STOPPING COLLECTING MODERNS

[AGGIEZ]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

Comics used to be for smart children...

 

HUH? Comics used to be for smart children? By smart, do you mean just "literate"?

[piper]

I pick up a handful of titles from the LCS: ASM, Iron Fist, Captain America, Iron Fist and Green Lantern. I also pick up the odd trade. I view it as cheap entertainment, much like my wife buying the odd Oprah or Vanity Fair.

 

I personally think that there is some great writing/art still out there! I don't buy that the books are targeted towards a less intelligent audience...

[followtheleader]

You said you enjoy the trades more. It's obvious, go to trades.

 

In the grand scheme of moderns, VERY few are worth cover in the long run. You won't be missing out on many.

 

That being said, I love modern singles. It's my jam.

 

Pat

[Flaming_Telepath]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

admittedly, some are unreadable, as were some comics of 25-35 years ago.

 

but there's plenty of good stuff coming out. just at $3 a pop...it's too much darn money, particularly when I see the overstock sold at 1/5 - 1/2 price. i know, it's been said 100,000 times before.

 

i honestly do think that comics could be placed back in the mass market at the right price -- $1 - $1.50 each...like the price of a can/bottle of soda out of a machine. (when soda was 50 cents for a can ...so were comics) i know i've posted on this before, but I think comics vending machines could do well at that price point in locales with nowhere else to buy them.

 

true, circulation would probably have to quadruple to keep it on par re: profitability. but then again, with a quadrupling of circulation, they'd be making more from advertising.

 

No one I know pays full retail for new comics, just about any new comic can be had for 35% percent off at dcbs. It`s not the price that is turning off readers but the storylines, let`s see Brand New Day,Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis were mess.

 

I think the price very much plays a part.

 

Cover price is either $2.99 or $3.99 and reading time is about seven minutes. That means that to entertain yourself for the same length of time as a decent movie at the cinema, you'll be spending close to $60.

 

There are also much cheaper forms of entertainment that appeal to kids, and more importantly, to parents. Spend $60 on enough books to keep little Johnnie quiet for two hours...or buy him a game that will keep him going for weeks?

 

It really is no contest, which is why readership is dying out...no new blood.

[joe_collector]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

Comics used to be for smart children...

 

HUH? Comics used to be for smart children? By smart, do you mean just "literate"?

 

I can remember picking up a few BA issues of Starlin's Captain Marvel and even though I had a pretty fair vocabulary for my age, I was asking my Dad what "omnipotent" and "debris" meant. The concepts of life, death and everything in-between were also pretty heady stuff for a little kid.

 

That was definitely a very smart comic for someone in the 6-8 year old age group.

[MR.COMICBOOK]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

admittedly, some are unreadable, as were some comics of 25-35 years ago.

 

but there's plenty of good stuff coming out. just at $3 a pop...it's too much darn money, particularly when I see the overstock sold at 1/5 - 1/2 price. i know, it's been said 100,000 times before.

 

i honestly do think that comics could be placed back in the mass market at the right price -- $1 - $1.50 each...like the price of a can/bottle of soda out of a machine. (when soda was 50 cents for a can ...so were comics) i know i've posted on this before, but I think comics vending machines could do well at that price point in locales with nowhere else to buy them.

 

true, circulation would probably have to quadruple to keep it on par re: profitability. but then again, with a quadrupling of circulation, they'd be making more from advertising.

 

No one I know pays full retail for new comics, just about any new comic can be had for 35% percent off at dcbs. It`s not the price that is turning off readers but the storylines, let`s see Brand New Day,Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis were mess.

 

I think the price very much plays a part.

 

Cover price is either $2.99 or $3.99 and reading time is about seven minutes. That means that to entertain yourself for the same length of time as a decent movie at the cinema, you'll be spending close to $60.

 

There are also much cheaper forms of entertainment that appeal to kids, and more importantly, to parents. Spend $60 on enough books to keep little Johnnie quiet for two hours...or buy him a game that will keep him going for weeks?

 

It really is no contest, which is why readership is dying out...no new blood.

I say it`s the storylines, kids are paying much more for Harry Potter and Twilight books and those books are flying off the shelves, another thing is the companies are way to super-hero oriented. They need to try other genres like they did in the 40s and 50s.Jeez how many X-men or Batman related monthly books are there?

