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Post by defiant1 on Jan 16, 2012 19:11:52 GMT -5
Noticed over the past few weeks that my local Publix grocery store is no longer carrying Archie comics on their magazine rack. They still have Archie digests at a few of their cash registers as you check out, but they used to be at just about every register. Now they are at maybe 1/3rd of the cash registers.
Saw that Diamond has hired someone that worked at Lonestar to help them work with retailers and publishers. Among those goals is to help stores maximizr their product mix. Find underserved areas in a community and encourage stores to expand. Try to get stores in malls and high traffic retail locations. Work with publishers.
Helped someone who wanted to know what the Charlton Space 1999 digest looked like.
Someone wrote me showing interest in the blue and purple logo Chromium Man #0 issues. He wanted to know if I had any for sale which I don't. I wrote back, but he wrote again asking the same question as if he didn't get my reply. I'm not replying again.
Went in a comic shop last week. I was killing some time before a dinner date nearby. The manager I knew no longer works there. He transferred to another store. The selection was all modern crap. I guess all the comics were getting damaged on their modern racking. The morons are putting a backing board in front of all the covers. So you walk in and see a shelf full of comics, but the cover images are blocked by backing boards. You can't even tell what comics they are carrying without peeking behind each backing board one by one. Pretty fucking stupid in my opinion. They had two shelves of TPB's extending down one whole wall. 90% was Marvel & DC. Mostly the same crap everyone has. One bookcase full of Marvel Masterworks and "Essentials" volumes. I was the only customer in the store. The employees made no effort to communicate or find out why I was there or if I was interested in anything. I volunteered some info seeing if they'd take the ball and run with it. Nope.
Continued cropping, touching up, and posting Charlton scans to my Charlton checklist. It's a slow tedious process. Nothing noteworthy to mention other than how rare nice scans are.
df1
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Post by G on Jan 16, 2012 19:29:36 GMT -5
A blog about nothing? You could be the next Seinfeld! ;D I find it amazing how comic stores would think it is wise to cover up covers with comic boards to protect it from wrinkles. While I understand wanting to protect covers from wrinkles, you can't expect anyone to want to look behind comic boards to see a cover. Why not put a display copy in bag and board facing front and have all the for sale copies behind that? At least then you could see what is behind the board and pick one up if the cover interests you. I'm just saying.... I seen your posts about Diamond hiring a new sales rep leader at your board. I think its a bit too late. Diamond is a big part of the problem with comics. They helped create this mess we are in. If anyone has never seen DF1's Charlton Checklist (or other checklists) I recommend you check it out! Its a credit to the internet! You can click on my checklists blurb at the top of this page. I believe one day he will finish the Charlton Checklist complete with scans and it will be a monumental achievement. Who else dares to even attempt this kind of stuff? It's that 1%er in him that makes him do things that the other 99% of us don't. Keep us updated on the progress man!
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 16, 2012 22:15:51 GMT -5
The shop with the backing boards in front of the covers was being run by some young guy and a girl that was dressed so tomboyish that I thought she was a guy. I'm assuming the backing boards were to protect the comics. I saw no other reason to put them there.
As far as the Charlton Checklist goes, I'm always amazed that it keeps growing. I've added titles and price variants that have all been discovered in the past few years. I just added a pence variant last month. I thought these mostly had a limited East coast distribution. There must have been periods where they experimented with furthering their range. I keep plugging away at it to see how far I'll get. My goal is simply to collect nicer scans than those found at the GCD. I don't think I'll be able to maintain that until the end. I keep having to settle for eBay scans that aren't so great. It's more interesting that looking at the same old Marvel scans we've all seen a million times.
df1
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 21, 2012 12:02:58 GMT -5
My rant on variants...
I am a collector and a completist. If variants were done in moderation for special events and there was something "value added", then I wouldn't have a problem with them promoting that event. As a collector, I take no pride in buying the same story two or three times with a different cover. As a collector, there is no joy in simply owning the mundane version of something. The way I see it, overproducing variants is a lack of respect for the consumer. It is exploiting the fact that collectors are completists and it's no different than dangling a carrot from the end of a stick and putting it in front of a horse's face to make it walk.
Three scenario's follow.
1) You chase after every variant and show that you are as stupid as a horse. You might as well just send Marvel access to your checking account and say withdraw as necessary.
