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support your LCS

Started by Dale Roberts,

184 posts in this topic

The Question?

The Question?

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

come on already...

 

By all means then, fill us in on what you collect. You do like comic books, don't you? hm

 

 

 

Yes, I do...just what exactly are they parading out as such today??? fill me in, will you?

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the blob

the blob

Posted
Posted

So basically we have at least 15 stores in the metropolitan area (I am probably missing a couple as well) serving a population of about 1 million people. Edmonton (and Alberta as a whole) has a relatively young population with high disposable income due to the energy industry (Canada's Texas). In addition, the city is home to 50,000+ university and community college students which provides a nice base of potential young collectors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Well, canadians don't have anything else to do but read comics, drink beer and play hockey, do they?

 

Just kidding. It SEEMS like canadians are, per capita, more avid collectors/readers than Americans, at least of U.S. style comics. (But hey, I see FAR MORE immigrant types reading comic type things (in their native language) than Americans reading comics on the subway, for example, so it's not like "sequential art" as a medium is dead and I must have seen 20-30 people reading the V for Vendetta TPB on the subway when the movie came out...).

 

I wonder if there are 15 bonafide comic shops left in NYC, population 8 million+.

 

OK, there no doubt are among the 5 boroughs, but I don't think there are 15 in Manhattan anymore (population 2 million+ with another 2-4 million people there during working hours)

 

As per my post on the earlier thread, I do feel bad that I don't support my LCS in terms of buying new comics off the rack, but they still probably get $75++ a month, on average, out of me, so I'm not a total loss. I just bought $40 of reasonably priced silver age books just the other day.

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Wally's Comics

Wally's Comics

Posted
Posted

sad to say but I am reallllly close to giving up my last comic title that I buy

every month...

 

 

I have been told that they are doing this to the ASM title:

Producing it three times a month because they are combining

the other newer titles into this title. Meaning that there will be

almost like an Alpha, Bravo, Charlie ASM title with each section

having it's own Artists, Writers, Letterers etc. etc.

 

Is it just me, or is this a real bad call???

 

I mean heck, I get confused sometimes now with all the cross over

maddeness and different storylines here, there, and everywhere.

 

Where the heck is the good old day where a story could be wrapped up

in one comic unstead of 15????

 

I know that Marvel has gone public and needs to pull a profit

but I feel this will lose more customers than gain them.

 

I can only see this as a cheap sales tactic, to sell books to

those that collect the title.

 

 

:P

 

 

 

 

 

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500Club

500Club

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

 

 

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

 

come on already...

 

 

Please.

 

If you can't find something among the broad selection of titles available now, you aren't looking hard enough.

 

Try Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Boys, Captain America, Invincible, Fell, The Walking Dead etc

 

I agree with Ghost Town - there are more good books out now than ever before.

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The Question?

The Question?

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

 

 

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

 

come on already...

 

 

Please.

 

If you can't find something among the broad selection of titles available now, you aren't looking hard enough.

 

Try Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Boys, Captain America, Invincible, Fell, The Walking Dead etc

 

I agree with Ghost Town - there are more good books out now than ever before.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy date!

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FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted
So basically we have at least 15 stores in the metropolitan area (I am probably missing a couple as well) serving a population of about 1 million people. Edmonton (and Alberta as a whole) has a relatively young population with high disposable income due to the energy industry (Canada's Texas). In addition, the city is home to 50,000+ university and community college students which provides a nice base of potential young collectors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Well, canadians don't have anything else to do but read comics, drink beer and play hockey, do they?

 

Just kidding. It SEEMS like canadians are, per capita, more avid collectors/readers than Americans, at least of U.S. style comics. (But hey, I see FAR MORE immigrant types reading comic type things (in their native language) than Americans reading comics on the subway, for example, so it's not like "sequential art" as a medium is dead and I must have seen 20-30 people reading the V for Vendetta TPB on the subway when the movie came out...).

 

I wonder if there are 15 bonafide comic shops left in NYC, population 8 million+.

 

OK, there no doubt are among the 5 boroughs, but I don't think there are 15 in Manhattan anymore (population 2 million+ with another 2-4 million people there during working hours)

 

As per my post on the earlier thread, I do feel bad that I don't support my LCS in terms of buying new comics off the rack, but they still probably get $75++ a month, on average, out of me, so I'm not a total loss. I just bought $40 of reasonably priced silver age books just the other day.

 

Well, here's eight in about a 40 block walking distance in Manhattan. I'm sure there are more:

 

COSMIC COMICS

10 EAST 23RD STREET 2ND FLOOR

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 460-5322

 

MIDTOWN COMICS GRAND CENTRAL

459 LEXINGTON AVENUE

CORNER OF 45TH STREET, 2ND FLOOR

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 302-8192

 

JIM HANLEY'S UNIVERSE

4 WEST 33RD STREET

OPPOSITE THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 268-7088

 

FORBIDDEN PLANET

840 BROADWAY

(CORNER OF 13TH STREET)

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 473-1576

 

SILVER AGE COMICS

47 WEST 8TH STREET

BETWEEN 5TH & 6TH AVES.

