Off Topic: 40 Years of Comic Books

Occasionally I veer off topic to cover something arguably related to Minimates. In this Off Topic I talk about the 40 Years of X-Men DVD-Rom.

The 40 Years of X-Men DVD-Rom was found by accident yesterday when I visited a comic book shop to purchase Toy Fare #103. I am relatively new to the toy-collecting world, and I recently learned that issues of Toy Fare appear at comic shops a couple weeks before the newsstands. As I was paying for the magazine, I casually asked the store clerk if he was aware of any upcoming comics on DVD-Roms. I had received a DVD with all of the Fantastic Four comic books for Christmas, and I loved it. As it turned out, he had the X-Men version.

What is the 40 Years of X-Men DVD-Rom? Basically, it is a DVD containing Adobe PDF versions of every Uncanny X-Men comic book through August 2005. This works out to be 485 regular issues plus all of the annuals. Wow!

These DVDs are so much fun, I highly recommend them to even non-comic book enthusiasts. So what other comic books are available on DVD-Rom? Right now, only the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Spiderman was released on CDs, but it lacked the annual issues. A Spiderman DVD-Rom is expected in February, and it will include the annuals.

We should see the 40 Years of the Avengers in March. The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, and Captain America will follow later in 2006. Sometime this year we should also see 50 Years of Mad Magazine.

Now, if I could just get 50 years of free time to read these things!