Sign of things to come ???

[Dmac538]

Just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark for my daughters graduation, so i decided to visit a comic book store that i have been to before. It seems like people rather read trade paperbacks than buy comics, as the store does not carry any comic books anymore. In Denmark the individual price of comics is so expensive, people rather just grab the whole story for one price. Will this start happening in more places? We here have the opportunity to buy our books at heavily discounted prices at conventions and such, unfortunately in other places that is not an option.

[mintcollector]

This may also be a cultural thing as well. In Japan Manga and Anime are commonly accepted forms of entertainment. Adults commonly read them; and it has been shown that at least in Japan, more highly educated and those of a higher economic status read Manga as well.

 

I cannot comment on this aspect in regards to Europe (i.e. Denmark) however, maybe someone else can?

 

Respectfully,

 

'mint'

[DiceX]

There are several comic shops where I live that carry no back issues. Just new issues and graphic novels.

There are still a few well stocked LCS but they are slowly going away.

 

 

[DiceX]

And by "well stocked" I mean late bronze and newer. A LCS with any gold and silver age in it is a rare thing.

 

 

[Whizzer]

European (mainland, that is) comics have always been available in 'album' format, ie more like a TB than the traditional US or British pamphlet style.

 

Think; Tintin, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Mortadello y Filamon, etc.

[Kevin.J]

There are several comic shops where I live that carry no back issues. Just new issues and graphic novels.

There are still a few well stocked LCS but they are slowly going away.

 

 

Both comic shops in my city (Newcastle UK) dont carry any back issues at all only new stuff, its been that way for years.

[shadroch]

There are several comic shops where I live that carry no back issues. Just new issues and graphic novels.

There are still a few well stocked LCS but they are slowly going away.

 

 

Both comic shops in my city (Newcastle UK) dont carry any back issues at all only new stuff, its been that way for years.

 

 

So do they under order new stuff to insure a seelout? What do they do with the leftover stock?

[Ken Aldred]

There are several comic shops where I live that carry no back issues. Just new issues and graphic novels.

There are still a few well stocked LCS but they are slowly going away.

 

 

Both comic shops in my city (Newcastle UK) dont carry any back issues at all only new stuff, its been that way for years.

 

 

So do they under order new stuff to insure a seelout? What do they do with the leftover stock?

 

Doesn't FP send all of its unsold stock to the Comics Warehouse down in Maldon, to be cleared out there?

 

Other shops tend eventually to discount the remainders to 50p or £1 in clearance boxes.

[mschmidt]

Just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark for my daughters graduation, so i decided to visit a comic book store that i have been to before. It seems like people rather read trade paperbacks than buy comics, as the store does not carry any comic books anymore. In Denmark the individual price of comics is so expensive, people rather just grab the whole story for one price. Will this start happening in more places? We here have the opportunity to buy our books at heavily discounted prices at conventions and such, unfortunately in other places that is not an option.

 

You should have gone to Fantask instead

[MrBedrock]

There is an important economic reason why comics are so readily available in book format in Europe. Price fixing.

In countries like France it is essentially illegal to discount price new books. Even companies like Amazon are subject to strict guidelines when book pricing. In the US creators have to publish the monthlies, or floppies, to subsidize printing the collected trade paperbacks or hard covers. And then they have to deep discount that product to get it into the book market, which is floundering because of the deeper discounting going on online. European booksellers do not have that instability. They have a pretty good idea of what they can expect to get in return for publishing a book. So instead of breaking it up into periodicals to generate some cash flow, they simply print the whole project in book format and sell it at a set price, with little fear that they will have to negotiate discounts from resellers.

[Dmac538]

Just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark for my daughters graduation, so i decided to visit a comic book store that i have been to before. It seems like people rather read trade paperbacks than buy comics, as the store does not carry any comic books anymore. In Denmark the individual price of comics is so expensive, people rather just grab the whole story for one price. Will this start happening in more places? We here have the opportunity to buy our books at heavily discounted prices at conventions and such, unfortunately in other places that is not an option.

 

You should have gone to Fantask instead

 

I think Fantask is closed, i used to buy tons of back issues there and flip the in the states.