NEW YORK, NY

(646) 654-7054

 

ST. MARK'S COMICS

11 ST. MARK'S PLACE

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 598-9439

 

COLLECTOR'S UNIVERSE

31 WEST 46TH STREET

BETWEEN 5TH AND 6TH AVES

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 398-2100

 

MIDTOWN COMICS TIMES SQUARE

200 WEST 40TH STREET

CORNER OF 7TH AVE, 2ND FLOOR

NEW YORK, NY

(212) 302-8192

 

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Scrooge

Scrooge

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

come on already...

 

By all means then, fill us in on what you collect. You do like comic books, don't you? hm

 

Jon. I hate to think both you and I are talking / answering to a shill ... but that's twice in 2 days that the sane inanity has been posted by The Question?

 

Comics are a visual medium. There's got to be something wrong with a comic overly dependent on text. Either that story should be put out in short-story form or in illustrated prose but not as a comic book.

 

Let's try this with a method:

 

You cited Astonishing X-Men as being text-poor. This is a super-hero comic book, i.e., read that as action-oriented. Why in the world are you expecting dialogues straight from Shakespeare in there is beyond me. As a visual medium, text should support the art, not supplant it.

 

Let's take a look back at some of greatest comic scribes whose names are bandied around: Stan Lee and Roy Thomas for example. At times, these guys just killed the flow of a book. For example, everyone complains about Robbins' art in Invaders but try and get a flowing story out of the Thomas clutter and you're a story-telling semi-god. The same is mainly true for Stan. All the generation of the fan-turned-pro Marvel writers has the same problem.

 

Go back further in time and look at Feldstein, you can ignore any of his text and the story is still understandable and entertaining.

 

I believe that your vision is flawed. Simply because when you read as a child and enjoyed comics they were verbose does not mean that an ideal comic book has to be. I believe that the art of story-telling has evolved and been refined since those days. The fact that you still hold a sub-optimal balance of text and art in comics as superior tells me that you didn't progress with the medium.

 

Now, ... is some of today's work too laconic. Sure, while there's no need for dialog in action-oriented strip as Manga has proven that time and time again (and Manga is succesful at it), some of the work out today has gone too far in that direction. Still, if you want introspection and depth, you've got to look somewhere else (to such stories as Blankets as cited before and countless others).

 

I think it's time you stop throwing blanket statements around and really that not all stories are created equal in "text demand" and that your favorite era might not the Golden standard the medium ought to be pegged against.

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DrWatson

DrWatson

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

come on already...

 

By all means then, fill us in on what you collect. You do like comic books, don't you? hm

 

Jon. I hate to think both you and I are talking / answering to a shill ... but that's twice in 2 days that the sane inanity has been posted by The Question?

 

Comics are a visual medium. There's got to be something wrong with a comic overly dependent on text. Either that story should be put out in short-story form or in illustrated prose but not as a comic book.

 

Let's try this with a method:

 

You cited Astonishing X-Men as being text-poor. This is a super-hero comic book, i.e., read that as action-oriented. Why in the world are you expecting dialogues straight from Shakespeare in there is beyond me. As a visual medium, text should support the art, not supplant it.

 

Let's take a look back at some of greatest comic scribes whose names are bandied around: Stan Lee and Roy Thomas for example. At times, these guys just killed the flow of a book. For example, everyone complains about Robbins' art in Invaders but try and get a flowing story out of the Thomas clutter and you're a story-telling semi-god. The same is mainly true for Stan. All the generation of the fan-turned-pro Marvel writers has the same problem.

 

Go back further in time and look at Feldstein, you can ignore any of his text and the story is still understandable and entertaining.

 

I believe that your vision is flawed. Simply because when you read as a child and enjoyed comics they were verbose does not mean that an ideal comic book has to be. I believe that the art of story-telling has evolved and been refined since those days. The fact that you still hold a sub-optimal balance of text and art in comics as superior tells me that you didn't progress with the medium.

 

Now, ... is some of today's work too laconic. Sure, while there's no need for dialog in action-oriented strip as Manga has proven that time and time again (and Manga is succesful at it), some of the work out today has gone too far in that direction. Still, if you want introspection and depth, you've got to look somewhere else (to such stories as Blankets as cited before and countless others).

 

I think it's time you stop throwing blanket statements around and really that not all stories are created equal in "text demand" and that your favorite era might not the Golden standard the medium ought to be pegged against.

Well, that about sums up that. (thumbs u

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500Club

500Club

Posted
Posted
I’m always surprised moderns get trashed on these boards as much as they do. I grew up reading bronze and copper age books. And as much as I still love those comics, I think there’s a better selection of good stuff coming out today than there’s ever been. I can understand people loving the comics they read when they were young. But for me, I read that stuff already. A lot of it hasn’t aged that well. I’m glad comics aren’t what they were twenty years ago because my tastes aren’t either.

