Bootleg comics (wall of words advisory)

[Aweandlorder]

Here's another thing to consider. How many blank comic book covers do you see sketched and sold daily on the Bay.. Regularly featuring unlicensed properties. This never gets pulled, but at the end of the day its a seller making profit from a unique and uncleared property piece, in comic book format!

[Aweandlorder]

Funny, I was laughing at the Rob Granito pic, but then I recalled just reading a Bleedingcool post regarding Gary Parkin.

 

In the case below, I think it's blatant ripping-off for profit, but I wonder, could the blank/sketch covers start to cause some issues, and blur the lines on preconceived notions for bootlegs?

 

Gary Parkin, The Rob Granito Of eBay Sketch Covers?

 

Ditto!

[dupont2005]

There is little or no money in bootlegs.If I wrote the greatest X-Men novel ever, and hired a fantastic artist to illustrate it, I still couldn't bring it to market.

 

Do you mean no money in record bootlegs? I beg to differ. There are plenty of success stories in the urban market. 50 cent mixtapes come to mind as one which lunched a superstar

As to comics, If you wrote a fantastic X-Men book with great art to boot (no pun) and had a good distributor, your book will either sell thousands till a proper legal notice is established, or, it would get pulled off right away, by the time making it a sought after book. Win win

It's much easier to record a concert and burn some CD's than it is to write and illustrate 22 pages of comic and then have them printed in the thousands, or tens of thousands.

[Buzzetta]

There is little or no money in bootlegs.If I wrote the greatest X-Men novel ever, and hired a fantastic artist to illustrate it, I still couldn't bring it to market.

 

Do you mean no money in record bootlegs? I beg to differ. There are plenty of success stories in the urban market. 50 cent mixtapes come to mind as one which lunched a superstar

As to comics, If you wrote a fantastic X-Men book with great art to boot (no pun) and had a good distributor, your book will either sell thousands till a proper legal notice is established, or, it would get pulled off right away, by the time making it a sought after book. Win win

It's much easier to record a concert and burn some CD's than it is to write and illustrate 22 pages of comic and then have them printed in the thousands, or tens of thousands.

 

I agree... with the whole music thing...

 

cough cough ahem ahem

http://theultimatebootlegexperience7.blogspot.com/

 

[Darjis_]

I don't know how much $ there is in bootlegs anymore. Can't be like it was anyways.

 

I have a few Nine Inch Nails bootlegs and a demo of Pretty Hate Machine that was bought on CD back in the day. (All professional looking but certainly not a legit release).

 

Now adays this stuff is freely available on the internet with a couple clicks. And any of the indie owned record stores that sold these either don't stock them anymore or are out of business.

[Aweandlorder]

One can question the relevance of vinyl records (which exponentially increased in recent years btw) and compare to comic book print runs to point out ratio statistics etc etc. But thats not the issue.

I'm mainly subscribing that a trending character which will appear in a self distributed comic book, has a strong probability to sell out and potentially become EXTREMELY collectible.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

One can question the relevance of vinyl records (which exponentially increased in recent years btw) and compare to comic book print runs to point out ratio statistics etc etc. But thats not the issue.

I'm mainly subscribing that a trending character which will appear in a self distributed comic book, has a strong probability to sell out and potentially become EXTREMELY collectible.

 

But that is unlikely to happen due to the high probability of financial ruin when the IP holder sues the hell out of them.

[shadroch]

One can question the relevance of vinyl records (which exponentially increased in recent years btw) and compare to comic book print runs to point out ratio statistics etc etc. But thats not the issue.

I'm mainly subscribing that a trending character which will appear in a self distributed comic book, has a strong probability to sell out and potentially become EXTREMELY collectible.

 

If you don't mind breaking the law, why not just.move a few ounces of blow?

[Buzzetta]

Out of curiosity...

 

If someone else published something along the lines of Marvel Zombies before Marvel published a single thing to do with zombies would that have been a parody?

