Comic Scans on the Internet
by Dash Shaw
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Probably like many CC readers, I read a lot of scans of comics on the internet. Unlike webcomics, where the cartoonist is conscious of the fact that people will read it online, these poor, often dead cartoonists have been hijacked (stolen, really) and forced into a formatting that they didn’t intend, and often didn’t know would ever exist. Their labored-over page turns and splash pages have been forced into click-throughs and scroll-downs. They’ve been completely screwed. Still, I’m sitting there waiting for my scanner to finish doing its thing, a stack of unread “real” books weighing the scanner bed down, and I’ll click over to thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com to read some Bernie Wrightson. While I’m waiting for music to illegally download, I’ll go illegally read a manga scanlation. It’s too easy.
Obviously, I prefer reading these comics in their original, intended, print versions. But, again, it’s right there. Free. And I don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.
I’m going to write about this experience a little. Just three random topics.
1. Large Documents
You click on a link expecting a small, web-friendly jpg image and the browser window slowly (“uh-oh”) loads, opens, and you find yourself staring at a quarter-inch of yellowed paper texture enlarged over your entire monitor. You scroll down and to the right, seeing a single brushstroke—what is that? The top of someone’s head? A branch? Or you’re looking at a couple of letters of each word as you read (“nu”…”ff”…”sa”…). Or you think you’re looking at the main character of a panel until you scroll around to discover that the person was actually in the far background and the central character can only be seen one facial feature at a time.
This reminds me of how little the human eye actually sees in focus at any moment. In middle school a teacher illustrated this fact by writing a word on the chalkboard. He told everyone to stare only at this one word. Then he wrote another word six inches above the first word. Nobody could see the second word if their eyes remained fixed on the first word. Like, try reading something at the top of this post while staring at this word. Maybe in seeing these comic scans enlarged, this is like seeing what the inside of my eye is seeing at a single moment as it darts around a comic page.
What comic pages work well in this unnatural view? Dense splash pages. Decorative design elements. Landscapes. I briefly looked around for something to scan that would look interesting this way and picked up a Blueberry book. This is actually only half of a printed page, so it doesn’t take long to load.
Holy crap—it looks great this way. In print, this page feels really dense and claustrophobic. Here, it’s a more spacious, but active, environment. The splattering of colors translates really well too. And, somehow, I think it captures the adventurousness of the Blueberry story. Click on the image and scroll around inside the page. It’s fun!
2. Bad scanning/pixelation
I spent a few years doing illustrations for a health services website where I’d have to (quickly) integrate drawings and photos in one piece. I’d use the “eyedropper” Photoshop tool to pick up colors from the photos that I would then use in the drawings so that the colors matched. The eyedropper tool could never find the right color. Is that guy’s shirt really so dark? Is that kid’s blonde hair so grey? The eyedropper was only picking up a single solid pixel color. It’d be as if you eyedropper-tooled a scan of a comic and were shocked that someone’s skin tone was either bright red or solid white.
Comics have moved from one format with famously awkward small units of color that optically combine to a new version of the same thing.
There are probably a lot of comparisons that could be made between this either/or visual information and other mediums. I was struck by how much a detail of a tapestry looks like a low-resolution jpg:
http://aulas.pro.br/blog4/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/morris_woodpecker_tapestry_detail.jpg
Also, there are wide variations of scanner qualities and preferences. I wanted to send an image of a “Classics Illustrated” page to a friend and I didn’t feel like scanning it myself so I found it online:
http://www.tkinter.smig.net/ClassicsIllustrated/PrisonerOfZenda/37.htm
But this page looked nothing like the comic I owned. The colors are so washed out. Is this how this person scanned it? Or did their copy actually look this way? Maybe it looked correct on their computer and my computer was calibrated differently. Here’s my scan of the same page:
It’s possible that lots of scans I’ve read online look nothing like what the original reproductions (ha ha) do.
3. Coincidental Marriages
Most comic pages are hard to read on the computer. You scroll across and then down and realize you missed half of a conversation that was in word balloons hugging the bottom of the panels. You were just zipping away on the top 2/3rds of the panel. Or you have to laboriously scroll up and down to figure out how you’re supposed to read a page. Or you can only understand a spread by clicking back and forth to try and imagine what two pages look like next to each-other. But sometimes a page, coincidentally, feels really intuitive on the web.
Here’s just one example, a BWS Uncanny X-men page hosted by grantbridgestreet.blogspot.com (a site that provides a radio soundtrack for your comic reading!):
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Rf9S3GkkeyI/Si-iyG_JIaI/AAAAAAAARvA/MA49cpKBewE/s1600-h/barry+windsor+smith+and+chris+claremont.+x-men.+lifedeath+2.+page.+021.jpg
This page reads great on the web. I love how, as you scroll down, the hands become bigger and then it moves back to a wide view. The floating colors seem to drift around on the screen as you scroll.
