There are many books out there currently that are good (and a lot of them have been mentioned) but for me, I lean in a different direction-the books I would consider to be best taking advantage of the current zeitgeist/paradigm in comics are books that have been there awhile but have usually been on the forefront of what is new and exciting-and that is anthologies like Heavy Metal and Dark Horse Presents.

These are books that allow creators to tell stories they are excited about-whether it is a one off eight pager or a long form serialized story like Carla Speed McNeil continuing to tell her Finder story in the pages of DHP. They are books that give a lot of bang for your buck in terms of story and content pages, but if a story doesn't resonate with you, the entire purchase is not a waste of money because there is likely to be something else in the story that does.

I've described elsewhere how I think the big 2 should use this kind of format-it creates a meatier product that has a better entertainment/cost ratio than a monthly 20 content page comic. And if the selling point for the big 2 is shared sandbox universes, the bigger anthology format allows them to market that regularly without needing tentpole events and cross-overs to be able to do so.

Another move for modern comics I like was the deal Brubaker made with Image-a 5 year window to produce whatever books he wants and they will publish them. The deal emerged out of Fatale and Velvet and has produced more Criminal and The Fade Out (with the next book likely to be announced at the ImageExpo at Emerald City). This allows creators to tell the story they want to tell without the pressure of having to either bloat it to keep a series going or shrink it to fit into a set number of issues (usually 4 or 6) to be a mini-series.

I want stories that have a beginning, middle and end, that come to a satisfying conclusion, whether that takes 8 pages or 8 issues or 20 years of issues. I prefer stories have artistic continuity as well as authorial continuity, so I prefer to see formats and publication frequency that allows that. Whether it's parts of stories monthly in an anthology, a single OGN album each year, 10 mostly monthly issues in a year or what have you.

I like a lot of different genres, creators, characters or what not in comics, but what I am always looking for are good stories that appeal to me that are well told. My ideal comic is format, frequency, and creative/publication arrangements that allow that to happen. There is no 1 correct way for that to happen for all publishers or content creators. My ideal would be an industry and market that allows these stories to be produced and released in the manner that best allows them to be told well. But for me, the path I would like to see is that the parts of the stories that are released as serials be done so as parts of anthologies then the completed longer form stories collected and released as trades/hardcovers either as complete works or as regular released volumes for the really long form stories.

If Image say produced a monthly equivalent of say Weird Science that had a chapter of Saga, a chapter of Black Science, a couple of 8 page shorts, a chapter of Lazarus etc. one month and if Saga needed a month off for the end of an arc say, something else was put in the feature slot for that month, etc. then when the arcs are complete (or the full story complete) issue a volume of Lazarus, a volumes of Saga, etc. They could then also have something the equivalent of Weird Tales that maybe has a chapter of Five Ghosts, a chapter of Wytches, Outcast, shorts etc. that does the same thing, making each monthly anthology a genre collection or go the DHP route and just mix and match content.

Heavy Metal does 112 pages for $7.99 so even if Image used the $9.99 price point for 100-120 pages of content it would still be more entertainment value for your dollar than a monthly $3-4 comic and allow more eyes to get on stories that might otherwise get overlooked, plus still generate content for the trades which are the evergreen revenue producers for both the creators and the publishers. It allows stories/series that might need a little time to build an audience to be put out there without having the burden of carrying a series that sells enough right off the bat, allowing it to grow organically.

However, I realize these books are a hard sell in the current direct market, because that's a lot to do with the distributor dictating to creators and publishers what works for them and the cart being in front of the horse. It's also letting the shrinking niche market customer base dictate the format and content of the stories and retard the potential growth of the overall industry. The perfect book for 2016 is one that tells good stories and pushes the growth of the market outside the tiny cesspool of the direct market into a larger pool of potential readers and customers.

Comics are in a vicious circle right now-price, format and availability are the biggest obstacles to growth, but the small size of the niche market buyers keeps print runs smaller making prices higher-higher print runs would allow economy of scale to kick in and lower production costs and allow profitability at lower price points, lower prices would allow for better sales which would make it more attractive to other sales outlets increasing availability, but that would necessitate changes in format for the new market venues-but as long as the industry aims product squarely at the niche market, they create the very problems that keep them from growing and perpetuate the increases in price that plague the niche market. The more prices rise, the less units sell requiring higher prices fueling fewer sales and eventually that affects viability of product leading to fewer outlets and less availability. It's happened with almost every hobby product over the last 30 years and the cycle is in motion in comics. Trumpets sales growth in dollars in percentages less than the percentage increase of cover price only mask the issue of a shrinking customer base. So, the perfect book would be books that can break that vicious cycle while delivering strong story and art content.

-M