Print vs. Digital Comics: Weighing the Formats

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Oh well, looky

what we have here. Welcome to the Joker Cave.

Certainly not any jokes around here. What with

all the seriousness of putting geeks in a round

table about comic books. You're listening to

the pullback after dark Hello and welcome to

the pullback this is yet again another after

dark and it is after dark when we are recording

this thankfully Jake and Dane from Punisher body

count didn't keep me locked in the alleyway of

a dollar general store. But anyway Tonight I

have Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello And Jeremy

Fine, hello. Hello, good sirs. Tonight we're

going to be talking about the merits or demerits

of print and digital comics, reading in print

or digital. Everybody has heard me probably say

this before. I know Steve has heard it a million

times, but me getting full time into comics is

actually all Steve's fault. He told me to read

Batman 13 and I haven't gone back since. Of course

I've dropped titles here and there over the last

couple of years but originally when I was picking

them up, I was all about print. I needed to have

that physical copy because I kept hearing about

Comixology .com and their guide to view technology

and everything else. I'm like, okay, well that's

great if I had. smartphone or an iPad or whatever

the hell you know that would be fine I didn't

realize that it was also you could use their

website to do to view the comics I thought I

thought it was mobile device only and over the

last I'd say probably six months to a year I've

gone more towards digital not because of space

not because of lack of wanting to collect stuff

it's just I find myself that it's easier for

me to sit here at my computer and read through

their guided view technology, which basically

takes you panel by panel. I find it easier for

myself to read the story and get it that way

than I do sitting in my chair and reading a single

issue. I'll say one thing in the pro column for

digital comics. It ain't gonna give me carpal

tunnel for holding a, you know, 104 page trade

paperback, I'll tell you that right now. So yeah,

no, I've pretty much stopped buying trades at

this point because I'll buy the trades, but I'll

buy them digitally. Steve, your thoughts? Well,

I'm kind of in a mixed bag here only because

I get it mixed bag. unintentional pun I I've

always been a prank guy mostly because I love

to own the covers I don't most of the time even

if an issue is terrible or if I have no intention

on opening the cover I will buy it for the cover

that being said I also would prefer Trade paperbacks

over buying them all individually. Not only do

you get the covers inside most of the time But

you also get the collective of the the story

arc And for somebody that's owned and bought

many of them over the years and then had to sell

them and then Trying to reclaim them That's more

so the direction I would go but at the same time

you have to story them Yeah, and when you have

limited storage capacity and you know your house

is filled with crap that you really don't need

but you want Then like for instance my my predicament

is I have two of the comic boxes They're I don't

know. They hold like I don't know how many comics,

but it's it's one of the the shorter box versions.

Yeah, it's a short box is what it is. I have

two of them. So that being said, I also prefer

to read some digitally because not only do you

get it as soon as it comes out, there's the instant

gratification of reading it when it's new and

not having to go anywhere. But it's also not

been bent. The pictures as it was originally

intended It's just a lot easier, plus you don't

have to worry about if they run out and having

to find the issue. So I mean, there's plus and

minuses to both. I myself, I mostly prefer print.

Yeah, you know, okay, I will say as far as reading,

The comics, as far as reading the stories, as

I already mentioned, I know I'm in the habit

of repeating myself, but, you know, hey, that's

just the way I roll. I prefer reading the story

on Comixology, but I've found through the last

six months or so doing the pull bag that I kind

of do need either the single issues or the trade

to actually sit here and go through versus trying,

because if... If I went through... every comic

episode or every episode that we have here in

the pull bag panel by panel, each podcast, and

I know I've had a number of these recently, each

podcast would end up being two and a half to

four hours. We have yet to hit the four hour

mark here in the pull bag. So I think the longest

one was with me and Joe Reed doing one of the

TMNT volumes. It was like three hours and 30

minutes. But it honestly just depends because

you know, when I do the coverage here in the

pullback, if I have to do it via comixology,

specifically that episode with Joe, that was,

you know, we would look at a few panels and then

we would go off and have a discussion and, you

know, come to assumptions and everything else.

