Serial comic strips digitally published on the web have flourished over recent years. Web-comics can be a great way to experiment with serial storytelling, push boundaries and expand the opportunities for creators. Now, many long-running, high quality web-comics are finding new success in traditional print, with handsome collections being produced for those who prefer to browse shelves and hold a book in their hands. Dark Horse Comics has seen a tremendous response to their print collections of highly popular web-comics such as Achewood, Perry Bible Fellowship and Sinfest, with the different formats reaching new fans, and allowing long-time fans to enjoy their favorite material in a new way.We spoke to Editor Dave Land about Dark Horse’s approach to printing web-comics.

BookShelf: Dark Horse has been taking an active interest in web-comics, both publishing print collections of popular web-comics and hosting original web-comics through MySpace Dark Horse Presents. How did this all get started and what were your reasons?

Dave Land: I believe it started way back when we started collecting Fred Gallagher's MegaTokyo back in 2004. That series was wildly popular in its print incarnation and shortly thereafter we followed up with collections of Penny Arcade. But I think there was a disconnect between the success of those books and the fact that there were other popular web-comics out there that could be released in print form. Really what cemented the idea that publication of web-comics collections were worth pursuing was the success of the first Perry Bible Fellowship collection. Up until that point I don't think we were assured enough that an online audience would translate into a print-based audience. But when PBF did as well as it did, we saw the light.

BookShelf: What are your criteria for selecting web-comics to collect in print?

Dave Land: Well, of course we look at the size of the audience for any given web-comic to determine if there are enough people who would be interested in a print edition. But outside of that it's pretty much based on the individual tastes of the editors here. If there's something that one of us likes, we'll get behind it and try to bring it to print. That's part of the cool thing about Dark Horse is that we have a wide variety of editors, each with their own individual taste. I think that's why you see a diversity of projects -- not just web-comics based -- coming out of this company.

BookShelf: What special considerations do you need to take into account when editing these collections? How do they differ from comics created specifically for print?

Dave Land: There haven't been a lot of special considerations necessary for the web-comics collections I've edited. Sometimes there are formatting issues, but we deal with that up front and are able to set the format of the book to something that compliments the web-based art that's already been done.

BookShelf: What sort of response have you seen to these collections? Do you find the comics gaining new readers through different formats?

Dave Land: The response to the web-comics collection has been excellent. We're picking up a lot of the regular online readers, but I also think that we're seeing some new readers introduced to the titles as well. I'm hoping that fans of the online comics are picking up the print collections and giving them as gifts to their non-online comics reading friends!

BookShelf: What’s next? How do you see web and print working together for comics in the future?

Dave Land: I think there will be a long and happy association between online and print comics. Web-comics are only becoming more popular. And at the same time, people still love books. It's one thing to read something online, but there's a satisfaction to be had with owning that same material in book form. Plus all of our web-comics collections are just downright handsome. They really class up a bookshelf!