It's been seven weeks

[MK Ultra]

Maybe six or eight, I lost count, since I've bougt new comics. Although I missed IC #7, apparently it's not going to be in short supply with the just announced 20th printing to coincide with the 20th month of it's release. Strangely, I haven't really missed it. While I liked some of the stuff today, Daredevil and Usagi mostly, it just wasnt' doing it for me.

[Fan4Fan]

I'm back down to 1 new comic a month (Spider-Girl) with little of interest on the horizon.... so I go in regular 3-week dry spells.

 

On the upside, this gives me more resources with my back issue hunt.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[nearmint]

I switched to trades a little over a year ago, and it's a much better way to read story arcs.

 

Imagine watching 20 minutes of a movie each month for six months. It just doesn't work as well as taking in the whole story in one sitting.

 

The only pamphlets I've purchased in the last year were Identity Crisis and GL: Rebirth. And I picked up NYX from a board member.

[Kevin Boyd]

Why hasn't Blowout posted in this thread to tell us he doesn't buy new comics?

 

Well, I still buy new comics and I don't intend to stop. I also buy a lot of collected editions and hardcovers. I prefer to get my comics this way, but since I have to know what's going on (for work and for pleasure) with new books I purchase the following six titles when they are released for a friend:

 

Astonishing X-Men

Batman

Superman/Batman

Ultimate FF

Ultimate Spider-Man

Ultimate X-Men

 

Then I buy the following must-reads for myself:

 

Flash

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

JSA

Marvel Knights Spider-Man

New Thunderbolts

Ultimates

 

And I buy the following series in collected editions when they come out (and yes, I'm aware that there's some duplication):

 

Astonishing X-Men

Captain America

Conan

Daredevil

Exiles

Fantastic Four

Fables

Flash

Green Arrow

Green Lantern

Hate

Hawkman

Incredible Hulk

Invincible

Iron Man

JLA

JSA

Marvel Knights 4

Marvel Team Up

New Avengers

New Thunderbolts

100 Bullets

Runaways

She-Hulk

Superman/Batman

Swamp Thing

Teen Titans

Ultimate FF

Ultimate SM

Ultimate XMen

Wolverine

Wonder Woman

Y the Last Man

Plus the occasional Superman or Spider-Man collection.

 

Plus limited series that just ended that will eventually be collected:

Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes

DC The New Frontier

Green Lantern: Rebirth

Identity Crisis

Loki

Stormbreaker

Ultimate Nightmare

Ultimate Secret

Wanted

What If...?

[chrisco37]

I still need my weekly fix. I buy trades of recommended stuff that I missed in monthlies (ie. Teen Titans).

 

I do, however, buy 100 Bullets trades (along w/ the monthlies) so that I can re-read the series as necessary.

[MK Ultra]

I switched to trades a little over a year ago, and it's a much better way to read story arcs.

 

Imagine watching 20 minutes of a movie each month for six months. It just doesn't work as well as taking in the whole story in one sitting.

 

The only pamphlets I've purchased in the last year were Identity Crisis and GL: Rebirth. And I picked up NYX from a board member.

 

I would think of them more as TV shows in that they never end (in theory), whereas a movie does. Although, I think I'm more prejudiced by my reading 15 years ago.

[october]

I like your sig-line jbone....my friend used to have that on a t-shirt.

[Murph]

I also prefer single issues to a TPB. Just like them better. So I just wait out story arcs until they're complete and then buy them all as a run.

 

Brian

[Fan4Fan]

I also prefer single issues to a TPB. Just like them better. So I just wait out story arcs until they're complete and then buy them all as a run.

 

Brian

 

Do you need to "settle" for later printings when you do that? Or doesn't it matter?

 

When I've tried that, I often have difficulty finding the run locally.

 

So, I either wait for the trade or forget about it...

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[Murph]

Lot of the time if you look in eBay stores, you can get the books still for 30-50 percent off. For example, I just bought a Batman run of 610-635 for below cover price with shipping (I think it came out to 1.89 a book).

