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Topic: Has the internet ruined comics? (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Scott Rowland
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | 1  

The Internet's a tool, nothing more.  It can be used to good ends (allowing fans and creators who would otherwise never meet to interact) or bad ends (trolling).

The benefit of learning about favorite creators or storylines is infinitely more valuable to me than the disbenefit caused by the occasional spoiler or trollish behavior that I encounter.

I'm concerned that publishers and other copyright owners don't seem to be taking more proactive steps to deal with the new technology and the issues it raises with regards to downloading and the opportunities it offers with regards to cutting distribution costs, but the root problem is people taking something without paying for it, which has been a problem for comics in one form or another since the start (or at least since the days of affidavit returns).  The problem may be exacerbated by the technology, but the real problem is still how people choose to behave, regardless of the technology available.
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Ray Brady
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | 2  

I'm pretty sure the Internet's ruined everything.

Oh no, wait. Tangerines are still pretty good.
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Jonathan Weiss
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | 3  

You know what I miss? Mags like Amazing Heroes and Comics Interview,
that's what. I can't believe something like Wizard has taken over. I mean
even now, if I find an issue of eithe AH or CI in a bin somewhere I'll pick it up
- doesn't matter how out of date the product is, there's still some really
entertaining stuff with artists and writers talking about their influences etc.
etc.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | 4  

If you don't want your upcoming comics to be spoiled, you can avoid the spoilers.

***

In the December issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN Kitty discovers that she was really adopted, and goes on a quest to find her real parents. Four issues later she learns that her biological father is Charles Xavier.

So, how'd you "avoid" that one, pun'kin?

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Martin Redmond
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | 5  



 I would read Marvel Age and know stuff in advance back in the 80s. It didn't change anything to me.

The internet is awesome:
I don't have to buy the stupid PREVIEWS catalog
I can download any cover for stupid comics with ugly interior art
I know when to cancel or subscribe to a comic.
I can complain all I want about comics.

etc...

Besides the plot isn't everything. It's the journey in entertainment, not just the destination that matters!

1992 ruined comics. I still enjoy comics, but I think that was really the beginning of the end. I think, nowadays writing only seems so good because 92-99 was so awful. Now everything reads like those awful 5 parters McFarlane would write in SpiderMan. Like that horrible DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM!!! story that went nowhere. Or the Wendigo story that was strecthed out beyond interest.

Edited by Martin Redmond on 28 August 2006 at 7:42pm
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Robert Oren
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | 6  

ummmmmmm....................did i just read that?
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Robert Oren
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | 7  

Besides the plot isn't everything. It's the journey in entertainment, not just the destination that matters!

 

**************************************

maybe i should have someone read them for me? then tell me about it..yes what a journey that would be !!

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Clint Adams
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | 8  

Plot isn't everything?  You know, even when there is not a word spoken in a comic, plot is everything.  Otherwise we would get a whole bunch of people in tights hanging around talking about the weather.
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Joe Mayer
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Posted: 28 August 2006 at 8:24pm | IP Logged | 9  

The internet hasn't ruined comics, its the people who use it.  It doesn't matter where you go, the Internet is an information dump.  I haven't seen any comic based web site that is any better than otehrs when it comes to spoiling surprises.  The latest issue of the Fantastic Four was ruined for me here when the very last page of that issue was posted in the middle of a thread on the day it came out with no warning in the thread title whatsoever.  But that is the way thread drifts can go.  But I understand that is the way of human nature.  People will talk and share the information they have.  They should be able to.  If I expect to be totally surprised and only read things as if I live in a cave with no informaiton going in whatsoever, than it is up to me to move into that particular cave.  People on the internet have also turned me away from certain titles, which is not a bad thing as I don't feel I have missed out on anything.  I can always go back later.  People on the internet also have me buying more comics than I have in years as I was turned onto Cival War and really have been enjoying it.  So I guess it comes down to knowing what to expect when you are dealing with people and how you want to deal with them exactly.
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Francesco Vanagolli
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Posted: 29 August 2006 at 12:28am | IP Logged | 10  

This is what I wrote in another thread on the same subject. My thoughts are still the same.

------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------

Let's continue something started in the "Joe da Q etc. etc." thread.

I have thought this for years, but rarely I talk about this... Internet changed several things for comics readers. Some changes are good, others not quite.

Little look back: in 1996 the Italian editor of FF announced in the february issue that Jim Lee would have drawn the title late that year. I, a simple reader, could see this new project... once released. If I wanted to know something about the current storylines, I had to search for infos in magazines or newspapers. Even better, reading the American books (very hard for me, without comic shops).

When in 2000 I bought my new pc (the same I'm writing on) with Internet... Everything changed. I could know the conclusions of every plot, I could see interviews where authors announced every single word of their stories, I could see the first 4 pages of the books still to be released!

I don't think this is a good thing for comics. Comics are fun, they are something I like "to discover" when a new issue is released... Well, I know that NOW spoilers and previews are part of the game, so I can accept them (if interested in something I ask infos), but I'm sure that, without all this "reign of the Internet" stuff reading comics would be funnier than now.

I remember when Spider-Man was relaunched by JB and Howard Mackie: I didn't knew ANYTHING about the project, except for the renumberings and the names of the authors! So, the return of aunt May and Spider-Man revisited origins were surprises. Yes, surprises... A word I never use in this period.

Any opinions?

P.S.
One of the good things in the JBF is that there aren't previews, but only comments about the books actually READ by the users. Thank you, as usual!



Edited by Francesco Vanagolli on 29 August 2006 at 12:29am
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Troy Nunis
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Posted: 29 August 2006 at 12:56am | IP Logged | 11  

>>If you don't want your upcoming comics to be spoiled, you can avoid the spoilers.

***

In the December issue of ASTONISHING X-MEN Kitty discovers that she was really adopted, and goes on a quest to find her real parents. Four issues later she learns that her biological father is Charles Xavier.

So, how'd you "avoid" that one, pun'kin? <<

Likewise, Comic shops have ruined comics - you can GENERALLY avoid spoilers by not going to look for them, but going to any kind of social gathering devoted to comics can make them unavoidable - to whit, i've easily avoided knowing the new JLA line up until I read the books online - but this past week going into the comic shop, people wouldn't shut up about it - so, really, People talking about stuff you don't know yet isn't an Internet exclusive/created problem.

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Glenn Brown
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Posted: 29 August 2006 at 2:11am | IP Logged | 12  

The Internet hasn't ruined comics.  Greed, speculative events that manipulate readers' patience, loyalty and pocketbooks, abandoning young readers and failing to attract new ones of any age, impenetrable storylines, creators who openly mock the conventions of the genre for which they are writing...IMO, these are amongst the issues that have "ruined" comics.

The Internet has just provided better coverage of everything and given anyone with a connection a platform to anonymously offer uninformed comments.

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