When I first got involved with the internet nearly twenty years ago, and the presence of pros was a rarity, my showing up was seen by many fans as an unwanted intrusion. My being there, it was stated, would have a chilling effect. Many were only comfortable discussing a creator’s work behind his back, and were truly upset with the idea of a creator responding.
In many ways, that hasn’t changed. The exchange of ideas and concerns is still only to be one way: Fans to creators. If fans insult creators, that’s SOP; if creators insult fans, Oh my God, so-and-so was mean to me, where does he get off? Fans are perfectly entitled to crab about anything and everything that bothers them: Story, characterization, page count, characters who were killed off twenty years ago, a pro looked at them sideways at a convention…anything. On the other hand, if a pro expresses concerns directly pertaining to the business of comics…wotta jerk. Unless, of course, he or she is one of those pros who has an unerring knack of phrasing things just right or saying what people want to hear. Would that I were one of those.
Nowhere was this more driven home to me than in the now far-ranging discussion regarding “waiting for trades.”
I’ve taken a position that was prompted by the launch of “Fallen Angel,” in which a sizable number of people told me, “Loved the first issue, and will be sure to pick it up as a trade.” And a number of retailers told me that, more and more, fans are using first issues of new series (particularly wholly original series as opposed to mutant, Spider, Bat, or Super-related titles) to determine—not whether they’ll support the series–but whether they’ll buy it as a trade. All the praise, all the positive reviews on everything from theFourthrail.com to Aintitcoolnews.com…to many fans, it simply served as a heads-up for a trade to watch out for.
In being told this, I’ve declared in a variety of places that this is yet another hurdle in launching new “unaligned” series. That if enough fans decline to support a new series based on the assumption of a trade, that there will be no trade and no ongoing series. That when this was pointed out to fans, many of them stated it wasn’t their problem and they didn’t care. That comics publishers might want to follow the model of book publishers and wait a year to collect a series (since, I figured, how many people would buy hardcovers if the paperbacks were coming out three months later). That if fans want to help ensure the survival of new series, they should consider buying monthlies.
Since then I’ve been barraged by arguments from fans who seem intent–not on denying that they don’t care, because they admit they don’t–but instead explaining WHY they don’t care. I’ve been called an idiot, a jáçkášš, etc. And there are some who endeavor to dismiss my entire concern because it’s ostensibly born from self-interest.
To which I can only respond: Yes, of COURSE it’s born from self-interest. Does anyone have a PROBLEM with that? What, when hundreds of fans bìŧçh that Hal Jordan should be reinstated as Green Lantern, that’s inspired by altruism and concern for the commonweal? Why should my interests be one iota different than that of the audience? They’re watching out for their concerns, and I am for mine.
I love writing monthly books that are off the beaten path. If there’s new, rising impediments to that and I wasn’t concerned about it, I’d be every bit the fool that people characterize me for being because I AM concerned about it.
When fans express concerns about comics, I try to answer them. Fans complain about rising prices; I put my neck on the line to try and keep the price of “Captain Marvel” as long as I could. Fans complained about overlong, complicated story arcs on “Supergirl.” I answered back with “Many Happy Returns,” which turned around sales (not that it mattered.) Fans complained about new series that you need to buy six issues in order to get a story. I launched “Fallen Angel” with a couple of done-in-one stories. When the response is, “Thanks for doing that, loved it, see you in six months maybe”…excuse the hëll out of me for getting frustrated.
I never said it would destroy the industry. It won’t. I never said people didn’t have a right to buy comics in whatever format they wanted. They do. I never said people had an obligation to support monthly titles. They don’t. But boy, you sure wouldn’t know it from the level of responses my comments received.
But just to stave off the possible responses: For all those people who feel they must, must, MUST explain to me yet again, ad nauseam, why, precisely, they don’t care…
I think I should be entitled to not care why you don’t care. It doesn’t change the concept, made clear by both fans and retailers, that mid-list monthlies have yet more odds stacked against them. Care about it, don’t care about it, it’s up to you. Bottom line, I totally get that it’s not your problem; I openly acknowledge that it’s mine. Except, unlike the instances cited above, it’s not one I have a ready answer to (unless you count the “Fallen Angel” trade paperback this summer.) I certainly wish I did, especially one I could give those fans whose support of monthly titles help provide the trade paperbacks…aside from saying, Thanks, guys. I appreciate it.
PAD
• 
I find that I can’t afford comics anymore. I buy your New Frontier novels and a lot of the Star Trek Books. They have completely replaced my monthly comics reading. The trades I have bought usually contain material from Marvel’s 70’s and 80’s era.
I find I just can’t get into them anymore because the stories recycle themselves. With a Trek book at least I get to read about good characters and with New Frontier the characters change.
I just can’t buy like I used to. I work two jobs and don’t invest in something that’s going to sit on the shelf forever without being read.
On the subject of Star Trek novels
the only ones now I get are the DS9 ones, New Frontier and any of the E book novels of the S.C.E. series….Next Generation and the A Time To series ..I am going to pass on this because I know the characters aren’t going to change..
I remember about 6 years ago when my local comic shop closed. It was located in a bad section of town and the other one I could go to had terrible parking. After changing jobs I didn’t have the money I used to and it wasn’t worth it. So the way I continued to see my favorites like PAD is my local bookstore…
For me, it’s simple.
When the comic book industry starts printing stories geared for the monthly installment format again, I’ll start buying the monthlies again.
I got tired of seeing a story that could’ve fit in two issues get spread over seven issues just so that it could be published as a TPB. When I plop down my hard-earned money on something, I want to enjoy a full story not a “Part 4 of 7” story.
When they start putting complete, self-contained stories with a single 22-pages comic, I’ll stop buying the TPBs and start buying the monthlies. And if that means the titles fail due to low sales, well, that’s just too bad.
The other day I bought a TPB of Frank Miller’s “Born Again” storyline. There was more story in those few issues than Brian Michael Bendis’ entire 25-issues run of Daredevil has contained. If Marvel was doing “Born Again” today, it’d take up ten TPBs this time around. That’s just sad.
Sorry it sucks for you, Peter David, but I’m spending the money to support your lifestyle. I’m spending the money to enterain myself.
To the best of my memory, Peter was the second comics writer to appear on what became the Internet (i.e. I consider ARPAnet and Usenet [due to its quick linkage to ARPAnet] with a side of BITNET and CSNet to be what evolved into the Internet; BBS systems, Compuserve and Prodigy prior to hooking up the Internet, most Fidonet boards aren’t part of the evolution). Henry Vogel of the Southern Knights beat him out by just a bit. [Insert my standard “If Usenet had registration numbers, mine would have two digits” online experience/longevity comment; ARPAnet goes back to 1969, Usenet to 1980].
