THE FUTURE OF COMICS BEGINS NOW...

[delekkerste]

FUTURE STOPS MONTHLIES, MOVES TO TPBS

 

FUTURE COMICS announced today that it is going to stop publishing monthly titles and switch to trade paperbacks. This move takes effect after the August cover date issues.

 

Press Release

 

Future Comics has announced that they will be concentrating their efforts on creating mass market trades and will cease publication of their regular monthly titles. This new initiative will be effective after the August cover dated books.

 

When asked about the radical move, President and Editor-In-Chief Bob Layton stated, "It has become rather obvious that consumer tastes are gravitating towards the trade paperback format. While the direct market continues to decline, mass market interest in the genre is on the increase. We've prided ourselves on breaking new ground, whether it's self-distribution, returnability or, in this case, creating material exclusively for the mass market. Europe and Japan have embraced this format for decades and statistics clearly show that the U.S. is heading in the same direction. In the last year, revenues from the mass market has eclipsed that of the entire direct market with a 30% growth projected for 2004. And as an independent publisher, Future Comics is in a more advantageous position for making a major shift in its business plan than are the larger, publicly-owned companies. Our test marketing with mass market bookstores has been very successful. That, and the skyrocketing costs of producing the 22 page monthly format, makes this move a "no-brainer".

 

Future plans to release all-new trades in a variety of formats, from digests to graphic novels, beginning in October 2003. Additionally, there will be a line of trade books directly tied into Future's licensing, movie and television deals.

 

Since Future Comics will be producing new material for their mass market trades, they have promised to honor all subscriptions as soon as the new material begins to hit the bookstores, by providing either those new publications or refunds to their customers.

 

Layton added, "We're not entirely washing our hands of the direct market. There will be several special projects that will be published in the traditional comics format and distributed through the normal direct market channels, starting in February. Distributors and retailers are welcome to order all of our products (mass or direct) from us. All we're doing is shifting the company's focus away from the monthly, 22 page package."

 

[Aman619]

FUTURE's time is all used up!!!

 

does anyone here actually buy or read them? they are real second-rate hack work.

[Ares]

FUTURE's time is all used up!!!

 

does anyone here actually buy or read them? they are real second-rate hack work.

 

Wasnt one of their Titles Metalix???

 

Three people sharing one superpower!

[Darthdiesel]

FUTURE's time is all used up!!!

 

does anyone here actually buy or read them? they are real second-rate hack work.

 

I haven't seen my local store carry them nor does my supplier So Ican't make an informed comment, but that hasn't stopped me before

 

When I first heard about the Future Comics project, I thought it was out-of-work, has-been creators deciding to break free from Diamond distribution and went around telling retailers who were fed up with Diamond's antics of "preferential shipping" what they wanted to hear. It's too bad their product wasn't worth carrying I just thought it was gonna be another one of those small independent press companies all the way in the back of the Diamond monthly previews book, where very few people ever venture.

 

This just looks like the company is about to fold and they are sugar coating it with some BS about TPBs on the rise. That statement may have truth in it, but it is TPBs of quality proven material like Marvel Essentials and recent collected editions of "hot" comic story arcs where the prices for the TPBS are more cost efficient due to speculation driving up prices on the originals, ie, Hush, Fables, Thor visionaries, etc.

 

I'm surprised Futre has not folded yet...

 

 

[delekkerste]

Whether or not they succeed, I applaud Future Comics' vision and efforts here. To paraphrase Gordon Gekko, I loved the 32-page pamphlet at 60 cents, but I think it's an insult at $2.99 (or even $3.99 for books like "Dark Days" and "CSI"). It's an anachronism, a dinosaur that doesn't realize it's supposed to be extinct.

 

Almost every Marvel storyline is a 5, 6 or even 7 parter so they can collect the story as a TPB later on (all "Epic" releases, as per the published guidelines, must adhere to this guideline as well). It's frustrating to have to collect a half years' worth of issues to read a satisfying amount of material (if you try to read them as they are published, you will invariably have an inferior experience...try remembering what happened 6 months ago when you get to the last issue of the story) and it certainly discourages new and casual readers from checking out a title since you only have a 1 in 6 shot of the current issue starting a new storyline.