2) You buy just the covers you like guaranteeing one of the following: a) You can never take pride in having a complete collection b) You buy the rare versions that have their prices intentionally manipulated. You might as well give Marvel your checking info because it's still danging a carrot on a stick. c) Your collection consists of the inferior versions and is hence not deemed as desirable to collectors.
3) You opt not to collect anything at all rather than blindly let the publishers treat you like an idiot or force you to settle for a mundane and uninteresting collection that is also incomplete.
I have gone with the last option. I can stand at a magazine rack and read a comic for free. If I can't take any pride in collecting what I collect, why collect?
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Post by G on Jan 21, 2012 12:36:40 GMT -5
My rant on variants...I am a collector and a completist. If variants were done in moderation for special events and there was something "value added", then I wouldn't have a problem with them promoting that event. As a collector, I take no pride in buying the same story two or three times with a different cover. As a collector, there is no joy in simply owning the mundane version of something. The way I see it, overproducing variants is a lack of respect for the consumer. It is exploiting the fact that collectors are completists and it's no different than dangling a carrot from the end of a stick and putting it in front of a horse's face to make it walk. Three scenario's follow. 1) You chase after every variant and show that you are as stupid as a horse. You might as well just send Marvel access to your checking account and say withdraw as necessary. 2) You buy just the covers you like guaranteeing one of the following: a) You can never take pride in having a complete collection b) You buy the rare versions that have their prices intentionally manipulated. You might as well give Marvel your checking info because it's still danging a carrot on a stick. c) Your collection consists of the inferior versions and is hence not deemed as desirable to collectors. 3) You opt not to collect anything at all rather than blindly let the publishers treat you like an idiot or force you to settle for a mundane and uninteresting collection that is also incomplete. I have gone with the last option. I can stand at a magazine rack and read a comic for free. If I can't take any pride in collecting what I collect, why collect? I agree with all of that. Variants are once again out of hand. I remember the downfall of the 90s was seen as too many gimmicks and so forth. Hell, at least they happened on exclusive covers of that comic and some of them were pretty cool. It was done way better than it is today. Now, I literally have as many as 5-7 copies to choose from for a comic. There is always like 3 regular versions that often compared to others just look lackluster but at least you might want 1 of the 3. Then there is usually 2-4 limited covers that may just be a non-colored cover, a neon colored cover to look different and a special cover done by a highly desirable artist who everybody would want but its the least available and most expensive to get. This usually just left me trying to get 1 of the 3 undesirables. Guess what that left me.... With DCBS I could order new comics at a nice discount all the time. The fact I could almost kept me in it. Almost. I damn sure wasn't going to go down to the local comic shop and pay full cover or at most get 10-30% off because I was a old reliable. I'd rather get 35% off for starters and up to 60% off in certain occasions. Okay, at least having DCBS as an option, I could manage to get the comics I thought I wanted at a really good price. However, the problem with DCBS is you can order all day the regular comics and you can even buy the limited variants at escalated prices. The one thing you couldn't do is buy the regular comic and choose which cover you wanted. So basically my pick was up to them. More times than not, I got the most jacked up, completely undesirable cover. Who's going to want to repurchase that off me down the road some day when it might be worth something but the other 6 covers are far more desirable? Nobody! And I'm with you when doing it for special events and periodically here and there. But damn, they do it for EVERY FUCKING ISSUE! Remember when collecting comics meant you had that issue! The one everyone else missed? Now you can have that issue but you can also have the one no one wants. I keep thinking declining sales numbers would have publishers wondering what they are doing wrong and discovering ways to improve their product. Hell, didn't we just learn that DC had focus groups for their piece of shit logo? You think they would ask comic fans why are you leaving? Instead we keep promoting Joe Blow who has done nothing but make comics worse and seen sales fall and we continue to act like they are great leaders. One way to make comics desirable again is to have only 1 copy of that comic. If its good and key and has a moment everyone wants to own, that 1 copy becomes the sought after issue. Who in the hell can be a completist today? I have never went to any show and seen any comic boxes with all versions of all the comics. You'll just see them go in order with 1 version of the cover. Occasionally, you might hit 2. But even that is rare. Which dealer is going to be loaded with them all? I ain't found one yet and I don't want to. Its a fools game here. Until you get somebody in comics who knows something about business AND comics, this comic dweeb stars who are known more for their artistic talent rather than running a business will continue to plunder the comic medium in bankruptcy. Isn't Diamond becoming desperate now??? I wonder why? Maybe they should do focus groups and find out.