Television’s changed the way movies are made. Generations of filmmakers raised on watching television now favor TV-informed traits. A close-up natural for the small screen has led to billboard-sized close-ups in the theater. It isn’t unusual to be sitting in the movie theater examining the enormous pores on Brad Pitt’s nose.
Maybe in the future, generations of cartoonists raised on reading comics on the internet will change the way they make print comics, unconsciously favoring stand-alone pages, long horizontal panels and “scroll-down” style vertical reveals.
Labels: Photoshop, reproduction, scanning, webcomics
just for the record…Dash was the one who told me: "I like the scans on your Cold Heat blog but they're too f**cking big to see on my computer! Scan them at a lower dpi, man!" haha
This is a great little post, thanks.
I'm going to admit that I downloaded a complete scan of Frank Miller's RONIN, illegally, after reading Frank talk it up on the blog. (Sorry Frank Miller, Frank Santoro, DC Comics, everyone….) But I haven't actually read it, because it's such a f**cking pain to zoom out and scroll over every single page. There's no joy in reading the comic and the experience is totally deadening. I think I stopped reading shortly after that page where the guy stabs the guy (demon?) through his own back in a 2-page spread. It was so disappointing to read on the computer that I quit bothering.
PS Sorry I committed a crime against comics, I feel like admitting that on THIS blog will get me stoned.
Don't be afraid to get stoned Ryan Cecil. Drop out, tune in, download.
This post is awesome. It's great to read about comics on the internet on a blog about comics on the internet.
Dash,
Just wondering if you've seen the "Maximum Fantastic Four" hardcover. It's a really interesting book that takes the first issue of FF and blows it up so that individual panels are given anywhere from one to two over-sized 8"x12" pages. Three panels sometimes run across a double page spread, and images can be enlarged to such the point that only a fraction of the panel is decipherable. It's a really amazing book that makes one really think about comics construction and reader experience.
Here's a link to Derik Badman's wonderful review:
http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/maximum-ff-review
Wow Dash, great post, lots to think about. You are increasing my already prodigious Comics Comics love–perhaps a third "Comics" should be added? Or wait, a fourth, fifth? Comics to the fifth? Okay nevermind back to work.
Thanks for writing.
Afdumin, I saw that FF book in the store but I don't own it. I understand how it relates because it's about scale, but in large documents you, the reader, are navigating through the detail. That FF book, to me, relates more to graphic design- especially the changes in scale and details popularized by Chip Kidd. Although, like I said, I don't own that book so I'm just talking out of my ass here.
Really nice post.
I'm really looking forward to the Bodyworld book. It sounds like a meaningfully designed web-to-print transition, with the fold-out maps etc. Hope more creators can pick up on that awareness of format.
I have the complete Venus Wars series, minus a few issues and I tried to read the missing ones online. I thought it was a pain because that book moves you so quickly through pages (minimal text and open, loosely drawn panels) it was like they couldn't load fast enough for me to read comfortably. I feel that way about a lot of manga scans since, as you know, manga often has a breezier pace than western comics.
Deathnote was a good read online though, with its superdense dialogue, haha.
I hate reading comics online, the only ones that generally work well are short strips, or Bodyworld 😉
That said, it's hard to say no to free scans, but I rarely read them in the browser. I download the jpgs and open them all at once in Preview (I'm on a Mac). Preview auto-sizes all the images so the experience is not too far off from reading a comic. And I can still zoom in if the mood strikes. Maybe I'm the only one that does this?
BTW, have you seen the original art scans at the Heritage Auction site? (http://www.ha.com) You have to sign up to see the full size scans, but it's worth it!
For Windows:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDisplay
Can automatically resize images (fit width, fit height, etc.)
Can display two pages simultaneously.
Load from .rar, .zip, or just uncompressed images in a folder.
I don't know if anyone's developed a better alternative by now, but I've been using this program for years.
So many comics, so little time. I honestly can't be bothered to read comics online for the most part.
It takes away from my reading process. I try to avoid even reading PDF's for review/interview process.
cdisplay is absolutely the way to go; very granular and customizable.
Dash, you're the first comics professional I've heard discuss the perils of reading this stuff online to not mention "WOE IS ME PIRACY"… any thoughts on how illegal online comix trading affects the field?
Also, any guesses when the big houses (indy or capes-and-tights) will make the transition to .cbr format? Honestly, just providing an online link to a DRM'd digital format version that you get for free when you buy the hard copy would get me buying floppies with greater frequency.
Where o where is the Kindle-like solution to portable digi-comicscan reading?
Thanks for the links. I admit my post has a narrow focus compared to all of the different computer reading methods available. Those would make good subjects for future posts.
John, nobody has ever complained, to me, about their comics being pirated- but most of the cartoonists I’ve talked to don’t make their living off of sales of their books. And I don’t know “the field” enough to know how pirating affects it as a whole.
Your post was more about the aesthetic/UI side of things. I think that cbr is preferable for both reading and (if they wd sell 'em!) distribution.
