back to article Marvel: 'Come and get 'em! 700 first-issue comics! FREE!'

Comics-juggernaut Marvel's servers may be overheating at this very moment: it's currently giving away over 700 first issues of some of its most famous comics to anyone with an internet connection. The company announced the deal at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, on Sunday and downloaders have until Tuesday …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Paul_Murphy

    Amanda Palmers TED talk??

    I wonder if a Marvel exec has come across the video and decided to try something new.

    For anyone that has't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMj_P_6H69g&feature=youtube_gdata

    ttfn

    1. DanceMan
      Thumb Up

      Re: Amanda Palmers TED talk??

      Thanks for that link. I recall reading about her tour invitation and it left a negative impression, but this puts it in an entirely different light.

  2. Katie Saucey
    Facepalm

    "Do we expect folks to try and download [every first issue]? We encourage it!"

    I couldn't access the downloads for most of the day. I think Marvel just instigated a voluntary 2 day DDOS.

    1. Andy ORourke
      Unhappy

      Re: "Do we expect folks to try and download [every first issue]? We encourage it!"

      I think you may be right, downloaded the app, tried to create a marvel account "connection to the server has been lost" over & over

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Torrents?

    IMO this was an ideal opportunity to use BitTorrent and basically let the fanbase help itself to the whole collection. It will put less tax on your servers, the availability tends to go up longer and most of all: nearly all of your fanbase will be able to fully enjoy the contents.

    I know, I know; torrents are "evil".

    1. ukgnome
      Thumb Up

      Re: Torrents?

      Not all Torrents are evil, if a company held an event like this again, then this could be an excellent delivery method. By legitimising torrents we could revolutionise media delivery or summink

  4. Efros
    Thumb Down

    bloody awful

    Sign up is messed up, the android app doesn't login whilst you can login on the website. One for the trash can I think.

  5. jai

    Comixology

    use the ComiXology app

    the Marvel app is basically the ComiXology app, but only showing Marvel content. The DC app is the same, but with DC content. Get the original ComiXology app and you get all the content from both, with all the features.

    and digital comics in these apps are great to read. switch on the guided view mode, it just shows one panel at once, and moves you from panel to panel when you tap. makes for an almost animated experience when reading, plus avoids accidentally reading ahead when there's a big panel on the right page that grabs your attention.

    now, if i could just get the original Death's Head comics on there....

    1. Rob
      Thumb Up

      Re: Comixology

      For my sins I downloaded all the Death's Head series from torrent only because I have them all in physical form already (although they are now all sealed away, snug from the world in sleeves) but at least I can read them whenever I want now.

  6. Neoc

    Stupid promotion.

    I managed to register, but repeatedly get a "Failed to sign in" error.

    Dump, won't bother again.

  7. Daniel B.
    Meh

    Meh.

    Comixology suspended the promotion, due to their servers crashing.

    It cannae take it much longer Captain!!!

  8. graeme leggett Silver badge

    do real fans download two copies?

    one to read and one to keep pristine with its bytes unsullied by fingerswipes

  9. the spectacularly refined chap

    It gets worse...

    It was down, then withdrawn, now it's throwing a PHP exception.

    If anyone wants a username and password for Marvell's MySQL database it's easy enough to find right now...

  10. Mage Silver badge

    iOS and Android?

    What about people with decent size screens laptops/PCs?

    A two page spread would be nice on 15" size 1600 x 1200

  11. Ribblethrop

    What is free exactly?

    They are not free! You have to pay, do not waste your time downloading like I did.

    Thanks for article though.

  12. Velv
    Paris Hilton

    It all started with a BIG BANG (Theory)

    Penny

    Nuff said.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why don't they just flag them as available against everyones account so you can download them as and when and not all in one go just to register them...

  14. James 100

    There was a message "looking for the free comics? Click here" after I finally got logged in ... but it gave me a PHP error message. From Daniel B's comment above about the promotion being suspended, presumably that's supposed to be a message "sorry, our servers were flattened in the rush, back once we have decent hosting" - but they don't even have the hosting horsepower to deliver that message, let alone the promised comics.

    It finally loaded - very slowly - just now: apparently "a number of technical issues have arisen", further updates to come. I hope they figure out how to get it working in the end, rather than give up on the idea entirely.

This topic is closed for new posts.