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 21, 2012 17:08:35 GMT -5
I just saw Underworld Awakening. Kate looked okay, but not as sexy as she has in the past. Overall it was pretty boring.
Picked up a copy of 2600 magazine. It pops up on the register in all caps "Hacker Quarterly". The cashier looked like she was freaking out.
df1
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 28, 2012 15:30:09 GMT -5
Repost from my board... bit.ly/xXfEm1 I was asked on Jim Shooter's blog to take a look at the following comics from the 52 series. I did not buy them. I skimmed them over in the store. None of these characters have ever interested me enough to buy them. I own a few Superboy comics. I own the very first O.M.A.C. comic done by Jack Kirby in the 70's. It was bought in a bulk purchase when I was buying comics in mass for 10¢ a piece average. I own quite a few Swamp Thing comics and the only ones that interest me are the old Wrightson issues. Were they written by Len Wein? I'm too lazy to look. Don't care anything for the Vertigo stuff I picked up in bulk (10¢ a piece). Here is my rating of the elements of the new relaunch titles on a scale of 1 to 5: Animal Man #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 2 Notes: The cover is horrible. It is bland and generic. It gives me no glimpse of what will be interesting in the comic. Nothing tempts me to look inside or make me care. The art is stylistically a distraction from the reading experience. It's very amateurish. The angular panels and poor use of depth are all a distraction. Lots of wasted space. I consider that a lack of respect for my time and money. Do I really need 3 or 4 pages dedicated to Animal Man chatting with his wife about whether he goes on a mission? I have no familiarity with the character or his powers. He a "C" class superhero that has never interested me. A summary of who he is or what he does that's interesting would be a huge help. The comic offers nothing. The pacing is horrid. Stuff happens, but so what? Where is the plot. The last half is him dreaming. My dreams are more interesting. His are somewhat nightmarish... yawn. Horror tends to bore me. The fact that it's a dream leads me to believe he's connected with something. No hints or clue as to why it matters. Didn't care to look at the second issue. Whatever they are building to isn't interesting. O.M.A.C #1 & #2Story - 4 Pacing - 5 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 2 The cover was forgettable. So forgettable that I've forgotten what it was. Nothing enticed me to want to open the comic. The art looked rushed. A good inker could have made it better, but this looked like it was more true to the pencils which again look rushed and sketchy. I'm not a fan of Giffen's art even when he started on Defenders. I seem to recall his early Legion issues weren't bad when he started in the 80's(?). His art looked much better in those. The art is very Kirbyesque, but it uses elongation and curving in the legs which is a distraction even when Kirby did it to a lesser degree. The pacing is excellent. It was easy to follow. It does offer a story with a cliffhanger. Since I'm not familiar with the character much and I've had no inclination to pick up back issues, all I know is that he comes across more like a mindless Hulk. He has no vocabulary. His appearance looks stupid. There is no introduction. Storywise it's palatable. The art is a distraction. The color are gaudy, but more pastel if I recall. Passable if the art was not such a distraction. Giffen's page composition skills weren't bad. I would expect that since he's an old school artist. Of all the comics I looked at, this was the only one that interested me enough to pick up the second issue. My feelings towards it are similar, but I thought it was a rip off because the character appears on the splash page and the last half of the second book. If it wasn't sketch art and if the character appealed to me more I might consider buying it. Personally, I have no interest in buying any DC book until Dudeo is gone from the company. I consider him responsible for the big picture of what DC is offering. SuperBoy #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 1 I think the character sums it up in the story... "Soul crushingly boring". Too much wasted space. The art is uninspiring. This was the last of the 4 comics I looked at. I was actually tired of looking at them when I got to this. Gaudy coloring. Boring cover. Immature version of a tiresome boring character. Swamp Thing #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 3 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 3 As far as art goes, this was the most tolerable of the four. One page stood out for some digital processing. I found that distracting. I 'think' it was the use of grey instead of dark black inking. That annoys me, especially when it's done to a decent artist's line work. I didn't look to see who inked it. My guess is that inking helped a lot. This suffers from a big taboo. Swamp Thing is on the cover, he's not in the comic. That alone is enough for me to be pissed. The pacing again is horrible. Too many pages are spent of him looking at a wood pile. I get that he has a problem with what he's seeing. Have some d**n respect for my time and move it along. The cover tells me nothing about the interior. More generic crap. Essentially the book offers no story. It's just setup. As some people have said... things just happen to the characters during the course of the comic. Superman makes an appearance. He's not on the cover. I guess I'm supposed to buy Swamp Thing to read a Superman story. Doesn't Superman have 10 other comics that he's in a month? Anyway, I expect all the categories I rated to be a three or higher if I'm going to be enticed enough to buy it. A competent writer that has instilled trust and knows how to pace a book right can make me forgiving on the cover and storyline "build up" drama. It does not make me forgiving of mediocre art and elements of distraction like gaudy coloring. Four duds with O.M.A.C being the best of the 4. Defiant1
