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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2022 7:30:09 GMT -5
I think maybe you need that elusive "Darwyn Cooke" effect to attempt something like this. You can't go too "modern" and the fact that they are even contemplating a "darker take" is the usual red flag for me. It needs to be an unabashed love letter to the past with an appealing retro feel, kind of like Batman Brave and the Bold pulled it off as a cartoon or again like Cooke did with say New Frontier.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 16, 2022 12:00:37 GMT -5
That article doesn't really indicate what, if anything, the new company actually owns, aside from (I presume) a trademark for the Gold Key name. Western/Gold Key predominantly published licensed titles and did not own those names, like Star Trek, Twilight Zone, the Boris Karloff title, Ripley's and similar. What it did own was the self-generated books, like Magnus, Turok, Brothers of the Spear, Solar, Dagar, Mighty Samson, Tragg and the Sky Gods and such. However, the article doesn't really clarify if any of those properties are owned by this company. It just mentions that some of the old titles are tied up in "other Publishing" ventures. My gut instinct is they only bought the name of the company. The one property mentioned is Boris Karloff and talk of books that look and feel like the 1960s books. I don't see that as being commercially viable, even in the Direct market, for anything other than a short term stunt. It's also a rather vague statement.
Every time I hear of someone reviving an old comic company name I soon find it fades into oblivion because they don't own any of the properties that the original was best known for or they do nothing but derivative work with it and a fickle market quickly looks at the next shiny new toy. The Valiant revival (minus the afore-mentioned Magnus, Solar, Turok, etc), the First Comics revival (minus all of their creator-owned titles, which was nearly everything), the Atlas/Seaboard revival, etc, etc.
Outside of what Dark Horse did, with quality book collections of the major titles, I don't really see any long term model for success, here. It sounds like yet another company who wants to license a bunch of properties, put out a few comics, then cancel them when they find that they have a limited appeal. Licensed comics are a shaky bet, unless you can secure a license for a property with a large, stable fan base, which means something like Star Trek, Star Wars and a very few others. You have to split money with the license holders, may have to have their approval on the stories and then try to publish in a world with skyrocketing inflation. I can tell you, from personal experience, getting paper isn't going to be cheap, as there are massive supply issues right now, with China in lockdown and backlogs in transport.
I loved Western/Gold Key; but, no company has had its advantages in modern times, partly because of changes in technology and the market structore. Gold Key was just the publishing name that Western Lithography and Printing used for their comic book line. They also used the Whitman brand name for their manufacturing of toys and games, as well as publishing coloring and puzzle books. they owned they brand name and titles for the Little Golden Books and published other children's books under the Golden Books name. They were a printing company who ended up owning a publishing company, when they fell in debt to them and couldn't pay. The publishing side ended up being a nice way to keep their presses operating, between core ventures and comics were an even cheaper way to do this, since they were printed on cheaper paper. They partnered, originally, witl Dell Publishing to put out a line of comics, licensing cartoon and comic strip properties for titles. Western did all the creation and printing and Dell handled the business administration. When the 2 companies split, in the early 60s, Western had all of the major licenses (Disney, Warner, Walter Lantz, Tarzan, etc) and then created new titles, which they owned. They used painters, like George Wilson to do the covers. They also self-distributed to newsstands and to department stores and other retailers. They were a complete in-house operation, with only Charlton having the same resources, though not the inclination to really take advantage of it. Western could also cross promote, via the Whitman line of products. No one else had those advantages. DC had its own distribution, with Independent News, but didn't own their own presses. You don't see this anymore, especially since most large scale printing was off-shored, back in the 80s. Desktop opened up the possibility for smaller houses, but, the economies of scale are vastly different and cost per item is much higher; so, you have to have a dedicated market to make it work.
Until we see a finished product, this really sounds like some older fans with money and not a lot of research into the marketplace.
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Post by tonebone on Apr 18, 2022 15:13:23 GMT -5
It was 'profh' followed by some numbers (01 or 101 or something like that). Thanks for posting this. In one of our zoom meetings I found out that he was bad mouthing some of the members of the CCF( I believe I was on that list). It looks like he's just this type of person who can't get along with others. I remember posting really pro-Stan comments pretty often, to counteract his vitriol. He was an angry elf.
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Post by badwolf on Apr 18, 2022 15:14:26 GMT -5
Ok, I kinda remember that guy now.
