aerischan

1 hour ago, darkstar said:

...that get abandoned almost as quickly as it takes Marvel to reboot a title.

Fingers crossed, none of the series I'm following would just be abandoned. Completed, I'm more than fine with.

I collect a few books as single issues but for the most part, I'm a reader and would rather get the hardcover or trade paperback collections. Side benefit of that, no 6+ month wait in the middle of a story arc. Coming from the book world where it looks like it'll take a decade before The Winds of Winter is released, the 1-3 year wait between graphic novel volumes doesn't seem too bad.

41 minutes ago, darkstar said:

Just the opposite...

Only if you're focusing on DC and Marvel output.

Outside the Big 2, there's a lot of good comics.

17 hours ago, Tnexus said:

Joshua Middleton's Harley Anniversary Cover for Forbidden Planet:

 

Love this one. 

On 8/22/2017 at 1:27 PM, CKinTO said:

Agreed, I'm enjoying it as well. A fan of Charles Soule's work, and I like that this is going to be a limited series run.

Yep. Less likelihood of getting dragged into an event.

This is the only ongoing title left for Marvel on my pull list. Really enjoying it thus far. Granted, my knowledge of X-Men is limited to just the 90s X-Men: The Animated Series.

I thought Cates was going to be on Dr Strange?

Only new Legacy title I plan on adding to my list at the moment is Waid/Samnee Captain America.

1 hour ago, gradejunky said:

Any spec on the Marvel Lenticular books coming in a few months???  I was never suckered in to the DC offerings really, but some of the throwback covers are looking pretty neat.  I am debating ordering a few copies of the covers I like.  Are any of you currently reading Marvel stuff excited for these storylines or what??

Plenty of retailers planning on not ordering the variants due to the high gating requirements so it might make for decent spec based on cover. Alas, these feature pretty much the same creative teams on the same titles pre-Legacy (a lot of which are selling at sub-20K). I think one poster from either Bleeding Cool or CBR pretty much described the 3D variants as putting lipstick on a pig.

Among the Legacy titles, Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor gets good reviews, though.

7 hours ago, rjrjr said:

It looks like the artist referenced photos of 3 different people for this.  The faces makes it look like these are 3 different characters.

I don't have an issue with the faces and I normally love Natali's work but the middle Harley kinda looks like the head was photoshopped onto the body or something.

This might be better:

https://twitter.com/Ssnyder1835/status/883460752698486784

1 hour ago, Martin Sinescu said:

That's utter nonsense unless their goal is to drag their readers down into an abyss of confusion and poverty with little substantive payoff, at which point: Mission Accomplished! 

also: Batman The Murder Machine! 

After Secret Empire (75 books, $300+ retail), Metal (25 books, ~$100 retail) is looking decidedly tame. I'm not planning on getting everything, though and having most of the tie-ins at $2.99 does help a bit. 

And here's the cover for Batman: The Murder Machine.

35 minutes ago, SquareChaos said:

Lots of great pairings mentioned, as well as a few that might fit the criteria of a partnership based on having done a number of projects together. 

 

Re: BKV being a power unto himself... does that stand for all of these type of pairings? Is there always a dominant personality at play, or is it really a partnership? Typically the writer gets the credit for being the first mover. Is it all about Brubaker, Millar, BKV, Hickman, and Rucka?

 

Good writing is good writing but I think having the right artist to work with is what elevates comics to greatness.

1 minute ago, fastballspecial said:

I like the concept, but the books are $5 a pop I will pass. Even pre-order will be $3 or so. 

DC dropped the price for #2-6 to $3.99.

https://www.previewsworld.com/Article/196861-DC-Drops-Prices-On-Dark-Nights-Metal-Miniseries

Not sure about accomplished but I'd pretty much read anything Waid/Samnee including the upcoming post-Hydra Captain America.

Daredevil had some relatively long runs by stable, great creative teams - Bendis/Maleev, Brubaker/Lark, Waid/Samnee.

On 7/30/2017 at 10:13 AM, Michael Lamm said:

Hulk Generations already getting a second print and Mattina on the cover 

I'm sensing a theme here...

I wonder if there was actually enough demand to justify a second printing or if Marvel's just trying to create demand for Generations because initial orders aren't as high as they'd hoped. The covers sure are pretty, though.

Interesting observation. Generations Hulk, Phoenix and Wolverine are already going into 2nd printings with Francesco Mattina cover art. I'm guessing the rest of Generations will get similar treatment. Gotta hand it to Marvel, they sure know how to use variants to great effect.

10 hours ago, Couchy81 said:

 I've had a worse experience when a store owner charged me $10 for a book I requested he order from Diamond backstock because it matched the ebay price. 

I've taken to religiously securing my copies through pre-orders this past year so I never have to deal with secondary market shenanigans. 

Same. And hey, DCBS had Cover A for just $1.99 (albeit limited to 2 or 3 copies at that price iirc, 40% discount on more).