 

For example, instead of the classic cover of issue ASM 122, someone designs a T-Shirt or a print where we see Spider-man eating Gwen on top of the bridge (Is it the Gee Double ya or the Brook-lin Bridge) ?

[Gatchaman]

Imagine a well written and drawn unlicensed Deadpool comic, or a Harley one.. Or both!

I am not endorsing such an idea, but I just wonder how come this was never done.

Comics have a long history of "Fan Art".

Usually things like artists doing unlicensed characters, writers producing fan-fiction or fanzines, and sculptors producing statues pr 'garage kits' is a tolerated form of fan-involvement and free publicity Companies let slide for the most part.

 

If fan-creators get too good or too popular they'll be hired or shut down with a formal 'Cease and Desist' letter'.

For many it's the path to becoming a professional.

 

are you referencing fanzines? I admit Im not a Fanzine connoisseur but I hear good things.

But as the comparison to music bootlegs is concerned I would say its slightly different by means of distribution. For years, decades, official distributors have distributed unlicensed properties to music stores, mostly record stores. I am yet to walk into my LCS and find unlicensed properties on their racks. Including fanzines.. thoughts?

I've seen plenty of Fanzines in LCSs over the years. I don't know for sure, but I bet they could be found on MCS or Mile High today. They're 'history' and collectible.

 

Plus, keep in mind comic book characters weren't always the zillion-dollar properties they are today. There was a time when publishers might slap a promo-cover on an issue so they could be given away in shoe stores. Comics were meant to sell quickly or be remaindered to a dumpster. The risk of bootlegs was non-existant.

 

I have some fanzines from the early 80s that included stories of Star Trek using the original characters. It was made up of various writers and sold to subscribers. These have Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica stories in them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aweandlorder]

One can question the relevance of vinyl records (which exponentially increased in recent years btw) and compare to comic book print runs to point out ratio statistics etc etc. But thats not the issue.

I'm mainly subscribing that a trending character which will appear in a self distributed comic book, has a strong probability to sell out and potentially become EXTREMELY collectible.

 

If you don't mind breaking the law, why not just.move a few ounces of blow?

 

I see you and george costanza have similar point of views on breaking the law

 

[Aweandlorder]

Here's a great example of how bootlegs could work; Some may call it a rip off, I call it homage, either way if this cover saw the light of day on any printed matter I guarantee you it will sell out immediately

 

 

(Thanks vikingreed for finding this)

 

 

[dupont2005]

Creating a cover image is not as difficult as creating 22 pages of sequential story and art.

 

Bootleg variant covers do exist. They aren't all that sought after because of the green label when slabbing. And lets face it, variant covers sole purpose is slabbing. If all the interior pages were blank it would have zero impact on their desirability

[Aweandlorder]

Creating a cover image is not as difficult as creating 22 pages of sequential story and art.

 

Bootleg variant covers do exist. They aren't all that sought after because of the green label when slabbing. And lets face it, variant covers sole purpose is slabbing. If all the interior pages were blank it would have zero impact on their desirability

 

These findings disagree with at least part of your statement

 

variants total w slabs (raws AND slabbed)

 

variants total raws

 

 

[dupont2005]

Creating a cover image is not as difficult as creating 22 pages of sequential story and art.

 

Bootleg variant covers do exist. They aren't all that sought after because of the green label when slabbing. And lets face it, variant covers sole purpose is slabbing. If all the interior pages were blank it would have zero impact on their desirability

 

These findings disagree with at least part of your statement

 

variants total w slabs (raws AND slabbed)

 

variants total raws

 

They'll eventually be in a slab unless they're a 9.4 or less. They're definitely not for reading.

[Aweandlorder]

Here's someone that's doing it.. kinda sorta..

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301510835625?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[Chespirito]

I once found a Russian ASM 252 Bootleg, tried to Grade it, but there was over hang,