The software allows for closeup views but also a more normal reading layout.
Cbr format seems the best to me for onscreen comics reading. I would buy a bunch of comics that way at reasonable prices. The emusic model would be best: pay subscription to a store that carries all kinds of publishers with a kind of manna like allowance (use it or lose it each month) and no DRM.
I buy stuff I love and often download the cbr afterwards much the same way that vinyl and mp3s compliment one another.
Hifi and lowfi–I want it all!
It took a good deal of comments before it was finally brought up, but really, comical or cdisplay or something like that is the way to go.
Speaking frankly, I love comics, shop regularly at a local specialty store and order online often (prefs to my local shop, which is nice and worth supporting) and buy a great deal of comics. But most of what I read? Online. Bittorrent once a week a nice pack of cbr/cbzs, all that week's releases, read what I want, pick up whatever is worth it on the weekend (and that's fewer than ever, at least as far as floppies are concerned). Why not wait for the trade anyway? DC phased out letters pages several years ago, those that remain in the marvel books are repro'd in the scans each week (and really, the two-page three column worth reading lettercols of the eighties are nowhere to be found). The books are written for the trades, and are cheaper in that format. And I keep up with tons of stuff, very quickly and easily, without the cost. And that's key — I may want to know what happens in 52 each week or how Secret Invasion is going, but I don't want to spend money on those, really (well, 52 I did buy in trades, but most of Marvel's stuff…well, if you don't dig Bendis, you're SOL). And releases are erratic, if it isn't on your pull list and it pops up on Wednesday and you go to the shop on Saturday, you'll miss it if it's got any buzz (I noticed the final issue of Legion of Three Worlds a couple weeks ago, long after it began, and I never did see the third or fourth issue on the stands. And I want to read it. So I will when it's in the trades). Comics made it through the 90s by very specifically catering to a core group who have grown into it's subculture. It has missed and continues to miss how to cope with online piracy. I hope it makes it. I hope they are really paying attention to experiments — hell, it isn't experimental anymore — like The Comics Journal's online subs, or the New Yorker's online edition, or the way The Nation lets you access everything on the web if you're a subscriber. I get the feeling that whatever digital distribution models DC or Marvel end up trying will be awful for a long time though. I can rest easy knowing that whatever happens, I'll have access to their entire output every week.
Dash, this is awesome. You and Frank have made really excellent posts regarding awareness of production/presentation. If I had more time, I'd comment more. As it is I just want to encourage more of the same.
Then I want to argue with you about why you should be using more bitmaps in composing your work…
Which reminds me that Santoro should be lauded for the badass production technique with his limited color books. The etching-like quality of his color/overlays is totally striking in the computer era.
thanks Covey.
your check is in the mail.
I hate reading multipage comics online in most cases (you gotta design the webpages really well), but downloads can work. There's a great app for Mac called "Simple Comic" that reads all sorts of image and package files (zip, cbr, cbz) in a nice interface.
Manga tends to read a lot easier for me on the screen than bd, as the manga has a smaller original size. Most manga volumes aren't bigger than my screen anyway, but most bd albums are.
Personally I think Issuu.com works pretty well as a format for reading scanned comics as long as the lettering is not too small. Just make sure you use the 'full screen' view link on the left.
It's also a format whereby 'lost' comics can reach an audience that otherwise would not be aware of or get to see oddities like this surreal biography of David Lynch comic produced by Todd Lorens Revolutionary 'Rock and Roll' comics:
http://issuu.com/soundofdrowning/docs/lynchcomic
You see lots of Rock and Roll comics' other titles around on ebay and in dusty comic store back-bins but this David Lynch one doesn't pop up too often and it's a great curio – especially this particular issue if you read the editorial on the front inside cover, significant for it's posthumous publication. This David Lynch comic was released shortly after Todds murder in 1992.
Todds own story had significant parallels with that of EC comics' William Gaines (whom the editorial discusses) and is a modern parable of how unethical the comics 'industry' can really be.
Obviously yes, it's technically illegal to scan and make available old comics, but which is more ethical? Wanting to share something like this for it's historic and artist value with anyone else who might be interested, or keeping it all to myself?
And that's the way most scanned comics are used. People have always traded and swapped books, tapes, records, cds, dvds, comics etc. The technology has changed but the practice remains the same. Sharing the things that make people happy with one another is just one of those things human beings do. And I'm glad they do. If they didn't we'd all just listen to, read and watch what we were told to. Can you imagine?
Interesting post. But on the issue of reading comics on one's computer I've found that rotating the screen 90 degrees while viewing a .cbr format file provides a more authentic feel to the comic. It decreases the amount of scrolling and zooming needed (only necessary on two page spreads and even then you can temporarily rotate the page with the program). Also, people have mentioned the comic companies needing to adapt. Though, from what I understand though I haven;t used it, Marvel does have an online subscription program where you can view a large amount of their archives.