 

I think the TPB format will make the comic reading experience a lot more accessible, economical, portable and enjoyable. It will probably make them less collectible, but that's a trade-off I'll make any day.

 

The future is coming...

 

Gene

[Darthdiesel]

The future is coming...

 

Gene

 

I'm sorry Gene...it came and was barely a dribble

[Darthdiesel]

In spite of my wise coments, I see your points. However, if we only see material every half year (since I assume they will not be putting out tpb quantity every month), we'd be just as likely to forget what happened a half year ago?

 

I stil think it's just spin on a dying company.. crossgen is next...It's books have been late for two weeks with no word from the company if anyone has noticed.

[delekkerste]

This just looks like the company is about to fold and they are sugar coating it with some BS about TPBs on the rise.

 

That may be so, but this is a big step...when the comic movie boom dies and Marvel starts caring again about its publishing division, it's going to realize sometime this decade that the pamphlet just isn't working. I know that old-timers, dealers, CGC snobs and speculators will oppose this, but the economics of the industry don't just affect Future...I'm sure Image and Dark Horse and everyone else must be wondering why people aren't buying the tons of pamphlets floating around each month.

 

The future is beginning with Future, but it certainly won't end with Future. It's only a matter of time...

 

Gene

[fantastic_four]

So when will we see the MONTHLY trade paperback? I'm sick of waiting 6 months for the end of a Bendis storyline. I know he can write faster than that, but can one artist draw fast enough? Or would you need multiple artists on a single TPB?

[delekkerste]

It's books have been late for two weeks with no word from the company if anyone has noticed.

 

All of CrossGen's books from the past 2 weeks have been delayed until next week due to corruption of the files sent to Quebecor. This appears to be a one-off aberration and is not indicative of any financial distress.

 

I hope Future's TPBs fare better than CrossGen's "Edge" and "Forge" did.

 

Gene

[Darthdiesel]

"The future is beginning with Future, but it certainly won't end with Future. It's only a matter of time..."

 

 

That sounds like Steranko's comment he mad in that History Channel special where the paper medium is on its way out.

 

Honestly I don't think Marvel ever cared, even when it was spiraling into bankruptcy. Why would they change their publishing styles now? I think their Marvel essentials program is pretty good as well as their Must Haves collected reprints and their TPB collected editions of hot new books as well. But they make money both ways from the high price of individual books to the more reasonable prices on TPBs.

 

I don't think Future will last or one of the main founders of the company will get an ego check and realize they are no longer over at Marvel or DC and that their company will never get the same numbers they did while working for the big Two...

 

Your future may be inevitable but I'm thinking that it'll be in full effect when all comics made with Baxter paper have degraded...

 

[Aman619]

I don't think Future wil last or one of the main founders of the company will get an ego check and realize they are no longer over at Marvel or DC and that their company will never get the same numbers they did while working for the big Two...

 

they would...or could....if the stories were readable. Valiants artwork in the beginning was only serviceable, and the chracters were basivcall unknown....but Shooters writing made them successful. Futures stuff is just...well, I cant write or draw as well as they do, so I wont trash them personally - - but the comics suck.

[Darthdiesel]

So when will we see the MONTHLY trade paperback? I'm sick of waiting 6 months for the end of a Bendis storyline. I know he can write faster than that, but can one artist draw fast enough? Or would you need multiple artists on a single TPB?

 

Yes James - this was the point I was trying to make above .Even if the trend is favoring TPBs, is it even feasible for them to create a TPB on a routine schedule without losing interest for a title? In an industry where we are bombarded monthly with new stuff (ie Marvel's Tsunami - 13 titles all with Manga influence - of which a few titles were actually successful and worth picking up), I'm sure we will easily forget about something that doesn't remind us monthly what it's all about...I know people get mad when issues come out a week later...

[delekkerste]

Your future may be inevitable but I'm thinking that it'll be in full effect when all comics made with Baxter paper have degraded...

 

Just wondering why you seem to oppose the march towards TPB-ization. Sure, whatever's left of the slabbing new comics business would practically dry up, but isn't that pretty much dying anyway with the higher fees and low sale prices? In my view, the hobby is in a long-term secular decline with all the new issues being banished to the Siberia of specialty comic shops. The hobby, IMO, could greatly benefit from a comic format that is an overall better value proposition and also more durable and portable to lend itself to being distributed outside of comic shops.