[MR.COMICBOOK]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

Comics used to be for smart children...

 

HUH? Comics used to be for smart children? By smart, do you mean just "literate"?

 

I can remember picking up a few BA issues of Starlin's Captain Marvel and even though I had a pretty fair vocabulary for my age, I was asking my Dad what "omnipotent" and "debris" meant. The concepts of life, death and everything in-between were also pretty heady stuff for a little kid.

 

That was definitely a very smart comic for someone in the 6-8 year old age group.

I remember my grandfather picking me up a Captain Marvel #29 from a navy base in one of those bundle package deals, It got me interested in comics with it`s great art, Nowadays I would be afraid to give my 8 year old son a modern Batman comic because of the violence and subject matter in it.

[Flaming_Telepath]

i disagree with the JC crowd that moderns are junk, not worth reading, pale in comparison to the wildly entertaining comics of the 70's, etc.

 

admittedly, some are unreadable, as were some comics of 25-35 years ago.

 

but there's plenty of good stuff coming out. just at $3 a pop...it's too much darn money, particularly when I see the overstock sold at 1/5 - 1/2 price. i know, it's been said 100,000 times before.

 

i honestly do think that comics could be placed back in the mass market at the right price -- $1 - $1.50 each...like the price of a can/bottle of soda out of a machine. (when soda was 50 cents for a can ...so were comics) i know i've posted on this before, but I think comics vending machines could do well at that price point in locales with nowhere else to buy them.

 

true, circulation would probably have to quadruple to keep it on par re: profitability. but then again, with a quadrupling of circulation, they'd be making more from advertising.

 

No one I know pays full retail for new comics, just about any new comic can be had for 35% percent off at dcbs. It`s not the price that is turning off readers but the storylines, let`s see Brand New Day,Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis were mess.

 

I think the price very much plays a part.

 

Cover price is either $2.99 or $3.99 and reading time is about seven minutes. That means that to entertain yourself for the same length of time as a decent movie at the cinema, you'll be spending close to $60.

 

There are also much cheaper forms of entertainment that appeal to kids, and more importantly, to parents. Spend $60 on enough books to keep little Johnnie quiet for two hours...or buy him a game that will keep him going for weeks?

 

It really is no contest, which is why readership is dying out...no new blood.

I say it`s the storylines, kids are paying much more for Harry Potter and Twilight books and those books are flying off the shelves, another thing is the companies are way to super-hero oriented. They need to try other genres like they did in the 40s and 50s.Jeez how many X-men or Batman related monthly books are there?

 

That's another point. With a Harry Potter book, it's a single outlay.

 

With the whole Marvel/DC circus, you're in for over $50 just to have a single storyline.

[Mr.Diggler]

My modern pull list shrinks every six months or so. Price really has no effect on me yet. If it is worth it I will buy it. I find myself Dropping many of the big twos titles and surprisingly inching to Image. The boards have been very useful forTPB recommendations. WD,Invincible,Scalped to name a few. After reading them in TPB form I've since added them to my pull list.

My name is Jason and I have almost given up on Marvel and DC for quality stories.

[Griz]

Cost was a factor for me. To pull 10 books a month may have cost me $25, roughly $300 per year. I am able to get a decent GA book for that. But, I still pay for a newspaper everyday and I don't mind that, although I could cut it if I had to. If the price point for moderns was say, half what I was paying, I would have considered keeping the runs I have intact.

 

I recently sold about 2/3 of those modern books I purchased in the time frame above to fund a GA key. I was very happy when I could get cover price, most titles fetched $1 piece on average. Maybe someday these will be worth much more but I doubt it and I didn't mind letting them go.

[the blob]

"i dont think JC implied moderns were junk, just that they weren't collectible in the profit-making sense."

