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Post by defiant1 on May 6, 2011 18:33:35 GMT -5
In today's market, they would be morons. If it was your favorite comic and you were buying every issues and roughing the storms when they didn't depict what you want to see, then there is a sense of pride to be had. When IDW prints 80 VARIANTS AND PEOPLE TRY TO GET AS MANY AS POSSIBLE... HELL NO. Caps lock was an accident, but I'm leaving it. df1 IDW came up with this idea for Godzilla: King of the Monsters #1 if a store orders at least 500 copies they would get a special variant of Godzilla's foot smashing their store and the store's sign/logo would be shown and at least 80 stores agreed to it (including the LCS that I go to). The plus is that they got a more orders for it, the downside is that I think a lot of stores will get stuck with a ton of these books that will just wind up in the junk box. Hell I went to another store and they had a short box on the counter next to cash register filled with a bunch of worthless Marvel variants for $1 (or maybe it was $5) per book because NO ONE wanted the damn things. I hope it puts a bunch out of business. Seriously. Comic shops are run on a thin profit margin. They are typically not run by the brightest business minds and that is a lot of comics to preorder when they likely have less than 20 people who would normally order it. If the variants aren't wanted, then they've run off the people who take pride in owning a set of something. I saw them sit around locally, but it was because they were overpriced. df1
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Post by defiant1 on May 6, 2011 18:54:41 GMT -5
To understand a comic company and the attrition these days, you have to understand the mindset. Companies are tasked with increasing sales. Profit is their motive. At some point, they released a variant and sales increased. Readership didn't increase, but they were proud of themselves. Collectors either bought it or didn't. The collectors who didn't, were only buying for the story. They are flighty, not loyal, and will go seek out the next story or creator that interests them. The people who bought it either fell for the hype that variants are cool, or they were completists. Completists stick through a title for better or worse... at least that's their intent, but nobody really wants the "or worse" part. At some point, the cost that a retailer has to charge for variants starts taxing a collector's wallet. He just can't justify spending the extra money. He either quits being a completist or he drops another title and tries to keep up with the one. It decreases readership of secondary titles. Eventually the writing starts hitting the "or worse" stage and he can't justify double or triple the expense just to buy duplicates of a comic that isn't doing it for him. It creates attrition with regards to readership. The people who thought they were cool realize they aren't really that cool a year or two after they came out. They feel "scammed". The publisher sees sales drop, so they create harder to get variants. Sales increase, but again, the readership is unable to keep up financially. More loyal completists hang it up. Then the publisher decides not to do a variant one month. That's when they see the true fruits of their marketing. Sales drop lower than they've ever seen. They panic and release another variant. Sales bump up, so they assume that variants must be helping. It's a repeat cycle.
Readers on the other hand just expect a good story. They come and go on a whim. They wait for the TPB's. They'll drop a book in a heartbeat. They may or may nor ever come back depending upon what the market offers. They hop on board when a character dies, then jump back off afterwards. The publishers assume that shock events are luring in future readers. In most cases that isn't true. They are just curious. Nothing more. After awhile, they become immune to the shock factor and really start wanting something better and more consistent. The publishers are simply abusing both groups and wonder why the sales are dropping. It's all very shallow.
df1
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Post by G on Dec 12, 2012 18:52:00 GMT -5
Every now and then I see work by Liefeld and think he has improved just a slight degree and then I see work like this and not only do I think Liefeld still sucks but I continually realize just how bad comics are. This is the same garbage Liefeld was doing in 1992.....1992!!!! How can it be that comics have allowed something like this to take place and run rampant for 20 years now??? And it's not just him.... It's a complete decision to be perfectly satisfied with inferior CRAP!!! I still believe the founders of Image. The breakaway group that went to form Image. That moment in comics. That was when comics jumped the shark. Before then, honest craftsmanship took place in comics. For literally 60 years before that, comics was a craft. You had to constantly improve and tell stories, and DRAW BACKGROUNDS and BE DYNAMIC!!! Since then....You can get away with Coloring Book pages THOUSANDS OF TIMES OVER!!! And still the dipshit consumers of today support it. I can only shake my head in disgust at the hobby I once loved.
