Marvel's Falling Sales 6 6

[lizards2]

1 hour ago, FineCollector said:

11 hours ago, Hamlet said:

Note that I read them on my iPad through Marvel Unlimited, and I would expect most teens to read them that way these days.  Why would anyone pay $3.99/comic when you can buy all of them for $69/year?

You're the one giving your daughter digital comics... of course she's going to prefer digital when she grows up!  If you give her paper comics, she'll grow up nostalgic for paper comics.  Apple pie from the farmer's market, Saturday mornings at the flea market... she'll grow up nostalgic for whatever happy memories she shares with you.  She's only going to read digital because you taught her to.

Have to agree.  All my kids read hardcopy books, and two have magazine subscriptions to multiple magazines..., despite growing up in the digital age.

[ComicConnoisseur]

13 hours ago, FineCollector said:

You're the one giving your daughter digital comics... of course she's going to prefer digital when she grows up!  If you give her paper comics, she'll grow up nostalgic for paper comics.  Apple pie from the farmer's market, Saturday mornings at the flea market... she'll grow up nostalgic for whatever happy memories she shares with you.  She's only going to read digital because you taught her to.

If you are a parent though what are you going to do spend $8.00 cover price for 1 DC and 1 Marvel Comic for your kid to read or spend $4.99 a month for Comixology Unlimited where your kid can read unlimited Archie Comic books a month or $9.99 a month for Marvel Unlimited to read unlimited amounts of Amazing Spider-Man on their iPADS and tablets? The kids who grew up with Netflix,Spotify and You-Tube are going to want something similar. I am the same way now. Hard to spend about $16.00 cover price for 4 comics, when I know for that $16.00 bucks it gets me unlimited comics to read on Marvel Unlimited and Comixology Unlimited.

The game really has changed,and will continue to change. If I was Marvel and DC I would look to social media to expand my audience. Facebook,Twitter,Pinterest,Instagram and YouTube.  If I was Marvel I would actually try to put comics on these sites for free. That would broaden their audience tremendously.  

Yes,I wish we could all go back to the spinner racks,but those days are sadly gone. The genie is out of the bottle now with digital unlimited comic subscriptions.

 

 

Edited April 8, 2017 by ComicConnoisseur

[01TheDude]

Maybe a subscription to digital with a handful of printed copies of stories they really like. So they read the stories and get to pick which ones they want to have IRL. You can probably pick them up after the fact at a reduced rate that way as well so not have to pay full cover.

Best of both worlds perhaps.

Edited April 8, 2017 by 01TheDude

[Rosland]

I wonder how much of this could have been prevented if the comic companies had decided to let

their characters age more normally. Batman could have had children in the 1970's and grandkids in

the 2000's. These children would then grow up with "modern" sensibilities and fit better into current

culture. This would let the old grouches stay as they are without revamping and probably cause lots

of generation gap stories...

[lizards2]

5 minutes ago, Rosland said:

I wonder how much of this could have been prevented if the comic companies had decided to let

their characters age more normally. Batman could have had children in the 1970's and grandkids in

the 2000's. These children would then grow up with "modern" sensibilities and fit better into current

culture. This would let the old grouches stay as they are without revamping and probably cause lots

of generation gap stories...

Sounds like you're advocating extreme nepotism.

[Comicopolis]

1 hour ago, Rosland said:

I wonder how much of this could have been prevented if the comic companies had decided to let

their characters age more normally. Batman could have had children in the 1970's and grandkids in

the 2000's. These children would then grow up with "modern" sensibilities and fit better into current

culture. This would let the old grouches stay as they are without revamping and probably cause lots

of generation gap stories...

[Ken Aldred]

I was just thinking back this Saturday about how I used to go to Manchester as a teen to hunt for comics in the bookshops and comic marts, and how you’d never know what you’d find, whether it’d be a wasted journey, or comics would be frustratingly missing from the UK-distributed bundle, or whether you’d find some amazing stuff, particularly at the comic marts.  The thrill of the hunt, unpredictability and surprise.

