Online VS Hard Copy - The Walking Dead

Many are quite crazed with the show, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman. I won’t lie, I am one of those; although, I have lost interest during the second half of the third season. I had bought the first compendium, which collects the first forty-eight issues, after having read a few issues of the series online. My experiences with both were quite delightful as it is an easy read and I’m very interested in the subject matter, although I do prefer to read it in hard copy rather than online. (P.s if you are also a fan, I might suggest that the comics are better than the TV show - unless you are like me and have only continued to watch it because you have a giant crush on Daryl Dixon, who is not in the comics).

I have read many issues of The Walking Dead series as a text online, rather than reading it as a compendium. Newsarama is a website that offers the comic book for free. I don’t like this medium of following the series. I have a nice trusty old Toshiba laptop with quite a large screen, and I still have to be inches away from the screen to read the font. This issue is caused by the fact that the zoom feature does not work on this website, so as I am trying to read the first issue, I am ruining my eyes along with it. I do wear glasses, and even with them, the font is still no easier to read. However, reading it as a hard copy is quite more enjoyable as the font is much bigger, as the size of the book is quite large. I don’t have to squint to see what I’m reading.

With the compendium, there is a constant flow from comic to comic, with no stoppage in between. If the reader needs to reread a page to clarify, it is quite easy to flip back a few pages. With the online version, it is only possible to read one page at a time, if the reader needs to flip back to read a page, they have to continuously click the back button until they reach their desired page. This seemed like quite the issue for me. I often read over things and have to go back to make connections with the current page I’m reading. A major issue would be to go through each series of the book to find a specific passage online, rather than have the first 48 issues in your hands.

 Furthermore, I prefer the glossiness of the pages in the compendium of The Walking Dead over the flat surface of the online version of the series. Above is an example of the first page of the book, from the compendium (photo 1) and the online version of the comic (photo 2). To me, I love the feel and look of the pages in the hard copy of the book. In my opinion, glossy pages give the book more dimensions. I like to see the reflection of light off the pages as I read. Also, I can submerge myself more into what I’m reading when the pages are as so. Online, while still enjoying the book, I found the images rather dull, being almost matte. After reading it in hard copy, the digital form just did not seem to be my cup of tea.