For extremely hot stuff like GL Rebirth or Astonishing X-men. I just wait it out, cause it's not going to be long before they sell close to cover price again.. and realistically there's no shortage of copies

 

Brian

[Kevin Boyd]

I prefer the trades simply because I prefer the immediate accessability that they provide me. If I want to refer to or read a certain storyline or plot point I pull the book off the shelf and I don't have to worry about locating the individual issue, opening the bag and possibly damaging the book while it's out of the bag.

 

If I go on the road I usually grab a stack of trades and throw them in my carry-on bag to read on the plane or in my room at night.

 

Plus, I'm not completely settled on where I'm going to live, so I've had to put my collection of individual comics into a storage unit (with the exception of a long box full of my most valuable books).

 

I do keep all of my trades and hardcovers with me at the apartment because they are easier to pack and move when I need to. However, my collection of trades, prestige, graphic novels and hardcovers equals out to about 18 long boxes worth of books! So I might have to reconsider which ones I want to keep around.

[(un)cooldude]

Well, in obvious contrast to what seems to be most board-members buying habits, I pretty much only buy moderns, and only buy singles.

 

Why? Because I like 'em that way.

 

I agree that a trade is the better way to go when reading through a complete story arc, or short series, but there's just something about the single issues that 'does it' for me. I know everyone has their own tastes, and I'm certainly glad this hobby provides so MANY different outlets for everyone. I guess that's one of the biggest reasons I returned to it.

 

Thanks to this board, I've learned MANY things that I needed to know, and learned to break some terrible habits that I brought back with me from the 80's....namely, speculating. When I left the hobby, that was the state of affairs. Thankfully, that has changed, and my changing along with it has opened me up to many NEW books that I wouldn't have considered before.

 

Honestly though, unless fans BUY single issues, I honestly fear that the comic industry as a whole will suffer. I mean, unless the singles even find an audience, what reason would a publisher even have to compile a trade? Therefore, if everyone just stopped buying single issues, the industry would have to make a rather dramatic change in order to stay alive. The question is; would it be able to survive that change?

 

I have, however, started collecting a few bronze-age titles now, that were my favorites as a kid. This doesn't detract from my passion for new comics though. With the sheer number of new comics being produced these days, you REALLY have to choose carefully when buying in any case. I personally think the industry could benefit from a lot of 'thinning' in genres, and a return to more streamlined titles. Granted, it all comes down to the benjamins....but when you finally [#@$%!!!]-off even the most hard-core new comic fan, what will you do then?...

[Kevin Boyd]

Honestly though, unless fans BUY single issues, I honestly fear that the comic industry as a whole will suffer. I mean, unless the singles even find an audience, what reason would a publisher even have to compile a trade? Therefore, if everyone just stopped buying single issues, the industry would have to make a rather dramatic change in order to stay alive. The question is; would it be able to survive that change?

 

Really that's a tough issue to come down on either side on. Certainly I prefer the "end" or collected version more than the "initial" or serialized chapters/comics, and choose to support that format, and it's fairly clear that more people are choosing to go that route since they are producing more collected editions. It's also clear to the publishers that the collected edition is the more "sale-able" version for the general public in bookstores and the like.

 

Where it was once quite clear - serialized comics begat collected editions, now it's a lot fuzzier, at least in my opinion.

 

In general we have various companies taking different approaches to collected editions. I'll take a quick look at four of the main ones.

 

DARK HORSE

 

With Dark Horse nearly every comic published will end up in a collected edition. Don't be surprised if they make the final jump and not publish pamphlet comics within two years. Dark Horse doesn't need to rely on the comics as loss leaders for the final version since most of their product has a library of volumes to rely on the financing of new volumes (very much like the European model - where the back catalogue also finances the generation of new material). As long as Mignola and Miller, Sakai and the rest can rely on a steady stream of royalty checks to live on from sales of their existing catalog of Hellboy, Sin City and Usagi volumes they can take their time and produce as many new volumes of material as they would like. Conan needs time, but the Marvel reprints could subsidize the new books, and Star Wars is taking huge losses on the comics in order to do decent business on the collected editions. (This model is already in use by Tokyopop, Viz, and DC's new lines CMX and Humanoids).