So, yeah, I mean, I... I guess technically I

don't. I haven't stopped buying trades. I buy

trades for review here in the show. I don't buy

the trades to read them anymore. It's kind of

where I didn't really mention earlier. What about

you, Jeremy? Print or digital? Well, this is

going back years. I mean, you've seen Guardians

of the Galaxies, and the collector has nothing

on me. I am the collector. I would get print

for a couple reasons. And we talked about varying

covers a few months ago. But when it comes to

print, unfortunately... You know, unless you're

really taking good care of your comics, the pages

fade. I've had comics from the 80s, and even

though I put them in the Mylar bags and the backboard,

they just... You really have to preserve them

and really take good care of them. Climate control

and so on and so forth. And if you don't... the

pages go from white to yellow and they start

to break apart. So I do recall back in 03 that

there were several websites that before of course

we had tablets that were going to attempt to

turning the pages and download comic books. Now

these sites, I think Marvel was trying to create

a separate website and just have a few issues

at a time because it was always a big deal. And

then finally iTunes came along and we have the

tablets and now there's an app for everything.

I think the pros about digital is about the convenience

of me not worrying about the covers because as

much as I love the covers and as much as I like

to print them and put them on my wall because

it just makes my wall look you know express myself

um I'm not interested so much as collecting for

you know the value I just for the nostalgia purposes

but at the end of the day I have now too much

clutter and the second problem is if I'm going

to review comics and Like for now Howard the

Duck they don't seem to have the trades for Howard

for the 70s I have not seen them in the comics

that are out there or a pretty penny Comicsology

what I like is is that after Guardians of the

Galaxy came out and Howard the Duck was in that

cameo all of a sudden all the 1970 comics came

out of comicsology So I was able to pick them

all up at a reasonable price Let alone trying

to go on eBay and pay $20 just for issue number

one So that's the pro and con right there, but

to read the print, you know, unfortunately...

I am starting to get nearsighted. So what I like

about the digital print with my tablet I'm able

to make the print larger and I'm able to expand

on the print and I'm also able to Manipulate

a college comes algae and adjust the brightness

which is a lot easier than those You know those

lights that you put over the comics or even my

lamp. So for me for the consolidation purposes

to put stuff in the cloud, as I said, to get

comics that I need right away. And to go to comic

book store, unfortunately, as I said, I live

in the middle of nowhere. It's about an hour

and a half at times to get to my local comic

book store. So with all those things, yeah, I

think that digital is just the way of the future.

Now, I will say I just did a search and they

don't have it. I'm really surprised that they

don't, but there's a website that I got... See,

people may or may not know this. While it is

true that I didn't get into comics full -time

until October of 2012, from about... Mid 2007

up until now. I had been listening to a podcast

called earth to net the show over on over on

www .earth -the -number -2 .net And Michael Sims

does these previews episodes, and I'm sure every

comic podcast does them But the coolest thing

about his show is his show is actually somehow

sponsored by instocktrades .com and dcbservice

.com I will say that I Well, I do agree that

we do need to support our local comic shops And

I have over the last two and a half years month

the one shop that I go to I Went to in stock

trades recently last month if you spend 50 bucks

they give you free shipping and I mean For $50

I got the two dark Cybertron transformers IDW

trades collecting that storyline I got three

volumes of the chew from John Layman and I got

Batman Beyond Batgirl Beyond trade paperback

all for $50. I mean Insta trades comm is the

best place for trade paperbacks. It's the only

place I will ever tell anyone to go if you want

physical trade paperbacks because They have these

things anywhere from 10 to over 40 % off and

it's Amazing what you can get for the money.

It really really is That being said comics ology

is no slouch. I mean, you know, you can get a

trade on there for anywhere from 9 .99 to 1999

so it's not that it just depends on what it is

As far as the collect ability as far as collecting

the covers The way I collect comic covers is

as soon as Steve makes episode art for the podcast.

And I'm not sitting here stroking his ego. I'm

just saying, like, that's the way, or, you know,

I just keep the image from, like, every week,

whether it's Newsarama, whether it's comicbookresources

.com, whether it's craveonline .com, whether

it's, um... Comic Vine dot com Everybody puts

up previews of whatever is coming out that week

or that you know for that month So like you know

this coming week is August 27th, so there's gonna

be a preview for Batman Beyond universe number

13. There's gonna be a preview for Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles Turtles in Time number three so

you know I'll get the covers from that, or I

get the covers from Solicits. And I don't mind

just having an image of the covers. I've never

really had the... I honestly think there's only

been three covers that I can really think of

that I would want blown up and put on my wall.