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Post by tonebone on Apr 18, 2022 15:24:29 GMT -5
That article doesn't really indicate what, if anything, the new company actually owns, aside from (I presume) a trademark for the Gold Key name. Western/Gold Key predominantly published licensed titles and did not own those names, like Star Trek, Twilight Zone, the Boris Karloff title, Ripley's and similar. What it did own was the self-generated books, like Magnus, Turok, Brothers of the Spear, Solar, Dagar, Mighty Samson, Tragg and the Sky Gods and such. However, the article doesn't really clarify if any of those properties are owned by this company. It just mentions that some of the old titles are tied up in "other Publishing" ventures. My gut instinct is they only bought the name of the company. The one property mentioned is Boris Karloff and talk of books that look and feel like the 1960s books. I don't see that as being commercially viable, even in the Direct market, for anything other than a short term stunt. It's also a rather vague statement. Every time I hear of someone reviving an old comic company name I soon find it fades into oblivion because they don't own any of the properties that the original was best known for or they do nothing but derivative work with it and a fickle market quickly looks at the next shiny new toy. The Valiant revival (minus the afore-mentioned Magnus, Solar, Turok, etc), the First Comics revival (minus all of their creator-owned titles, which was nearly everything), the Atlas/Seaboard revival, etc, etc. Outside of what Dark Horse did, with quality book collections of the major titles, I don't really see any long term model for success, here. It sounds like yet another company who wants to license a bunch of properties, put out a few comics, then cancel them when they find that they have a limited appeal. Licensed comics are a shaky bet, unless you can secure a license for a property with a large, stable fan base, which means something like Star Trek, Star Wars and a very few others. You have to split money with the license holders, may have to have their approval on the stories and then try to publish in a world with skyrocketing inflation. I can tell you, from personal experience, getting paper isn't going to be cheap, as there are massive supply issues right now, with China in lockdown and backlogs in transport. I loved Western/Gold Key; but, no company has had its advantages in modern times, partly because of changes in technology and the market structore. Gold Key was just the publishing name that Western Lithography and Printing used for their comic book line. They also used the Whitman brand name for their manufacturing of toys and games, as well as publishing coloring and puzzle books. they owned they brand name and titles for the Little Golden Books and published other children's books under the Golden Books name. They were a printing company who ended up owning a publishing company, when they fell in debt to them and couldn't pay. The publishing side ended up being a nice way to keep their presses operating, between core ventures and comics were an even cheaper way to do this, since they were printed on cheaper paper. They partnered, originally, witl Dell Publishing to put out a line of comics, licensing cartoon and comic strip properties for titles. Western did all the creation and printing and Dell handled the business administration. When the 2 companies split, in the early 60s, Western had all of the major licenses (Disney, Warner, Walter Lantz, Tarzan, etc) and then created new titles, which they owned. They used painters, like George Wilson to do the covers. They also self-distributed to newsstands and to department stores and other retailers. They were a complete in-house operation, with only Charlton having the same resources, though not the inclination to really take advantage of it. Western could also cross promote, via the Whitman line of products. No one else had those advantages. DC had its own distribution, with Independent News, but didn't own their own presses. You don't see this anymore, especially since most large scale printing was off-shored, back in the 80s. Desktop opened up the possibility for smaller houses, but, the economies of scale are vastly different and cost per item is much higher; so, you have to have a dedicated market to make it work. Until we see a finished product, this really sounds like some older fans with money and not a lot of research into the marketplace. It's like they bought the Fawcett publishing brand, but all of the good stuff was sold off to DC, so they can publish everything else... which is nothing.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2022 20:06:49 GMT -5
Got a nice surprise from an ebay seller. I bought something from him for $75 (he accepted my offer) and sent the package. He then sent me a message saying not to be alarmed when I get the package as he was sending some bonus books free. I was thinking cool, maybe 2-3 freebies....he sent me 12 free books worth around $150ish. Apparently he's a 77 yr old lifelong collector who's just liquidating his collection and thanked me because according to his records, I've bought books from him 4 times over the past 10 years.
Always a pleasure to deal with guys like this!
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Post by arfetto on Apr 26, 2022 0:11:47 GMT -5
I love Rodolfo Damaggio's art on Green Arrow.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2022 2:37:39 GMT -5
Me: I am fed up of relaunches and not buying Amazing Spider-Man #1 (2022) due Apr 27
Me: What a great cover (and ordered it) damn! Foiled again.
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 26, 2022 4:07:26 GMT -5
I look at that cover and I see that there are so many really talented artists these days. I'm not sure that they are a fit for the comic book business as most of them are deathly slow. I believe that monthly comic books show go the way of the dinosaur and be replaced by quarterly graphic novels.
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Post by tonebone on Apr 26, 2022 8:19:31 GMT -5
I look at that cover and I see that there are so many really talented artists these days. I'm not sure that they are a fit for the comic book business as most of them are deathly slow. I believe that monthly comic books show go the way of the dinosaur and be replaced by quarterly graphic novels. The only problem is that they are so slow, your quarterly graphic novel will only be 22 pages.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 26, 2022 14:03:59 GMT -5
I usually get Mike Mayhew covers, he does great work.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 4, 2022 19:50:51 GMT -5
Started Roy Thomas' run on Thor and I'm in love with Tom Palmer's artwork. Seriously, I want a poster of this page so bad
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,057
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Post by Confessor on May 4, 2022 20:18:17 GMT -5
Started Roy Thomas' run on Thor and I'm in love with Tom Palmer's artwork. Seriously, I want a poster of this page so bad Tom Palmer's inking and/or finishes are always fantastic.
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Post by Duragizer on May 4, 2022 21:17:11 GMT -5
I hate buccaneer boots. They automatically ruin any costume, except Captain Marvel's. He's the only character who's been able to make them look good.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 4, 2022 23:18:38 GMT -5
I hate buccaneer boots. They automatically ruin any costume, except Captain Marvel's. He's the only character who's been able to make them look good. My swashbuckler soul weeps. I love 'em, when drawn right. Perez could do it, Cockrum, Simonson, Kirby, Wally Wood. Colan and Buscema tended to draw them more in the footsoldier/musketeer fashion, with the cuffs turned upwards, but the boots slouching downward....
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