JOURNEY INTO COMICS: GIT's COMICS ON DVD

[MattBrady]

by Michael San Giacomo

I wanted to check out a scene from Avengers #2.

Did I dig through boxes of comics, pull out a copy of the comic worth hundreds of dollars and paw through it?

Nah, I just slipped a disc into my computer and in seconds I was looking at the scene. Yep, there it is. Thor defeats Iron Man (actually the Space Phantom) by causing it to rain on him and his armor rusts. In seconds. Rusts so bad that he can’t move.

Uh-huh.

Beyond proving that fans were pretty gullible and that writers took great liberties in the early silver age, the little exercise proved once again how cool Graphic Imaging Technology’s comics on DVD are.

Just in the past few months the company has released the first 40 years of The Avengers (535 comics) and the X-Men (485) on one DVD each for about $50 each. They also released the first 70 issues of Ultimate X-Men for a measly $10.

So the collections which now take up four long boxes and cost tens of thousands of dollars can fit on three DVDs. I said before, amazing.

This is an improvement over two years ago when the first 40 years (500 issues) of “The Amazing Spider-Man” came out on an 11 cd-rom set. The new Spider-Man collection will be out very soon and will include 575 issues and every annual, which were not included originally.

“We stopped selling them at the end of the year,” said Graphic Imaging Technology spokesman Ray Pelosi. “They are now selling on ebay for $100 each.”

The new Spider-Man sets will sell for about $50.

The quality of the reproductions have increased tremendously since the first Spider-Man collection in 2004. These pages are pure white and pristine and totally printable, assuming anyone can afford that much printer ink.

The pages can be adjusted to be read at any size and are sorted by decade and year. They can be played on either PC or Mac.

What else is coming in the next few months?

MAD Magazine, 600 issues that will include the “Spy Versus Spy” animation pieces from Mad TV, on one DVD for about $50, will be out before Christmas. This replaces the previous acclaimed CD box set.

Ultimate Spider-Man will be out by mid-October, for $20.

On a non-comic book note, The Laugh Factory‘s 25th Anniversary, featuring comic performances by dozens of comedians including Sam Kinison, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams and Rodney Dangerfield’s last interview, will be out in late October. The price is not available.

Coming up in early 2007:

The Hulk will come out in January, close to 600 issues,” said Pelosi. “Then we’ll follow with Captain America, Iron Man, Daredevil and I’m working on getting Thor. Also, we‘re going to release a three-in-one set featuring all issues of Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man and Peter Parker in 2007.”

But one of the coolest collections will be all of the EC horror comics on one DVD.

“We’re very close to signing the deal, we want to get one more person to sign off,” Pelosi said. “We could do it now, but we want to respect everyone’s rights.”

Pelosi is still confident that he will someday be able to release Golden Age Marvels and National Lampoon. He jealously looks at the DC Comics vaults.

“I have to hand it to DC, they want to figure out a way to pay all the original writers and artists who worked on the books for the reprints,” he said. “But at the current reprint rates, it would cost so much that it would make the project too expensive.”

Every Batman comic ever created on one DVD?

Dream on.

For more on the projects, go to www.gitcorp.com

[psycha]

But it isn't it kind of dangerous/naive of them to be giving consumers access to high-quality, reproduction friendly, professional print worthy material of all their past products?

[Rod Odom]

Beyond proving that fans were pretty gullible and that writers took great liberties in the early silver age, the little exercise proved once again how cool Graphic Imaging Technology’s comics on DVD are.

First and last post here:

Those original comic stories were and still are great fun. They entertained an entire generation of kids and young adults. I don't know why the writer must look down on them before launching into a discussion of how wonderful they are repackaged.

[DeTroyes]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Pelosi is still confident that he will someday be able to release Golden Age Marvels and National Lampoon. He jealously looks at the DC Comics vaults.

“I have to hand it to DC, they want to figure out a way to pay all the original writers and artists who worked on the books for the reprints,” he said. “But at the current reprint rates, it would cost so much that it would make the project too expensive.”

Every Batman comic ever created on one DVD?

