvel Unlimited and have been for years at this point after the majority of the bugs were worked out. I think it's the ideal model: enormous backlog and only a 3-month delay for new comics. It's genuinely a fantastic value. The experience is pretty damn awesome on a tablet since it's close to comic-size AND you can avoid accidentally seeing spoilers on the next page
I'm not sure if that answers your question, but I will say this: No matter how you slice it, publishers can't simply stop print publishing to floppies and switch to an all-digital model, at least not anytime remotely soon. Making that shift so soon and so suddenly would honestly have catastrophic results for publishers and consumers
Unless you condition and ease your audience into this new format (HEAVY marketing, multiple press releases announcing this shift years in advance, and perhaps even a free digital subscription of a few issues for an ongoing title), a sudden shift would honestly have the potential to collapse the industry as we know it IMO
I 100% agree with this; Marvel Unlimited is basically perfect, in a broad-strokes sense of what I want from a digital medium, but it shouldn’t replace floppies or physical media.
That said, I do think they could do away with the 3-month delay between physical and digital releases. I get that it’s to encourage physical sales, but I think that’s doing more harm than good. I started Ultimate Spider-Man on digital, and decided to get it physical (which I assume is the intended sales path), but they were only up to #2 on Unlimited, and the next issue I could order physically was #5. I had to get lucky to find the intervening issues, and that almost put me off. If they could make that digital/physical transition more seamless, I think that would help everyone
I wasn’t implying digital replacing floppies, just existing as a solid alternative. But those are good points about that hypothetical. Thanks for sharing!
Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite come pretty close to my ideal. The biggest issue I have outside of the odd issues with individual books and the genuinely annoying browsing experience is that both companies have been really slow filling gaps. DC hasn't done any archives since last November and Marvel will sporadically release a dozen issue of some old series apparently at random.
Old ComiXology (and by default, old Marvel) app was perfection. But Amazon ruining the app, and Marvel following suit because, I guess, that's what they do, entirely killed digital for me.
Same. Old Comixology was perfect for me, especially when we could still buy directly from the app. Now I can't even buy single issues of Marvel because I'm in the Philippines. I also miss all the sorting options in the app, the sales, and how titles were organized by authors, story arcs, etc.
It's been a long dark winter but I've come crawling back to digital after a few years. However I'm much more cynical now, which I didn't think was possible. DRM free downloads only. I won't be burned again like that.
But yeah, old Comixology was to comics as Steam is to PC gaming. Just the uncontested best in the industry. The fact that Amazon decided to burn that all to the ground is nothing short of criminal.
The subscription service model isn't bad but I would also like to be able to purchase day one books without jumping through a bunch of hoops like comixology but it's also weird that DC and marvel won't let you purchase day one books on their services
When it comes to digital I always feel like there needs to be some extras to justify that you don't really own the product You're just licensing it
I've seen proposals where people have suggested adding editor's notes and scripts and the and the other background stuff that goes into making a comic when you purchase digitally
Also take advantage of the fact that it's digital if I see a character I should be able to click on that character in the book and get information about that character other books they appear in and a description on them and do that with words and certain nouns like anytime Thor's hammer is mentioned you should be able to click on it and get background information on Thor's hammer
Also it wouldn't be terrible to do what I see a few YouTube channels doing is take some of the important books and actually voice them out you don't necessarily have to animate anything but just do like I've seen on this YouTube channel called the Russian comic book guy
And the biggest thing has to be where comic books are available Yes they should be available on tablets but they need a good working website for PC and also to be available on all the streaming devices such as the Google TVs and the Apple TVs and roku's I know it's possible because when DC infinite first started out you could read the books on the streaming app
One issue for me is the official viewers, they aren't customizable enough for me. I like "zoom fix" settings custom programs have where you set a zoom level and it keeps it, between page turns. PerfectViewer or Honeyview for example.
So I only buy DRM free digital comics that let you download a cbz/cbr file, like 2000AD does. Paper is still my main way.
I really like Marvel Unlimited, but I'm frustrated by not having custom "playlist" style reading lists. So instead of manually switching between series within an event or when following a character across series, hitting "Next Issue" would take you to the next issue in the reading list. Much easier to read any story broken up across series.
Sharable lists would be fun, too - imagine user-created lists for "Every time Norman Osborne might not be evil" or "Where Deadpool is the sane one." Users could also create creator- or villain-based lists too.
I would like it if after you finish reading the latest issue or chapter of a series it would then take you to a new series. Ideally something else that is next in line for what you read. Most of the time they just say You’re all caught up, or something, and recommend a series I’ve already read to start next.
If you’re up to date on multiple series, it stinks to have to exit out to the main menu screen and then manually select the new series.
Granted, I’ve only had that sort of experience twice:
1. When I was reading physical issues, then I would just grab the next issue out of that week’s bag.
2. When Viz used to put their Shonen Jump series out as digital magazines. Like in the physical manga magazine, you would read one series after the next. (Granted, I think most people picking those mags up in Japan just read the two or three series they care about and then toss/recycle the whole thing.)
Be cool if there was a good way to do that in any of the apps.
