Comic Books Comic Book • Page 375

Jordie is just so good.

 

Digging Avengers of the Wasteland. Everything in this timeline rules

 

y i k e s . . .

 

I love Javier Rodriguez so much.

 

I picked this up earlier this week. Looking forward to reading it soon.

Really enjoying the Mary Jane comic. That's a beautiful variant!

 

Tynion's Batman is ramping up, he always needs some time to build and it's always worth it. Probably going to make for an excellent first trade.

Super sad that Snyder and Tynion's Justice League is over...It was perfect. I like Vendetti and the first issue of his run seems like it could be fun but still. Having to acclimate for both of these series from my favorite writers is tough.

 

Picked up my pull list today, which I was about a month behind on... which was a surprising amount of books, but that included two now wrapped up miniseries plus an unusual amount of double shipping, so things should be back to normal.

Anyways, in spite of that, & in spite of passing on 3 different one-shots I thought about grabbing but decided to hold off on, I ended up buying a facsimile edition of something I already own in trade. I've only bought one prior facsimile, Amazing Fantasy #15, which was worth it both for the rare non-superhero Ditko backup stories & to see how Spidey's origin looked in context, but have otherwise found $3.99 for old comics obnoxious when the $1 True Believers line exists. However, that Amazing Spider-Man #347 by Michelinie & Larsen, where Spidey & Venom fight on the island, just looked so nostalgic & nice on that paper.

 

I've fallen off all the Dawn of X books except for the main X-Men title. Anything worth picking up? Thinking about keeping up with X-Force, but don't know beyond that

 

I honestly wonder how much it costs to print comics. I feel like the price point of a lot of single issues deters people. And the wait time on trades still seems to be pretty lengthy for those of us who prefer those. Publishing schedules also seem to be getting crazier and hard to keep up with when they do stuff like House/Powers of X.

 

Keep up with X-Force for sure. Marauders and New Mutants are still pretty solid.

Issue #1 of the X-Men/Fantastic Four mini-series by Chip Zdarsky just came out. It's off to a good start.

 

X-Force is the only one I'm reading. It's good. Entertained dropping it w/ some of that obnoxious double-shipping, but w/ that big second wave of titles in the sping, I think they're gonna stick closer to monthly now. I hope so, at least.

I dunno. Like, an issue of ASM in 1993 cost $1.25, which is only $2.21 in 2019 dollars according to the inflation calculator I just googled. But, it was printed on newsprint during the 90s; an issue of the first Venom miniseries on nicer paper in the same year was $2.95, $5.22 adjusted for inflation. And, around 400,000 copies, compared to the $70,000 that ASM would sell in 2019, which obviously would affect printing prices. And, I'd imagine that circulation would also affect ad revenues?

(It's also worth noting that, while $3.99 has become industry standard, there are rare exceptions. When Saga went on hiatus, I think it was still maintaining the $2.99 price tag.)

Marvel releases a lot of dollar reprint one-shots under the "True Believers" banner, typically multiple every month, which has been going on for a long time. Which, DC has been pursuing the same strategy & has even discussed at one point maybe making an ongoing monthly dollar reprint series. So, when paying creators for new content is taken out of the equation, clearly paper costs aren't too prohibitive, though I dunno what the markup for shops is on those.

The weirdest thing to me is the whole $3.99 price, $4.99 for oversized issues, for the facsimile editions; the quality seems nicer, & it recreates the original ads, but still seems like overkill. Even worse is that Marvel Tales one-shot series, which packages 3-4 old stories together into one floppy w/ a new Jen Bartel cover... for $7.99, the cost of a new comic w/ 60 or so pages of new content, which is how many pages Marvel Tales carries. And, each one-shot is thematically unified but contains 3 disconnected stories, each one often just one issue out of what was a multi-issue story, w/ a note at the end to check out some trade. So, it's an eight dollar advertisement. Why can't they at least package standalone issues, or 3 consecutive issues?

And, yeah, that doesn't even get into double-shipping, or the occasional triple-shipped or weekly story, w/ oversized & thus pricier issues included in that schedule.

I'm down to just 5 comics on my pull, & as much as I've thought about adding certain things here & there, I think I gotta cap myself at that.

 

been waiting for Tynion's run. happy to hear this. looking forward to reading when it hits DCU, unless i just end up buying the trade haha

 

cost and space pulled me away from single issues. i just don't go back to them and storing them is such a chore. trades at least i can showcase on a bookshelf, and easily grab and read an arc or take it with me to work instead of a pile a single issues. and then even keeping up with digital, between delays and me personally having a hard time necessarily remembering where i left off in what comic a month or so prior, i just couldn't do it anymore. it was fun to collect while it lasted, but wasn't working for me.

 

This was a much longer reply than I anticipated hah. But it’s appreciated! I wonder how DC’s deal with Walmart ultimately went. I bought a few is the books but haven’t read them yet. They were at a $10 price point and printed on a lesser quality paper than single issues or trades.

I guess you also have to factor in digital sales now too, which they make more from since I imagine since there’s no physical printing being done.

