500Club

3 hours ago, kimik said:

5 hours ago, thirdgreenham said:

Winnipeg/Toronto final

Hopefully they are both knocked out in the first round.......

What's wrong with Winnipeg?

Gives Oiler fans a Canadian team to watch, during their annual post golf rounds at the clubhouse.

8 hours ago, piper said:

BTW, the Leafs are in the playoffs too!

Who?

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 11:55 AM, RockMyAmadeus said:

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 11:48 AM, williamblood said:

9.8 ross virgins are selling for 600+ if red goblin is continued to be used then dealer might be right

The one has nothing to do with the other. How much is ASM #667 worth? Now how much is the ASM #667 1:100 worth?

This was the comment that teed off the debate - the idea that because Ross virgin covers are selling for $600+ now, we could infer anything as to whether the dealer could be right.

18 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

 

Passive-aggressive white flag?

1 hour ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

The point, as always, is that when dealers tell you "you need to buy multiple copies of this, it's going to be worth $$ in the future", then we have cycled back to the old familiar refrain, last heard in earnest in the early 90's.

Things that are stamped as ‘hot’ or ‘collectible’ right out of the box rarely turn out to be so.

4 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Went to Silicon Valley Comicon yesterday. Decided to pick up a copy of ASM #798. The dealer...a long time dealer in new comics...started going on about how I should buy several more copies, and that in a year it would be a $25 book, and in 5 years, it will be $50.

I laughed to myself, knowing the truth of the repetitive nature of history. 

Remember: this is a DEALER. He wants to SELL comics to people. When a DEALER, with a vested interest in selling those comics is telling you to buy, that's when you know you should run as fast as you can in the other direction.

I took my single copy, said thanks, and moved on. 

Maybe this is the exception, but I doubt it.

I'm of two minds.  In a vacuum, this would be a one-off, throwaway concept.  Norman uses the Carnage symbiote for his purposes, and ultimately the symbiote reverts to being property of Cletus Kasady.  In a case like that, this would probably be a flash in the pan.

Lately, though, Marvel has shown a fluidity in jumping on hot concepts.  If they decide to roll with this like they did with Weapon H, it may be a more open ended outcome.

13 hours ago, tv horror said:

I just hope that they will work on the character of the Goblin and make him a real menace once more or I'll see RED!.

He died over 40 years ago.

Some creativity and new character creation would be nice.

I notified the mods a thread had gotten off topic.  Unfortunately, they weren’t very concerned, as they’re trying to help OJ find the real killers.

5 hours ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said:

6 hours ago, 500Club said:

This is classic Marvel thinking of late.  ‘Oh, no, Legacy has been running THREE MONTHS and orders haven’t doubled!  We need to do something!’

Just take a consistent approach, and return the characters to the form that led to their popularity in the first place.

They did that with Spider-man for Brand New Day, and that's what led me to give up on Marvel altogether.

The underlying problem is that their branding is their characters, so they need them to be recognizable. But as a monthly publisher, they also need their characters to change in order to tell interesting stories. These two things are at odds with each other. Personally I think Marvel would be better off going a "New 52" route and restart everything from scratch every so often. They could have done that with the Ultimate line. They should have let that replace the original line; then they could have let the characters from the original line have their stories come to some logical conclusion, rather than continuously shoving them back to the status quo. Then in another 20 years you start up a new line that's more in line with society then. Then each new #1 would actually mean something. 

I was thinking more in terms of getting back to the essence of the characters.  I’d agree that BND was a bit too much of a deus-ex-machina finger snap.

Ideally, just get Peter Parker back to an everyman trying to deal with the responsibility of being Spider-Man, while trying to manage day to day life. 

At this point, though, they may have muddied the water so much that your solution may be the only realistic one.

On 2018-03-07 at 9:36 PM, ExNihilo said:

I think we all knew #1's were returning at some point, but like you, I was expecting Legacy to last longer.  At the very least, I would have expected the stories teased in Legacy #1 would play out over the next few years, similar to how the events of Rebirth are still being told bit by bit.

