deluge

finally after years of staying away from torrenting, i finally caved in because of delphi's serendipitous discovery of scanned comicbooks out there in cyberspace. well, that and the decision of some uh, enterprising geeks to scan their favorite funnybooks in the first place and disseminate them to fans all over. we already witnessed software, audio and video piracy (and uh, profited from it), and it was just a matter of time before my beloved comicbooks joined the list.

we've seen how publishers balked at Google's attempt to 'catalogue' or 'index' most of the published material out there (primarily books). would it be also a matter of time before comic publishers (and you know they're owned by the same big corporations) take a hard look at the practice and start suing people? yeah, as if its still going to prevent the scanners. there's two schools of thought here. on one hand, nothing beats having the comic or trade paperback (tpb) in your hand to read, to enter a new realm (much like opening a new book by your favorite author). all these digital files won't mean anything if you don't have a PC and enough hard drive space. on the other hand, it is quite an expensive trip for normal joes like me to maintain a collection even if its for the right reasons (reading pleasure vs. reading them once and storing them in $$$ protective bags, never to be opened again - yes, that's right, i'm talking about you, bepimpled, no-life fanboy-slash-collector). and if you factor in even chances of risk to both formats (age, weather, rats, termites vs. accidental deletion/media failure), in today's rapidly tech-centric world, there's a bigger chance that anyone will still have a useable PC rather than lots of shelf space, a deep wallet, and excess time to visit the comic shop every week.

but of course, the scanners remind you to "buy it, if you like it" - just so no one accuses them of ripping off the industry outright.

that being said, i am grateful that i am able to catch up on the old stuff that i have missed in recent years (and ongoing series as well). classics like Frank Miller's Daredevil: Born Again and Batman: Year One and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, edgy stuff like Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles, and modern marvels like Brian K Vaughan's Y: The Last Man and the Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale whodunit masterpieces The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. not to mention the requisite annual crossovers from DC and Marvel (Infinite Crisis, House of M) and even indie eye candy like Red Sonja. i feel writers and artists themselves would not object to this phenomenon, because it could actually expose their work to a wider audience.

i was actually thinking of doing this before - to share some of my stuff with my pals, and to use a digicam instead of a scanner. but i figured photographing pages is a bitch although it could save me from the potential lawsuit (its my photos, its not a duplication!). good thing the scanners came along and saved me the trouble. i'm always adopting the common Netizen line: if its out there, i'll take it.

once again ... damn you, dolphy delphi, damn you.


say, jego, want some?