Now, I can read almost any comic with just a few clicks on a trackpad or taps on a tablet screen; instant gratification, fuss, effort and frustration-free, requiring no patience but devoid of any predatory adrenaline rush, as you’d get in the olden days when only those elusive paper pamphlets were available. I can see how the ‘I want it now’ factor appeals more to contemporary tastes, but it’s also useful for those of us who, due to health reasons, find visits to the LCS or conventions a little bit too demanding.

Interesting to go back nostalgically and recall how intensely exciting the 70s and pre-online days were for me, and all the travelling around that was involved, but I’ve become much happier in suddenly thinking ‘you know, I’d like to read that series or that particular book’, and just being able to achieve the objective in no time whatsoever, effortlessly.  I don’t miss the old ways that much.

Of course, not everyone should make such an extreme transition: whatever you enjoy the most.

Edited April 8, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[Get Marwood & I]

15 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

I was just thinking back this Saturday about how I used to go to Manchester as a teen to hunt for comics in the bookshops and comic marts, and how you’d never know what you’d find, whether it’d be a wasted journey, or comics would be frustratingly missing from the UK-distributed bundle, or whether you’d find some amazing stuff, particularly at the comic marts.  The thrill of the hunt, unpredictability and surprise.

Now, I can read almost any comic with just a few clicks on a trackpad or taps on a tablet screen; instant gratification, fuss, effort and frustration-free, requiring no patience but devoid of any predatory adrenaline rush, as you’d get in the olden days when only those elusive paper pamphlets were available. I can see how the ‘I want it now’ factor appeals more to contemporary tastes, but it’s also useful for those of us who, due to health reasons, find visits to the LCS or conventions a little bit too demanding.

Interesting to go back nostalgically and recall how intensely exciting the 70s and pre-online days were for me, and all the travelling around that was involved, but I’ve become much happier in suddenly thinking ‘you know, I’d like to read that series or that particular book’, and just being able to achieve the objective in no time whatsoever, effortlessly.  I don’t miss the old ways that much.

Of course, not everyone should make such an extreme transition: whatever you enjoy the most.

 

I miss all that Ken. Everything is so easy today. One click on ebay and it's done. I remember catalogues. Comics, books, records. Posting off your list, enclosing a cheque or postal order.  Long waits, then they arrive.  What a thrill. This will sound silly now, but I remember struggling to get ASM 179 for the longest time. Then, all of a sudden,  I got it from a catalogue. It arrived pristine. Heaven. Now, I could buy 100 copies in the next hour without getting out of my chair. Not much is actually rare or hard to get anymore.

Simple pleasures have been lost on so many fronts.  And there is no striving. No hunting. No recording.  Just click, buy, receive. It's a soulless age and I for one lament the passing of that world I loved. That's why I persist with the London Fair. It died some time back, but is still the only thing I can go to that is in any way close to my old collecting life.

Things change, but rarely I feel for the better. New comics aren't great for the most part. Variants are killing the collectors. Old comics are becoming prohibitively expensive. It's difficult to feel positive about anything.  

Bang! ?

[porcupine48]

That's how I feel about my rare punk singles,lp collection...I hunted so hard for it for decades.Now,you can listen to it all with the net,and not get beaten up for dressing 'silly'.

I sort of resent it,to be honest.

 

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, porcupine48 said:

That's how I feel about my rare punk singles,lp collection...I hunted so hard for it for decades.Now,you can listen to it all with the net,and not get beaten up for dressing 'silly'.

I sort of resent it,to be honest.

 

Same here Spike.  It took hard work and dedication to build up my 100+ Squeeze singles. Especially the imports.  Now, they're all over ebay in multiples. Ebay has killed 'proper' collecting.  FU ebay! ?

[kav]

When I was a kid it was so rare to go to the store-I lived out in the country-also rare was having money so when I got comics it was a huge deal.

[porcupine48]

24 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

Same here Spike.  It took hard work and dedication to build up my 100+ Squeeze singles. Especially the imports.  Now, they're all over ebay in multiples. Ebay has killed 'proper' collecting.  FU ebay! ?

