if comics cease being published monthly?

[FlComicFan]

I dont buy new comics because I dont feel they are worth the cover price as far as entertainment value. Í will buy the occasional TPB and peruse what the local library have available. More and more I keep reading that monthly comics with their ever upward cover price and ever downward circulation are headed for extinction. If a few years from now monthly comics are gone what effect would that have on Golden/Silver/Bronze comics values? Would comic collecting even be around 20 years from now?

[aardvark88]

IMHO the saddlestitched comic will be extinct in 5 years replaced by thick monthly squarebound comics. Color covers with b/w interior art like the manga compilation books which are 64 to 100 pages each today.

May increase demand for squarebound SA/BA giant size/ annuals or DC 100 pagers over those flimsy 22 paged comics.

[BronzeBruce13]

you might be right... I could go for 3-4 issues into a squarebound comic possbly at $6-$7 ea. I wouldn't like it if they eliminated the color, but could live with the older methods that were not as photoshop intensve if I had to.

 

Why do you think they'll eliminate color?...and would that even work. I'd go for the color version, probably not for the B/W.

[Mephisto]

Here is something interesting I saved to a disk after a Marvel Editior posted it on the AOL section of Marvel Comics when they still had a message board and chat rooms.

 

Subject: Re: The End?

Date: Sun, Sep 6, 1998 14:30 EDT

From: Kitchen T

Message-id: <1998090618303300.OAA29723@ladder03.news.aol.com>

 

and optimism. This is your board, and you certainly have the right to express your opinion, but I find your attitude discouraging. As the editor of some of Marvel's best selling titles, you need to be more positive in your outlook. If you can't, perhaps you are in the wrong profession.>

 

Being positive doesn't necessarily mean ignoring reality. And, by my calculations, if something doesn't change, the current comic book industry will collapse within the next 3 1/4 years. Doesn't mean I don't have enthusiasm for what I'm doing, nor that I'm not trying to affect that change in whatever way I can. However, on this board, when somebody asks about something, I try to be as truthful as I can. And, in this case, my truthful response is

that, unless something changes, I believe the current comics industry will end in the next 3 1/4 years.

 

Tom Brevoort

 

After Tom's timeline had been well past I sent him his quote. I told him his prediction didn't come true. He felt that the current comic market (as in new releases) were healthier than the when he wrote that but he felt things were still not great. I probably emailed him in early or mid 2002 when he gave me that response.

 

 

 

[Freiherr]

I think comics are killing themselves with their insane prices. $3.50 + just for regular issues doesn’t add up. That is almost the price for many of the magazines I read. I use to be able to buy 10+ comics while having a job as a sacker at a grocery store. Today I do good to buy 2-3 and I make a lot more money.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I do not expect them to still be 12-35 cents. However, I am not going to spend $50 a week to get the same amount of books I did a few years ago for $30. One of the things that made this hobby so great was the fact it was cheap to buy the new stuff. How long can things last when today it is cheaper to buy back issues?

 

[blowout]

The key to the whole thing for me is marketing.

 

The bottom line is comic books need to sell themselves to a wider audience with wider spread advertising. I bet most people you talk to don't even realise comic books are still being published. This has a lot to do with the fact that they are not readily available, except in specialist stores, and are not marketed to the general public.

[Kevin Boyd]

The key to the whole thing for me is marketing.

 

The bottom line is comic books need to sell themselves to a wider audience with wider spread advertising. I bet most people you talk to don't even realise comic books are still being published. This has a lot to do with the fact that they are not readily available, except in specialist stores, and are not marketed to the general public.

 

 

Absolutely right.

 

Marginalization keeps modern comics publishing a cultish phenomenon. Format and price are a direct result of that.

 

When you could buy 10 comics for a couple of bucks they were still a mass medium. Outside of major urban centres you are lucky if you can find one place that sells 'em. (You might be able to find a bookstore with TPs, if they haven't dumped them in favor of all TokyoPop).

 

Price is not determined by greed but (a) by what the market will pay and (b) to match the rising price of paying creatives. Paper ain't cheap either.

 

...but when it comes down to it, most comics cost only about 25 to 50 cents a copy to publish. Your store buys it from the distributer for $1-2 a copy, then sells it to you for $2-3. And don't tell me that stores are greedy, as they need it because they take a loss on the product that doesn't sell and sits as inventory.

 

Kev

 

 

 

 

[joe_collector]

IMHO the saddlestitched comic will be extinct in 5 years replaced by thick monthly squarebound comics. Color covers with b/w interior art like the manga compilation books which are 64 to 100 pages each today.

