Why not sell Backprogs of 2000AD's scanned in as PDF's on CD? (There may be a better way, some sort of browser, I don't know, I'm not a tech) They have done this for a rpg magazine and you have the whole magazine (I think there was at least a hundred issues) on CD, all the covers, ads, letters, strips, artwork - all the pages you could want.
Let's face it most people don't have the money to buy all the backprogs, most people don't have the space to store the backprogs and Rebellion don't make any money from backprogs.
This way they could, they could sell a CD with a 100 progs on it, make some money, make a lot of people happy and spread the joy a little. It wouldn't kill reprints because let's face it, reading a book is always going to be a more enjoyable. You don't get my titan books without a fight!
You could sell them for a tenner each or whatever and I bet a LOT of readers would buy them. If you have a five year limit for realease since they saw print it wouldn't damage sales of new 2000AD either. You could even have a promo ovffer and give the first prog away with 2000AD.
The only objection I can see is from people who sleep in the shadow of their back prog collection, but speaking from someone who has got a fair few, I'd probably still kep a lot of my favourites, but at least I would feel burdoned by them.
Anyway 2000AD is a comic of the future so I reckon it would be a good idea.
Who's with me?!
PVS
(He crazy man!)
I'd certainly be up for a collection of early progs. I'd rather like to read some of the early stories, but I really not up for paying upwards of 150 quid a prog just for the privilege - assuming you can find the ones you want.
In fact, it's an excellent way of preserving the stories - and CD-ROMs and/or downloads never get tatty or fade! Seriously, this is a superb idea.
I can see Rebellion being concerned by the copyright aspect - all those easily-duplicated PDFs - so perhaps some of the very early, less commercial stuff could be handed to the community as a 25th Anniversary prezzie...
Easily copyable perhaps, but then are music CD's and whatever... You could even photocopy your mates progs if you wanted too, but who does?
Here is a way for Rebellion to make MONEY out of old rope (sorry) progs and if they packaged them really well, 100 progs at least at a time, a dvd style box with a little booklet, they could even add those articles on 2000AD they are putting in the Meg, or maybe some video interviews with people) and made them a reasonable price they could make quite a bit I imagine.
As it is they make nothing out of expensive tatty old comics. Nothing. As I said I don't think this would kill reprints as not only is reading a book better, but it is collected all in one volume not scattered across numerous progs. This just would allow people to read what they at the moment cannot read. Could bring some old fans back too.
Another plus as you said is they would be preserved forever, before they are permanently yellowed and crumble to dust like all things begat (?) of man.
At the moment, the idea is to sell bound prog scans rather than the digital images themselves. This should launch in the shop soon with progs 1-10 as a single book, but hopefully it will extend so that you can choose and sequence of 10 consecutive progs.
Wake
Another idea deflated.
Oh well. More tree killin' papery stuff it is then.
How much are these progs going to be? Are the whole Progs contained or just the strips?
Oh well.
Back to the cellar...
Clomp.
Clomp.
Clomp.
"Sigh. No Igor, it was no good. Take it apart and flush the bits down the toilet."
"No igor, I'm afraid I'm too tired and weary to beat you. maybe tomorrow."
Sounds good to me. In Japan the comics industry seems mercifully free from the tyranny of ludicrously expensive original comics - reprints are all over the place as are comic cafes (in some of which the staff all dress in maid costumes....but that's another story)..
Anyay - yippee! I'd buy a bound edition of progs 1-10.
> How much are these progs going to be?
>Are the whole Progs contained or just the strips?
>
I'm afraid it's not my place to release the pricing before the book hits the shop.
It will contain the whole progs (including Dan Dare by Belardinelli), but in b/w. Unfortuately they're scanned from progs not the original artwork so the quality of the pages originally in colour is slightly lower than the other pages.
Of course this doesn't stop a future release of CD-ROMs/DVDs, but don't hold your breath.
Wake
No I am not in a rant mood for the sake of it but forgive old scojo if I'm wrong, but isn't the Meg for reprints?
If you start reprinting old stuff (I'm not against it in theory) surely there is less material for the meg?
Seems somewhat counter productive.
scojo
The Meg reprints stuff by story...and probably only if high quality films are available.
The new books reprint by prog...you can't get Harlem Heroes without Invasion, etc.
Wake
No, don't worry. I won't.
I guess I'll have a look at these collections when they come out.
Yeah I follow you but surely if fans get this stuff, there is less stuff available for reprint in the meg!
(I think I just said that!)
So anyway how come you can now reprint old stuff for these new progs and expect people to buy it, yet only highy quality film stuff is suitable for the meg?
It don't make sense to me man!
Or am I wrong yet again?
scojo
I love that film.
Pure Imagination is one cool song from Willy Wonka film.
One of my all time fave songs in fact.
"Well there's no,
Life I know,
That compares to pure imagination..."
Scojo
Scojo you are so wrong if you were were born with only one right hand you'd still be wrong.
Well there's no need for that sort of language young man.
scojo and
scojo
20-Phfor-7 reckons Rebellion might be concerned about copyright infringement. I could give a damn if the profits were morally theirs in the first place.
Let's see. Who created 'Judge Dredd'? Ah yes, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, developed by Pat Mills.
Now somebody remind me who owns the character.
>So anyway how come you can now reprint old stuff for these new Progs and expect people to buy it, yet only highly quality film stuff is suitable for the Meg?
The Megazine has plenty of people who will buy each issue but others will buy it depending on what's in it. To use the best possible films for the reprint ensures that any reprint material is a good as possible and the Megazine continues to see print by selling enough issues to make it viable.