"Fresh Start" feels like a very sudden stop and pivot...like something's gone wrong and you're quickly trying to change the story/rhetoric.

This is classic Marvel thinking of late.  ‘Oh, no, Legacy has been running THREE MONTHS and orders haven’t doubled!  We need to do something!’

Just take a consistent approach, and return the characters to the form that led to their popularity in the first place.

On 2018-03-22 at 7:03 PM, Dwitkin82 said:

I just think these are awesome 

Mattina is my favorite of the hyped cover artists as well.

19 hours ago, williamblood said:

21 hours ago, Hey Kids, Comics! said:

How about you keep your rumors to yourself or put a SPOILER tag in it. 

rumors arn't spoilers

You spoiled the rumor for me.  Now, if I hear it elsewhere, it just doesn't mean as much...

17 hours ago, ygogolak said:

21 hours ago, 500Club said:

So when they do come in, it'd be nice to have a quality product to keep them coming back.   Not sure if Marvel gets that.

Have you ever read Moon Girl or Ms. Marvel? 

No.  Are they good?

I was talking in more a line-wide sense.   Most of Marvel's properties bear little resemblance to their counterparts in other media, and it'd be pretty damn tough to try to explain to an Avengers fan how to get into reading the Avengers comics.

6 hours ago, ygogolak said:

I actually think it could be popular. But, from what we've seen and heard from store owners, movies, TV, etc....aren't bringing a lot of new people into the shops.

So when they do come in, it'd be nice to have a quality product to keep them coming back.   Not sure if Marvel gets that.

On 2018-02-22 at 1:56 PM, Chuck Gower said:

I'm not sure I can see Star Wars fatigue on the horizon, I think any movie that breaks the BILLION DOLLAR mark worldwide, we can assume they're still in the safe zone. 

As far as Marvel Comics...

It seems that Marvel is trying to keep their characters in a form of stasis so that they can't upset their use in other media. 

I'm sure no one thought Wolverine was REALLY dead for good, and the timing of his return isn't really a curiosity....

The comic books are for people who love the characters, or are drawn to the 'events', not for sequential numbering addicts. 

(I know everyone complains about the numbering, but Marvel gave it back and still the sales numbers were pathetic.)

Is this a good move for Marvel? 

Yes. 

Because here's where Marvel makes their money: From Retailers. 

Retailers BUY #1's and 'event' books regardless of if their customers do, because Marvel can print them an endless number of variants to entice it (see what I did there?) to allow retailers to make their money off it, while eventually selling off the dead stock for $1. 

The dead stock for RETAILERS. Once Marvel sells it they don't have to worry about it.

The big retailers, or smart retailers, or crafty retailers - the one's with the customers who HAVE to HAVE every Variant at $25 to $100 - will make sure they have plenty of stock on Cover A to sell to anyone who wants one, but really make up for it from Variant sales.

A success for Marvel, a success for the retailer, a satiation for the completist, the speculator, the average buyer who loves the character, and the subscriber.

A media sensation keeps the character in the public eye and then...

It all dies down from there. 

Of course there were endless copies of Amazing Spider-man #25 (Vol 4) in dollar boxes with it's $9.99 (you can buy a NM on mycomicshop.com for $3 - it's actually tough in NM because the heavy binding), and everyone moaned and complained - SEE! It's a failure!

No.

No it wasn't.

It was the top selling book on Diamonds monthly chart at 113,000 copies (through JUST Diamond North America) OR what would be the equivalent of selling 5 1/2 months of the title at $3.99 each. 

Marvel doubled the sales of Amazing Spider-man for almost half the year in ONE MONTH of sales.

Which means, in terms of PROFIT - if they average a paltry 51,000 copies a month for 10 months of the year at $3.99 each, but sell an 'event' book for $9.99 TWICE a year - it averages out to the profitability of having a 100,000 copy a month $3.99 book for the year. 

The greed and OCD of speculators, is what is keeping this all afloat. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

 

Observation dead on.

BUT - not a sustainable model.  File under penny wise, pound foolish.

2 hours ago, jcjames said:

I blame Wolverine.