So far, unless you count Endless Nights as a continuation of Sandman the series, I don’t think that there’s been an original US or manga comics series that exists solely as trades; keep in mind that the manga series we’re seeing has already made its costs back and more in the original Japanese manga and its collections (and often anime adaptation). I was told by a very reliable source at last year’s San Diego that a particular series had been kept alive by trades (i.e. it wasn’t profitable as a monthly series, but combined with trades it was), and I believe Dave Sim has said something similar about Cerebus for the last few years. But so far, no one’s actually shown that doing a series only in trades, particularly from the start, would result in a profitable series.
Waiting month after month to finish one storyline is way too much of a hassle. I don’t get into the fascination of waiting and waiting for the next installment. Been there, done that. 🙂
I like reading stories from start to finish so, I’ll take TBP any day of the week.
(mho)
This is going back a dozen or so posts….
Regarding the Firefly on DVD thing: I think, with the popularity of the show, it very well might have gotten the DVD treatment even sans Whedon. It might not have gotten as nice a treatment, but it still might have made it out.
Look at the Clerks animated series. Look at the live action Tick. Added together, those two lasted fifteen episodes. And they both made it out to DVD before Firefly did.
The Critic’s about to come out on DVD; it lasted a little longer (on two networks) but not long. The Ben Stiller Show, a failed series from a dozen years ago, just came out on DVD. Longer lived (though still short-lived) series like Futurama and the Family Guy have come out.
The TV show/DVD comparison may actually not be a bad one. The sales of the DVD have probably revived Family Guy in some form; the same thing will probably happen with a TPB at somepoint. You could make the argument (debatable, to be sure) that the renewed interest in the Squadron Supreme following Kingdom Come would never have happened without the TPB being republished. It went from being a semi-obscure maxi-series (revered in certain circles, to be sure) to being mentioned frequently alongside Watchmen and DKR.
(quote)Why does the monthly format deserve special consideration? If the majority of customers shift to a different format (and I’m not saying that this is the case right now), the publishers should adapt and the monthly format should be forced to change or die. This is a good thing and exactly the way the market should work, imo. (unquote)
Special consideration? Perhaps not.
Consideration? Absolutely.
Because that is the form in which new and original material is (currently) most efficaciously presented, and because that format often yet provides a profit (smaller perhaps in a historical sense, but real nontheless).
The market, as always, will respond, albeit however slowly, to the whims and tastes of the consumer.
Realistically, how many new series would likely get off the ground if, sight unseen, the only format they was offered in was a 100-plus page trade at a higher price point?
A poor analogy would be that the standard format is somewhat akin to the pilot of a TV series, and the monthlies to further episodes. The trades could be construed to be akin to the tapes/DVD boxed sets, assuming they repesent an archival approach to the series, rather than just reprinting selected story arcs.
There does seem to be a quantum shift in audience desires going on – from the “I want it now” train of thought to more of an “I want it all” one.
I’m another one who just can’t manage monthly comics at this point. I have limitations on space, and I need things to go on bookshelves rather than special bookshelves. Furthermore, since I’m a freelance writer, I only have money to spend on comics (and similar luxuries) 4-6 times a year, and at erratic intervals at that.
There’s also the aesthetic issue: I just plain prefer books to floppy reading material. This applies to magazines just as much as it does to comics; I only buy specific issues of magazines once in a while, and look for alternative means of access to the articles or illustrations I care about whenever I can. They’re easier for me to hold and to keep looking nice after multiple readings, and I try to buy as little as possible that I don’t expect to want to re-read multiple times.
I’m very sorry if it’s not feasible for some publishers to offer material in a format I can in practical terms afford to buy and that I want to buy. But unless someone can grant me a regular stipend and handle all the other issues involved, individual comics just aren’t for me.
I think those who work in the industry should be able say what they feel on such matters. For most, it’s more than the way that they make a living, but something that they love to do.
I prefer to buy the single issues for the fact that the few comic books that I buy anymore are ones that I really enjoy. Because of that, I can’t wait to get the next issue. Due to being busy, I missed the first ish of “Formerly the Justice League.” But I refused to wait for the trade, because I just had to see Giffen and Maguire revisiting those characters again.
Another factor is the fact that, unless it’s a title related to a big franchise or “hip” (people in black shiny outfits stabbing people in the face or having sex a lot), you almost have to fight to keep your favorite titles on shelves. passing up the single issues and waiting for the trades only kills it on the top 100 list, which everyone seems to go by. As corny as it may sound, buying the single issues is how I vote for what books I like.
Er, sorry for the long post.
I’m old school… I’m a supporter of monthly comics. While I understand trades are more profitable for the creators, and maybe more convenient for fans, I’m a guy who needs my fix every month.
Now, Pete’s gonna shoot me… I’m two years behind on Captain Marvel, and I’m just now getting around to catching up, in between doing my own comics and working a fulltime job. But I wouldn’t have kept buying them if I didn’t have all the confidence in the world that Pete’s got a helluva story going, and that eventually I’d get the time to read’em.
PAD you give people the opportunity to comment there will always be a percentage who are not positive. But by giving them the opportunity to talk you are better then they are because they most likely do not give you personal access to a place they created for comment.
This is a proble suffered by musicians, actors, writers and so on. It can’t be helped people are mean when they feel unknown.
With that in mind here is a link to a new single… feel free to pass opinion.
http://www.mp3.com.au/shortround/
Let’s take an extreme position on the pro-TPB side to illustrate another point.
Assume a book has a base audience of 20,000 fans. All of them buy the monthly, and when DC puts out the TPB, let’s say it only sells 2,000 copies to new and curious readers. As a result of low sales, a second trade is not made, because there weren’t enough fans “waiting for the trade”. Without a TPB program acting as a promotional tool, new fans don’t discover the books, and the book’s audience slowly erodes with time.
But what if 5,000 of those fans had “waited for the trade”–15,000 being above DC’s cancellation point. Intial orders for the trade will be high, because of WFTT’s pre-orders. Suddenly, the couple of thousand in sales to new readers (as in the previous hypothetical scenario) couple with 5,000 WFTTs, and you have a successful TPB program. As a result, successive trades are planned, and with a vibrant trade program, new fans are consistently finding the title, offsetting sales erosion (perhaps increasing them as new fans jump on the monthly), all in addition to the successful TPB program. This is basically every current Vertigo title except Y and Fables.
PAD’s right in saying that the “wait for the trade” mentality is another hurdle for creators to jump over, although the sales decline prior to the recent TPB boon was an even *bigger* one. If they make the jump, if they can justify a comprehensive TPB program, the rewards are far greater than what exists *without* a TPB program. And, annoying as it may be, you need folks waiting for the trade if you expect to have a comprehensive TPB program to promote the monthly.