But I would want them as one giant image, and

that's Batgirl 23, 24, and 26. It was the Batgirl

wanted arc from the new 52 Batgirl, because Alex

Gardner is one of the best cover artists. Especially

when it comes to that series. What else do we

want to say about digital versus print, Steve?

Well for instance What What what would be something

that would sway you one way or the other towards

it Because like for me the only thing enticing

about Print is you're generally paying the same

price And if I'm going to pay the same price,

I would rather own it and have that physical

copy only for the fact that not saying it will

happen, but the website could go away. Right.

You lose your entire archive. Although there

are some instances now from some publishers that

they will actually let you download the CVR or

PDF file of the actual comic. Yeah. After you've

paid for it. Yeah. I honestly wish Marvel IDW

DC Comics would jump on this bandwagon. I know

Image Comics does it because on Comixology .com

under my backups I have backups for Satellite

Sam number one and Cowl number one through three

from Image. I honestly wish more publishers would

do this. I really do. I think there are apps,

if I understand this correctly, through the App

Store. IDW has a separate app, Marvel has a separate

app. I mean, I got scared, too, that Comixology

was going to go away. I've heard where Amazon

was going to buy them out. I got a little confused

because originally with Comixology, and it kept

getting bad reviews that you're supposed to buy

through the app. Now you have to go through the

website. It got a little clustered. And in all

honesty, I don't really know who's in charge.

because when there were times when my password

wasn't going through to Comixology, where there

were certain issues that I purchased that weren't

in the cloud anymore and all had to get fixed,

that's what, because I so far spent over $100

with the comics I wanted to get, you know, let

alone with all the Howard the Ducks and DC New

52s, so unless I definitely... Can say with a

straight face that the publishers are having

separate apps and you can merge what you bought

from said publisher I'm okay with that. I don't

think Who's gonna go away the quickest? I think

that we're in a digital age. So as I said the

only thing that I keep saying and not to be repetitious

it's just that if there's a comic I need and

I know it's not gonna be available at the comic

book store and if it is at the comic book store

I don't know if it's gonna be a reprint it was

gonna be part of a trade or it's gonna be behind

the counter where it was the original issue worth

a hundred dollars and that's the problem you

know so I mean I think What I'm finding though

are more common bookstores because they can't

afford the rent and they're worried about the

digital age, they're the ones that are going

first. So I'm sure within a year or two, this

will probably get smoothed out anyway, but I

think for a lot of people that have tablets and

don't want to put all their eggs in one basket,

you know, research the apps for each publisher.

If it makes you feel better and not just worry

about Comixology because as I said this way,

you know unless You know IDW goes belly up which

I doubt it will They're doing too many good things.

Yeah It's not you know, I I don't see IDW going

the way the dodo and people would riot before

that happens You know, it's not like another,

you know publisher that embezzled the money Yeah

that no no so I would say I am not going to be

so much as paranoid on that factor. I misprint,

but as I said, what the advantages are is just

making, as I said before, making the print bigger

for the near sighted and of course, you know,

but the panels, because some of them, they are

motion in a way, you know, the bubbles will come

and go. It's nice little incentives. I think

for me it's more so that, and you're right, DC

and Marvel do have their own apps. The coolest

thing about Marvel is though, if you buy, I believe

it's pretty much any Marvel comic book, they

actually give you a code inside whatever book

that is. Like I bought the first two issues of

Figment, the five -issue mini -series based on

the Disneyland, Disney World, Dragon character

Figment. I bought those at my shop for $2 .99,

$3 .99, whatever it is. And they gave me, you

know, Marvel gives you a free code to put into

their app. And the greatest thing about it is

once you connect your Comixology and Marvel .com

accounts, you can have it right there on Comixology.

So Marvel, honestly, is ahead of the game. I

do not know and I probably... DC does the same

thing. They do do the same thing. Yeah, they're

all it's all those apps are done through like

the ComiXology type setup. Mm -hmm Okay Because

I wasn't sure because I just get I mean once

I subscribe to something like Batman Beyond 2

.0 or He -Man and the Masters of the universe

2013 once I subscribed on ComiXology I you know

that that was that So I mean I guess it depends

on how you like to read your comics. Like I said,

for me to be, I don't know, in my old age, I

lose track of stuff physically as far as... like

I said, sitting in my... I mean, there were times

where I was reading the Dark Cybertron books,

the single issues, and I would... it's not because

of the content of the story, it's just because

I was tired. But I would, like, literally fall

asleep holding that book, and that was just a

single issue. I remember last year when we did

the first annual Punisher Month in November,

I was holding... was it, um... Welcome back,

Frank? Yeah. I was holding welcome back, Frank.