Or should we blame Jimmy Olsen?

Fingers can be pointed at Gambit and Archangel as well.

11 hours ago, paul747 said:

Marvel suxxx it !   Less retailers coming soon.   Every reboot might grab a couple new readers but it kicks out more and more of the core older readers and collectors.  The variant game is out of control. 

This.  I mean, in Sean Howe’s book, ‘Marvel Comics: The Untold Story’, it was recognized in the 90’s that every time Marvel did a gimmick, sales spiked, then settled to a level lower than before the gimmick.

I get that the thinking is that Marvel publishing doesn’t really matter to Disney, save for as an R+D entity, but they still need readers to function as such.

What a joke Marvel has become.

59 minutes ago, the blob said:

BP had those three titles in the run up to civil war and the BP movie. He isn't a C list character right now, or since 2016 when coates started writing and the character was hyped, but he had been for a long time. That's it. The BP comics series never sold well as far as I know.  That information is presumably on comichron, which my office blocks for some reason, so I can't look it up.

 

For the bulk of my collecting history, which began in 1980, the gestalt, to me, was that MK was a much more visible character.  I’d say that, in the last ten years, and particularly the last couple, that that has significantly changed.

6 hours ago, ygogolak said:

16 hours ago, the blob said:

As a comic, BP has never been able to sustain long term sales and gets cancelled. He isn't even moon knight level. But heck, marvel already did it with gotg, a D list team.

Huh? How is he not even Moon Knight level? A character that has had multiple series be "cancelled" recently. You know they only cancel these now to pump up #1 sales again, right?
BP is a staple of Marvel. When they actually understood the meaning and value of diversity.

You're partly right.   Overall, I'd agree MK has been B level and BP has been C level, but your last sentence may be the key reason for this to change.

On ‎1‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 6:38 PM, Aweandlorder said:

On ‎1‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 6:22 PM, 500Club said:

Lee didn’t do GR.  It was Saltares, IIRC.

Might you be recalling the War Journal 6,7 books that guest starred GR?

And looks like both you and me need to quit the pipe. Punisher war journal was a Jim lee (& c Potts) book. And 6&7 was wolverine not GR  

Getting old.  Need to double check what I write.

(although my intention was to note WJ as the Lee book)

22 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

I agree. There's a big comeback for big copper artists.. Mcfarlane with Spawn 1, Spider-Man 1 gold, Liefeld with x-force, and now Lee with this. I'm pretty sure we'll see Punisher war journal pick up next.. But I highly doubt his X-Men run will ever pick up 

Lee didn’t do GR.  It was Saltares, IIRC.

Might you be recalling the War Journal 6,7 books that guest starred GR?

On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 3:54 PM, SquareChaos said:

Early Ultimate Spider-man, Powers, Alias, Daredevil, and....? His best work is behind him, this is a long overdue move. The new environment and new possibilities should be a real motivator. Even after his heights, he always remained a pretty consistent writer, so I don't doubt his abilities or talent at the craft, I think he likely just lost the excitement after becoming so entwined with the business side of creating Marvel comics.

Yup.  Guys get stale, as previous posters have said.  There's only so many ways a guy can apply his particular worldview and writing style to a particular set of characters, especially this type, where the characters are usually frozen in time.

I'm happy to see Bendis take a run at DC.

18 hours ago, jmatt said:

 

Nice to see that work out for you.

18 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

1 hour ago, Broke as a Joke said:

So my 3 year old let me have a little time to myself this morning and I set free 10 of these from their polybag tomb.  The crease is present but I could see a press taking care of that, some have spine wear that would prevent them from being 9.8s but 3 copies look pretty nice.  No intention of sending these in to get graded but if I get enough other books on the pile I may send them in.

Wait, you finally had some alone time, and you spent those precious moments opening up old Rob Liefeld comics, instead of furiously cranking it? Priorities, man. 

(Unless you were furiously cranking it to the Liefeld comics, in which case, uh...I'm backing slowly out of the thread.)

To cut him some slack, it WOULD mean he doesn't have a foot fetish.