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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2018 19:22:23 GMT -5
Can I mention something else I miss and how it pertains to prices?
Letters pages!
Some claim letters pages are redundant in the internet era, but I disagree. They are fun to read, and most editors will select a representative bunch, but they are also a great "snapshot" in time for future generations; I enjoy reading letters published in comics that predate me.
Some publishers still have letters pages, e.g. IDW and, occasionally, Marvel. But I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years.
Whilst the comic's contents should be the "meal", the letters page was "gravy". And when you spend £3+ on a comic nowadays, it'd be nice to have something in addition to the story, e.g. something akin to "Stan's Soapbox", editorials, a letters page, etc.
Modern comics are expensive, and whilst the story will always (or should be) the most important thing, I think columns and letters pages would go towards making that £3+ more palatable.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 3, 2018 20:36:05 GMT -5
Can I mention something else I miss and how it pertains to prices? Letters pages! Some claim letters pages are redundant in the internet era, but I disagree. They are fun to read, and most editors will select a representative bunch, but they are also a great "snapshot" in time for future generations; I enjoy reading letters published in comics that predate me. Some publishers still have letters pages, e.g. IDW and, occasionally, Marvel. But I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years. Whilst the comic's contents should be the "meal", the letters page was "gravy". And when you spend £3+ on a comic nowadays, it'd be nice to have something in addition to the story, e.g. something akin to "Stan's Soapbox", editorials, a letters page, etc. Modern comics are expensive, and whilst the story will always (or should be) the most important thing, I think columns and letters pages would go towards making that £3+ more palatable. Dark Horse and Image books almost all have letter sections |
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Post by The Captain on Dec 4, 2018 8:10:40 GMT -5
Can I mention something else I miss and how it pertains to prices? Letters pages! Some claim letters pages are redundant in the internet era, but I disagree. They are fun to read, and most editors will select a representative bunch, but they are also a great "snapshot" in time for future generations; I enjoy reading letters published in comics that predate me. Some publishers still have letters pages, e.g. IDW and, occasionally, Marvel. But I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years. Whilst the comic's contents should be the "meal", the letters page was "gravy". And when you spend £3+ on a comic nowadays, it'd be nice to have something in addition to the story, e.g. something akin to "Stan's Soapbox", editorials, a letters page, etc. Modern comics are expensive, and whilst the story will always (or should be) the most important thing, I think columns and letters pages would go towards making that £3+ more palatable. Agree so much! Much as it is great to pick up collected editions of Silver and Bronze Age books, usually on the cheap, part of what made those books fun was reading the letters pages and seeing how people were responding to stories in real time. Face it, those letters pages were the forerunner of what we're doing here, just much slower and on a more limited scale. I love opening up a book and seeing a letter from Kurt Busiek or Ralph Macchio or any other person who was in or grew up to be in the industry, as their passion for the medium is obvious. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 8:15:26 GMT -5
This is why I am dismayed that some companies don't have letters pages. I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years. I know, as stated above, some companies have them. I enjoy reading the Immortal Hulk letters page!
It is about that real time factor. I bought some late 80s Suicide Squad comics at a con about three months ago. The stories were great, but it was also good to read views from those reading at the time. It's interesting, as you state, to spot a familiar name. It's interesting to read a prediction or two, some of them eerily prophetic, others not so much. And there is something very communal about a letters page, too. Like this forum, it's cool when someone raises a point that you had never considered.
DC nowadays just have a marketing page (a rather shallow one, I feel) on the page that was once used for letters.
