I acquired digital copies of the Gold Key Comics on CD discs. I'm currently working on a project to archive the Ross novels onto disc as well. I've been scanning the first few and saving them to my hard drive. The problem has been finding "reading copies" of some of the later ones. I cannot bring myself to risk breaking the spine of any collectable copy of these books. All of the early novels were reprinted many times and finding beat up copies is not a problem. Many of the later ones (after 20) can be hard to find. Scanning them requires one to open the book wide and squash it under the cover of the scanner.
When I finish a quantity of the novels, I want to offer them to fans on a totally non-profit basis. I don't own the copyrights and concede that I have no right to make money off of them. Still, time is marching on, and it seems unlikely that these will be reprinted. New fans are discovering DS and might want to read these books and comics without paying a fortune for them.
One advantage to reading them on the computer has been the ability to enlarge the text. I'm coming up on my mid-forties and my eyesight isn't what it used to be, even with reading glasses. It's much easier to read the comics on the computer. Also the art looks much better when it's blown up. Using a laptop PC, I can read on the couch, in bed, just about any where in the house. Even at work, I can get through a comic in my lunch hour, comfortably from my desk.
I only question whether there is a demand for this? Are there enough fans out there who are interested in reading the books and don't already have them? As of today, I've scanned the first three novels and the Gold Key Digest.
