Digital or Bust: Part 2

It’s week two! Week two already?! Where does the time go? Well, thankfully week two is a much, much larger pull than week one so there’s definitely some trends and interesting little things I’m figuring out about making the switch to digital weekly pulls. Not sure what the hell I’m talking about? Check out Prologue Part One, Prologue Part Two and Digital or Bust: Part One and get up to speed.

Okay, I waited. You’re up to speed? Good, let’s dive in. For week two, I have 13 comics in my subscription. If you’re curious, you can go here and look at just what those 13 comics are. Waking up at or around 6AM, I reached up on top of my ridiculous omnibus stack that currently has no less than five waiting to be read, grabbed my iPad and went to the Comixology app. Not being fully awake, aware or able to open my eyes fully yet I went to the recent purchases section only to find that only 3 or 4 of the 13 mentioned above were actually available to download. Not cool.

It’s my understanding, now that I’ve gone through it, that on or around 6AM is just too damn early. Also, it’s too early for Comixology and the publishers to release all their comics. I downloaded what I could and went about my morning routine as usual. It wasn’t until I got to work, far from the joys and warming glow of Wi-Fi, that I received other emails on my phone that more books were available to download. Am I able to read upwards of 5 comics on my lunch break? No, not usually, but the point would be that if I wanted to read, say Black Widow, I couldn’t because Marvel and/or Comixology didn’t release it until I had already gotten to work.

If I really, really wanted, I could take my iPad off airplane mode and download one or more comics that were released after I got to work but I don’t want to use data that, in my opinion, I really shouldn’t have to use. Am I just being a complainer? Maybe. If I went to the comic shop at lunch and came back to work, I’d be lucky to be able to read 1, maybe 2. Granted, they’d be the ones that I really wanted to read, but I wouldn’t have much time to enjoy them. My first real issue with digital is a terrible, conflicting, double-edged sword of… confliction.

But enough about that already, okay? Let’s cover some positives I’ve noticed. I’m positively annoyed that I can’t download all the comics before I leave for work… wait, no. That’s not where I meant to take this, damnit.  Okay, positives for this digital experiment definitely include all my comics snug and warm inside my iPad and no risk of bending a page, or getting hand dirt on a comic or any of that stuff that would drive me insane—regardless if it’ll be worth anything in the years to come. It’s also nice to see what you have to read with the little “New” icon over the recently downloaded or unread comics. For some reason I can’t articulate, it feels easier to move from one comic to the next without humming and hawing about it. Just move to the next new icon and read.

I’m also enjoying the guided view provided by Comixology. Mostly because I can’t keep my stupid eyes on the page I’m reading when I read a physical copy of a comic and generally I end up getting ahead of myself and either spoiling something important that’s coming or reading something I don’t understand yet because I, well, haven’t actually gotten there yet. Sometimes I just want to kick my own ass when I do that. Can’t trust your damn eyes to do anything right and they always get you in trouble, I swear…

So what have we learned this week, boys and girls? Well, I either get up too early (most likely) or Comixology/comic publishers need to release books earlier to match my terrible wake up time. We also learned that the guided view rocks and you can’t trust eyes. Yep, that’s right. I only really learned two things this week, so what? At least one was good and one was bad, and not both bad or both good, right? At least that makes this more of a fair fight, so to speak. As far as I’m concerned, Digital vs. Physical is tied at one because week one was a total bust and I learned nothing except that New Years Day comic book days suck and are also non-existent.

So, it’s 1 – 1 and until next time, read comics!