 

 

 

 

Question?.....what's to READ in todays comics???? WHERE is the text?

 

its all pictures, and ANYONE that says todays comics are good, let alone great, is seriously blind, daft, or a VERY easy date doh!

 

 

come on already...

 

 

Please.

 

If you can't find something among the broad selection of titles available now, you aren't looking hard enough.

 

Try Fables, Y: The Last Man, The Boys, Captain America, Invincible, Fell, The Walking Dead etc

 

I agree with Ghost Town - there are more good books out now than ever before.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy date!

 

Virgin! :grin:

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piper

piper

Posted
Posted
I think the lack of new young blood coming into the hobby is a bit understated. There was a nice mix of older and younger (looked to be 22 and under) collectors at the local show I was at on Sunday. Granted, I did not sell a single book to any of the younger ones, but they did drop by to window shop my older stuff before piling into one of the LCS's 10 cent a book overstock sale. I also met some new SA/BA collectors, which was a nice change from past shows, including a couple of new BSDs (partners/founders with local IT companies that are raking right now) who gave me their cards.

 

Here is an interesting tidbit about the strength of the collecting community in Edmonton. There are three main chains of stores with three locations each - Warp, Wizard's and Comic King. Two (Comic King and Warp) have been around with multiple locations since the 80s and the newer kid on the block (Wizard's - formed by three former employees of Comic King/Warp in the late 90s) has now added a third location in Sherwood Park (a bedroom community just outside of Edmonton). The newest LCS chain, Happy Harbor Comics, has two stores and will be adding a third shortly. There is another store, Comic Fever, that has been around since the 80s as well, and store in St. Albert if I recall as well (another bedroom community just outside of Edmonton).

 

Warp and Comic King survive on new books, tpbs, toys, etc. and do not appear to be active in the back issue market (I consider this to be pre-1980 comics) at all anymore from what I can tell. Wizard's is actively buying collections and has the best back issue selection of all of the stores, and they move a lot of the new stuff (moderns, tpbs, toys, card games, etc.) as well (they have the closest location to the University of Alberta = 30,000+ students). I do not know much about Happy Harbor, but they are very active in building a collector community in town and do carry back issues as well as new stuff. The owner of Comic Fever was slowing things down a bit due to taking on a new job the last time I was there, but he does have a decent amount of back issue stock in his store.

 

So basically we have at least 15 stores in the metropolitan area (I am probably missing a couple as well) serving a population of about 1 million people. Edmonton (and Alberta as a whole) has a relatively young population with high disposable income due to the energy industry (Canada's Texas). In addition, the city is home to 50,000+ university and community college students which provides a nice base of potential young collectors.

 

I highly recommend my LCS for trades, independents, Happy Harbor. They are truly passionate about the hobby. For example, last year they arranged a bus trip to SD for the Con. Unfortunately, the back issue selection is not so hot. I agree that Wizards has the best back issue selection in town.

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Point Five

Point Five

Posted
Posted
I understand that some of your LCS owners may be jerks, or lowlifes. However many are not. Take good care of these guys. I have several friends that own stores and unless you are in a huge population center, it is really hard to make decent money. You are definitely not going to get rich. For most of these guys, it is a labor of love, and they are the future of the hobby. If you find a decent one, support him. I don't own a store, so don't take this as sour grapes. I have just talked to enough guys who are struggling with the new comic market as much as the customers are. And after reading some very cynical posts about this subject, I just wanted to give my two cents.

Just wanted to give a belated (thumbs u to Dale's original post. Many LCSs have closed in recent years, and it's something I think about as well. While 90% of my buying is done online because what I collect is simply not available in shops, I do try to give LCSs some business when buying a current trade, a new issue, etc. I'd rather support them in my small way than not at all.

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500Club

500Club

Posted
Posted

If you are saying that the books I've listed above are not good, please advise me what you consider a good comic.

 

Perhaps you long for the days of Chris Claremont loading a panel with three huge word or thought ballooons to explain what is happening in every panel. :screwy:

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The Question?

The Question?

Posted
Posted
If you are saying that the books I've listed above are not good, please advise me what you consider a good comic.

 

Perhaps you long for the days of Chris Claremont loading a panel with three huge word or thought ballooons to explain what is happening in every panel. :screwy:

 

 

Well, paying $4.00 FOUR FRIGGIN DOLLARS for ONE so called, "comic book" that has 90% pictures...is not what I signed up for, sorry. I tend to like to READ my comics, looking at a "book" with a bunch of pictures in it, with very few words...well, I did that when I was 4!

 

 

No wonder the comic book as we've known it still exists, collectors like these have been bamboozled into buying them...sucker born everyday, they say doh!

 

 

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