In time, if TPBs continue to grow in popularity, they may be able to support themselves without a monthly… but right now they’re symbiotic. Healthy monthly sales lead to TPBs, and a comprehensive TPB program usually leads to higher monthly sales. The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Realistically, how many new series would likely get off the ground if, sight unseen, the only format they was offered in was a 100-plus page trade at a higher price point?
A poor analogy would be that the standard format is somewhat akin to the pilot of a TV series, and the monthlies to further episodes. The trades could be construed to be akin to the tapes/DVD boxed sets, assuming they repesent an archival approach to the series, rather than just reprinting selected story arcs.
Actually, I see it more like a series of novels. How many months pass between the publishing of each Pern novel? How about the Wheel of Time series or even the next Star Trek novel?
If each TPB is a self-contained story, I don’t see any reason why new material can’t be offered that way. I have yet to buy a single issue of the Ultimate titles but I have all of the trades. I like having the entire story at my fingertips. I read Preacher this way as well as JSA, the Dark Knight Strikes Back, Green Arrow and LXG. I don’t mind waiting a while between issues because I have the others show up in the meantime.
This is also the reason I continue to pull older series out of my collection to read. I’m currently in the middle of the L.E.G.I.O.N. run and just recently read all of the Warlord, X-Men 94-175 (where the series ended for me), Next Men and Checkmate. They simply read better when read as a continuous story.
Besides, if we start comparing monthlies with television shows, I want my books to come out weekly.
I remember way back in 1976 when comics were a quarter. I used to buy them in a place called Ann’s Coffee Shop. It was a place located next to a mini market where my parents shop each week.
Today the mini market is a paint shop and Ann’s Coffee shop is a dancing studio ..well anyway my thing with the monthy comics is the stories try to copy what has been done in the movies and other media far too often.
Myself if I were updating the Marvel Comics I would reinvent them by having another generation of heros taking over for the new century. I would have Franklin Richards of the FF all grown and taking Reed’s Role as Mr. Fantastic; the same for Ben and Johnny and Sue, the invisble woman…
Remember when DC updated their version of the Flash and Green Lantern of the Golden Age? The secret identities changed and new characters replaced them. The same has to been done with some of the major ones to update them.
(quote)Besides, if we start comparing monthlies with television shows, I want my books to come out weekly.(unquote)
Heck I’d be happy if television shows regularly came out weekly!
Remember when a season had 26 or 28 episodes (way back when, even 30 or more)?
Now, between the constant shuffling around of airtimes and days, pre-emptions, hiatuses, sweeps month ‘events,’ plus the insertion of re-runs at every possible opportunity, it has become a real drag to figure out when a new episode actually will air.
Well! Someone attacked and called me a liar! I am sooooo offended! Boo Hoo! What we need to see is the statement of ownership regarding Shonen Jump or the ABC numbers to get a clear picture of its sales. I can guarantee you that the 300,000 to 500,000 numbers are partly hype coming from the publisher. In fact, without verification, I suspect that they may include other editions, not just the North American English one. So if someone can find out the true circulation numbers, this would put the argument to rest. I find it very difficult to believe that ANY anthology in that format (and black and white yet!) would sell in those numbers in the North American market alone.
Next, the crack about “guilt trip”. I read your other comments and you seem to be down on the comics market, comic shops, and possibly the world in general. My warning was not meant to elicit a guilt trip. It’s TRUTH, because if the comics market goes and the comic specialty shops disappear, then there go many venues for those beloved tradebacks, because you were absolutely correct when you said something to the effect that there are more important things in the world to worry about. Many readers share that opinion because when those venues disappear it’s a proven fact that a significant proportion of the patrons of those venues DO NOT BOTHER TO SEEK OUT ANOTHER SOURCE FOR THE PRODUCT. When the disastrous rationalization of the distribution system took place in 1995, fully half the existing comic specialty accounts disappeared. More than 60% of the customers who frequented those venues DID NOT SHIFT their buying patterns to other outlets. If they had, the huge drops in circulation would never have happened. If you doubt what I’m saying, eheck the charts from Comics and Games Retailer over the past seven years.
Another gentleman made mention of the fact that I did not include the cost of bags and boards for individual issues when comparing costs of a trade. Would you please stop being silly? Good grief!
Yet another individual cited his inability to understand my comment about budgetting for multiple pocket manga books. Well, in this market, whether you believe it or not, most readers will by definition be collectors, in that they will want to get each and every issue of these books that come out. When the quantity of these books gets to be OVERWHELMING, (and mark my words, it’s headed in that direction), and a reader (that is COLLECTOR) of them sees that there are more titles than he or she can afford, it leads to a) confusion, and worse b) discouragement. This subsequently leads in many cases to giving up altogether, and hence the market suffers if enough people give up. Hence another “fad” disappears, possibly leaving many retailers holding the bag on all those unsold copies of all those manga titles, which if you don;t mind my saying so folks…..pretty much look alike. Sorry, that’s gonna make lots of people mad, but it’s true. They all share that one basic art style and frankly to me they are interchangeable! Besides, in case anyone didn’t notice, lots of these books are being published on a MONTHLY SCHEDULE. They are the NEW MONTHLIES! Try and keep up with them at $9.95 a crack!
The argument was made that they cover all kinds of subject matter. Guess what? So do regular comic book format items as we currently know them! Surprise! How many of you have actually BEEN in a comics specialty shop recently? LOOK at the variety! Every age range, every genre! It’s all there.
Look, forget all the arguing and the examples. The bottom line is this: Comic books as we know them, trade paperback collections, manga and other pocket comics should….in fact MUST…. co-exist in a symbiosis. By doing so, readers of every bent will be able to fulfill their desires to get the formats that appeal to them.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE INDUSTRY AS WE KNOW IT WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO GROW AND PROSPER. We must all do what we can to ensure that this happens.
I can guarantee you that the 300,000 to 500,000 numbers are partly hype coming from the publisher. In fact, without verification, I suspect that they may include other editions, not just the North American English one.
There are no other editions other than the American and Japanese version. If I remember correctly, Viz doesn’t have the rights to distribute its books outside of North America, and has nothing to do with the production of the Japanese version, which sells 3 million copies a week.
Details of the sales of the US edition of Shonen Jump can be found here.
http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/3867.html
And you know what, even with a returns level of 40% that would still make it the best selling comic in America.
There are anecdotal reports of some places ordering large quantities of the Shonen Jump issues with the special card inserts, tossing the magazines and just stocking and selling the cards.
