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.
Meh. Took one look at it in the comic store, scanned through the pages, and put it back. It seemed like a dumb idea when they announced it, but I wanted to see it first hand before I decided. YMMV, of course, but it did nothing for me.
DC is basicly asking you to pay 3.99 for what amounts to the Sunday comic section of your newspaper–albeit a specialized one.
I think the 'cover design' is not engaging at all. The store I went to told me they thought it was Comic Shop News. Itty-bitty logo and no overall cover design. It might have been more eye-catching if they had done a golden age anthology ;period' looking cove with a large image and the character 'bullets' on wither side. The average Joe doesn't 'get' what they are going for. Better paper might have held the color. Uncoated stock sucks up ink like a sponge and oversaturated color has less contrast. When I called to see if they still had copies, they said there were plenty on the rack. Nice experiment, nice try.