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 28, 2012 15:40:36 GMT -5
I was posting part time at the STL comics forum that discusses variants, printing defects and collectible oddities. The board has very little activity. One of the members trolled the board, started flooding the board with shit and insults. No one challenged his behavior, so I got fed up with the board and left. I manually deleted some 150 posts so they'll get the idea that it was 100% unacceptable. The board also has a lot of lingering spam. The moron troll was responding to spam. He followed me to another board and started doing the same there also, but backed off quickly realizing he wasn't going to get away with it for long. There are NO messageboards that I deem so sacred that I'll put up with idiots very long. I'm actually ashamed to even mingle with many of the collectors I encounter online. Metarog has dropped in on my board a couple of times. He's probably checking to see what was up. He's pretty cool as what the owner of the board. The owner just doesn't have the time to maintain the board properly.
df1
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Post by defiant1 on Jan 28, 2012 15:49:00 GMT -5
I did find out that the store that put backing boards in front of the comics was prepping the new delivery. They evidently put spacers between the comics. Regardless of the reason, the store should be shopable when a customer walks in. Poor stocking methods if you ask me.
df1
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Post by G on Jan 29, 2012 10:29:03 GMT -5
Repost from my board... bit.ly/xXfEm1 I was asked on Jim Shooter's blog to take a look at the following comics from the 52 series. I did not buy them. I skimmed them over in the store. None of these characters have ever interested me enough to buy them. I own a few Superboy comics. I own the very first O.M.A.C. comic done by Jack Kirby in the 70's. It was bought in a bulk purchase when I was buying comics in mass for 10¢ a piece average. I own quite a few Swamp Thing comics and the only ones that interest me are the old Wrightson issues. Were they written by Len Wein? I'm too lazy to look. Don't care anything for the Vertigo stuff I picked up in bulk (10¢ a piece). Here is my rating of the elements of the new relaunch titles on a scale of 1 to 5: Animal Man #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 2 Notes: The cover is horrible. It is bland and generic. It gives me no glimpse of what will be interesting in the comic. Nothing tempts me to look inside or make me care. The art is stylistically a distraction from the reading experience. It's very amateurish. The angular panels and poor use of depth are all a distraction. Lots of wasted space. I consider that a lack of respect for my time and money. Do I really need 3 or 4 pages dedicated to Animal Man chatting with his wife about whether he goes on a mission? I have no familiarity with the character or his powers. He a "C" class superhero that has never interested me. A summary of who he is or what he does that's interesting would be a huge help. The comic offers nothing. The pacing is horrid. Stuff happens, but so what? Where is the plot. The last half is him dreaming. My dreams are more interesting. His are somewhat nightmarish... yawn. Horror tends to bore me. The fact that it's a dream leads me to believe he's connected with something. No hints or clue as to why it matters. Didn't care to look at the second issue. Whatever they are building to isn't interesting. O.M.A.C #1 & #2Story - 4 Pacing - 5 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 2 The cover was forgettable. So forgettable that I've forgotten what it was. Nothing enticed me to want to open the comic. The art looked rushed. A good inker could have made it better, but this looked like it was more true to the pencils which again look rushed and sketchy. I'm not a fan of Giffen's art even when he started on Defenders. I seem to recall his early Legion issues weren't bad when he started in the 80's(?). His art looked much better in those. The art is very Kirbyesque, but it uses elongation and curving in the legs which is a distraction even when Kirby did it to a lesser degree. The pacing is excellent. It was easy to follow. It does offer a story with a cliffhanger. Since I'm not familiar with the character much and I've had no inclination to pick up back issues, all I know is that he comes across more like a mindless Hulk. He has no vocabulary. His appearance looks stupid. There is no introduction. Storywise it's palatable. The art is a distraction. The color