Squeeze?Really?That's some argybargy..

 

[Doktor]

7 hours ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

The game really has changed,and will continue to change. If I was Marvel and DC I would look to social media to expand my audience. Facebook,Twitter,Pinterest,Instagram and YouTube.  If I was Marvel I would actually try to put comics on these sites for free. That would broaden their audience tremendously.  

They tried that. That's where all the SJW-types inhabit & they've tried to appeal to them with all of their diversity initiatives & while we have no idea if it's impacted their digital sales, we know it's been a net negative on their print sales. 

[Ken Aldred]

41 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

 

I miss all that Ken. Everything is so easy today. One click on ebay and it's done. I remember catalogues. Comics, books, records. Posting off your list, enclosing a cheque or postal order.  Long waits, then they arrive.  What a thrill. This will sound silly now, but I remember struggling to get ASM 179 for the longest time. Then, all of a sudden,  I got it from a catalogue. It arrived pristine. Heaven. Now, I could buy 100 copies in the next hour without getting out of my chair. Not much is actually rare or hard to get anymore.

Simple pleasures have been lost on so many fronts.  And there is no striving. No hunting. No recording.  Just click, buy, receive. It's a soulless age and I for one lament the passing of that world I loved. That's why I persist with the London Fair. It died some time back, but is still the only thing I can go to that is in any way close to my old collecting life.

Things change, but rarely I feel for the better. New comics aren't great for the most part. Variants are killing the collectors. Old comics are becoming prohibitively expensive. It's difficult to feel positive about anything.  

Bang! ?

With time, my high-functioning autism symptoms have become progressively worse, and what I could do in my teens simply isn't feasible anymore.  So, an alternative approach exists, one which fits my current circumstances much more appropriately. That's all.  

[fastballspecial]

I love all the comments above sums up my 80s as a kid collecting and scraping change so my mom
would write a check to a mail order shop.

[fastballspecial]

There are not going to let Marvel off the hook here and I think some heads will roll over it eventually. Doesn't matter that what they are saying is true some just wont believe it. Make good stories readers will come back

http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/4/15169572/marvel-diversity-outrage-gabriel?yptr=yahoo

[Ken Aldred]

1 hour ago, Marwood & I said:

 

... I miss all that Ken. Everything is so easy today. One click on ebay and it's done. I remember catalogues. Comics, books, records. Posting off your list, enclosing a cheque or postal order.  Long waits, then they arrive.  What a thrill. This will sound silly now, but I remember struggling to get ASM 179 for the longest time. Then, all of a sudden,  I got it from a catalogue.  It arrived pristine. Heaven ...

Yup.  Same for me with ASM 171.  As a Nova fan I wanted this crossover issue, but it was Non Distributed and eventually I had to send a postal order off to a mail order dealer. Thrilled when I received it, disappointed when I read the story to find it was absolute bollocks.  

Edited April 8, 2017 by Ken Aldred

[1950's war comics]

1 hour ago, Marwood & I said:

Same here Spike.  It took hard work and dedication to build up my 100+ Squeeze singles. Especially the imports.  Now, they're all over ebay in multiples. Ebay has killed 'proper' collecting.  FU ebay! ?

Have you ever had the pleasure of listening to the song by GG Allin - Drink, Fight and F***  ??

it is hilarious !!!

[Ken Aldred]

58 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said:

Have you ever had the pleasure of listening to the song by GG Allin - Drink, Fight and F***  ??

it is hilarious !!!

A very unique artist, remembered for some sensitive, very restrained live performances.

[Get Marwood & I]

10 hours ago, porcupine48 said:

10 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

Same here Spike.  It took hard work and dedication to build up my 100+ Squeeze singles. Especially the imports.  Now, they're all over ebay in multiples. Ebay has killed 'proper' collecting.  FU ebay! ?

Squeeze?Really?That's some argybargy..

 

Sorry, I can't continue this conversation Spike. Mummy said never take Sweets From A Stranger