Posted on: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Spidey's about to spin on a mini-CD near you

By Richard Mullins
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

With a few clicks of a mouse, Damien Harvey's computer screen lights up with a multimedia comic book — villains scowling, damsels gasping and Spider-Man swooshing in for the rescue.

Forget bubble gum in baseball cards. Harvey said his small company in Rochester, N.Y., is helping create the future of trading cards — mini-CD-ROMs.

"We hope to do a good enough job that by this time next year, these Spider-Man CDs are collectibles," said Harvey, creative director of ecarddirect Inc., which in December won the rights to design and distribute CD-ROMs for Marvel comic book characters and movies.

Ecarddirect sent thousands of Spider-Man discs to comic book stores worldwide in preparation for "Spider-Man," which is playing in theaters nationwide.

Ecarddirect also will produce discs in conjunction with the forthcoming "Incredible Hulk" and "X-Men 2" movies as part of the Marvel in Motion series.

If the startup reaches all of its goals, every action figure, toy or doll sold in America will come with such CD-ROMs.

The deal with Marvel began after company executives saw a CD-ROM that ecarddirect produced for a drag racing car team.

Sold for about $7 each, the Spider-Man disc begins with a short movie, showing the major villains and characters.

It settles into a scene high above a city skyline. Cars honk horns and move through the streets below. Elevators move up and down the skyscrapers.

Clicking on a spider web at the corner takes the user to screen savers, photos, Internet links, biographies of the characters and descriptions of their weapons.

The most ambitious part of the disc is a classic Spider-Man comic book, animated into a kind of movie.

So far, ecarddirect has sent 10,000 of the CDs to comic book stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Thailand, England, France and Spain.

"I just sent 400 to Thailand for the opening of 'Spider-Man' there," Harvey said.