New View Of Comics -- Priceless Issues From Golden Age Can Be `Collected' By Hobbyists Via Microfiche

Perhaps you've dreamed of owning the first issue of "Action Comics," circa June 1938. Or perhaps you'd like to add "Detective Comics" No. 27, featuring the debut of Batman, to your comics collection.

But, gee, your comics budget might not cover the thousands of dollars you'll need. (An "Action" No. 1 sold for a mere $145,000 last year.)

No problem. You can pick up one of those issues for about $7 - sort of. The catch? You won't be holding the actual comic in your hands. Instead, you'll be viewing it on microfiche.

You can thank MicroComics Inc., a New Jersey firm that is preserving the Golden Age of comics on microfiche.

You can also thank the 50 to 60 comic-book collectors from across the globe who loaned hundreds of Golden Age titles to MicroComics. The company shoots the comics on special cameras, then converts the images to microfiche, a flat sheet of microfilm. The result: reproductions of long-ago titles on microfiche, complete with stories, covers, ads and letter pages.

It's a way, says MicroComics founder Ara Hourdajian, to preserve a chapter of comic book history for everyone.

"Old comics are in pretty delicate shape," says Hourdajian. But, he adds, the microfiche can ensure that those long-ago pages are not lost completely.

Among MicroComics' offerings are early issues of "Action," "Adventure," "Batman," "Wonder Woman," "Captain America" and "Marvel Mystery." MicroComics generally sells the microfiche in sets of five (usually one comic to a sheet of microfiche) for about $35 a set.

The catch, of course, is that you most likely don't have a microfiche viewer sitting around your house. MicroComics, Hourdajian says, makes the microfiche in a convenient and standard format so you can view it on the microfiche reader at the library. Or MicroComics can sell you a microfiche viewer, the MicroColor 1100, for $235.

MicroComics has customers from around the world. Europeans seem to have a specially keen interest in American culture, Hourdajian says, and "the early comics are uniquely American."

Hourdajian acknowledges that the use of microfiche is a rather low-tech approach. So why not something more high-tech, such as CD-ROMs, to hold the comic book images? After all, you're a lot more likely to have a PC at home than a microfiche viewer.

The problem, Hourdajian says, is that the publishers are reluctant to relinquish "electronic rights" - they're worried about the self-publishing of the images and the spread of those images on the Internet, and believe they retain more control with the microfiche.

To get more details or a catalog of MicroComics' offerings, call 800-666-4054. Or access the Web site of MicroComics' parent company, MicroColor International, at http://www.microcolour.com.

Changes for Superman

In March, Superman got a new costume and new, energy-based powers; the beloved Man of Steel became the Man of Energy. More changes are ahead next month, when the Man of Energy becomes the Men of Energy.

In the pages of "Superman Red/Superman Blue," a 64-page one-shot taking its name from an "imaginary" tale of the '60s, Superman's energy form is ripped apart and he becomes two distinct beings. Identical except for their color, each believes himself to be the one, true Superman.

This identity crisis will continue to play out in the pages of DC Comics' regular Superman titles.