You're probably OK with encrypted files. Unless someone actually knew what was on them, and how to decypher that information they would be useless. Pretty secure !

-A hard drive is much more reliable long-term storage than optical discs. Its really difficult to get rid of information on a magnetic drive. All those domains are hard to access except with the controls and read/write head of the drive.
As for optical media, the printed discs last much longer than the recorded (burnt) ones, with the re-recordable being the most temporary. But the physical storage is important, and some discs degrade more readily than others, not to mention excess heat or sunlight, cracking, warping, delamination, or micro-crazing. You really never know. I first heard that CD's were good for 100 years, then 30 or 40 years, and then 10, and now it seems more realistic to think 4 or 5 years tops, with important information that you don't want to lose. Something to do with the dye or chemistry in the recording surface degrading over time.

-There used to be these sheets of graphic patterns that you rubbed onto your design with a burnishing tool, but I doubt if you could paint on them. Something like a big rubber stamp would be useful in a variety of flavors.
>>>>>>>> Or ink and pen.<<<<<<<< Cross-hatching, stippling, dots ! ! !
You could just draw it, and then use the same ink to paint the rest.

Well I'll be darned! Good thing I got another backup scheme now I guess! =o

I think you're safe. You could store it yourself for less in the long run, but just for the convenience that's a good deal in server memory.

I was just thinking about the FUTURE (!), when displays are paper-thin and so cheap and available they plaster interior walls with them to display information in a constant stream.
Or if for nothing else to have pleasing moving scenes like 'ocean waves' or 'pleasant meadow' or abstract moving patterns (set to music) with pleasing textures. Seems like if you spent a lot of your time inside protective environments then active sensory stimulation would become really important.

I've seen examples of this in a few webcomix and movies. Great for an otherwise boring scene (or providing a sharp contrast to what is actually happening in that room.)

Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 13, Page 140

I had a bit of a brainwave this evening; it's probably just born of fever dreams from the usual end-of-the-week exhaustion, but I'm anxious to know what you think about this: the option to get giant-sized, ad-free A* comics for a yearly subscription fee. How giant-sized, you ask? Well, I hope you have at least a 1080p monitor, because...you would need one to see the whole thing. Here's a shrunk-down size comparison:

Normal comic (episode 13, page 136), with ads:

Ad-free giant subscriber's comic:


Here's THE FULL SIZE GIANT COMIC (or you can click on those tiny versions above).

And if you were too lazy to click on that, here's a little slice of the full thing that barely fits in the news column:



I mean jeez look at that, it's crazy--you can see all the little watery ridges and stuff in the paper, even. Look how tiny it makes the site menu look! =o

Actually here's a better sample slice--Selenis from today's page, at the proposed subscriber GIANT SIZE:



So, would a year's worth of those, and no ads, be worth, say, $25 to you? 'Cause I was messing around with some old scripts I just happen to have laying around this evening and I could basically start offering this service like RIGHT NOW. I mean, obviously not right now now, but, like, next week, if I wanted. The giant-size comics would start with page 136 of this episode, since that's where I start to have really high resolution scans that still look really sharp at that GIANT SIZE. Regularly sized comics would still, of course, be available for everyone.

Horrible idea? Brilliant idea? I CAN'T TELL ANYMORE so please let me know what you think! And I should probably go get some sleep or something. =p

I've learned to navigate around the ads, unless there's something interesting enough to click on. Maybe I should just click on more ads- and so should lots of the regular readers....
There's already full-screen A* with (ctrl +) which is not quite as good as hi resolution but I like the pages the way they are.
Standard size 8.5x11 is pretty big, but the pages could be even smaller.
You could make a printed version of each episode, or several episodes of the story combined.
Those kickstarter things work, but I don't know anything about the economics of printing, or how much you need to make for your effort to be worthwhile.
Maybe the future of webcomix is in subscription. (That's with a small 's' !)
Lots of people can't afford anything these days, but there might be enough out here on the net who can.
How much do you need to make for just a basic monthly, quarterly or yearly pass?
But then you would have an Obligation. (That's with a big 'O' !)

I know pretty much zippo about printing, myself! I've heard plenty of stories of starting webcomic people who took a loss on printing since they just have boxes of unsold books sitting around now. :o So I don't think I'm gonna consider doing anything like a book until I'm *sure* I have thousands of people definitely waiting to buy one. But also putting a book together sounds like it takes a lot of time.

I think the future of webcomics will always be free (and probably ad-supported), *but* it doesn't hurt to have other options to go along with that, I think!

"How much do you need to make for just a basic monthly, quarterly or yearly pass?" <-- This sentence confuses me! What do you mean by "pass"?

By a "pass" I mean access to the featured content. Something like a sign-in password is the usual method.

Oh, I see. Yeah, $25 for an annual subscription seems fairly standard (and by that I mean I checked two webcomic sites that I knew had subscription options, and one was more than that, and one was the same).

Those web-comix that belong to a group (there are a bunch, I just can't think of any now) that facilitates their effort with prepared sites and forums and banner ads, etc. will be in a better position when the artists finally realize that a little money is better than none. Something like a flat rate for any of the comix in their group would fly pretty well. Not a lot, like $10 a year would benefit a lot of people who otherwise fall off and lag behind because they're just trying to afford food and rent, making the art secondary.
Not a lot, but it would make a huge difference, but still not be so much that the readers would feel too put out when somebody needed some time off.

Re: Printing- I was thinking about the old comix I read when I was a kid. The paper was the cheapest kind of pulpy newsprint, leading to the kinds of images that would work for that medium. SMBH has those kind of images already. I think lots of those artists who lose their shirts and sanity making books of their work try to make everything much better than it has to be- Sewn bindings, slick glossy hard-covers, high-rag paper and multi-color illustrations.
Those cheap little comic-books are still around using the same crappy paper and methods.

Yeah and it's funny 'cause the old American and British pulp comics were the ones with the best art (and adventures), too!

And it does seem pretty silly to me how a lot of webcomics seem built from the start for printing up as slick "graphic novel" type things; seems to me you gotta make sure it works on the web first before you're gonna get anywhere in print, 'cause otherwise who's gonna know about it to be interested?