(Click the BIG BOLD TEXT
below for Amazon links!)As people discuss the future of digital comics, debating what the future holds, an important segment gets forgotten: CD- and DVD-ROM collections.
A minor market segment, these box sets offer what most fans are clamoring for: ownership of the actual file instead of an app, affordable comics (even at $50, the per-comic cost is usually below twenty-five cents), and extras which turns these collections into electronic omnibuses.
However, due to sticker shock, and the experience of reading these comics on a horizontal screen, many fans have been reluctant to purchase these collections. Which means that now, as the digital marketplace transitions to apps and browser-based readers, these older CD- and DVD-ROM collections are being sold at clearance prices.
So, dear readers, in these challenging economic times, we offer you this bargain bin listing of select titles found on Amazon.com. We make no money from directing you to these forgotten gems, and, as with anything on the web, caveat lector et emptor.
First, we present three early CD-ROMs. CD-ROM drives became standard computer hardware sometime around 1989, around the time that Matt Groening’s “Life In Hell” characters were endorsing Apple Macintosh computers
. However, most computers could barely process the video and graphics required, and early CD-ROM software was rather primitive. Among early publishers, one stands out for comics fans: The Voyager Company. Just as this company pioneered laserdisc (and later DVD) media with their Criterion Collection, so too did they aggressively pursue the computer market.The most visible title that I remember actually seeing was
The Complete Maus, a Survivor’s Tale
.Not only did this CD-ROM contain the actual book, but also: preliminary sketches (which show that Art Spiegelman used color markers), notes, archival photos and footage, audio interviews with Vladek Spiegelman, and video footage of Art Spiegelman in Poland. It is rich in material, the equivalent of a Criterion laserdisc.
An actual documentary, Comic Book Confidential
remains an amazing work, interviewing an all-star cast of industry giants and underground pioneers, presenting the history of comics up to the late 1980s. Still available as a DVD
Does this mean they killed the dog?
You have to buy it to find out.
Seriously, everyone should pick up the Nat Lamp compilation. Fantastic stuff for hardly any money at all. Just the comic content alone is fantastic (Russ Heath, Neal Adams, Frank Springer, et al.)-
Just picked up Star Trek: The Complete Comic Book Collection. Sounds like the scans might not be the best, but great price! Also the Gold Key collections from Checker seem to have dried up so this is the best way for me to read the Kirk vs Greek Gods story.
@Jonathan La Mantia The dog did indeed meet a grisly fate–and Rick Meyerowitz pulled the trigger
.I just opened the Star Trek DVD-ROM.
The pages are scans of the actual comic books or graphic novels, including ads. The Peter Pan read-along books are included, but not the audio.
@Torsten Ads? That’s cool! X-ray specs here I come!
I have an old issue of The Addams Family cartoon comic, where they visit NYC and purchase Central Park (#2, 1974). Inside was a special advertising section for Ideal Toys, 16 pages of catalog copy! I don’t see a tag on any of the Trek covers, but check inside!
Gold Key ads were quite different than those of DC or Marvel. Movie posters, patches, weird toys… and the strangest editorial pages.
I believe Comic Book Confidential is currently viewable online for free to Netflix subscribers.