are gaudy, but more pastel if I recall. Passable if the art was not such a distraction. Giffen's page composition skills weren't bad. I would expect that since he's an old school artist. Of all the comics I looked at, this was the only one that interested me enough to pick up the second issue. My feelings towards it are similar, but I thought it was a rip off because the character appears on the splash page and the last half of the second book. If it wasn't sketch art and if the character appealed to me more I might consider buying it. Personally, I have no interest in buying any DC book until Dudeo is gone from the company. I consider him responsible for the big picture of what DC is offering. SuperBoy #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 2 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 1 I think the character sums it up in the story... "Soul crushingly boring". Too much wasted space. The art is uninspiring. This was the last of the 4 comics I looked at. I was actually tired of looking at them when I got to this. Gaudy coloring. Boring cover. Immature version of a tiresome boring character. Swamp Thing #1Story - 1 Pacing - 1 Art - 3 Cover - 1 Plot Setup - 1 Colors - 3 As far as art goes, this was the most tolerable of the four. One page stood out for some digital processing. I found that distracting. I 'think' it was the use of grey instead of dark black inking. That annoys me, especially when it's done to a decent artist's line work. I didn't look to see who inked it. My guess is that inking helped a lot. This suffers from a big taboo. Swamp Thing is on the cover, he's not in the comic. That alone is enough for me to be pissed. The pacing again is horrible. Too many pages are spent of him looking at a wood pile. I get that he has a problem with what he's seeing. Have some d**n respect for my time and move it along. The cover tells me nothing about the interior. More generic crap. Essentially the book offers no story. It's just setup. As some people have said... things just happen to the characters during the course of the comic. Superman makes an appearance. He's not on the cover. I guess I'm supposed to buy Swamp Thing to read a Superman story. Doesn't Superman have 10 other comics that he's in a month? Anyway, I expect all the categories I rated to be a three or higher if I'm going to be enticed enough to buy it. A competent writer that has instilled trust and knows how to pace a book right can make me forgiving on the cover and storyline "build up" drama. It does not make me forgiving of mediocre art and elements of distraction like gaudy coloring. Four duds with O.M.A.C being the best of the 4. Defiant1 Your view pretty much summed up the way I was feeling when I was buying new comics. I could never find a comic I was caring about. Even long time comics that I have a long history with were not interesting me. Some of the gripes I have you pinpointed and I've mentioned numerous times here. For instance, covers. We've been going through nearly 20 years now of dumb, mindless covers. Ever since Image came to being and started the poster shot cover, we've been bombarded with it ever since. It used to give me some idea of what was going on inside the comic. It used to be a teaser. Now looking at a wall of new comics is like looking at a bunch of coloring books side by side. It's just poster shots. You could rip the covers off of one month and put them on different months and its all the same. There is no meaning to them. Characters and Storylines - Where is the feeling of caring about a character anymore? Where is the everyday life? The love interests? The struggles and accomplishments? The situations that make it worth wondering how this is going to turn out? Far too often I was dropped into a maddening storyline that involved numerous other storylines and battles to even begin to figure out what was going on. Besides that, the character was changing, either dies or gets replaced or locked up and someone new stepped in. Nothing resembled the characters that you could count on month after month. Instead there is 15 Batman's running around. Capt America is dead, no he's not. Whos that in the uniform? Spiderman is black, no hes not married but nows hes in the Fantastic Four. I really think the guys that run comics are clueless and only see the here and now. They have totally destroyed long time buyers. How many times you go to a comic store and see people buying comics? I typically see kids playing card games in droves and could barely care about comics at all. How do these guys stay in charge with a track record like that? Coloring - Man, I miss the old school way of coloring. Talent with your hands and eyes have now been replaced with talent in photoshopping. Very unrealistic colors going on. Nothing looks real. Often pages are blinding and give you a sickening feeling when looking. And yes, what happened to just plain good inking? I feel sorry for the inking greats of yesterday. They are hardly needed anymore and they used to add so much. And regular hand colorists have been made completely obsolete. I could go on and on but I feel like Im preaching to nobody anyway and Ive said it all before. People at the top need to be fired. Not demoted or moved to another department. Fired. They've ruined comics.
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