Wed Jul 8, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Why 'Wednesday Comics' is a big thing, literally

I have a big computer monitor. It's probably bigger than yours. I know, I know, I probably shouldn't bring size into it, but it's true. And when it's standing upright, it's even bigger. Almost 18 inches standing up.

Yeah, sure, you say, quit bragging. And yet, it's so nice. In fact, it's got well over 350% of the area of a standard comic book page. Take a look to the right, where I compare it to a regular comic and the oversized books DC did a few years back.

And I really feel it when I read a comic book on a computer screen. Particularly the naughty kind. No, not the ones with panty shots of Supergirl, you pervert, I mean the naughty kind that you don't pay for, but should have. The downloaded ones.

When I read those onscreen, they're almost double the size of a regular printed comic. It's great.

But now, here comes Wednesday Comics. And it's really big-- it might even be bigger than the area on my monitor; but even if it's just close, the paper version will have better resolution. And the work is designed for the big area that they have.

DC is designing for the comic book equivalent of the IMAX screen--  an experience that you can't get from the bootleg version. Heck, even the previews they've made available don't fit on most screens.

And that's brilliant. They're trying to make comics an event again, one that you can only fully get in paper-- delivering a better experience and fighting back against the scanners (who weren't going to be happy with the oversize pages in any event). Small wonder USA Today has picked it up.

Kudos to DC for the grand experiment, and for bucking the trend.

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