Next thing you know, my head's knocked over on

my shoulder and the book is on the floor in front

of my feet because I just can't sit in my chair

and read physical comics anymore. I just can't

do it. Yeah, that's a problem if I'm falling

asleep with the iPad and it falls on my face,

which has happened a couple times. I mean, you

know, I miss the tra - I mean, I have traits.

You know, it's just that trades, I don't know

what it is though with the trades, because the

trades aren't what they used to be in the 80s

and 90s. Everything seems to, which is not a

bad thing, I mean everything seems to be a little

bit more hardcover in a way, but I really like

the soft cover trades that I used to have, and

you know, like some of the big hardcover trades

that I still have, like for Tales on the Crypt.

and even, you know, like now for TMNT. But yeah,

I mean, there are there are always going to be

pros and cons. I think it's just because it goes

back to what we've said. We grew up in the 70s

and 80s. So it's for us in the nostalgia process.

I mean, the biggest thing that I'm always going

to miss, though, in comics. are still the ads.

Especially in the 80s, I'm sure you remember

those ads where it's like, call Jenny if you

want to own this prize and sell such and such,

you know? No. That's the one thing that made

me go towards digital more than print, is no

ads. Because, holy crap, you know, I'll sit here

and I'll read a single issue of - I can't say

IDW because IDW doesn't do this, but a DC or

a Marvel book. Marvel, when I read the Iron Man

3 prelude to issue comic series, or when I read

the first two issues of the current Punisher

series that Marvel is doing, any time that I...

I understand these companies need to sell advertising

space and they need to make the money off the

ads and whatever else, but... I'm sorry, if you

write an illustrated story in a comic book and

every six pages there's an ad that interrupts

that story, it has always irked me. I've mentioned

it several times in the two year history of the

pull bag. There are times I think in the Superior

Spider -Man reviews with JT and I where I remember

the first time I did one of those reviews with

JT, I went on like a five or 10 minute rant about

ads because It just interrupts the story, hence

why I went more towards trades and now why I'm

sticking with digital because no ads. Yeah, I

think it's just because there's always going

to be nostalgia purposes, but, you know, the

future is not that bad and it's not that big

of a deal. And for me at this point, I miss my

old comics in a way. I miss picking up the Mylar

bags, the backboards, the boxes. That was great.

But everything convenience, I mean, to put a

thousand comics on my iPad, you know, and then

a trade. And you know what? Also, Comicsology,

I think we discussed this, they seem to have

a lot of great deals for two or three days. I

don't know if it's because, you know, the new

Transformers movie came out or Guardians of the

Galaxy, whatever, but they do a lot of 20 to,

you know, 50 percent off, especially in the trades.

I'm sure, as I said, the other, you know, apps

must do it as well. But that's also and also

what I love is the subscription service, because

for Harley Quinn, I decided to experiment with

the subscription service. And you know what?

It works for me too, you know, you just you have

it through the PayPal and the day the comm comes

out You actually get it. Actually. Yeah, you

get it a few hours. It's already being downloaded

onto my iPad I say about you know 12 or 1 a .m.

Tuesday night going to Wednesday morning. So

that's not too bad at all Yeah, no, that's that's

the one thing I absolutely love about comics

ology in the in the other digital apps because

I remember one recording again with Joe Reed

for the turtles stuff we do for my DW. Um, I

was like, yeah, so we're recording this on Tuesday

night and by midnight tomorrow morning, one AM

I'll have the next issue. He's like, Oh, I hate

you. Cause you know, he had to wait to go to

the actual shop. Um, and it's, I love that. I

mean, every Saturday morning, every Friday night

going into Saturday morning, I'm either Watching

TV waiting for midnight 1 a .m. To roll around

and I'll come out here on my computer I'll check

my my books and hey, there's the next new issue

of Batman Beyond 2 .0 and I'll read it right

then and there and then I'll go back and you

know the you know later that morning read it

again and write a review or whatever else but

Yeah, I love the whole thing of as soon as it's

available period end of story you don't have

to wait for a Shop to open up in the morning.