I only get reader/beater copies via my LCS since they're around 9.2-9.4 on average. DCBS usually has books in better condition.

1 hour ago, Jackhartmann said:

I paid $10 for the variant. I like the art. 

The cover B? Those are free to order so my LCS just sells them for cover price.

6 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

New week, anybody pick up Generations related stuff?  I passed again.  

I ordered Phoenix (for the pretty Stephanie Hans cover art) but it's coming from DCBS so probably won't receive it until mid-next month. 

53 minutes ago, gradejunky said:

DCBS= Winner!!!

 

the site could be made a bit easier though

Lol, I tend to just use the Excel order form.

19 hours ago, Reno McCoy said:

Any guesses as to what a 9.8 copy of the Death/Thor comic might sell for out the gates? I've been getting into Hughes again more and more, but it's already feeling like this one will start out out of reach for me. 

Quick guess, $100-150 for raw. CGC 9.8 premium is what 2-3x? If it gets featured on speculation websites, then good luck.

DC's Metal event costs the same or less as one of Marvel's family crossovers. Around 2 books a week at most.

On 8/4/2017 at 9:05 AM, Michael Lamm said:

No way am I preordering that for $300 unless it's already going to be slabbed at 9.8. It should be no more than $100 preorder for a 1:100. That's just pure insanity charging $300 for a raw book with no image 

They're doing that likely because there wouldn't be enough orders of the regular cover if they only price it at $100. At $300 (enough to cover the cost of 100 regular cover copies), every preorder is guaranteed to receive a copy even if someone buys, say, 1000 copies of the variant.

That said, I don't buy higher priced variants sight unseen regardless of artist.

1 hour ago, Wolverinex said:

i'm really out of the loop?  What is this?

It's DC's blockbuster event of the year. The evil Batmen are supposed to be from alternate universes.

The two prologue issues (Dark Days: The Forge, Dark Days: The Casting) are already out.

Quite frankly, the event seems entirely skippable and repercussion-free. It's been enjoyable thus far though.

On 7/25/2017 at 6:22 AM, kimik said:

Wow. Walking Dead sells way more than Amazing Spider-Man does.

Looking at the sales charts, Marvel only makes hay with #1s and the plethora of store variants. ASM is their top selling regular issue. That is horrible. 

As a whole, the comic industry is hurting. Take a look at the numbers - only one ongoing title is selling in the 90,000 - 100,000 per issue range consistnently (Batman) and the second highest seller on a consistent basis is WD in the 70,000ish range. 

On the flip side, I am surprised that Edge of Venmoverse #1 did not top 100,000 copies considering the plethora of store variants available. Is it a sign of Marvel overusing Venom already? Or, will that mean the minis will sell well if the movie is actually released?

I think it's a sign that Marvel's been overusing events, crossovers, renumberings and variants. Their effectiveness to boost sales has greatly decreased. Take away all the variants and all those extra sales for the regular covers due to 1:25 to 1:2000 or variants requiring 250% orders of a previous issue and we'd probably see even lower sales levels for Marvel.  

http://www.comicsbeat.com/tilting-at-windmills-261-marvel-comics-and-the-deck-chairs-of-the-titanic/

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/07/29/comic-store-in-your-future-your-life-in-lenticular/

On 7/24/2017 at 11:41 AM, revat said:

I think they thought the 'diversity' wave would attract more new readers than they lost, and that the new readers would be younger and/or previously untapped and provide a larger base for the future moving forward.  Obviously, they were wrong about a great many things, which has resulted in poor sales.  They've only got half of the equation right, they lost some of the readers they had.

 

They did but the problem is Marvel expects the new crowd to buy the entire line up like some of the old guard do by forcing them into events and crossovers.

Newsflash Marvel: Most millennials have student loans and can't afford to devote $20-100 per month for 3-6 months for whatever event or crossover you may have going on.

On 7/7/2017 at 4:26 AM, CKinTO said:

BTW, picked up the 2nd trade this Wed (was wrong in previous post, came out July 5th, not July 11th :P). Loved it, basically couldn't put it down. Re-read the 1st trade just to get everything fresh in my mind again before starting the 2nd. 

I wasn't sure whether this was going to be a 12-book mini-series or not, but... (very small spoiler below)

  Hide contents

... the end clearly finishes on a bit of a cliffhanger, and a "To Be Continued...", so I guess it's going to be a continuing series? 

Anyone heard of when book 13 is supposed to come out? 12 came out May 31st, and no mention of upcoming next book, so must be on a hiatus? Given Monstress' popularity, I'm sure Image will pick it up for continuation... no? 

Monstress is on a Saga-like schedule with a few months hiatus between story arcs. Unlike other comic book publishers, with Image I believe it's the creators who decide whether they want to continue a series or not.

Mind, July 11 is the release date on Amazon. I find release dates for comic shops are typically one week ahead of Amazon release. Interesting observation, Barnes & Noble has an exclusive variant with poster for volume 2 and it seems like they were able to sell that a week earlier than the regular cover.