AC
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Post by AC on Nov 15, 2010 11:48:43 GMT -5
Not sure if this has been posted here yet, I did a search and couldn't find anything. marvel.com/news/comicstories.14529.marvel~colon~_point_one_begins_in_february_2011Marvel Point One. In the shell of a nut, it's Marvel giving us a #x.1 issue of a $3.99 book for the low introductory price of $2.99. If I'm understanding this right, this means, for instance, January will have Wolverine #5 ($3.99), early February will have Wolverine #5.1 ($2.99), late February will have Wolverine #6 ($3.99), with #5.1 being a "new reader friendly" "jump on point" At some of the other message boards/forums I lurk at (can't post at most of them, as they seem to have the words "epic" "fail" and "fanboy" on heavy rotation, with little in between, that is, when they're not writing stories about how Iceman should "totally hook up with" Northstar) this has caused quite a bit of a stir. Mostly with how unclear the entire concept is. I really can't complain. I currently buy 2 $3.99 comics, Uncanny X-Men and Incredible Hulk (the latter is thankfully getting reigned back in to $2.99 shortly). So, this means I'll get an issue of Uncanny at the cost of $2.99... cool. What I "don't get" about this is how this initiative is supposed to bring in new readers. Are Marvel just hoping that some guy just happens to enter a comic book store without realizing it, and before they regain their bearings, the guy behind the counter sells him Invincible Iron Man #500.1, which he reads, falls in love with, and returns month after month for a $4 serving of the same? This illustrates to me just how strange and introverted our hobby is. To non-fans, I think $3 is STILL TOO EXPENSIVE for a single comic book. Us? We're conditioned/addicted, so we'll pay. The companies have been issuing $1 reprint issues of milestone books for the past year... has THAT worked to bring in new readers? If not, I don't think issuing a book at 3x that price will either. In addition, we're going to try to gain new readers, in the continuity heavy, super-confusing world of comic books with an oddly numbered issue. Issue Number Five Point One? Why not just make issue 6 $2.99 and put a banner along the top of the book saying "New Readers Wanted, Apply Within" or something just as silly. I can hardly explain the point-one concept to people who READ comics, let alone those who don't follow comics. Anyhow, just figured I'd drop my two-cents about this... was just going to blog it, but I haven't posted here nearly as often as I'd like. |
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Post by G on Nov 16, 2010 17:59:54 GMT -5
This almost seems like an admission that their stories are jacked up. If I need a .1 to tell me it's time to jump on, you've done lost the concept of conitnuing comic characters in the 1st place. I don't want my comics reduced to just story arcs. I'd rather have the unending something new happens in your life daily scenario that we used to experience. Often enough these story arcs just suck anyway and it's just detatched to the rest of the titles. Just stop putting out comics then and only put out TPB. This stuff is a joke to comics.
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Post by defiant1 on Nov 17, 2010 10:36:37 GMT -5
Obviously, Marvel feels fans are stupid and want to pay an additional $2.99 to understand their convoluted stories. If you really factor it, the big two publisher's have been treating fans like mindless sheep for quite awhilke and exploit their naivete.
df1
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Post by G on Nov 17, 2010 11:47:47 GMT -5
Obviously, Marvel feels fans are stupid and want to pay an additional $2.99 to understand their convoluted stories. If you really factor it, the big two publisher's have been treating fans like mindless sheep for quite awhilke and exploit their naivete. df1 While I agree that most of Image has dropped into nugget mini series, their few ongoing series try to act like it's a continuation. The part that kills me with them is I couldn't tell you the difference between issue #188 and issue #18. They all look the same to me. Todd McFarlane keeps posting Twitter pics for Spawn #200 and it's the same type of Spawn standing there with a big gun kind of pic that we've only seen a million times since 1993. I don't know how that guy keeps peddling the same picture(s) over and over. DC puts out mini series too, but their few ongoings make attempts at seeming like real comics the way they used to be. I don't think they are as bad. The whole thing is everything is being reduced to a story arc or something that can be compacted into a TPB one day. I think it sucks. You look back at say a comic like Amazing Spiderman from say issue 100 - 150. That was an ever changing world where the story just kept going and something different kept happening to him and his every day life. I know I'm old school as hell, but I always felt that was a better way to go. Sure you can have story arcs within the confines of the everyday normal world, but I don't need one story arc to follow another story arc and ect. I don't want to be looking at part 3 of such and such a story. I want to come in and see what is going on in said person's life now and if it looks good keep going....not, now I need part 1, 2 and 4 and I can complete this story. This TPB mentality is killing ongoing comics. |
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AC
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Post by AC on Nov 17, 2010 13:28:10 GMT -5
It almost feels as though the creators are trying to write episodic television instead of comics these days... perhaps in an attempt to springboard themselves into TV writing gigs. Or in hopes that various arcs can be sold separately as straight to DVD animated specials, or video games. It's hard to sell the entirety of "Days of Our Lives" per say, but breaking these stories into bite-size chunks and each having a beginning, middle and end makes it a bit easier to follow and swallow. I still think comics should be comics though... tired of the decompression and trade-baiting.