The publishing industry in general is just interesting to me. Like why is a Kindle book often more than a paperback on Amazon? Makes 0 sense. But anyway, I digress. I just hope that comic book stores can stay alive. I don’t have one all that close by, but I try to pick something up when I do go at least.

 

I said a lot 'cause there's a lot to think about, which I think about a lot, lol.

Those square bound Walmart books are actually only $4.99, which makes the $7.99 Marvel Tales that much more puzzling, though the Walmart ones are on cheaper paper. Though, I think the regular DC floppies in shops are on the same uncoated pages now? So, I don't know why they haven't tried to revive their beloved old $2.99 price point, at least for a few monthly titles.

Anyways, they've really doubled down on the Walmart thing, so it's clearly working out well enough for them. And, the books now have a delayed release in shops at the same price, instead of being Walmart exclusive long term. The one experiment I want DC to try w/ that format is the same I want from Marvel Tales: collect consecutive issues & make 'em standalone instead of parts of an ongoing story. Like, I think you could fit all of Batman: Year One in one of those? Imagine being able to buy Batman: Year One from Walmart for five bucks.

Also wonder what would happen if, say, they combined Detective Comics & their Batman Giant series. Shops would probably be mad if Detective Comics started landing in Walmart weeks before they got 'em. But, if you made original numbering Detective Comics into a $4.99 monthly comic w/ a new story & a few reprinted old stories w/ characters & ideas from that new story, would that bring in new regular readers?

Digital is also weird 'cause new issues have to cost the same amount as the print copies in shops, or shops will riot. Really, I love shops, but the inability to rejuvinate comics as a medium w/out angering the nerds who keep the current mainstream comic industry kind of alive... sucks, lol.

 

I could have sworn the ones I bought were $9.99 each but maybe I bought two at once and that got me confused lol. So $4.99 is definitely way better! I think Walmart is certainly more accessible to people. Where I moved in CO, there’s a Walmart in town but to get to a comic book store I have to go into Colorado Springs. I think they could play around with what they release at Walmart. Do some more kids titles and see if they get a new generation interested.

Comic shops are definitely in a weird spot. A lot that I see doing well also have a bunch of other merch that they sell (Funkos, figures, etc.) and one I went to in CA even had an art gallery in one half and did art shows.

 

I totally get why comic shops sell sideline items like Funko Pops, etc. Working at an indie bookstore for years has been eye opening for me - toys, journals, and trinkets all basically keep our shop in business. It's a weird sad reality to realize books alone can't sustain a bookstore and I'm not surprised that applies to comic shops.

 

Yeah it seems like that’s the best option for them right now. At least most of the stuff they sell is actually comic book-related usually. One of the local stores does a book club and people pay to participate (they provide pizza and drinks), so building a community like that probably helps too.

 

A lot of comic shops have, like, Magic, D&D, etc. nights. A friend of mine started playing D&D at our local shop.

There's one dope shop in Pittsburgh, called Copacetic Comics, that just forgoes the whole pull list, Diamond, etc. model, instead being the indie bookstore of comic shops. (And, also have some books, Criterion movies, etc.) Huge zine collection. Some mainstream things on occasionally, but mostly things by, like, Jaime Hernandez or Katie Skelly or Adrian Tomine. Love it.

Really wanna start a small library someday w/ a significant comics selection. Like, a library focused on genre stuff, high art, kitsch, niche, a fun, weird mix of stuff. Would be such a cool place.

 

That library sounds like such a good idea.

 

My LCS does a lot of similar events too. Lately they've been hosting viewing parties for the Star Trek: Picard series too. They're on top of being community oriented and I love that.

By the way, thanks for indirectly introducing me to that Off Panel podcast. It's so good!

I back that library idea!

 

You’re welcome! It’s hands down my favorite comic book podcast. I’ve listened to some others but they just never stuck with me the way Off Panel did. I also subscribe to his site for his longform pieces.

 

Dope.

 

Went to HPB today and browsed the Graphic novels and now I realize how much I've missed out on in the party couple years and want to catch up.

Anybody completely caught up on Batman currently?
I've been wanting to re-read/finish Snyder and Capullo run and go through King's run. I'm not sure if he's still writing it or not. Is there other Batman books I should also read, I was thinking maybe Detective and Batgirl as well.


Also came across Aquaman written by Kelly Sue and thought that looked cool. Anybody read that?

 

King just finished, though there's a Batman and Catwoman series that is going to tie things up. It's my favorite run of comics I think I've ever read so I'd definitely recommend it. I've been reading all of Detective as well, it's generally really good though nothing too groundbreaking outside of Tynion's run right at the beginning of the Rebirth era. Also caught up on Batgirl, it's been fine, better since the creative team change, still nowhere near as good as Simone's but closer to it. Oh, Marguerite Benneth's short lived Batwoman series is perfect. Catwoman has been good when Jones has the reigns but there have been some questionable art choices that aren't her and some side stories with a different team that were bad. Red Hood like Detective is consistently good but outside of great.

Kelly Sue's Aquaman is great and up until like the very end takes place outside of other continuity so you don't need to be caught up.

If you really want to have some fun try out Snyder and Tynion's Justice League, or even Tynion's Justice League Dark.

And if you like King then pick up Heroes in Crisis.