Pipeline - Mar 13, 2012

[CBR News]

Augie chimes in on the techno-babble behind Marvel's new announcement, poor paper stock quality at Vertigo, a feminist reading of The Smurfs and the fun of "Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine."


Full article here.

[uthor]

Obviously you don't have an Xbox 360 or you would have spelled it correctly. :P

[Samurai32]

Augie, I think you have your description of which is on the right and which is on the left backwards in regards to the first comparison pictures from Fairest.

[Randycat]

Ack, I flipped through the printed version of Fairest the other day too and completely agree, the paper quality is ASS. Think I'm gonna buy mine digital too...

[mistergoodman]

Welcome to the dark side, Augie! (My iPad 3 arrives Friday, and I'm lying on the couch typing this into a first generation iPad.)

[Steve Broome]

"I'm not sure why DC Entertainment bothers to put Vertigo Comics on paper. I'm sure it's due to relatively low sales that they have to print them on the comics equivalent on toilet paper, but this cost-cutting has officially surpassed its usefulness."

You know they do this a lot to keep costs down, but I refuse to buy newsprint books for 3 bucks a pop no matter how much I like it. I hope digital sales increase to the point where this doesn't happen anymore to good art, especially anything inked (it never looks clear on cheap paper).

[Lexor7]

It was just last month I made the decision to collect all the Vertigo titles I buy digitally for the exact same reason you sited above (except The Unwritten which is printed on glossy paper). I also ordered the iPad3 (which for me is an upgrade from the first version) and has an incredible display which should make even the digital reading experience better than it is on the original iPad.

What I'm doing is waiting a month until the next issue of the series comes out and the price on the previous month's issue drops from $2.99 to $1.99. So I'll always collect one month behind. I'm not against paying full price for a digital Vs physical paper product, but rather it's important to note that on sites like ComiXology you don't technically "own" the product but are rather licensing it (or "renting" as I've heard others call it) for as long as you want it and as often as you want to read it. But...there is no file that you get to keep on a hard drive anywhere and technically they could pull your purchases back at any time...for example if they went out of business, or potentially if DC/Marvel no longer wanted to distribute through them and they pull their back library away, or IDW loses their Transformer license to another company and has to pull down all their Transformer books (I expect there's some clause protecting customers from these scenarios but I don't know for sure). It's a consideration point in this very young and developing digital market while we see which sites thrive and which don't innovate fast enough and go under and that's why I'm making the choice not to pay full cover price for any product/file that I don't own outright. But at a $1 off cover, I 'm happy to enjoy the higher art quality & convenience of the digital product.

[dancj]

I've got a 3rd generation iPad (my first iPad) arriving on Friday too.

I'm not sure I'll be jumping to digital comics though. I generally pay about £4 per TPB for my comics on eBay so even when there's a 69p sale that'll just bring the price to being about the same as I'm currently paying for something I can't lend to friends or resell. (Reselling is big for me, because that's how I'll afford to upgrade to my next iPhone in a couple of years).

[Old Bull Lee]

I guess I'm even more of an Old Man of comics. I've always disliked the glossy paper. With all the glare I have to constantly adjust the book's position to be able to see the art and not get a headache, which can be a real PITA with Omnibus and Absolute books.

Maybe the printing process itself is the problem? There were plenty of bright vivid comics before glossy paper, even with computer coloring.

[XIII]

So miniaturization "works well to tighten up the art"?

[dancj]

Maybe the printing process itself is the problem? There were plenty of bright vivid comics before glossy paper, even with computer coloring.

Yeah.

The old 'standard' formats from mid-80's and earlier were quite dull, but when DC came out with the 'deluxe format' that had The Shadow, The Question and other books, the paper was super white and the colours were vivid - but it still wasn't glossy. For me that seems about perfect.

[tedbragg1]

The pages you pointed out Augie, are examples of improper separations. The colorists are rarely told what paper stock they're going on -- easy to assume it'll end up on gloss. Ink limits and dot gain have to be set right or else it's going to turn to mud.

About Marvel's 'Infinity Canvas' crap: if comic companies would actually focus more on coherent and effectual storytelling, and teach their artists and writers HOW to tell a great story, we wouldn't be seeing all these motion-whatevers to make up for bad product.

I can count on ONE HAND artists and writers who can tell a story anyone can follow -- and they're the old guys.

[Eric Chang]

...kick-ass, is that you?!

[dancj]

The pages you pointed out Augie, are examples of improper separations. The colorists are rarely told what paper stock they're going on -- easy to assume it'll end up on gloss. Ink limits and dot gain have to be set right or else it's going to turn to mud.

I know you're right about that because I remember Laure DePuy (sp?) talking about it, but that whole approach seems arse backwards to me.

Surely it would make more sense if the colourist just colours the book regardless and then any adjustments for the paper quality are made just before the printing process. It seems like to me something that should be automated - and that way they can print different editions of the book from the same colours and have them all look good.