I've shifted quite hard in favor of DC this past year, which isn't something I'd ever expect... I admit, their writing can be just as paint by numbers "part 1 of 6" as Marvel... but it doesn't quite feel as explicitly so. One of my favorite books our right now is Justice League: Generation Lost. It's a 26 issue bi-weekly maxi-series (which I'm hoping leads to an ongoing, really enjoy the JLI)... but it feels very continuous and isn't just going from beat to beat.
From Marvel I see "Uncanny X-Force" touting a 6 issue story arc for it's start... with $4 price tag on each issue to boot. I just can't make that kind of monetary investment in something like that... especially with my (and I'd venture to guess many other comic fans) tendency to be a completist. I have a hard time dropping series that I've collected for years. Only reason I still pick up Uncanny X-Men is because I have since the late 80's... and it would feel wrong not to.
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Post by G on Nov 17, 2010 17:50:40 GMT -5
It almost feels as though the creators are trying to write episodic television instead of comics these days... perhaps in an attempt to springboard themselves into TV writing gigs. Or in hopes that various arcs can be sold separately as straight to DVD animated specials, or video games. It's hard to sell the entirety of "Days of Our Lives" per say, but breaking these stories into bite-size chunks and each having a beginning, middle and end makes it a bit easier to follow and swallow. I still think comics should be comics though... tired of the decompression and trade-baiting. I think that is it in a nutshell. Since other creators have successfully made their works into movies or tv shows, they are all trying to market themselves to get that chance at superstardom and unlimited cash stream. While on the one hand, you cannot blame them for trying to grab the bigger fish in the pond, I find that on the other hand, it's ruining comics as we originally knew them. Where as before a great run would have come from an ongoing monthly title and be part of a bigger continual story, say as an example....The Dark Phoenix Saga, now they all just forget the bigger story and focus entirely on one run, or saga. While it may be great for eventually TPB sales and potential movie or tv shows, it's killing the ongoing comic book as we once knew it. This obviously is the way it's going to be from here on out. But I have to say I liked it better the way it was before. Before the great runs came from within the greater story and had a more natural progression and ramifications on what took place afterwords. Now it's slap one arc after another and don't give a shit about continuity and cohesion. Before the TPB's came from the great runs. Now the arcs are made almost with TPB's in mind. It doesn't really matter if the run was all that great or not. Just that it have a beginning, middle and end and can be bound in one small volume together. This is not why I liked comics in the 1st place and is why I have a lot against them now. |
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AC
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Post by AC on Nov 19, 2010 11:24:59 GMT -5
Your bringing up things like the Dark Phoenix Saga suddenly made me come to a realization... I think it's indicative of this generation's propensity to but things like "Seasons" of television shows (I've bought my own fair share as well)...
Purchasing a Season of a TV show, will get you good to great episodes, as well as the lackluster ones. The comics industry appears to have followed suit in issuing EVERYTHING as a trade-waitable collection.
15-20 years ago, you could get, say Watchmen, or Crisis, or The Dark Phoenix Saga in trade... as they were seen as being worth the effort to convert and collect. Nowadays, nearly every series goes to trade twice a year. Comparing my bookshelves of 10 years ago to today it's staggering. The books I had were the "elite" comics collections... now, it's just collections of whatever came out a few months ago.
Unfortunately, I don't see this going away anytime soon... honestly, the selling in trades is fine by me... if only they'd stop telling stories in the every six-issue format.
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Back to the Point One thing for a bit... was chatting with a guy who works at a local store here in Phoenix, who was annoyed with the "logic" behind the Point-Ones... as I guess in his store's system, they count reprints on a decimal system, which will confuse not only their computers, but their staff as well several years down the line when trying to assist customers in filling in gaps of their runs.
He too didn't see how this would help raise awareness in comics, and brought up a point that I hadn't even thought of... Young folks today are tech savvy.... and anything with a "point-one" is usually taken as a revision, or an addition on the "point zero" model... So, instead of seeing Iron Man #500.1 as a jump-on point... they'll potentially see it as an "add-on" to Iron Man #500... which totally misses the point of the initiative.
He also agreed that to a non-reader, $3 is still too expensive for a comicbook.
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Post by G on Nov 19, 2010 12:04:06 GMT -5
Your bringing up things like the Dark Phoenix Saga suddenly made me come to a realization... I think it's indicative of this generation's propensity to but things like "Seasons" of television shows (I've bought my own fair share as well)... Purchasing a Season of a TV show, will get you good to great episodes, as well as the lackluster ones. The comics industry appears to have followed suit in issuing EVERYTHING as a trade-waitable collection. 15-20 years ago, you could get, say Watchmen, or Crisis, or The Dark Phoenix Saga in trade... as they were seen as being worth the effort to convert and collect. Nowadays, nearly every series goes to trade twice a year. Comparing my bookshelves of 10 years ago to today it's staggering. The books I had were the "elite" comics collections... now, it's just collections of whatever came out a few months ago. Unfortunately, I don't see this going away anytime soon... honestly, the selling in trades is fine by me... if only they'd stop telling stories in the every six-issue format. That's a great point Ace! Comics did combine all the good with the bad just like anything and the TPB's used to give you the "Best Of" feeling. Sorta like a "Greatest Hits" album from a band. Now every comic run is destined for a TPB whether it was great or not. It's 6-12 issues slapped together and dang it, it needs to be a TPB. I think it has diluted both the comics and the TPB's. And just like you, I don't see it changing either.... |
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