What "Throw-away" characters have the most potential to become big?

[lighthouse]

No question...

 

Typeface.

 

[uclapeterg]

died in terms of $$ value. the individual issues are down 75% or so from when the series was still being published.

 

I see what you're saying. I was responding to your follow-up question, about characters that could support a long term book. When it comes to moderns, I don't even consider value, only the quality of the story.

 

What kind of collector are you? You actually read the story?

[SuperBird]

yeah, I suppose I was assuming that the author of the thread meant 'big' in terms of value, but could be wrong.

[RaccoonRaccoon]

My original question defined "big" as popular, but value is also important. However, I think big in terms of popularity and value go hand in hand, no? Popularity = highly collectible = sought after = higher demand = lower supply = "big" value.

 

Right?

 

My "thorw -away" character is the Terrible Tinkerer (he has appeard in ASM and had some cross over appearences)

[joe_collector]

It makes me sad to think that the last 2 characters created who could sell a monthly, punisher and wolverine, were created more than 20 years ago...

 

Umm, it's actually more than 30 years ago.

 

And it's really not that surprising, given that kids stopped reading comics in the late-80's, and since then, DC and Marvel have just been pumping out the "look back young man" nostalgia crapola for a few decades.

 

No new readers = no new headline characters.

 

Old fogey readers don't want anything new, they just want the same old stuff, repackaged and recolored. Just look at the current storylines, all looking back at a past event, or retconning some SA or BA character.

[the blob]

ummm, wolverine is wildly popular, but his regular series starting in the late 80s(?) is pretty much worthless (sure, a high grade #1 will sell for a few bucks). preacher, etc. are down 75% because there are more back issues than collectors looking for them. the loyal readers already have their copies.

 

heck, the spidergirl series lasted for what, 6, 7 years?

 

maybe some characters are better for 4-12 issue arcs than a continuing series? or they're simply better as supporting characters/part of a team.

 

venom might be an interesting villian to some, but a series gets pretty darn boring. ditto sabretooth.

 

master of kung fu lasted for over 10 years! where's he at nowadays?

 

ditto warlord.

 

power man (and later, iron first) lasted for 10 years

 

punisher, with a couple of breaks here and there, has been going for 15 or so years.

[joe_collector]

Blob, you just illustrated the main point:

 

There are really no major title-supporting characters outside of the Silver Age. Other than Wolvie and Punisher, which caught the last great kid-reader wave in the mid-70's, nothing catches on.

[the blob]

Actually, I think kids were reading comics up until about 1993/94 and then so many got turned off by the fact that their "investments" were worthless that they never looked back. Doesn't really matter when the cut-off was, it was a long time ago and those 1990s comic reading kids got really disillusioned. And, of course, they may have been more interested in the "collectible" aspect than actually reading them. For the purpose of today's readers, late 80s is probably the cut-off. obviously a few kids read and collect new stuff, but not enough to make an impact.

 

with that said, i think there is something to the notion that the old-time titles tend to continue because there's a[n apparently ever-shrinking] contingent of readers who have been buying them forever and are loathe to give them up. perhaps iron man survives at the expense of some other title?