That's what I love about the convenience of comics

ology So, we actually did get an email a few

months ago when I brought this topic up on an

Altered Geek episode, I guess. It's from our

buddy Scanner51. He had heard me mention the

subject Paper Comics vs. Digital Comics. He wants

to start off by saying that I do digital comics.

I used to read paper comics, but when I got a

Galaxy S2 phone, I made the switch over to digital

full time. I have two Google Nexus tablets, and

I have no intention of going back. I switched

based on convenience and storage. I have no room

for just, say, the 103 issues of the 06 run of

Superman Batman. Now I still buy paper comics,

but for a collecting purposes only, to get them

signed, I have an extensive signed DC comic collection

on my wall. I also buy DC female -centric comic

covers from my daughter's room. I do not believe

there is a quote -unquote war between paper and

digital. I'm basing that on pricing alone. A

$2 .99 paper on Wednesday cost $2 .99 at the

DC app on Wednesday as well. Now the main argument

I hear about digital anything is the ownership

of products. That you don't own them and they're

almost kind of leasing them. If the servers or

cloud go down, you're fucked out of your stuff.

That can be true. Some months ago, Comixology

lost $400 worth of books. Now I got them all

back in about four days, but still. So I came

up with a way to solve this problem. I bought

a Gen 2 Google Nexus, wiped my Gen 1 clean and

loaded the readers back on, and downloaded every

book I ever bought from Kindle, Nook, Google,

and so far 70 % of all my comics I now have hard

copies of everything, so I own them outright.

There is no war, both ways have their ups and

downs. Paper you get to fill bookshelves and

display, that is one thing I miss, digital everything

on multiple devices, ready for you to push or

a swipe of a finger. The future is here and I

don't see the past leaving just yet. There will

always be a market for paper. Gotta fill up my

walls somehow. Gentlemen, fantastic podcast,

fantastic network, loyal listeners, Scanner 51

and your old daughter. Thank you so much Scanner

51 for the email. Yeah, I mean, he is right.

There really is no war. I really don't see...

Marvel DC IDW image Dark Horse. I really don't

see them not making paper comics anymore I really

don't and You know with the What I mentioned

earlier about the decent when I asked about the

DC Comics app It's great that DC Comics has their

app and it is able to connect to comics ology

DC still isn't doing what Marvel's doing. They're

not offering you a free digital code. Now, I

do know at certain points in the last two years

DC has done, like specialty books. Or they'll

do 99 cent comics. No, no, no, no. What I mean

is, there was, remember when Batman 25 came out?

It was that black cover? Yeah. There was like

seven different versions of that one comic. One

of those versions was a dollar more than the

original regular price comic. It was a dollar

more because they gave you a digital code. That,

to me, is asinine, I think. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Well, I have to agree because I'm sorry. There's

no reason why they can't sell it for the same

price and give you the code. You've already bought

it, and it's not like it cost them really anything

other than maybe the bandwidth to begin with

on the aspect of just downloading them. I mean,

you've paid your hard -earned money. Honestly,

it kind of pisses me off how much they cost to

begin with just because it's ... I mean, you're

falling on harder times. And for how many different

comics that come out per line, it's to the point

where you have to whittle them down to what's

your favorite and then leave it at that because

they cost so much. I mean, that's an entirely

different discussion. But if you're going to

not give the digital code, there's no reason

why the comic can't be cheaper. You know, okay,

take, um... Take Amazing Spider -Man, the current

run of Amazing Spider -Man, the new run that

restarted, whatever else. I don't know what number

they're up to at this point, but take whatever

the current issue is. Let's say Amazing Spider

-Man number six. Let's say it's $3 .99, so it's

four bucks. If you go into a shop, most shops

will offer you a discount. So my shop, $3 .99,

15 % dividend would be about $3 .55 plus tax.