Those copies would represent sales for the publisher, but not to the public; if the tales have any truth to them, those ‘sales’ do somewhat skew the numbers.
There are anecdotal reports of some places ordering large quantities of the Shonen Jump issues with the special card inserts, tossing the magazines and just stocking and selling the cards.
Oh well, if it’s anecdotal evidence it MUST be true!
So let’s leave aside those issues and just concentrate on the regular ones then. Bumping the returns rate up to 50%, SJ would still have been the #2 best selling comic in December and November, and #3 in October.
But since Viz have had to increase their print run by 60% since they launched SJ, elementary math would suggest that their returns are actually at a level that would make them the best selling comic in America by a clear margin.
I would just like to chime in with this: I’m not a wait for trade reader. I like the monthly format. However, that format seems to have gone awry. The pacing and storytelling these days is too decompressed. TPB’s don’t have to contain one story. They can contain multiple stories with start-finish that fall within a larger arc. TPB’s like “From the Ashes” and others demonstrate this. Today’s trades read like one single long issue of a comic book and the monthlies were just that one story split up into installments. Yawn.
Hence another “fad” disappears, possibly leaving many retailers holding the bag on all those unsold copies of all those manga titles, which if you don;t mind my saying so folks…..pretty much look alike. Sorry, that’s gonna make lots of people mad, but it’s true. They all share that one basic art style and frankly to me they are interchangeable!
Ah. Clearly you’ve never actually read any manga, so it’s hard to take your opinions here seriously.
The argument was made that they cover all kinds of subject matter. Guess what? So do regular comic book format items as we currently know them! Surprise! How many of you have actually BEEN in a comics specialty shop recently? LOOK at the variety! Every age range, every genre! It’s all there.
And do many collectors try to buy every single American comic on the racks, or do they take advantage of that variety to shop around and buy what interests them? I don’t think many people buy every manga because it’s manga, any more than fans of books buy every book that comes out. Romance fans can buy romance manga; action fans can buy action manga. (But since you don’t understand that there are different types of manga, I suppose this argument will fall on deaf ears. You sound like the people who assume that all American comics are lowest-common-denominator superhero slugfests…)
Hence another “fad” disappears, possibly leaving many retailers holding the bag on all those unsold copies of all those manga titles, which if you don;t mind my saying so folks…..pretty much look alike. Sorry, that’s gonna make lots of people mad, but it’s true. They all share that one basic art style and frankly to me they are interchangeable!
Ah. Clearly you’ve never actually read any manga, so it’s hard to take your opinions here seriously.
Well said. I’d love to put a copy of say, “Planetes”, “Battle Royale” and “GTO” in front of this guy and see if he’s still willing to make that claim.
There are as many different art styles in Manga as there are in American comics, ranging from the virtually photorealistic to Disneyfied cartoony, to the big eyed, panty flashing, speed lined style that folks like Mr. Krolik associate with the form.
Manga is a medium not a genre, it’s just a pity that until the last couple of years one portion of that medium represented 90% of everything that got translated into English.
Ooookay. So buying trades instead of individual comics is equivalent to stealing music. John Byrne, is that you?
Avi Green, is that you?
But hey, atleast you didn’t accuse me of being a liar or anything else.
Just that I must be somebody I’m not.
Thanks!
(note the dripping sarcasm)
People will make any excuse when they want to be cheap.
And that’s the jist of it with the comments I was replying to.
So what happens when you start to feel that TPB’s are too expensive for you? Will you go looking for them on the net because that’s the next cheapest way to get them?
“Elayne, have there been any new developments? Wouldn’t any new report just consist of ‘still not fixed, see previous article?’ Not exactly the most compelling news…”
True, Ralf, but neither are the verbatim press releases run by news and print sites that sound like everything’s swellerific and don’t even address the subject any more (if they ever did; there were no “previous articles” to speak of in CBG, for instance). I bring it up whenever I can (short of being obnoxious about it, and I apologize to Peter for the momentary thread drift) because I’ve had more than a few freelancers and fans express surprise to me in e-mails that this is still going on – they figure if they haven’t heard about it then everything’s okay, and people have been paid. Nothing could be further from the truth. A lot of freelancers are seriously hurting because of these people, and in my opinion they don’t deserve the unquestioning support of the press or the fans until they make good on their payments.
Waiting month after month to finish one storyline is way too much of a hassle.
So, you don’t read alot of novel series, I take it?
Somebody mentioned Wheel of Time in an above post.
You’re complaining about having to wait a few months for a storyline to finish. How would you like waiting YEARS for a series that looks like it will never end? 🙂
The thing I fear most about TPB’s is that they are more time consuming and more expensive in the short term over the monthlies.
If a company makes a new comic solely in TPB form, and it bombs, they’ve likely thrown away more money than monthlies, because interest can be determined more immediately with the monthlies I’d imagine.
So you might actually see fewer new titles. It sounds extreme, but it’s possible.
You also run the risk of lack of interest in having to wait months between new “issues” with the TPB’s.
It’s just part of the mentality, where people expect new material every month.
I’ve had more than a few freelancers and fans express surprise to me in e-mails that this is still going on – they figure if they haven’t heard about it then everything’s okay, and people have been paid.
Personally, I’m too cynical of most news organizations to take that viewpoint. I figure if I haven’t heard anything about a problem, it’s fallen through the cracks and nothing has been done. Blame the government…
(quote)Oh well, if it’s anecdotal evidence it MUST be true!(unquote)
No.
It is anecdotal, not verified nor confirmed.
Note the qualifier ‘if there is truth to these tales’ in the original message.
Sheesh.
Has anyone looked at this “wait for the trade” attitude from an emotional angle? Maybe those fans with WFTT are emotionally jaded becuase they’ve been “dumped” too many times. Why get emotionally invested in a new series that may not last?
The TPB has become an indicator of whether a series is going to stick around. If a series gets a TPB, then it’s probably safe for me to invest.
My list of slightly-off-beat-titles-but-very enjoyable-now-canceled series gets longer every year. Anyone remember:
Quantum & Woody, Aztek, Chronos, Chase, Major Bummer, Resurrection Man, Supergirl, The Ray, Slingers, Black Panther, The Crew, etc.
Those are just off the top my head.
Everybody has a list like this. If you retreat into your emotionally protective shell you’ll miss out.
Publishers are no different. They don’t want to give a book a chance, they can’t afford to lose the money.
Ramblings will continue…..
Rather than explain why I prefer trades, I’ll just say that I totally respect Peter’s opinion, and I empathize with him, I really do. If I were in his shoes, I’d feel the exact same way.
And I’m glad there he’s here online with us. It’s great to interact with professionals, even when you don’t see eye to eye with them.