The reprinted and bound volumes will be sold to people who want to get certain Progs in chunks of 10 complete Progs and don't rely on monthly figures to keep going. For example Progs 1 - 10 are going to set you back over ?200 in good condition but I'm sure will be a lot less in the bound volumes and make them more assessable to readers who don't have the original Progs. The choice is then simple, pay out the cash for the original Progs or settle for certain stories quality being lower than perfect but a lot cheaper.
>It don't make sense to me man!
What does.
>Or am I wrong yet again?
Yup 8-)
La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.
Paul, you and I seem to think alike. Having recently put together a complete run of the first half of 2000AD, and having recently acquired a scanner and CD-ROM burner, I have considered scanning my early progs, burning them to CD-ROM, and selling the paper progs. The only thing stopping me is the time it would take to do it.
Perhaps if a group of dedicated scanners who have early progs got together and agreed to scan certain progs and upload the scans to share them, everybody could have scans of early progs.
>Perhaps if a group of dedicated scanners who have early progs got together and agreed to scan certain progs and upload the scans to share them, everybody could have scans of early progs.
Then you face the problem of:
"Reproduction, storage in a retrieveal system or transmission in any form or by any means without prior permission from Rebellion is strictly forbidden"
La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.
Anyway, Rex, nice to know you agree with me, I'm sure you are about to agree with Logan and me that it would actually be a really bad idea to do it yourself!
It certainly is illegal Logan, as we all know. One of the reasons I suggested it, was so that Rebellion could do it properly before someone else does it on the sly. If pirate versions of thrills appear it will probably be too late by the time Rebellion got into the act.
Whether you like the idea or not, if it can be done someone will do it and all it takes in todays age is someone with a bit of time. Judge Dredd can say he's the law as often as he wants, but people still commit crime. I have to say I don't condone any copyright violation, one of the reasons I would like rebellion to consider this.
As Rebellion are a computer game company, they must have acces to reasonably priced cd burning and packaging. I happen to think is a very good idea. Certainly if they are going to get released (and they aren't going to be great quality anyway) in ten prog bound paper editions, they could always release a cd version anyway and see how it goes (I would advise a lot more than ten progs). As I said it was done by a D&D mag, its not my idea, just a bloody good one.
Certainly a DVD version, although more expensive would be fantastic! Imagine being on your DVD player with a fully browsable menu on the TV, able to close up on particular frames and enjoy the whole thing. Wow-ee.
This is a quote from Comics International magazine. It's from Jason Kingsley the publisher of 2KAD. It's part of a large, 4 page, interview that covers the business behind the magazine. This seems appropriate to the conversation.
"Every single page is being scanned. 44,000 pages in all. Then we can make them available in reprint albums. So we're going to be reprinting them in five or 10-prog collections. They'll all be in black and white, except for the collection covers, and buers will be able to customize which issues they want, as they'll be printed to order. So an individual could ask for a five issue run of prog six to 10, for instance, or a 10-issue run from prog 53 to 62. We will be trial launching them at ?19.95, I think, for five, and ?24.95 for ten."
That's all copyright Quality Communications.
Well if the pricing is out somewhere else, I guess we can discuss it.
?24.95 for a bound volume of 10 progs is rather more than I would have liked, but it still works out cheaper than the originals for around the first 20...and about the same for 21 to 200ish. Beyond that, it would be cheaper to buy originals (though they still won't sit properly on a shelf)
Wake
Yes, and far be it from me to violate anyone's copyright. That's why I don't burn copies of music CDs for my friends, even though they think it's perfectly all right to do so for me.
I do, however, believe it is my right as the owner of a printed copy of 2000AD prog 2 to burn a scan of it to CD for personal use (i.e., not sale or distribution).
To me, it's the same principle as dubbing a copy of your music to listen to in the car, or in your personal MP3 player. You've already paid for the thing once. You're not about to pay for it again, only in a different medium.
If someone else had offered reprints of early issues of 2000AD at the time I started collecting the original progs, I would have sprung for the reprint editions. They most assuredly will look better on my bookshelf than the boxes of newsprint progs on my bedroom floor.
I have spent a pretty penny collecting back issues of 2000AD, and I didn't buy any of them from IPC, Fleetway or Rebellion. If I could have, I would. It would have saved me a lot of money. I do, however, buy new issues of 2000AD from the local comics shop.
As for sharing the scans, if the only alternative is to buy back issues from dealers, then Rebellion isn't losing a dime. The money goes straight from a collector's hand and into the dealer's pocket.
However, if Rebellion were to actually offer reprints, then the sharing would be unnecessary, and at that point, in my opinion, illegal.
I fully expect this post will elicit flames from other message board folks. All I ask is that you remember that other people are not always going to agree with you, though they may be persuaded to.
Rex Gambill,
who is willing to listen to reason, and doesn't have any intention of distributing scans of 2000AD.
Might as well drop a word in for the luddites ;-)
If it was a choice between picking up a copy of progs 1-10 in dead-tree format or on CD/DVD, I'd spring for the originals. I just can't adjust to viewing comics on my TV or computer. There's something about the smell & feel of old comics - something separate from the contents themselves - that is, for me, part of being a comics fan.
However, I would happily pick up a reprint volume of earlier progs. It's always a pleasure to read stories in one volume - I'm sure most long-time fans have the Necropolis saga in prog & bound format, or Apocalypse War & Block Mania volumes beside the original progs. It also saves wear & tear on those precious early comics ;-)
Absolutely, there's nothing like a good book. Or book shaped collection of reprints of 25 year old comics.
If I could afford the ?3250 for the back catalogue I'd be in heaven.