 

Comics must be liberated from their exile in comic specialty shops! Comics must be liberated from unopened cases and CGC slabs! Bring on the TPBs!

 

Gene

[COI]

Personally, I'd love comics moving into TPB format. I don't read as much right now because I hate buying a comic and waiting a year for the storyarc to conclude. I would rather the whole story be published at once. It would definetly get me reading more. And I hate storing new issues, so TPB's would just be all the more convienient in that respect.

 

 

[BachelorOfComix]

No joke, this is the first time I have ever heard of Future Comics.

[Darthdiesel]

Just wondering why you seem to oppose the march towards TPB-ization

 

I have nothing against it, as a coexisting product with the "monthly pamphlet". However, I don't see it as economically viable in the current organization of industry, with all it's deadlines and creators working with different projects across several companies?

 

For instance, I happen to read Star Wars novels...New stuff comes out every 6 months or so...there are several things going on...the New Jedi Order storyline progresses, about events 30 - 40 years after Return of the Jedi, and meanwhile new graphic literature is being released by Dark Horse covering the Star wars universe from 10000 years up to the current Clone Wars storyline and Bantam paperbacks also releasing SW novels covering post Episode 2...it's all a jumble.

 

Anyway, there is this obsessive need for me for straight continuity in this area, every month or so otherwise I forget what I'm reading about. So that is why the TPB as future comics is implementing doesn't work for me. I just don't see how they expect to last by giving up on the monthly medium?

 

[Aman619]

Nothing against TPS...but even where they are successful like Japan, they are reprints collected from weekly installments. for most collectors AND for first time readers. The first timers can wait until they come out...and truthfully, dont care or arent aware that th epieces come out serislized (from their point of view) American (and canadian!) comics fand accustomed to our weekly fix arent keen on waiting 6 months for one long storyline to get finished drawn by one artist....so until they can draw faster, and monthly pamplets still sell enough to cover costs and a little extra, we get the best of both worlds.

 

fixed a few totally unreadable typos.

[shadroch]

it has been said for years that the monthly Archie comic lineexists only to provide material for the digest. I think alot of todays series exist solely for the inevitable TPB. The way the stories unfold is more indicitive of a paperback novel than an ungoing series.Don Allen, owner of ComicQuest of Lake Forest, CA puts it perfectly-" Almost all their first issues felt like preludes-as if they weren't really trying to tell a story, but to create a setting".Paraphrasing Mr Allen, he goes on to say that if all the FF did in issue one back in 1961 was talk about building a rocket, few readers would have been around to see them get their powers in issue two. Peter Parker would have been bitten in issue two.In the old days of the late 80s if a book achieved an outstanding story arc,the creative team was rewarded by collecting royaltes on a TPB,a bonus for a job well done.Now arcs are chopped up to neatly fit into the 32 page format before being published as they were written, in a TPB

[Illiterati-migration]

You know, I wrote a huge, long post about how it's impossible to contain a Modern story arc in 28 pages and that's why there are so many multi-issue arcs out there... but that's just not the case.

 

There's nothing happening in these stories.

 

I think the problem here is that comic books do not at ALL reflect a "reality" of any kind. Anything that happens in the previous arc is abandoned by the second arc because the writers simply will not be burdened to maintain any sort of continuity. There is no trauma. There are no lingering effects. Feelings never really stay hurt and grudges are never carried. It makes for a highly "unrealistic" world and one that is very difficult to connect with. Continuity lasts for about six to eight months now... however long it takes to complete the arc, then everything is "back to normal." (Don't even get me started on how time does not pass and some people age while others don't and... and... and...)

 

Example: When was the last time Colossus was mentioned in Uncanny X-Men? New X-Men? Ah, but they always give him attention in the pages of the barely tangentially-related X-Men Unlimited, right? Why is that? Do we need sub-books to properly develop the after-effects of what happens in the regular titles?

 

I don't necessarily think that TPBs are the way of the future, but Graphic Novels sure could be. I think that with GNs, while we will lose a large number of books on a regular basis, we will be able to see stories that are better developed and deeper than ever before.