By the way, I just want to note that a talented writer can write comics that will read well as both individual issues, and collected in trade form. That’s sure the case with PAD’s Captain Marvel. So I wish some folks wouldn’t blame the trades for weaknesses in the writers.
Hey, Jerry Wall–prompted by your earlier message, I looked in on the TCJ columnist you mentioned, whose only comment about this thread is that I was still discussing the topic but that “nothing new” was being said. Which surprised me at first, but I guess having people call him an idiot and inaccurate isn’t new to him.
PAD
See? I told you I’d make some people mad! OK, let’s go at it again:
There are no other editions other than the American and Japanese version. If I remember correctly, Viz doesn’t have the rights to distribute its books outside of North America, and has nothing to do with the production of the Japanese version, which sells 3 million copies a week.
It’s good of Alex to point this out A more correct approach to the analysis would be how many of the English edition sell in North America versus how many sell, say in England or Europe. I’d like to confine the parameters to the North American market since that’s where the phenomenons we’re discussing seem to be concentrated.
Details of the sales of the US edition of Shonen Jump can be found here., etc
I reiterate: get the statement of ownership. That’s the IcV2 article and it may be sourced from the promotion department of the magazine (no offense intended!)
There are anecdotal reports of some places ordering large quantities of the Shonen Jump issues with the special card inserts, tossing the magazines and just stocking and selling the cards.
Well, honestly I never considered the returns or the overstocks. I wonder how many copies are selling through. I can tell you our experience: #1 sold exceptionally well. We did close to 100 copies, counting reorders(retail sales only). #’s 2 though 5 maintained decent levels at 50 to 75 copies sellthrough (again retail sdales only). (Assuming some 3000 comic specialty retailers, that would put things at a healthy 150,000 if that could be an average number from big to small accounts. This would not count other outlets, so it’s conceivable that half again that many might be sold, or even more. Now, #6 dropped like a rock, and so did #7. #8 (I believe that was the one with the CD), went back throiugh the roof. Since then sales have been lacklustre at best. Maybe 10 or 15, and we’re not doing anything different than before. If that has held true for everyone, then there are many copies either langouring in back rooms or being returned (which doesn’t affect the comic specialty store market because they are not returnable! Yet another advantage the chains get that hard working independents miss out on!) More on this immediately.
Ah. Clearly you’ve never actually read any manga, so it’s hard to take your opinions here seriously.
Bad news: Not only do we read a representative sampling of every single title, but we also offer every single title, with maybe the odd exception of something like poorly selling Comicsone books or Celestial Zone, some of which I wouldn’t really class as absolutely manga, but that’s a separate subject. Have you any concept of what kind of inventory that entails right now, let alone six months from now??! We also read the Tokyopop samplers, the pre-release info we’re made privy to which many of you might not be, the synopses in catalogues, and frankly anything else we can get our hands on, and that includes many of the art books which are released (which are honestly quite beautiful). Heck, we even read the HENTAI (Woah, baby!)Some of the books are quite frankly tough to follow, ostensibly because something may be lost in the translation. Some have holes in the continuity again probably caused by the change to English. An example I can cite since it’s one that sticks: Vampire Game. Very tough to follow. And, despite what you may say, if you look at the art styles in most of the books, they do not significantly differ in the majority of cases.
Here: compare Will Eisner to Joe Kubert to Todd McFarlane to Alex Ross to Carmine Infantino to Dave Sim to Randy Green to Simon Bisley to Humberto Ramos to Leinil Yu to Ðìçk Giordano to Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to I don’t know how many hundreds of others working in non-manga comics. They are all distinct. The manga artists in my opinion all have that underlying “cartoony” style, the same style that DC tried with Superman (AARGH!). Who stands out in Manga? For sure Shirow (he’s my favorite), perhaps Clamp. definitely Kawaguchi (Eagle was an excellent series which was largely overlooked by many)and I dunno, maybe a couple of others, but for the most part, sorry…..they just look like similar styles.
And do many collectors try to buy every single American comic on the racks, or do they take advantage of that variety to shop around and buy what interests them?
The sad part here is that many really great series published independently never get the audience they deserve either because they are lost in the shuffle or because again, not everyone can afford everything, nor are they expected to. The difference is that in many of these cases we are referring to many different independent publishers each slogging away on a very few titles versus larger corporations who are quite frankly starting to flood the market with a great many titles. The market may embrace them in the short run, but the economics of the situation dictate that in the long run the market cannot and will not absorb them to the extent that needs to happen for sustainability at the much higher price point.
I don’t think many people buy every manga because it’s manga, any more than fans of books buy every book that comes out. Romance fans can buy romance manga; action fans can buy action manga. (But since you don’t understand that there are different types of manga, I suppose this argument will fall on deaf ears. You sound like the people who assume that all American comics are lowest-common-denominator superhero slugfests…)
I perfectly understand that there are different types of Manga. Remember, we read ’em. But that argument refers to STORY. I’m referring to ART. It’s true that people have choice. But in the case of Manga we’ve observed an interesting phenomenon which you actually allude to: namely readers who buy for example ROMANCE Manga want to buy ALL Romance Manga. And so on. I have watched this day to day because I’m often put in the “which one would you choose?” dilemma when a person can’t afford them all. It’s frustrating to the customer. Want more frustration? Try not having all issues of a Manga title available constantly. I have seen many times where a potential reader will not buy a volume 2 of a Manga title without the volume 1, even though the former likely has a synopsis of the latter! Then they wait for the first one to show up on reorder, the second one sells to someone else, and the first customer complains that there’s no stock!! Want some more frustration? OK, I’ll bet what’s MOST frustrating to many retailers is that the majority of the fans of Manga are FEMALE and when they come in, they go DIRECTLY for the Manga, select what they can, and then DIRECTLY check out. Wouldn’t it be something if we could get them to look at the other stuff they’re missing!? But they don’t even notice. They don’t even WANT to notice. Now THAT’S frustrating!! As to the last crack about slugfests, I’m actually the kind of comics fan who leans towards the likes of Gardner Fox, John Broome, Stan Lee, Garth Ennis, Brian Michael Bendis, many others, and yes, PETER DAVID who can craft a story within 24 pages that has MEAT on its bones, a plausible hook, terrific character development, a basis in scientific fact, great humor, and terrific plot devices and advancement. So there! Nyahh!
Well said. I’d love to put a copy of say, “Planetes”, “Battle Royale” and “GTO” in front of this guy and see if he’s still willing to make that claim.
Sorry Simon. Read ’em all. Better would be some of the examples I cite above.