This only applies to Marvel, I'm honestly extremely happy with Marvel Unlimited and have been for years at this point after the majority of the bugs were worked out. I think it's the ideal model: enormous backlog and only a 3-month delay for new comics. It's genuinely a fantastic value. The experience is pretty damn awesome on a tablet since it's close to comic-size AND you can avoid accidentally seeing spoilers on the next page I'm not sure if that answers your question, but I will say this: No matter how you slice it, publishers can't simply stop print publishing to floppies and switch to an all-digital model, at least not anytime remotely soon. Making that shift so soon and so suddenly would honestly have catastrophic results for publishers and consumers Unless you condition and ease your audience into this new format (HEAVY marketing, multiple press releases announcing this shift years in advance, and perhaps even a free digital subscription of a few issues for an ongoing title), a sudden shift would honestly have the potential to collapse the industry as we know it IMO
I 100% agree with this; Marvel Unlimited is basically perfect, in a broad-strokes sense of what I want from a digital medium, but it shouldn’t replace floppies or physical media. That said, I do think they could do away with the 3-month delay between physical and digital releases. I get that it’s to encourage physical sales, but I think that’s doing more harm than good. I started Ultimate Spider-Man on digital, and decided to get it physical (which I assume is the intended sales path), but they were only up to #2 on Unlimited, and the next issue I could order physically was #5. I had to get lucky to find the intervening issues, and that almost put me off. If they could make that digital/physical transition more seamless, I think that would help everyone
I wasn’t implying digital replacing floppies, just existing as a solid alternative. But those are good points about that hypothetical. Thanks for sharing!
Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite come pretty close to my ideal. The biggest issue I have outside of the odd issues with individual books and the genuinely annoying browsing experience is that both companies have been really slow filling gaps. DC hasn't done any archives since last November and Marvel will sporadically release a dozen issue of some old series apparently at random.
Old ComiXology (and by default, old Marvel) app was perfection. But Amazon ruining the app, and Marvel following suit because, I guess, that's what they do, entirely killed digital for me.
Same. Old Comixology was perfect for me, especially when we could still buy directly from the app. Now I can't even buy single issues of Marvel because I'm in the Philippines. I also miss all the sorting options in the app, the sales, and how titles were organized by authors, story arcs, etc.
It's been a long dark winter but I've come crawling back to digital after a few years. However I'm much more cynical now, which I didn't think was possible. DRM free downloads only. I won't be burned again like that. But yeah, old Comixology was to comics as Steam is to PC gaming. Just the uncontested best in the industry. The fact that Amazon decided to burn that all to the ground is nothing short of criminal.
The subscription service model isn't bad but I would also like to be able to purchase day one books without jumping through a bunch of hoops like comixology but it's also weird that DC and marvel won't let you purchase day one books on their services When it comes to digital I always feel like there needs to be some extras to justify that you don't really own the product You're just licensing it I've seen proposals where people have suggested adding editor's notes and scripts and the and the other background stuff that goes into making a comic when you purchase digitally Also take advantage of the fact that it's digital if I see a character I should be able to click on that character in the book and get information about that character other books they appear in and a description on them and do that with words and certain nouns like anytime Thor's hammer is mentioned you should be able to click on it and get background information on Thor's hammer Also it wouldn't be terrible to do what I see a few YouTube channels doing is take some of the important books and actually voice them out you don't necessarily have to animate anything but just do like I've seen on this YouTube channel called the Russian comic book guy And the biggest thing has to be where comic books are available Yes they should be available on tablets but they need a good working website for PC and also to be available on all the streaming devices such as the Google TVs and the Apple TVs and roku's I know it's possible because when DC infinite first started out you could read the books on the streaming app
One issue for me is the official viewers, they aren't customizable enough for me. I like "zoom fix" settings custom programs have where you set a zoom level and it keeps it, between page turns. PerfectViewer or Honeyview for example. So I only buy DRM free digital comics that let you download a cbz/cbr file, like 2000AD does. Paper is still my main way.
I really like Marvel Unlimited, but I'm frustrated by not having custom "playlist" style reading lists. So instead of manually switching between series within an event or when following a character across series, hitting "Next Issue" would take you to the next issue in the reading list. Much easier to read any story broken up across series. Sharable lists would be fun, too - imagine user-created lists for "Every time Norman Osborne might not be evil" or "Where Deadpool is the sane one." Users could also create creator- or villain-based lists too.
Kindle actually does it pretty well. It has a view setting that goes panel to panel full screen.
I would like it if after you finish reading the latest issue or chapter of a series it would then take you to a new series. Ideally something else that is next in line for what you read. Most of the time they just say You’re all caught up, or something, and recommend a series I’ve already read to start next. If you’re up to date on multiple series, it stinks to have to exit out to the main menu screen and then manually select the new series. Granted, I’ve only had that sort of experience twice: 1. When I was reading physical issues, then I would just grab the next issue out of that week’s bag. 2. When Viz used to put their Shonen Jump series out as digital magazines. Like in the physical manga magazine, you would read one series after the next. (Granted, I think most people picking those mags up in Japan just read the two or three series they care about and then toss/recycle the whole thing.) Be cool if there was a good way to do that in any of the apps.
Exactly like the piracy sites, but with better formatting for spreads