So let's say maybe $3 .64, $3 .70, something

like that. So if I pay $3 .70 for Amazing Spider

-Man number six, bring it home, get the code,

put it on the Marvel app. and then it automatically

syncs to my com...to...to Comixology, um, or

the Marvel .com website. It automatically syncs

to Comixology, bing, bam, boom. And sure, I still

have the print issue if I want to look at the

art, um, but, you know, I really wish DC would

start doing this because... and just keep it

at the $3 .99 price. There's no reason. I mean,

uh... Unless they're going to do something like

they've done in the past before where it's a

special issue and it's more pages. It's not just

your standard 40 page. Let's say it's a 64 or

96 page comic. They'll start charging, you know,

$4 .99, $5 .99, sometimes $6, $7 .99. I mean,

so the comic shops... most of them have discounts

and that's good if you're wanting paper and so

so you're technically not really paying full

price but honestly I'd rather just sit at home

and pay full price on on comics ology for the

convenience I mean when I first started buying

comics I was my comics budget per month between

single issues and trades was about 150 160 dollars

a month now it's maybe 50 60 bucks every three

months for trades every you know so like I just

bought a bunch of trades now the next time I

buy trades probably won't be till November December

maybe January my monthly comics budget on comics

ology with the subscriptions I have probably

is like 50 or 60 bucks so I'm you know Every

three months. I'm paying the same thing but in

between that three month period It's like I'm

only paying 50 or 60 dollars every month instead

of a hundred and something dollars every month

and like Steve said it all it does come down

to choice and what you absolutely want to like

I just I Just discontinued my Grayson subscription.

I read the first two issues of Grayson. Don't

get me wrong. I do love the character I don't

like the direction that they're taking him in

with DC right now. I wish he would have stayed

in Chicago when it would have been a lot better,

at least for me personally. But I just, after

reading the first two issues of Grayson, I like

the first issue. I like the way it's being written,

but, you know, I have interests elsewhere than

seeing Dick Grayson, the Nick Fury of the DC

universe. So, yeah, I mean, We can't buy everything,

so it does come down to choice. I mean, I'll

give stuff, you know, a one -issue shot, and

if it impresses me, fine. That's all well and

good. I can tell people right now. Coming up

in October, I believe, maybe October or, yeah,

it'll probably be late October. There might be

an issue or an episode of The Pullback where

JT and I do... a look at a couple of new number

ones. We're going to look at Arkham Manor and

Gotham Academy, which is coming out. Are we going

to do full coverage after that? Who knows? Probably

not, with everything else I have planned. But

yeah, I mean, digital and print, currently they're

kind of coexisting, and you just have to pick

what you really want to do. I mean, if you prefer

reading them... reading them in print and having

that comic in your hand, that's great. If you

prefer the convenience of digital, that's great,

too. I'm telling you, ever since I found Comixology's

Guided View technology, I will never actually

read a comic story again in print because of

the Guided View and how cool it is and how interesting

and it engages you to pull you into the story.

Think it's also buyers remorse to as you just

mentioned Mike because here's the thing I could

get myself into and there have been a couple

comic books that I picked up over the years and

you know, I have four or five issues and then

I'll get issue number six and I'm like, why did

I get that and You know, I may have a dozen kind

and I can't sell my mean because nobody wants

to buy use comics because everything seems to

be reprint so that's my thing with digital but

The only other thing I just wanted to bring out

digital, one of the biggest cons, I think is

when you try to download a comic and if you have

a bad internet connection, it could take forever.

I mean, sometimes for me, when I was downloading

comics from Comicsology and I want something

at 10 o 'clock at night, it took forever. Next

morning it was fine. But I also think the final

thing that I like is that Comicsology... will

show you just like with Netflix or you know,

like at any digital site, like what was just

added. And I think that if it's 10, 11 o 'clock

at night and you can't wait and you want to just

edit and have a lot of free comics, too, I mean,

this free comic book day. But Comixology is going

to do that as well. Like it seems like every

day seems to be a free comic book day with a

certain titles. To me, that's also a good pro.

Yeah, I mean, Comixology has. I'm looking at

it here, recommended freebies. There's at least

60 right now. Power Rangers. No, I don't know.