There are as many different art styles in Manga as there are in American comics, ranging from the virtually photorealistic to Disneyfied cartoony, to the big eyed, panty flashing, speed lined style that folks like Mr. Krolik associate with the form.
See my remarks above. There you go looking at Hentai again. Naughty boy!
Manga is a medium not a genre, it’s just a pity that until the last couple of years one portion of that medium represented 90% of everything that got translated into English.
Actually the word almost literally tarnslates into “comics” from the Japanese. Comics are a medium. The Manga style of comics is a genre within that medium, just as the superhero style of comics is a genre within that medium. Your last comment may be a fair one, so I’d like to see what lies in store for future translation.
Well, let’s see tomorrow who I teed off with this set of rebuttals.
I really like the serial nature of comics and “staying tuned” for another exciting issue, but I’ve given up on collecting most Marvel monthlies because the advertising is so, so frustrating. Page of artwork, page of ads, page of artwork, page of ads. I once sat down and went through an issue of Daredevil with a friend and I wish I could remember the number of actual sequential pages of artwork we tallied – something very low. It’s like having a television show interrupted every five minutes with a commercial.
Not to mention the ads themselves – it’s mega dissonance to be reading this fairly sophisticated crime drama on alternate pages and the rest of the time have to skim over insulting anti-tobacco ads, promos for kids’ toys and cereals, the occasional sexist video game ad, and so on. I know that they’re trying to reach their main target markets, but it makes me feel out of place. Sometimes I wish they really would get their act together and figure out what should be marketed to kids and what should be marketed to adults and then assign the ads correspondingly.
A more correct approach to the analysis would be how many of the English edition sell in North America versus how many sell, say in England or Europe. I’d like to confine the parameters to the North American market since that’s where the phenomenons we’re discussing seem to be concentrated.
I already did. The American Jump is the ONLY English version available ANYWHERE, as far as I know, and Viz can’t sell it anywhere except North America. So when they show their sales figures, that’s it. That’s all confined to NA.
Well, honestly I never considered the returns or the overstocks. I wonder how many copies are selling through. I can tell you our experience…
Ah, the old “if it’s not selling here, it must not be selling anywhere” logic. Dirk Deppey has a pretty hefty response to that.
And I hate to tell you this, but comic stores are about the last place most people would find Shonen Jump. It’s much easier to get it at a drug store, grocery store (I’ve even found Raijin there), video store, bookstore, or music store. Is it any wonder why the book barely registers on Diamond’s lists?
I have seen many times where a potential reader will not buy a volume 2 of a Manga title without the volume 1, even though the former likely has a synopsis of the latter!
Considering most manga series are self-contained, finite stories, it doesn’t make sense to expect people to start in the middle of the storyline. It’s not like American comics where you have multiple story arcs and “jumping-on” points. When you’re investing in a series, you’re investing in the whole series.
Then they wait for the first one to show up on reorder, the second one sells to someone else, and the first customer complains that there’s no stock!! Want some more frustration?
You know, this is probably one reason why the bulk of manga sales are in bookstores. They go out of their way to keep different volumes of manga in stock and keep multiple volumes on the shelves, and reorder when they sell out.
OK, I’ll bet what’s MOST frustrating to many retailers is that the majority of the fans of Manga are FEMALE
Wait…that’s a BAD thing?
and when they come in, they go DIRECTLY for the Manga, select what they can, and then DIRECTLY check out. Wouldn’t it be something if we could get them to look at the other stuff they’re missing!? But they don’t even notice. They don’t even WANT to notice. Now THAT’S frustrating!!
Because you’re not there to give the customers what YOU want. You’re there to give them what THEY want. I mean, you’re complaining over the fact that females are coming into your store and buying your product? Most retail outlets would be THRILLED to sell ANY of their stock.
You said manga’s a fad that’ll burn out, and you keep comparing it to the speculation craze. Have you by chance read Steven Grant’s column from last week? He explains things far more clearly and knowledgably than I ever could. In fact, this week’s column has this
COMMENT:
“A woman I know who used to work in Marvel editorial just got a job teaching, and when she announced to one of her classes – eighth graders – that she used to work at Marvel, one student said, to general consensus, “Their comics suck.”
The good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any stigma anymore to being a kid and publicly admitting you read comics. The bad news should be self-evident.”
And on that note, here’s a thread of manga fans responding to Grant’s column, essentially expressing all their grievances with Marvel, DC, and the whole system of American comics.
“Not to be insensitive, but really, what is the point here?
–Skring
I think your reply has to do more with tact in parts per se rather than insensitivity, nice try though. I’d have appreciated a simple, “Care to elaborate on?” or “I don’t understand what you mean when you wrote…”
So why did you bother to answer at length then?
So I gather from you it’s a matter of perspective with you being a retailer whereas I am not one. I am in no way decrying my loss of comic’s worth/value. Perhaps you thought so because I mentioned a $50 amount of comics I didn’t need any longer. If I felt that way I’d have brought up how I got rid of all my Marvel comics in the 90s at a lost after the spectator boom. Indeed I’m aware how retailers continually struggle with stock that won’t turn out to buyer, it’d take some nerve of me to compare.
My point was not exactly about having material no one wanted and I couldn’t pawn off, but the thought of buying something (in support) twice, a subject, which came up on this interesting topic. I cited examples where I did this only to wind with a reject book. I don’t think that’s irrelevant. I had many ideas on this discussion and tried to post asap so I apologize for my lack of clarity or poor string of thoughts. Further, it was brought up in a post prior to mine how one could trade in single issues for the TPB, but I illustrated a point where that does NOT (always) happen. It’d kind of be cool though, if folks wishing to, could trade them evenly, in some cases be it with their comic shop or direct from the publisher.
I do like how PAD offered to sign his sig for fans doing SASE. Although, when I think of people doing that sort of thing I normally imagine they’d want it personalized—not to make a quick auction sale.
I also didn’t get a chance to mention how I’ve noticed some poor decisions with manga graphic novels where they’re inconsistent with advertised chronology, such as: Maison Ikkoku going from numbers to strictly titles. BOTI was a pain to convert, easily, the singles to trade due to all the mini-chapters (1 of 6, type thing) versus just a numbered sequence (1,2,3…). The point here was also how all the publisher’s tend to have printing issues; I wasn’t picking on just one company in case anyone, by chance, thought I was.
I forgot to mention how Hellboy has directors cuts in its TPB with revised artwork too, and that’s a cool perk. I think someone else already mentioned it. Ah, there are just so many variables, but I’ve found the dialogue on this subject most interesting and many folks brought up things I hadn’t considered before like how/why TPBs, in some cases, tend to be more cost effective for the buyer.