Dream on.

Really wish DC would just go ahead and do it. I think they're missing out tremendously by not taking advantage of this technology and making all of those old issues available in digital form.

[Unknown]

Holy Cow!

I need to get these, and I don't read Marvel!

[spiderrob8]

I wish these coul go on my DVD player so I could read the comics on my big television while relaxing on my couch

[McAlice]

Now if only they were CDisplay files rather than adobe, i would buy these all in a snap

[Zaxxon]

I think its stuff like this that will make books too expensive to buy one day.
Great for collectors I assume and trees too I guess lol but nothing will replace a book in my hands. Even if its digital and portable.

--------
SKunkButt

[skaly]

Bye-bye Essential volumes. Awesome as they are, this stuff's in color. And cheaper. And features 20 times more material. I'll give it a shot.

Another concern involves updating. If I buy the Ultimate X-Men CD, and they come out with another release a couple years later... Well, to be honest, it's probably still worth it.

[skaly]

“I have to hand it to DC, they want to figure out a way to pay all the original writers and artists who worked on the books for the reprints,” he said. “But at the current reprint rates, it would cost so much that it would make the project too expensive.”

Wait a sec here. So if I buy 40+ years of Hulk from them, Peter David and other writers and artists won't see a dime of it?

Um... is that Kosher?

[Kavalier]

I love this idea, theoretically. What is irritating is that we lose all the crossovers. For instance, when I get to the x-cutioners song in X-Men, it is going to be impossible to read since all of the X-Force, X-Factor, etc. issues will be missing, same with Operation Galactic Storm over at Avengers.

I have no idea how to solve this now, but I'm sure the day will come when we are buying a "DVD" or whatever the current format is with the following title:

Marvel: the 80s

That just has every comic published during that time. We could read them by title, or by release date, or whatever. That will be... sigh... that will be amazing.

K

[McAlice]

Would love to have a cheap colour essential instead though, like the doomsday big trade DC printed recently

[razorwing77]

Can't wait for a Captain America collection. I'm glad it's coming soon.

[psycha]

So wait, I'm confused now. I just went over to gitcorp's site and looked at a couple of their previews and it's basically the old comics scanned in and left as is along with the old advertisements. I thought these were going to be digital remasters of the issues. Are the new collections that are being released remastered or scans of the olds comics?

[spiderrob8]

The Spider-man CD-Rom was scans of original issues-letters pages, ads, etc included (which is fun).

However, Marvel always was crappy about vaulting their earlier work. So the earliest Spider-men comics came from Ralph Macchio's collection, and were scanned as is-beat up looking for the earliest ones.

Not sure if they changed that for the DVD or found better copies to scan

[roony]

I am a HUGE supporter of this technology, and the fact that there's gonna be an Ultimate Spidey Set, a Daredevil set, and others makes me just jittery with joy!

[Grenadier]

Originally Posted by psycha

But it isn't it kind of dangerous/naive of them to be giving consumers access to high-quality, reproduction friendly, professional print worthy material of all their past products?

Not really. The printouts have a big fat MARVEL watermark on them. (You also see this watermark if you use an older version of Acrobat or Acrobat Reader. Version 7 and up, the watermark does not show on screen.)

[Ectocooler]

wow this doesn't seem worth it to anyone but the fans. Could you imagine no one wanting back issues? Byebye retailer comic store.

And what happens when they get really recent with things like ultimate x-men and spider-man. I'd imagine most people will buy the cheap-o dvd (probably even bootleg it sadly) and never pick up a comic.

Plus all the marvel milestones that cost $50 for just 12 issues aren't going to be touched anymore.

[EmperorHulk]

You know what I'd like to see in one of these DVD collections? The Defenders. I think a collection of Marvel's greatest non-team would be awesome. Though, I'd hope they'd include the "Pre-Defenders" and guest appearance issues.

[Aaron Weisbrod]

Originally Posted by Ectocooler

wow this doesn't seem worth it to anyone but the fans. Could you imagine no one wanting back issues? Byebye retailer comic store.