I'm not talking about free comic book day. I'm

just talking about in general. They do free comics

all the time. Although the Power Rangers now

is free. Right, but what I'm saying is that they

do... They also do just outside of the comic

book... Outside of the free comic book day, you

know stuff. They also have Thousands of of actual

free comics like I'm looking at Captain America

the first Avenger number one first vengeance

and that's that's free Came out a couple years

ago for the first movie And then, and that's

the other thing I love about Comixology. I don't

know how many pages a lot of these are. Well,

let me see, it doesn't say off the top of my

head, I don't think. Yeah, no. 13 page comic

for the second issue, same page count, 13 pages,

99 cents, that's not bad. You know, the Batman

Beyond 2 .0 from DC, it's probably 13. actually

no that's i think twenty three pages uh... ninety

-nine cents every week you know so that that

is uh... that is a damn good deal in my opinion

uh... steve any final thoughts no i mean i a

i i i'm still like i i'm kind of one of those

guys it's kind of a fence it's kind of depends

like i'd like i said i'd rather read it in print

But like you said, Jeremy, the only downside

is who wants to buy used comics? Like, the only

reason I've ever picked them up used is because

they're cheap. Like, honestly, they're not the

cover price. They're usually cheaper than the

regular price, unless it's something that a comic

shop purposely creates the demand for. And causes

them to go up in price. For instance, I sold

an entire Transformers generation 1 Marvel Comics

collection 10 years ago and They have a couple

of the issues selling for 50 bucks. Nobody's

bought them yet. There's still the same issues

I sold them 10 years ago, but They want 50 bucks

for them, which is why they'll never sell Whereas

if I go to a different kind of comic shop There's

another one that's close by me too that they'll

sell them for half the price of whatever the

cover was because they don't pay anybody jack

shit for them. So I mean, that's the only instance

where I find it feasible for me to do that. However,

you know, if you're planning on keeping them

forever, it's great to buy them, like to own.

But if you're one of those, I mean, if you're

one of those people that... you know, you don't

want the space and you just, you don't want to

have to, you know, even if you pick them up late,

you don't want to have to pay more than cover

price. Then the digital kind of works out better

because they also put sales on those periodically.

Now I will say as far as storage, as far as display

features, there is something that actually my

buddy UpToBottom has pointed out to me. It's

Ultra Pro. 7 .125 by 10 .5 top loaders comic

books. They're top loading. It's kind of like

the hard plastic cases for baseball and basketball

cards except it's for a comic book. So if you

want to display your comics not just in the standard

bag and board you want to you know display them

like an actual framed picture without actually

having to spend the money to buy an actual frame

for it these things are really really cool on

Amazon they're 20 bucks for I think it's Yeah,

it's 20 bucks for 10 of them, so it's not too

too bad You know I will say you know for for

art sake and kind of a last thing you know You

know, if you just want to look at the art, after

you've read the story, print issues are fine.

For me, just reading the story, digital is my

way. As far as collecting the stuff, honestly

with almost everything nowadays, I've lost the

collection bug kind of thing. I just really have.

Don't know what it is about it, but yeah digital

and print It's gonna be an interesting few next

couple a few years to see how It all goes down

If you guys have any comments about this post

them on the website On this episode post or you

can email us feedback at geek cast radio calm

put in the subject line the pull bag If you have

anything else you could send us voicemails 502

-526 -5821 Where can they find you on Twitter

Jeremy? On account skirt No one wants to look

under that well Steve Where can they find you

on Twitter? I'm of course at TF2 and Mike, you

can also follow at GeekCaster .io for all the

other network updates. I think that's going to

do it for this episode of The Pull Bag. There's

been a slight change for the schedule coming

up. I had said in a previous episode, I think

it was the Robots in Disguise Volume 5 discussion

with Lady Rick. September is gonna be a pretty

full month because we've got the Utrom Empire

for TMNT, we've got DC Universe versus Masters

of the Universe, we've got more TMNT coverage,

I'm gonna try to get Dark Cybertron done for

MightyW, more TMNT coverage and then the third

week of September going through the first week

of October we're gonna have Two, four, we're

gonna have five different countdown episodes

on various various subjects and topics so that's

kind of what's going on for the rest of Upcoming

here in September and going into the first week

of October. I will also say that the final Well,

the middle week in October is gonna be hopefully

Ryan the uneven flow and I talking about Gotham

Central We're going to be doing that. Potentially

Nightwing the Ties that Bind and Huntress. And

then possibly the Futures End event this year.

And then episode 99 is probably going to be Steve

and I talking about... Ten Thousand Clowns and

Batgirl Beyond. So that's what's coming up for

September and October. In October, in the fifth

week of October, The Pull Bag is going to have

its 100th numbered episode. So if you guys have

any ideas for the 100th episode of the podcast,

shoot me an email. Let me know. tfgmikeatgmail

.com. Or as I said earlier, you can send email

to feedbackatgeekcasterhere .com. Put in the

subject line, the Pull Bag 100th episode. I think

that's gonna do it for now. I am TF2 and Mike

with Steve Megatron Phillips Jeremy Hunnic outcast

fine Thank you for listening make your great

escape into comics. We will catch you next time

You've just heard the latest episode of the pullback

the GCR ends comic review and discussion podcast

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