Has anyone seen any good examples of digital comic books? (on eReaders or otherwise) If so, please comment.
I’ve come to think of comic books as my pulpy guilty pleasure. but I can’t stand them in any digital form I’ve seen. Whenever the-inevitable-transition-to-eBooks comes up, i think about comics. I’m sure I’ll enjoy fine literature in an eReader (potentially much easier to look up words, or references, influences, other people’s insights, etc.). But I think this is because some part of me treats reading “great literature” as a form of work. I can’t deny that eReaders offer many advantages as a tool for exploring great literature.
But then there are the books I read for fun (far more often). which are usually comic books.
(I get them from the library in giant “collected graphic novel” stacks. It is like Christmas)(…maybe a slightly embarrassing Christmas that I’m not comfortable admitting to in public). (currently working through the entire run of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible series. Yum!)
While I remember some fun examples of digital comics from back in the day (from Scott McCloud, basically. and I guess some experiments in changing panels on mouse-over, or pop-out animations, or linking to references)… I’ve never enjoyed any digital presentation.
I dig that Darkhorse is trying to get into it. Their exclusive My Space experiments (of old) were about as close as I’ve ever come to giving a shit about digital comics as their own ‘thing.’ Although I ended up buying printed collections of them. And I have the Marvel comic book ereader on my Ipad (along with comiXology and IDW publishing and ClickWheel). But I never really use them. I tell myself that someday if the publishers will just offer a rhapsody style subscription to their backlog, I’ll pay (for the ease of access. No idea how many I’d really read). But I’m just deeply not exited about digital comics. I equate them with web comics, which just work best: free. … wondering why … Don’t want to get distracted by the value argument though. My point is that I don’t think digital books work, deep down.
Feel like… my eyeballs just prefer the way paper works. it doesn’t glow or change, and has a sort of unique “infinite, yet locked in place” resolution. I feel like it’s a key difference when you consider the experience of “deep contemplation” (which just seems cosmically tied to literature and paintings, but wasteful on digital devices).
I feel like there’s something about the visual bent of comic books that probably applies to the whole eBook adoption debate. …
On some level, the debate strikes me like saying “eGardening is the new thing. it’s better than real gardening in so many ways.” Maybe. But part of me still just prefers to get my hands dirty. And I think it’s core to human nature.
Maybe tomorrow’s children won’t care about any perceived difference. but. I can’t stop wondering if there’s some inarguable truth here, about fleshy human experiences.
… hope this makes sense. Not sure I communicate very well anymore (have to constantly re-read and edit what I type, to avoid changing my points in mid sentence). (heh. and apologies if I’ve just latched onto simple or old/tired concerns.)