CBR: Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited: Year One

[CBR News]

We sit down with Director of Content John Cerilli to wish Marvel Digital Comics
Unlimited a happy birthday and talk about the program's first year, its foray into
original content, and what readers can expect in the future.


Full article here.

[Somebody]

Until (a) you can buy comics to download permanently and read offline, rather than being locked into a subscription that you can't view offline and makes your access expire if you ever cancel and (b) the bloody viewer becomes less obtrusive [hint 1: No animation. hint 2: let everything except the art & lettering be hidden from view. hint 3: let the reader drag the page around with the mouse. hint 4: PgDn to the next page, PgUp to the previous page], I still won't be bothering.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

I subscribed to the first year. I left at the end of it. While things HAVE improved this was mostly motivated by contempt for the poor content for 75% of that first year. I won't go because of that. I won't go back because of all the series and creative runs Marvel intentionally put up with missing issues in them (Encouraging you to by a trade), the days in a row I couldn't access content because it wouldn't load into the viewer, and the poor communication and (Lack of) feedback procedure.

It may have improved, but Marvel DCU lost me because of them. It simply wasn't value for money.

[Grapeweasel]

No complaints here.

Five days a week I wake up in the morning, get my cup of coffee, and read my 5 new comics.

Pretty good value for about a buck a week.

[Gyroscope352]

Until (a) you can buy comics to download permanently and read offline, rather than being locked into a subscription that you can't view offline and makes your access expire if you ever cancel and (b) the bloody viewer becomes less obtrusive [hint 1: No animation. hint 2: let everything except the art & lettering be hidden from view. hint 3: let the reader drag the page around with the mouse. hint 4: PgDn to the next page, PgUp to the previous page], I still won't be bothering.

summary: make them in fricking pdf form again or, even better, cbr. Those Gitcorp DVDs were all-time. How hard was that?

[The Sword Is Drawn]

summary: make them in fricking pdf form again or, even better, cbr. Those Gitcorp DVDs were all-time. How hard was that?

The problem is that if Marvel put them out as pdfs (Which are ****e for viewing comics, anyway) or cbr, they cannot control their distribution. Those files are really easy to upload and circulate down numerous illegal channels.

[drwho]

Marvel is going to be releasing their own dvd roms but they will have fewer issues on them so you have to buy more than one and each will cost the same price of the gitcorps ones.

The site has finally improved.

I mean you cant beat the early issues. Those alone make it worth enough to buy it. Also there are decent runs of

Marvel Knights
Cable and Deadpool
4
Nextwave

My subscription is expiring soon but i'll probably get it again in a few months.

You are probably saving 200 dollars just with those few.

[NormanB]

The problem is that if Marvel put them out as pdfs (Which are ****e for viewing comics, anyway) or cbr, they cannot control their distribution. Those files are really easy to upload and circulate down numerous illegal channels.

And yet the music industry continues to sell mp3s.

Hmmm.

[Gyroscope352]

And yet the music industry continues to sell mp3s.

Hmmm.

Exactly. Cbrs will continue to exist and be distributed illegally, but I still bought those DVDs (Personally, I think Cbrs are much better for reading comics digitally than PDFs so I bought the DVDs and then downloaded the cbr versions, because I still wanted to support what they were doing even though I preferred the cbr way - similar to how I will illegally download music, but if I like the album I will go out and purchase it). If they put out DVDs with cbr comics I would totally buy so many even if they were available online. lol.

But the point is, is that they are being distributed illegally whether they make them or not. They might as well make the legal crowd happy.

[The Sword Is Drawn]

And yet the music industry continues to sell mp3s.

Hmmm.

Similar issue - but not quite the same.

In the case of an Mp3 file we're talking about something which can be restricted in terms of license via DRM. So the file can be sold, but it's harder to pass on without some hefty hacking. Sure, that doesn't stop people ripping music to Mp3 themselves, but not usually with as strong quality as the guys who originally pressed the CD.

At present Marvel's Digital Service works fine for them, because unless you're logged into their site via a paid up account you can't view their content. No easy bootleg. Of course people still scan and post up cbr files. You can't stop that. The quality ranges from patchy to good, but if it there weren't people who wanted them then they wouldn't be out there.

If Marvel were to switch from the online viewer to actual cbr files of individual issues, or runs, they'd be doing so at a much greater loss to them. I'm not even sure you can apply any complicated DRM procedure to what is, after all, not much more than a zip file. But in doing so they are creating a high quality image file, which can be passed around very quickly and easily, with no real structure of copy protection to stop it from occurring. It's making it easier to distribute scans online - there's not even the effort of actually having to scan the issue, anymore.

A subscription based service still remains the most profitable model for Marvel to use. And while there are so many other issues to be resolved in the alternatives... well, they're not going to change are they? Money talks.

[Somebody]

In the case of an Mp3 file we're talking about something which can be restricted in terms of license via DRM. So the file can be sold, but it's harder to pass on without some hefty hacking. Sure, that doesn't stop people ripping music to Mp3 themselves, but not usually with as strong quality as the guys who originally pressed the CD.

Have you missed the general shift to DRM-free tracks with iTunes+, etc? It's not yet universal, but they're even working up logo/ad campaigns around it.

[You can't DRM an mp3 file as such anyway. Apple used the AAC codec with a DRM wrapper, and most others used M$'s WMA format.]

[mrpoizun]

I want books I can lay in bed and read, and put in boxes and save. I hope the American Eagle story comes out in paper soon.