 

DC COMICS

 

With DC the motto is no collected edition unless sales merit it, and this caused a rather interesting conversation at our last con when Joey Cavalieri, Jimmy Palmiotti and Cameron Stewart got to discussing collected edition. "If the book doesn't sell as a monthly, why would it sell as a collected edition?" seems to be the logic at DC, and creators like Jimmy Palmiotti don't see it that way at all. They see the collected edition as the means to get more people outside of the devoted "every wednesday" buyers interested in their books and Jimmy was really pushing to get a Monolith trade out to bump up interest in the series. I wonder how many people might have gone out and bought a Monolith trade based on Eric/Neurozombie's lamenting of the book's cancellation. If there was a swell of interest in a collected edition of Monolith and the sales warrented a reprinting thru Star System (the book ordering division), Jimmy and crew could argue for a Volume 2 (for the second half of the original run) and possibly a new series. SEAGUY was not a strong seller, but it is being collected because Grant Morrison wrote it, and Morrison's book catalogue sells. If Seaguy Volume 1 sells well, then DC will relent and allow Morrison and Stewart to do a Volume 2.

 

How do you know a collected edition of a new series won't perform until you try one? Plastic Man was not a strong seller and the collected edition of 1-7 was a gamble (and one I hope that paid off because the package is spectacular). DC also doesn't rush a tpb if they want to sell more monthlies - look at Identity Crisis (no collection until September). But if they know the material is strong and the format is wrong (take Alan Davis' prestige format JLA: Another Nail as an example) then they will rush the tpb out within a couple of months of the completion of the last issue (Volume 1 sold very well, so if Volume 2 sold poorly serialized then it has to be the format that is wrong).

 

Most creators want a collected edition because they get royalties on it. Unless a comic goes thru multiple printings, creators rarely get additional money for comics, so it's everyone's aim at DC (and Marvel and Image, etc.) to get the work into a mass market collected edition.

 

Sandman: Endless Nights is an excellent example of the strong continued demand for the collected editions (nearly a decade after the series ended) spawning a new original volume of material (instead of a limited series that would later be reprinted).

 

MARVEL COMICS

 

Marvel's approach to publishing is that you print the monthlies to order as "loss leaders" and you plan to collect everything eventually, sometimes in multiple formats (hardcover, softcover, digest). I can't think of many titles that don't have collected editions out or in the works, a series has to be a real dog not to make it to the collected editions division. Even books that had poor sales get trades at Marvel - in some cases they will even help resurrect a dying book (Runaways, She-Hulk, Spider-Girl). Marvel's mining their back-catalogue like there's no tomorrow with dozens of collected editions planned each quarter of both new and old material. With the obvious success of the "graphic novels fund new graphic novels" approach being adopted by other publishers (see Dark Horse), a model fairly consistant and successful in Europe and Japan, it's no wonder that Marvel hired Tokyopop's former guru to establish a line of original graphic novels for them.

 

IMAGE

 

Image is a whatever sticks company. If you can get a book out and the orders can support continuation then you can do another one. If you have enough material for a collected edition and the orders pay for the costs then you can print it. In some cases collected editions are getting some great work out to the next level of fans and increasing interest in your books - just ask Robert Kirkman, who's Walking Dead and Invincible are both benefitting from the increased exposure and sales that the collected editions are bringing to his image books.

[(un)cooldude]

Hey Kevin,

 

You raise a lot of good points in relation to the publishers, but are there any hard sales numbers to really support the claim that more people are turning to collected editions, and are leaving serialized versions? I would love to be able to see some data on that, just for my own frame of reference. I mean, I'm just one collector and fan, and I don't run a business around comics, so I'm in the dark as far as that's concerned.