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Post by defiant1 on Dec 13, 2012 20:09:51 GMT -5
Every now and then I see work by Liefeld and think he has improved just a slight degree and then I see work like this and not only do I think Liefeld still sucks but I continually realize just how bad comics are. This is the same garbage Liefeld was doing in 1992.....1992!!!! How can it be that comics have allowed something like this to take place and run rampant for 20 years now??? And it's not just him.... It's a complete decision to be perfectly satisfied with inferior CRAP!!! I still believe the founders of Image. The breakaway group that went to form Image. That moment in comics. That was when comics jumped the shark. Before then, honest craftsmanship took place in comics. For literally 60 years before that, comics was a craft. You had to constantly improve and tell stories, and DRAW BACKGROUNDS and BE DYNAMIC!!! Since then....You can get away with Coloring Book pages THOUSANDS OF TIMES OVER!!! And still the dipshit consumers of today support it. I can only shake my head in disgust at the hobby I once loved. The MOST sickening thing is the $4.99 price. Not only are you getting crap, but you are paying through the nose. df1
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Post by G on Dec 14, 2012 0:08:28 GMT -5
Man, when I think what I used to get for 35 cents (And less)....$5 for a piece of shit is just foolish. I used to buy works of art for less than 10% of the price. Complete pieces of work with tons of storylines and cliffhangers to keep you coming back.
I really have no idea how many times I've seen Liefeld draw some dumb ass shit like this and it STILL sells for 10 times the price. I swear you can get the same Youngblood Covers from 1992. The same Spawn covers from 1995 (For a time they tried to make Spawn a different cover, now it's just a pose every month). I swear.....I have no idea how comics ever got this bad. I'm so pissed the powers that be didn't throw these guys out on their ear. When I see cliff notes and read stories about how GREAT pieces of work used to get REJECTED and REDONE because it didn't meet Standards, I cringe to think how it's ANYTHING goes for the past 20 years. Same cover, different year.
No thanks. My day had it way better. I won't budge on it.
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Post by G on Dec 14, 2012 0:12:48 GMT -5
Oh and btw, I got this off a Facebook page I like just to see news. Under it was like 200 comments. It was like 95% bad. One person noted that you never see an archer with the arrow on the OUTSIDE of the bow. Another said, after 20 years and all this money made, Liefeld STILL can't draw feet. It was one negative comment after another but people still buy it....
So this presented the 5% argument from the other side that kept saying the same thing. The ONLY DEFENSE I read was "Liefeld has been doing his thing all these years and taking it to the BANK. So he obviously does SOMETHING right."
For the 5%....that was the ONLY defense they used.
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Post by G on Dec 14, 2012 1:32:31 GMT -5
Later in the day, this shows up on my Facebook page from a different Fan Page. This isn't even one of my favorite Perez covers, but it shows 100 times more creativity. When I miss what I miss about comics, covers like this is certainly close to the #1 things I miss. This would tease me to buy it. Buy this and find out what happens inside, or get the SAME Liefeld poses I've seen 10,000 times now and have NO IDEA what's inside? My god, People are IDIOTS!!!
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Post by G on Dec 14, 2012 17:18:20 GMT -5
This one showed up today. Imagine this one. A beautifully rendered cover with a TEASER on it. A lost art and terribly sad. Hey look....Out of proportion Youngblood characters standing around looking dumb!!!
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Post by defiant1 on Dec 14, 2012 20:23:53 GMT -5
Oh and btw, I got this off a Facebook page I like just to see news. Under it was like 200 comments. It was like 95% bad. One person noted that you never see an archer with the arrow on the OUTSIDE of the bow. Another said, after 20 years and all this money made, Liefeld STILL can't draw feet. It was one negative comment after another but people still buy it.... So this presented the 5% argument from the other side that kept saying the same thing. The ONLY DEFENSE I read was "Liefeld has been doing his thing all these years and taking it to the BANK. So he obviously does SOMETHING right." For the 5%....that was the ONLY defense they used. I guess what baffles me is that he's NEVER made an effort to improve. df1
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Post by defiant1 on Dec 14, 2012 20:25:25 GMT -5
My god, People are IDIOTS!!! Bingo! df1
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