To Alex Scott:
Thanks for takoing some of my points and responding to them. My turn:
Firstly, why would Viz only be allowed to sell an English book in North America? That doesn’t make sense considering there are places like Australia, England, and New Zealand (to name but three) that I’m told have some pretty good-sized English-speaking populations.
Ah, the old “if it’s not selling here, it must not be selling anywhere” logic.
And I hate to tell you this, but comic stores are about the last place most people would find Shonen Jump. It’s much easier to get it at a drug store, grocery store (I’ve even found Raijin there), video store, bookstore, or music store. Is it any wonder why the book barely registers on Diamond’s lists?
Ok, but we’re discussing the Manga phenomenon and the trades phenomenon in comic specialty stores. Therefore what you say above confirms what I’ve been saying: the darn thing doesn’t sell in those venues. Worse, it means there’s a significant population that we are not reaching! If that population could be reached and directed to comic specialty retailers, I suspect that a significant sales uptick for BOTH manga and comic-format books would be the result, as well as the resultant economic boost. Comics specialty retailers need to reach this audience and we need help from the poublishers and distributor to do it…and I’m not just talking about restrictive co-op ad programs. But I digress…..
Considering most manga series are self-contained, finite stories, it doesn’t make sense to expect people to start in the middle of the storyline.
Huh? If the first half of your sentence is correct, then the second half doesn’t make sense. If they are that self-contained, anyone should be able to jump on with any issue. In fact, we’ve found most Manga to be very continuitive (is that a word?)
You know, this is probably one reason why the bulk of manga sales are in bookstores. They go out of their way to keep different volumes of manga in stock and keep multiple volumes on the shelves, and reorder when they sell out.
That’s exactly what we do, but more often than not, the timing of reorders is such that invariably someone comes in while the books are in transit. Annoying but true. In fact, I’ll put our stock of over 1,000 Manga and Trades against any chain bookstore. However, the majority of comic specialty retailers do not have that depth.
Because you’re not there to give the customers what YOU want. You’re there to give them what THEY want. I mean, you’re complaining over the fact that females are coming into your store and buying your product? Most retail outlets would be THRILLED to sell ANY of their stock.
Well, firstly, you split my sentence to make it seem I don’t like Female fans. Absolutely the opposite. Now, I agree with the above, but you’re also there to advise clients on what they MIGHT enjoy if they tried some. But tunnelvision prevails. Independent alternate comics publishers go nuts when they hear about cases like the ones I cite. And I feel their agony, believe me. Think how much healthier the overall market would be if some of those readers would be turned on to some of the independents and become as fanatic about them.
You said manga’s a fad that’ll burn out, and you keep comparing it to the speculation craze.
Actually, I’m just comparing glut to glut. The underlying reason for the glut is irrelevant because all gluts eventually lead to the same result. I will get to that analysis you cite in the next day or two. Thanks.
Again, I want to reiterate: Manga will alwasy be a viable portion of the market. But it won’t be the DOMINANT portion in a healthy market. Tradebacks will always be a viable portion of the market, but if we want to sustain that market, they also should not be dominant portion. The comic-book format in North America has always driven the market and will continue to do so in that market. All the formats need to live in a symbiotic relationship for the entire market to prosper.
I did in fact hit the Steve Grant column and the replies.
Interesting that I espouse (without knowing in advance what he had written) many of the points that he refutes….and many of the points I just made above. We must be psychic.
The most interesting thing though is the replies column, which basically hits the problem on the head:
Y’see, (and if I sound like a dinosaur here I’m sorry…I’m a dinosaur!) back in the 1960s and 1970s (I don’t think current comics are mired there at all as another writer above seemed to intimate), we had writers like Stan Lee and John Broome and Gardner Fox and Otto Binder who could craft a complete, COMPELLING, ENTErTAINING comic book story into 26 pages or less. Nowadays, plots are drawn out over multiple issues. (Yes, I know I’m gonna contradict some of the examples of great writing I cite in my previous postings. Just go with me for a minute.)
So in the “good old days”, comics cost anywhere from 12 to 15 cents all the way up to 35 cents, and contained those stories. So what’s the real cost of a comic book story nowadays? Is it $2.25. Nope. It’s usually $12 to $15 or more, WHETHER OR NOT YOU’RE BUYING THE TRADE.
And there my friends is the REAL problem in American comic book format publications!
Now, a few years ago DC brought out a “reminiscent” series called Silver Age. And weren’t they great? They showed that writers today can write just like the ones back in the good old days, crafting a complete and compelling story in about 24 to 26 pages in a single book.
So why don’t they do great storylines like the good old days nowadays, and give you something for your $2.25 a crack?
And before someone tells me I’m living in the past, in the past a poorly selling title would be cancelled in those good old days at sales of around 70 to 75 thousand. Today publishers dream of such circulations for many titles that barely reach 25 thousand!
Manga titles do exactly that. But they do it still at a $9.95 price point, and believe me when I tell you that the publishers of those books are laughing all the way to the bank, because the costs of production of small-size books like that are MINIMAL compared to the ending retail price!
American and Canadian publishers….wake up and find a way to give readers a better value for dollar ratio than this and you will solve your own problems very very quickly because thw word will spread very very quickly.
Ach…..I’m just getting frustrated again. And I do love comic books so much. Honestly I do folks……
Firstly, why would Viz only be allowed to sell an English book in North America? That doesn’t make sense considering there are places like Australia, England, and New Zealand (to name but three) that I’m told have some pretty good-sized English-speaking populations.
Because they only hold the North American rights and not the English-speaking rights. This was also recently an issue with the various licensed 80s properties like Transformers and GIJoe.
Huh? If the first half of your sentence is correct, then the second half doesn’t make sense. If they are that self-contained, anyone should be able to jump on with any issue. In fact, we’ve found most Manga to be very continuitive (is that a word?)
They are self-contained in that there are five volumes of Adolf, and that’s it. Forever. No other reading of any other books is necessary. There are 6 volumes of Akira, and that’s it. Forever. Compare that to the thousands and thousands of Spider-Man comics that have appeared through the years, which, even if they were all collected, would span many more volumes than most manga.
That’s exactly what we do, but more often than not, the timing of reorders is such that invariably someone comes in while the books are in transit. Annoying but true.
I don’t really see what the problem is here. The customer is right for wanting to look for the volumes in sequence instead of feeling forced to buy a later volume that is currently in stock while waiting for a more recent volume to be restocked. The store is right for stocking all the volumes in the first place, and if one happens to be unavailable at any given moment due to the vagaries of the retail business, the best that can be done is to offer to reserve one for the customer when they come in and give them a call to let them know it has arrived. The customer, of course, is free to decline and search elsewhere. None of this should be causing any frustration to either side.