And what happens when they get really recent with things like ultimate x-men and spider-man. I'd imagine most people will buy the cheap-o dvd (probably even bootleg it sadly) and never pick up a comic.

Plus all the marvel milestones that cost $50 for just 12 issues aren't going to be touched anymore.

I don't know about all of that. I mean, for example, I've always had a passing interest in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN but I've never really been motivated to fork-over the cash it would take to get onboard with the series.

However, if I could get the run of 100 issues for $20 I'd check it out in a heartbeat... and that may in turn be enough to get me to start buying it monthly or in TPBs.

Same with DAREDEVIL, etc...

And the EC Comics? Oh man!

Yeah... I love this idea.

Embracing the future,
Aaron Weisbrod

[roony]

Originally Posted by Aaron Weisbrod

I don't know about all of that. I mean, for example, I've always had a passing interest in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN but I've never really been motivated to fork-over the cash it would take to get onboard with the series.

However, if I could get the run of 100 issues for $20 I'd check it out in a heartbeat... and that may in turn be enough to get me to start buying it monthly or in TPBs.

Same with DAREDEVIL, etc...

And the EC Comics? Oh man!

Yeah... I love this idea.

Embracing the future,
Aaron Weisbrod

Exactly my point, Man. I couldn't fork over the money for UXM, but after I got the disc, I could read ALL of it, AND pick up the newer trades. It's muy awesome. I've been waiting for the USM disc, but I'm worried it's just gonna lop off the end of the clone saga (KILLER!).

[Matt Linton]

Originally Posted by Ectocooler

wow this doesn't seem worth it to anyone but the fans. Could you imagine no one wanting back issues? Byebye retailer comic store.

And what happens when they get really recent with things like ultimate x-men and spider-man. I'd imagine most people will buy the cheap-o dvd (probably even bootleg it sadly) and never pick up a comic.

Plus all the marvel milestones that cost $50 for just 12 issues aren't going to be touched anymore.

I think you've got it a bit backwards. A casual or walk-in reader is much more likely to say "Wow, 500 issues of Spider-Man for $50? Sweet!" or a mom wanting to buy something to entertain her kid. It's the longtime fans who seem to be resistent to new formats for their comics.

It might seem a bit harsh for brick and mortar stores, but it's not the comic industry's job to keep them in business. If something like this or downloadable comics can ensure the longterm viability of the business, then I'm all for it.

[theuspsclerk]

Originally Posted by Ectocooler

wow this doesn't seem worth it to anyone but the fans. Could you imagine no one wanting back issues? Byebye retailer comic store.

And what happens when they get really recent with things like ultimate x-men and spider-man. I'd imagine most people will buy the cheap-o dvd (probably even bootleg it sadly) and never pick up a comic.

Plus all the marvel milestones that cost $50 for just 12 issues aren't going to be touched anymore.

Well, I'm pretty glad to see these collections on DVD. It's certainly a lot cheaper than buying all the back issues, as well as a lot easier than trying to track down all the issues. (Being that some of the earlier issues just aren't going to be easy to find.) Also, I prefer this format to the Essentials, not just because they're in color, but also because it's a much more compact form. Those Essentials are pretty large and I'd rather have it all on one DVD than having a bunch of huge trades sitting around my apartment. The only bad thing, though, is getting to the issues in which a crossover is occuring, because of the fact that you'll miss out on the parts of the crossover that take place in other books. That being said, it's good to see they're going to do a DVD on the other Spider-Man books by next year.

As for bootlegging, well that's already being done anyway, even with books that come out on a weekly basis, so I imagine it'll have just as much of an impact on sales of the DVD as it does on sales of the monthly books. So far I've enjoyed the DVD sets that have come out and I have no problem reading them on a computer screen using Adobe Acrobat Reader. I'm looking forward to future compilations.

[mmurphy1968]

I picked up the Avengers disk as soon as it came out. I think this is a great idea, the only problem is I don't enjoy reading them on a computer screen nearly as much as holding the comic in my hand. I guess I am just old fashioned.....

[apoehler]

So Marvel's not paying royalties to the creators? That's hard to support.