 

I think you may be onto something, as my local corner store has started stocking these B&W Manga squarebounds, and this week is actually the first time I've seen kids perusing the comic rack.

 

Standard comics are DOA in the long run, but these low-cost, consumable/disposable Manga Giants are definitely pointed in the right direction, and are exactly what this fat-cat industry needs. Get back to basics!!

[Solar]

Hmmm. Maybe this is the Golden Age of manga squarebounds. Popular with the kids, not many collectors, disposable cheap format...

 

[hobbes]

these low-cost, consumable/disposable Manga Giants are definitely pointed in the right direction

 

I agree completely with this. I think Marvel and DC would do well to follow TokyoPop, Viz, and Dark Horse by releasing a similar style product. The key though, is to use the top tier heroes with new stories. Not insignificant characters or, even worse, 30 year old reprints. I like the essential series Marvel has going but that setup will never be able to stand toe to toe with what currently dominates the shelves at the major bookstores.

[PovertyRow]

Popular with the kids, not many collectors, disposable cheap format...

 

That is a near-perfect description of a future collectible!

[aardvark88]

30 yr old reprints are OK if u can dovetail with a movie release. Reprint Marv Spotlight 5 up & Ghost Rider #1 up in b/w 100 pg comics a couple of months before Nic Cage's? Ghost Rider movie.

[Kevin Boyd]

I guess we'll find out soon enough with the ESSENTIAL PUNISHER, which came out this week.

 

Kev

[joe_collector]

I guess we'll find out soon enough with the ESSENTIAL PUNISHER, which came out this week.

 

Is Marvel issuing this in square-bound comic/mag format as well?

[FlComicFan]

while I enjoy the essentials line I'd love them in color for a few bucks more Say cover price $19.95 Keep the same page count same everything but in color Also wish they would crank them out a little bit faster. Wonder why DC hasnt followed suit? While I think the HC archives are great looking books they defeat the purpose of a inexpensive way to collect the comics to read with those hefty tags. I'd love to see collections of Grimjack, American Flagg and other 1980's Indies as well in large TPB or are there some out I'm blind to?

[Kevin Boyd]

No, it's the same size as the other Essentials. But here's a collection of stories in a cheap b&w format just in time for the movie.

 

Goes from ASM 129 all the way thru to the end of the Punisher mini-series.

 

Kev

[Kevin Boyd]

http://www.newsarama.com/pages/Tilting/TatWv2_2a.htm

 

Check out Brian Hibb's latest column at Newsarama. He tackles two issues (1) are bookstores the salvation of the comic market and (2) is Manga really that popular?

 

With 1) It's NO, but it's a good source of EXTRA money. Direct Market stores are still the money-makers for graphic novels and tpbs, ordering (and thus to the publisher selling because there are no returns) 2X or more copies. And what we consider big sellers are less likely to do well. Hulk and Daredevil didn't sell anywhere near what League of Extraordinary Gentlemen did, and books ABOUT characters (guides, etc.) tend to do better in book stores than books with superhero characters IN them (i.e. stories). He raises some good points, primarily that solid past works like Watchmen, Cerebus, Bone, etc. don't show up on any best sellers list for the direct market, yet those books are sold in significant amounts thru the direct market (like 11,000 copies of Watchmen), but the reporting structure is ENTIRELY based around new product and material.

 

With 2) it's worth the read. Bookstores can return Manga that doesn't sell, Comic shops can't. So you really need to know what you are doing when ordering manga for comic shops, and I don't think anyone who runs a comic shop really does. It's really and truly FOREIGN to most owners in that a) we don't know the material, b) a lot of it looks the same c) preview material sucks, so you order blindly based on a name... Rikishi Stinkface 42 on an order form doesn't say much about the product... is it comedy? likely.... is it mature? maybe... is it adventure? Can't tell. Sci-fi? ditto. Romance? ditto. Child Porn? Likely. Sorry...

 

So getting DC and Marvel to compete with Manga in similar format is a good idea. As comic shops owners know the material well enough to say, for example, that some comic buyers liked Sentinel, but my manga buyers won't touch regular comics. Sentinel comics that look like manga should appeal to them, because I know the content well enough to make the call. JLA Adventures and Scooby Doo should have some appeal because I UNDERSTAND the concept just by reading the name.

 

With Tokyopop, Viz, and even Dark Horse putting out dozens of these titles per week it's not possible to order everything, and very few have solid enough track records to have a built in audience. Unit cost is high, and you WILL get burned if you don't know how to order.

 

Kev