Now, I agree with the above, but you’re also there to advise clients on what they MIGHT enjoy if they tried some. But tunnelvision prevails. Independent alternate comics publishers go nuts when they hear about cases like the ones I cite. And I feel their agony, believe me. Think how much healthier the overall market would be if some of those readers would be turned on to some of the independents and become as fanatic about them.
If they’re that “tunnelvisioned,” have you tried offering them a money-back guarantee on some trade that you’re very certain they’re likely to enjoy?
The comic-book format in North America has always driven the market and will continue to do so in that market.
I see no reason to believe that it must be the driving format. It’s all up to the customers, and if they decide that format is no longer desirable, it will adapt or die.
Quick replies.
Self-contaiend means one story in one book. The more correct term would have been multi-part finite series. Incidentally, some of them are pretty large series. ranma comes to mind immediately.
The customer is right for wanting to look for the volumes in sequence instead of feeling forced to buy a later volume that is currently in stock while waiting for a more recent volume to be restocked.
Right. except the customer complains when the later volume is then out of stock even as the earlier one is restocked. The retailer cannot win. The customer often can’t be convinced to get the later volume and hold on to it while waitiung for the earlier one, so as to avoid the problem. The customer often says it has something to do with willpower about reading it or something like that. It’s silly, but true. And that is indeed very frustrating.
If they’re that “tunnelvisioned,” have you tried offering them a money-back guarantee on some trade that you’re very certain they’re likely to enjoy?
Do it all the time. 80% of that time the customer declines. The other 20% accept. That’s tunnelvision folks. We’ve had exactly one, count it…ONE dissatisfied reaction over the years.
I see no reason to believe that it must be the driving format. It’s all up to the customers, and if they decide that format is no longer desirable, it will adapt or die.
That’s a fair comment, but remember what I said earlier: when the comic book format disappears, all specialty shops become by default “just another independent bookstore”. Right now those types of stores are disappearing due to the influence of the chains and other mass marketers. There are a few exceptions, but not many. Wouldn’t it be a shame if it became a self-fulfilling prophecy? Then you and everyone else could moan about what might have been. Let’s try and avoid that situation, shall we?
Do it all the time. 80% of that time the customer declines. The other 20% accept. That’s tunnelvision folks. We’ve had exactly one, count it…ONE dissatisfied reaction over the years.
Tunnelvision is fairly normal. I remember my days in a shop, and getting a Marvel Zombie to even consider buying a book with a DC bullet on the cover (much less a Indy) was next to impossible.
Once people get locked in on a certain type of comic, they tend to want to focus on like-minded stuff. Manga fans want manga comics. Vertigo fans want Vertigo comics. Super-hero fans want super-hero comics. Considering the amount of manga available these days, you can easily keep the manga tunnelvisioners buying from your store.
I still remember the SANDMAN fans, who came in *solely* for SANDMAN, and there was precious little you could even mildly tempt them with… maybe Alan Moore’s SWAMP THING or HELLBLAZER or an outside chance with CEREBUS. It was a really, really thin slice of the market back then. A few months back, I ran into a woman in a bookstore who was a big SANDMAN fan, and I able to rattle off half a dozen titles she might find interesting without even thinking hard.
A few months back, I ran into a woman in a bookstore who was a big SANDMAN fan, and I able to rattle off half a dozen titles she might find interesting without even thinking hard.
The most obvious being LUCIFER…
This is a fascinating discussion — I was pointed here by someone who highlighted the fan/creator relationship questions, but folks seem to be focusing on the comics-culture issues instead.
That said, as someone who didn’t grow up reading comics, the idea of going to a specialized shop once a month for a tiny little pamphlet I finish reading in minutes (and kind of pricey at that), then repeating that move for months so I can get the whole story… nah. I tried it with one series I was particularly interested in, and got about two issues in before I tired of having to wait a full month for the next story installment, not to mention the realization that there was no easy way to get hold of back issues. So I waited for the TPB and bought that. Maybe I lack some essential comics-fan ingredient; all I know is that I enjoy reading stories all at once in easy-to-handle-and-store formats.
Oh, one other point, since we’re going on about meal tickets — I’m a professor. Once in awhile I assign TPBs (or, as I tell my colleagues, “graphic novels”) for reading in undergraduate classes. Academic sales are a potentially huge market for some types of comics, but they pretty much depend on the availability of a book.
That said, as someone who didn’t grow up reading comics, the idea of going to a specialized shop once a month for a tiny little pamphlet I finish reading in minutes (and kind of pricey at that), then repeating that move for months so I can get the whole story… nah. I tried it with one series I was particularly interested in, and got about two issues in before I tired of having to wait a full month for the next story installment, not to mention the realization that there was no easy way to get hold of back issues.
Monthly comic reading is a bit of a hobbyist medium–and I don’t say that as an insult, having spent over a decade happily collecting comics before switching over to the more convient TPBs. It really shouldn’t come as too big of a surprise that those who don’t grow up inside the hobby find our ways more than a bit perplexing.
I sort of get the sense the industry is growing into something else. The 22-page comic may not survive, but the TPB may not be the format that surpasses it… we could see a return to anthology magazines (SHONEN JUMP) or toward digest-sized graphic novels (the most popular manga format). For all we know, the TPB may die out, only to be replaced by the cheaper digests.
And it is pretty gratifying to see the quality material the industry has been putting out the past few decades finding their way into the hands of outsiders. Although if teachers insist on making students read comics, then how are kids going to enjoy them? 🙂
(From the shadows of the Dom in Koeln — )
P., my old comrade, and sharer of my husband’s name —
Re: the “How dare you be a Pro (unspoken: “Filthy P.”) and be on the Net and be *listening to what we say about you* and even responding to what we say” thing:
You take a big deep breath. And then you utter (not where anyone else can hear, of course) (except maybe Harlan) the mantra:
“Those who mind don’t matter. Those who matter don’t mind.”
Repeat as necessary.
Besides, all this should slip off you like water off the duck’s back…because you’re still a fan at heart. And so am I. We just happen to have pursued our fandom fiercely enough that the Powers that Be(TM) started paying us for the results.
If the fandom-that-is doesn’t like it…TOUGH. Where were *they* when Page One was blank?
(Ooo, did that sound cranky? Maybe it’s my blood sugar.)
You just get on with your work and dip into the Net and speak to the readers when you like. They’re lucky to have you. They’re lucky to have as much of your time as they vouchsafe them. If you *weren’t* out and about the Net, there’d be people as snarky about it. (“Stuck up…couldn’t be bothered with his fans…you’d think he couldn’t afford a news aggregator…” )
😉
Regards —
D.