 

JC's quote:

 

"it's the comic publisher's DUTY to keep the readers entertained and believing they are receiving good value for their money"

 

well, this one actually doesn't have anything to do with collectability and does imply that at the right value (price) ratio then modern comics might, in theory, be sufficiently entertaining per dollar spent. most of his past posts tend to disparage modern comics though, not just because they're too expensive. but i don't want to make this about JC, but I think most of us can agree that there is stuff worth reading coming out, so the reason to stop buying them is not that they sukk. i too tend to get them 2-6 months after the fact at a deep discount, although I have to admit I've been cutting back on even that because these 1,200 part cross-over events are hard to put together through the overstock box and I like getting the whole story. i tried to do 52, Secret Invasion, etc. and wound up with a bunch of irritating gaps. i'm not so big on getting TPBs because at the end of the day I am a collector and like to have the first prints, though i did buy the watchmen TPB and have gotten some fables TPBS. i might break down and buy a goon tpb if I see one. usually it depends on whether buying the floppies as back issues will be cheaper than the tpb.

 

[the blob]

"No one I know pays full retail for new comics, just about any new comic can be had for 35% percent off at dcbs."

 

How much is shipping?

 

I see plenty of folks at my LCS buying a stack of books off the rack and paying cover. A lot of people apparently don't like being stuck with a pull list or don't want to be bothered. I know my brother, who was buying about 30 titles a month, just could not be bothered to fill out a form or go through the hassle. Then again, I guess these aren't the people who are particularly price sensitive (though in this economy even the financial types who were making $500K are probably a little more sensitive)

[the blob]

I think most of the marvels of the 70's let's say were probably geared more toward the 12 - 15 year old crowd. sure, a 7 year old could read them, but they may not understand them 100%. SOME of them were probably written at an 8-9 year old level.

 

Not so sure about the DCs of the 70's (excluding Batman), the Superman books look like they're written for 7 year olds.

[the blob]

I say it`s the storylines, kids are paying much more for Harry Potter and Twilight books and those books are flying off the shelves

_________________

 

Harry Potter can keep a 9 year old occupied for a week and the parents are probably happy to buy them (most of the time) -- not so much comics.

[Lebowski]

My name is Jason and I have almost given up on Marvel and DC for quality stories.

 

As well you should. (thumbs u

[joe_collector]

Harry Potter can keep a 9 year old occupied for a week and the parents are probably happy to buy them (most of the time) -- not so much comics.

 

A week? Some of the later ones are real tomes, and can keep a 9 year-old going for a month.

[joe_collector]

I think most of the marvels of the 70's let's say were probably geared more toward the 12 - 15 year old crowd. sure, a 7 year old could read them, but they may not understand them 100%.

 

I agree, but compared to other literature for an average 8-12 year-old, Marvel's BA lineup stacked up pretty well - I know, since I read pretty well everything back then. Most books were also good enough that adults could enjoy them at a certain level.

 

Now that comics are being written for the 26-35 year old segment, the same cannot be said, and most comics are decidedly low-brow and simplistic, with increasing sex and violence quotients, when compared to other adult-oriented literature.

 

Hence my "smart kids" and "dumb adults" comparison.

 

[Ringfinger]

Great concersation here.

[999ghosts]

MMmmmm... after 25 years of reading and collecting comics I have seen the ups and down in stories and art... there have been times my X-men comic (I love these) would stay unread for months because of lack of great story... but at the moment I feel those X-titles are strong and I read them almost the day they come into my home.

 

I can't put them away and hope to be collecting for another 25 years (including moderns)...

 

The X books are not the only once I pick up? I have a whole list of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and other Indies I get every month (delivered at my doorstep)...

 

Stopping Modern's... NEVAH! :-)

 

PS: for those giving up on modern's, please send all your comics to ME!!! ;-) (I am only goofing around, but if you want you can send then to me though)

[Mr.Diggler]

MMmmmm... after 25 years of reading and collecting comics I have seen the ups and down in stories and art... there have been times my X-men comic (I love these) would stay unread for months because of lack of great story... but at the moment I feel those X-titles are strong and I read them almost the day they come into my home.

 

I can't put them away and hope to be collecting for another 25 years (including moderns)...

 

The X books are not the only once I pick up? I have a whole list of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and other Indies I get every month (delivered at my doorstep)...

 

Stopping Modern's... NEVAH! :-)

 

PS: for those giving up on modern's, please send all your comics to ME!!! ;-) (I am only goofing around, but if you want you can send then to me though)

I have 4 or 5 long boxes I can sell you. (thumbs u