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Post by brutalis on Dec 4, 2018 8:46:44 GMT -5
The $$ I spend are strictly in support for 2 of my LCS's and averages around $75 a month. I no longer purchase monthly issues or follow any series or have a pull list. Instead I will usually go in every 3-4 weeks and "browse" the wall of releases which both shops have that holds the last 3-4 months worth of issues. If something catches my eye then I will buy if cost versus page count seems sufficient. The over-boasted 1st issue or special issues which aren't worth the extra dollars has become ridiculous. Currently I am picking up only a couple of DC comics: Flash, Hawkman and Terrifics. I also pick up the IDW Disney comics Ducktales, Uncle Scrooge and Disney Comics and Stories whenever I shop, picking up the last 2-4 issues if they are in stock. This year most of my spending has been pre-orders for collections from Amazon in TPB and hardback and Omnibus for those "special" things I appreciate and will read more often than a monthly comic. Also been building up the library of books from used to new. The comic book companies are pricing themselves into lower sales and eventually the possibility of new readers coming on as the monthly comic book cost value just isn't worth it anymore. Whether it's newer or older readers the cost versus entertainment versus time spent versus taste versus quality has become a real deal breaker anymore. Comics which I might have been willing to follow as affordable quickly are put aside when they are becoming more expensive. 2+ hour DVD of movie and extra's, 3-4 hours reading of a novel versus 5 minutes of a comic book. You can do the math  |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 8:53:56 GMT -5
Comics which I might have been willing to follow as affordable quickly are put aside when they are becoming more expensive. 2+ hour DVD of movie and extra's, 3-4 hours reading of a novel versus 5 minutes of a comic book. You can do the math Indeed. It's not like you even get a complete story nowadays. That makes it even harder on the wallet. Imagine if a DVD distributor released, once a month, an episode of a six-episode mini-series. However compelling it may be, there'd be the temptation to say, "Nah, I'll wait for all six episodes to be compiled on one boxset." I can buy a novel for £7-10. That'll give hours of enjoyment. Same with a movie or TV Blu-ray. Sometimes I even wonder if monthly comics should be a "thing", at least where multi-issue arcs are concerned. Why wouldn't I wait for the six-issue Justice League arc to be collected into one trade? Not only will it be cheaper, but I'll be getting a complete story. And as I stated in another thread, it's not like there are any "extras" in comics now. "Extras" years ago included the likes of "Stan's Soapbox", bios of creators and a letters page. Although those things were "gravy", they did make the cover price more palatable. After reading a complete tale, you then could get stuck into the letters page, read "Stan's Soapbox", check out the mini-bios that Marvel titles did, etc. Although I do buy monthly comics (I'm currently buying Immortal Hulk and Star Trek VS Transformers), there appears to be little incentive because of the reasons discussed here. For me, whose income varies, nearly £4 is a lot to ask for a book that can be read in 5 minutes and is part one of a six-part tale. |
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Post by Randle-El on Dec 4, 2018 9:59:05 GMT -5
This is why I am dismayed that some companies don't have letters pages. I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years. I know, as stated above, some companies have them. I enjoy reading the Immortal Hulk letters page! It is about that real time factor. I bought some late 80s Suicide Squad comics at a con about three months ago. The stories were great, but it was also good to read views from those reading at the time. It's interesting, as you state, to spot a familiar name. It's interesting to read a prediction or two, some of them eerily prophetic, others not so much. And there is something very communal about a letters page, too. Like this forum, it's cool when someone raises a point that you had never considered. DC nowadays just have a marketing page (a rather shallow one, I feel) on the page that was once used for letters. The Image books I read all have letters pages and/or other bonus material. The Brubaker/Phillips books all have interesting essays in the back on topics that are related to the story. I really enjoyed most of the bonus essays in The Fade Out in particular -- lots of interesting stuff on the history of Hollywood. Greg Rucka also tends to include additional world-building material in the back of his monthly books -- Black Magick has a whole prose side story that looks like it's providing historical background on the characters for the main story. In addition to this, the Image books often are printed on better paper than DC/Marvel, and they relegate all of their ads to the back of the book so they don't interrupt the story. Most of the Image books are at the same $3.99 price point as DC and Marvel, but the value for your money is so much higher compared to the big two. I feel like if you have to pick and choose which books are going to buy monthly, and which you're going to trade wait or buy used or digitally, Image makes a strong case for their monthly format. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 10:23:56 GMT -5
Thank you.
I did discover Black Magick a little late, but enjoyed it immensely. And the kind of ancillary material you describe would definitely have me buying Image books more regularly.
In fact, given the lack of ancillary material in DC titles, and what we've been discussing, I have been buying fewer DC books. I thought I'd wait for the latest Justice League trade to come out. Same with other titles.
There have been some Image books that have caught my eye, so I could definitely make them a priority.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 11:37:06 GMT -5
If it's a book I truly enjoy, I don't mind paying a more expensive price...however with the Uncanny X-Men title, I certainly passed as I don't enjoy the X-Men anymore, let alone know who is who. I did enjoy the recent run of Astonishing X-Men. I still buy Archie digests and they are around $7. They bring me happiness and reading enjoyment, so I consider it money well spent.