 

I've talked to a few comic creators, and we've raised the subject a few times regarding serial sales driving collected editions, and the majority felt that unless serialized editions were supported, that it would ultimately hurt the industry. Granted, my small sampling of creators is pretty limited to say the least, and my 'in-depth' knowledge in the industry is pretty slim, so take my comments as they are.

 

I myself, as a comic collector and hobbyist, would be very disappointed to not to be able to buy and enjoy the serialized versions that I currently pick up. If publishers went to a collected-version-only format, my participation in this hobby would certainly make a marked change. In the end, we all know that it all comes down to voting with your dollars. Granted, I don't see this trend changing for a few years to say the least, but I can definitely see both sides of this subject.

[Kevin Boyd]

I will try to look up some data. Initial orders of many collected editions fall in the 2-5000 mark for the initial month ordered, but there are no long-term sales statistics available for books that are available for regular reorder. It's actually very frustrating to determine actual sales. I believe a retailer did do a search of some kind using bookscan and he found that collected editions of things like Sandman and Watchmen were generally outselling new offerings from DC.

 

Serialized comics mean a regular paycheck for pages turned in, and I can understand why most people depend on the monthlies to make their income. Palmiotti's point in the debate seemed to be that getting work into a collected edition was a lot like winning the lottery, because once it's in print in a collected edition it becomed a self-generating source of revenue.

 

Very few creators are in the position to live off those revenues, and if they do work on a monthly it's often with the guarantee that it will get collected down the line. Miller, Moore, Lee, Mignola, Bendis, Millar, Ellis, Ennis etc. obviously fall into that category.

 

I certainly don't want the monthlies to not exist, but I made a choice that if the superior (in my opinion) end format was out there, that I would rather support that then buying the material two or three times over. So it comes down to an either/or choice for me. Since I still buy monthlies I haven't completely committed to the end format. I used to buy the monthlies (with some I still do) and then flip them when the book came out in a collection, the only problem being that once the collected version is out there to obtain, readers aren't particularly interested in buying a set of the original comics.

[(un)cooldude]

I think you hit the nail on the head with your last sentence there Kevin. I think that's what ultimately divides comic fans in general; readers vs. collectors.

 

Granted some are both (myself included), but this is really what I see as the dividing line that defines how people make their purchases. A good friend of mine is most definitely in the 'reader' camp, and voices his opinion often about how it would drive him crazy to wait until the next issue of a comic came out, so see how an arc ended....let alone 6 or more issues!

 

Myself, I have MANY hobbies to occupy my time besides comics, so to me, waiting isn't really an issue...I've got more books than I can read right now as it is!

 

But, for me, I love seeing the cover art. To me, this is one of the biggest reasons I love comics; the artwork. Yes, I could collect comic art to satisfy that passion...but have you SEEN what that stuff sells for?

 

I find that serialized versions are the best blend of what I enjoy in comics; beautiful art, coupled with great stories! Granted, you can get _most_ of that in a collected edition as well, but I consider that serialized version to be more a 'snapshot', produced in the moment of conception....making it more of a period piece.

 

Again, that's just me, and I'm best taken with a grain (or 10) of salt!

 

 

 

 

Please don't take away my monthlies!!

[Kevin Boyd]

But, for me, I love seeing the cover art. To me, this is one of the biggest reasons I love comics; the artwork. Yes, I could collect comic art to satisfy that passion...but have you SEEN what that stuff sells for?

 

Tell me about it! I collect what original art I can afford, so not much!

[blowout]

Why hasn't Blowout posted in this thread to tell us he doesn't buy new comics?

 

Just in case anyone is unaware of the fact...I no longer buy new comics.

 

 

 

[Underdog]

I find myself wanting to hold the specific comic as opposed to the TPB. There's just something about a single issue that no collected work I have read seems to be able to match.

Don't know why.

[Kevin Boyd]

Just in case anyone is unaware of the fact...I no longer buy new comics.

 

Thanks!

 

It wouldn't be a thread about quitting without you!