Bonus digital versions of IDW comics coming soon

[griffin]

Coming later this year (http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/idw-publishing-to-provide-digital-copies-of-print-comics-purchased/22340/), people who purchase IDW Transformers comics will be entitled to a digital copy download of that issue.
Kinda like some DVD purchases that let you download a copy onto devices like a computer, to view without the disc itself.

More details will be released closer to when they decide to start doing this.
(I should think that this would be a global thing, not just for Americans)

[Paulbot]

The article mentions working with retailers. It could be like a special barcode the shop prints out (like ITunes and Mobile recharges). If so unless they make a special effort for like 15 shops in Australia, we could miss out.

Be great if we can though.

[5FDP]

I find the whole concept of digital comics bizarre :confused: Maybe it's old age, but I prefer mine to be printed on paper.

[Sharky]

i do prefer my comics the old fashiond way, but i do like the digital verion too i have lsotw on the ipad and its great for the train...

i hope this does come to australia.. it is something that i would use.

(i think in todays age this should be automatic for everything these days.. music movies comics etc.. one you buy it you should get it in all formats avaliable..)

[Sky Shadow]

I find the whole concept of digital comics bizarre :confused: Maybe it's old age, but I prefer mine to be printed on paper.

It's a tough call. These days, so many of IDW's comics aren't worth the paper they're printed on, so it's appropriate. Comics take up a lot of space, and - as Sharky says - aren't the sort of things that are convenient to drag around with you (and are kind of embarrassing in public.) Also, compared to fifteen years ago, when comics were the norm and trade paperbacks were special prestige items, these days many more people "wait for the trade", and the TPs are usually cheaper than buying the whole series. With digital comics, people can keep 'caught up' on what's going on, but be more environmentally friendly by not wasting paper on the same stories twice.

[Sharky]

as Sharky says - aren't the sort of things that are convenient to drag around with you

i just did a quick count... i have 72 comic on my iPad.... no way you could carry them all around. :p

[kristofferrer]

I just purchased the IDW collection from abroad ... does that mean i get a heap of digital media?

[Paulbot]

I just purchased the IDW collection from abroad ... does that mean i get a heap of digital media?
No, it's coming later this year and you get a code when you buy from a comic retailer as far as we know. It wont apply to anything you've already purchased. How good would that be.

[bowspearer]

It's an interesting concept and I'd love to see it expanded further. These days with things like android comic reader apps, as well as Cdisplay, there's been a digital comics market for years- much in the same way there was an MP3 market years before the industry caught on.

The potential there is massive- i just hope they don't screw up DRM in the same way the movie studios have with digital copies of movies.

[i_amtrunks]

It's a good idea, technically two issues for the price of one.

Too bad it looks to be retailer based, if you got an individual code from inside the issue itself which you could then redeem online without the need for the retailer to remember/have enough of the codes I think it would be a better system.

However that method would enable anyone who opened the issue to flick through it, take a photo or with the prevelance of smartphones auto scan the code online immediately and get the digital copy without purchasing the paper version.

It will be interesting to see how the trial goes.

[Fonecrusher]

I find the whole concept of digital comics bizarre :confused: Maybe it's old age, but I prefer mine to be printed on paper.

For me at least, it's kinda hard to find TF comics in my local area and ordering stuff off eBay and then having to wait for it is kinda a pain, not to mention you have to buy a couple of items just to get some decent postage pricing. Contrast that to the 5 minutes it takes to buy and download comics on my iphone and they are a lot cheaper too (like $2 each).

Besides as Sky Shadow pointed out a lot of IDW's stuff simply isn't worth it, stuff like Ongoing and Heart of Darkness and the DOTM prequels, I don't see them as being worth going to all the effort, when I'll probably read them once and toss them in the collection.

Now the good stuff: LSotW, HoS, Devastation, Megatron Origins, AHM I have all in comic/TPB form, but I'm satisified using my phone for most of the rest. I do the same with the Marvel and DC apps as well.

[STL]

Now the good stuff: LSotW, HoS, Devastation, Megatron Origins, AHM I have all in comic/TPB form, but I'm satisified using my phone for most of the rest. I do the same with the Marvel and DC apps as well.

That's what I'm doing now too.

It's also just so much cheaper and with the sales that most companies have that sell for 0.99c, it's just a no-brainer when, as others have pointed out, there's so much crap out there. IDW being one of the chief culprits

For instance, I read all of the Infinite Crisis crossover issues I never read for 0.99c each. There were some gems amid it but across over 70 issues, I'm glad I didn't for out $6-$7 each (what it would have cost at the time).

Add storage too and it's crazy. It was one of the reasons I had to get an ipad 2, I needed to upgrade from 16GB to 64GB to store comics. Now I carry with me 500+ comics everywhere I go, with more on demand if I want to re-download them to the iPad. Excellent for someone who travels a lot too.

[UltraMarginal]

I've been gettiing pretty much every trade since DW started out, of transformers comics at least. Some I'd love to have on my phone, just so I could stop here and there to read them.

I have trouble paying more for the electronic version when I've already got the paper version. Overall I find paper more comfortable since electronically, my screen is much smaller than a book.

I welcome the trial and I hope they end up with a system that works out well for us and them. as others have mentioned, I hope we are remembered here in Australia.

[bassbot]

I love the idea, and the fact that it will be through Diamond Distributing means even our meagre amount of comic shops should still be able to organise it.
maybe it will depend on demand for those retailers? So we really should go in and talk to them about it and have the expectation (if we'd use it) that they'll do it.

I love reading digital comics AND print. Reading and storing a huge amount on my ipad right now.

[Alpha Supreme]

I love reading my comics on my iPad! As others have mentioned you can carry around so many, great for me as I travel for work.

[Paulbot]

Marvel is starting to do this with one of the Spider-Man comics, by polybagging the comic and printing a code on the inside of the book that you can use to download it for free.

Hopefully IDW does something like that too.