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Post by rberman on Dec 4, 2018 11:51:05 GMT -5
Sometimes I even wonder if monthly comics should be a "thing", at least where multi-issue arcs are concerned. Why wouldn't I wait for the six-issue Justice League arc to be collected into one trade? Not only will it be cheaper, but I'll be getting a complete story. This is exactly what I do. The monthly publication schedule is a relic of the original purpose of comic books: To have a place for monthly advertisements to be sold. Monthly publication also smooths the revenue stream by serializing the release. But if a publisher can afford to pay upfront for the whole story, recouping when the whole thing is published as a trade on the back end, that's a better solution than dribbling the story out in segments, with readers losing the plot in the intervening weeks. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 11:59:13 GMT -5
Good point, rberman.
I am not saying abolish monthly books that tell standalone tales, but the DC/Marvel business model should be looked at, I feel.
Some trades flow very well whereas isolated issues don't. A 2004 Superman comic, where the Man of Steel spent a whole issue talking to a priest/having some sort of flashback, did not give me value for money. But when I read the trade, and there was six-issue context, it worked.
I do want to support monthly books. If we all only bought trades, monthly books may not survive. But one really has to consider the practicalities. Six issues here in the UK costs nearly £22-24; the trade may only cost £11-13.
I will shortly be buying Justice League Volume 1: The Totality, reprinting the recent Justice League #1-6. To have bought those issues individually, none of them telling a standalone story, would have cost me £20.10+, give or take. The trade costs £11.34 from Amazon or £10.77 for the Kindle version. For £11.34 or £10.77, I'm getting the complete story (I tend to read a trade in one day if it's six issues).
I do buy Scooby-Doo Team-Up monthly as it's standalone tales. With some exceptions, I am sticking to trades for an arc and monthly books for standalone tales. I think, to use my JLA example, most would opt for £10.77/£11.34 over £20.10+.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 13:54:53 GMT -5
Can I mention something else I miss and how it pertains to prices? Letters pages! Some claim letters pages are redundant in the internet era, but I disagree. They are fun to read, and most editors will select a representative bunch, but they are also a great "snapshot" in time for future generations; I enjoy reading letters published in comics that predate me. Some publishers still have letters pages, e.g. IDW and, occasionally, Marvel. But I haven't seen a DC Comics letters page in years. Whilst the comic's contents should be the "meal", the letters page was "gravy". And when you spend £3+ on a comic nowadays, it'd be nice to have something in addition to the story, e.g. something akin to "Stan's Soapbox", editorials, a letters page, etc. Modern comics are expensive, and whilst the story will always (or should be) the most important thing, I think columns and letters pages would go towards making that £3+ more palatable. Agree so much! Much as it is great to pick up collected editions of Silver and Bronze Age books, usually on the cheap, part of what made those books fun was reading the letters pages and seeing how people were responding to stories in real time. Face it, those letters pages were the forerunner of what we're doing here, just much slower and on a more limited scale. I love opening up a book and seeing a letter from Kurt Busiek or Ralph Macchio or any other person who was in or grew up to be in the industry, as their passion for the medium is obvious. Well except the editors of the books aren't editing, altering, or creating whole cloth our comments here and presenting them as fan reactions. Some of the letters were genuine and accurate representations of fan reactions in those books, others not so much, some are insights into how editorial wanted people to react to the books at best. But our rose colored nostalgia glasses make us overlook details like that to make the past look so much better than it actually was. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2018 13:57:45 GMT -5
I did find a pretty representative and balanced letters pages in most the books I followed.
I remember reading a Batman title where Bats took on Captain Boomerang. I believe it's a great story, but a letter writer was brutal about it. The editor not only printed the letter, but acknowledged, in his view, that the story hadn't worked for everyone.
Maybe I've been lucky, but whenever I've read a letters page, I've seen a broad range of views.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Dec 4, 2018 16:53:13 GMT -5
I do buy Scooby-Doo Team-Up monthly as it's standalone tales. With some exceptions, I am sticking to trades for an arc and monthly books for standalone tales. I think, to use my JLA example, most would opt for £10.77/£11.34 over £20.10+. Good man! Theoretically I don't have an upper limit for what I'd pay for a comic. In practice, Scooby Doo Team-Up is the only monthly I buy. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 4, 2018 18:18:15 GMT -5
I don't think anyone is naive enough to think the letters aren't satisfying an editor's agenda... 60s and even 70s comics were selling hundreds of thousands of copies, I'm sure they got plenty of real letters to cherry pick most months. I find them (and the 'bulletins/DC answer man/etc stuff) fasinating snap shots of what was going on at the time. I truly believe that's some of what keeps the value of old comics up just as much as the nostalgia factor.. stuff from say, the 90s, which COULD be nostalgic for some at this point, don't seem to have nearly the interest and value.
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