Marvel to Make Aprrox. 2500 Comics Available Online (Updated Info)

[GrnMarvl14]

For anyone not aware, Marvel's website (Marvel.com, of course) has a few hundred comics available to read on their website (here) that ranges from the recent (as in released in the past couple of weeks) to the "ancient" (1963's the oldest publication date I saw from a brief scan). While, personally, I'm not a fan of the format (last time I read one, it had problems in that you could only zoom in on select portions, often leaving entire text balloons/boxes unreadable without a magnifying glass), I do applaud how it makes these comics available to everyone (only requires, I believe, Flash to be able to view them). And, according to this story on Newsarama, we'll get many more, as of tomorrow...but not without a price:

In a story published at USA Today.com Monday evening, the apparently official word of Marvel’s new online publishing initiative (hinted at by Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley at the New York Comic-Con last February) has been revealed.

Called the comic book industry’s “first online archive of more than 2,500 back issues, including the first appearances of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Incredible Hulk.”, Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited will offer the archive in a high-resolution format on computer screens for $59.88 a year, or at a monthly rate of $9.99, at Marvel’s website.

According to the national daily, “Subscribers will be able to access the first hundred issues of key titles, turn pages with a click of the mouse or navigate a battle against Dr. Doom frame-by-frame with a ‘Smart Panel’ viewing feature. The user can zoom in on details of art by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko from the 1960s or catch up with today's The Ultimates and New Avengers.

"We did not want to get caught flat-footed with kids these days who have the tech that allows them to read comics in a digital format," Marvel President Dan Buckley, told the publication. "Our fan base is already on the Internet. It seemed like a natural way to go."

To help market the initiative, To Marvel will reportedly offer a free sampler of 250 titles, and to protect current sales of comic books, new issues won't be on the Marvel site until six months after they are published.

Asked why people would pay for superheroes when newspaper websites have been unable to charge for content, Buckley said, "You can get the news anywhere. We're the only ones who have Spider-Man."

"If they put their monthly comic online at the same time, they'd be cutting their own throats and undercutting the retailers," writer Peter David told USA Today. "The material is owned by Marvel, and they can do whatever they want with it. This is just another means of reprint when you come down to it."

"About 90% of the comic books sold today are scanned and put online within 36 hours," Newsarama’s own Chris Arrant is quoted in the story.

"Our quality is much higher; the library is huge and will never go out of style," concluded Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. "This is the legal way to do things."

News of the new Marvel initiative began appearing online Monday afternoon, via an AP wire story and sources like the CBC.com website, prompting Marvel Comics to request any version of the story citing the AP or CBC be removed from websites due to the CBC version in particular being “filled with inaccuracies.” It is not immediately apparent what was inaccurate about the CBC version of the story.

Look for more details as they become available.

I do NOT like the idea of having to pay without being able to download them (it's like paying to listen to MP3s ON iTunes, or wherever), but it's not entirely a bad idea. Smart idea having a 6-month period between in-store release and online release as well.

EDIT: Turns out the original story wasn't quite right, so I've replaced it with the correct version.