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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 27, 2024 6:43:04 GMT -5
makes me feel old that I am now the target for nostalglia projects, but I'm definitely in!
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Aug 10, 2024 0:41:51 GMT -5
A very insightful article on the evolving formats of American comics and taking cues from formatting in markets outside the US, particularly the trend for digest sized comics (like DC's Compact line) and affordable compendiums. -M |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Aug 10, 2024 3:43:14 GMT -5
A very insightful article on the evolving formats of American comics and taking cues from formatting in markets outside the US, particularly the trend for digest sized comics (like DC's Compact line) and affordable compendiums. My first reaction is, "yeah, but it took them long enough." As a big fan of the 'compact' or 'digest' format in particular, what I found quite interesting, but also frustrating, is how DC apparently took the cue on the compact line from its French licensee. Frustrating because nobody at Marvel in the US ever took a similar hint when its UK reprint licensee, Panini, published an entire line of low-cost, digest sized reprints of various Marvel titles for over a decade from the mid-'00s onward. They each contain an average of about 200 pages of content and were priced at the equivalent of ca. $7-8 (and I found even cheaper used copies online). Edited to add: I'm aware that more recently, some Marvel 'digest'-sized books aimed at younger readers featuring reprints of various series like Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Miles Morales, Shuri, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Ironheart and a few others have been published, which is laudable. (In fact, I have the Shuri and two of the Ms. Marvel books.) But these were apparently done by a different publisher, i.e., not directly by Marvel; I'd prefer it if Marvel did this on its own and at a larger scale.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Aug 10, 2024 9:10:39 GMT -5
A very insightful article on the evolving formats of American comics and taking cues from formatting in markets outside the US, particularly the trend for digest sized comics (like DC's Compact line) and affordable compendiums. My first reaction is, "yeah, but it took them long enough." As a big fan of the 'compact' or 'digest' format in particular, what I found quite interesting, but also frustrating, is how DC apparently took the cue on the compact line from its French licensee. Frustrating because nobody at Marvel in the US ever took a similar hint when its UK reprint licensee, Panini, published an entire line of low-cost, digest sized reprints of various Marvel titles for over a decade from the mid-'00s onward. They each contain an average of about 200 pages of content and were priced at the equivalent of ca. $7-8 (and I found even cheaper used copies online). Edited to add: I'm aware that more recently, some Marvel 'digest'-sized books aimed at younger readers featuring reprints of various series like Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Miles Morales, Shuri, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur, Ironheart and a few others have been published, which is laudable. (In fact, I have the Shuri and two of the Ms. Marvel books.) But these were apparently done by a different publisher, i.e., not directly by Marvel; I'd prefer it if Marvel did this on its own and at a larger scale.
It just seems that every time the market moves towards other formats or being friendly to other markets, Marvel decides to double down on the direct market and the monthly periodical, the only exception being their omnibus line. They went with the digest sized Mighty Marvel Masterworks briefly, but those have trickled to a crawl on the release schedule and I'm not sure classic Silver Age reprints is the right content for that format to succeed in the youth market for them. The Epic line is still going, but they haven't kept most of the volumes in print and if you don't preorder many of those you find yourself having to look in the secondary market at inflated prices, so they aren't doing anything to expand their audience with them. So yeah, every time the market tries to take a step forward, Marvel seems to dig its heels in and take a step back, but then they own the market share of the direct market and because they own the status quo, it's not surprising they are the most resistant to changes to that status quo. Innovation comes out of necessity, and Marvel dominates the existing format sales, so why innovate-they seem to be content to be the biggest fish is a small and shrinking pond rather than try to grow the pons. They seem fine as long as they have the biggest slice of the pie, no matter how small the pie gets. -M |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Aug 15, 2024 18:27:20 GMT -5
DC is actually marketing their Compact comic line to readers outside the traditional comic buyer...
-M
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 7, 2024 14:41:28 GMT -5
DC is actually marketing their Compact comic line to readers outside the traditional comic buyer... -M I've always adored digest books and am incredibly happy to see DC embracing them |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 7, 2024 20:04:19 GMT -5
I saw one 'in the wild' at Target yesterday... but it was loose in the baseball card section. I didn't find any, or a spot for them, in the book section or anywhere else it might be. I hope that means they sold out and are getting lots more and not that they got some free displays and some employee nabbed it to read when they were supposed to be working  |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 8, 2024 0:58:56 GMT -5
I saw one 'in the wild' at Target yesterday... but it was loose in the baseball card section. I didn't find any, or a spot for them, in the book section or anywhere else it might be. I hope that means they sold out and are getting lots more and not that they got some free displays and some employee nabbed it to read when they were supposed to be working They had about a half dozen copies of Watchmen on an endcap in the book section along with a handful of other trades (TMNT, Viking Saga deluxe, etc.) at our local Target when I was there this past Monday. There were also a few super-hero prose novels and such on the end cap. -M |
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 8, 2024 8:46:38 GMT -5
I saw one 'in the wild' at Target yesterday... but it was loose in the baseball card section. I didn't find any, or a spot for them, in the book section or anywhere else it might be. I hope that means they sold out and are getting lots more and not that they got some free displays and some employee nabbed it to read when they were supposed to be working They had about a half dozen copies of Watchmen on an endcap in the book section along with a handful of other trades (TMNT, Viking Saga deluxe, etc.) at our local Target when I was there this past Monday. There were also a few super-hero prose novels and such on the end cap. That's nice to hear, makes me feel like something is going right. Because back in the early 00's it seemed like the most you'd find at a grocery chain was maybe (if you were lucky) Monthly Shonen Jump. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 10, 2024 12:28:21 GMT -5
Why didn't I know that Enrique Sánchez Abuli and Eduardo Risso have been doing a new version of Torpedo? That's worth looking for.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 10, 2024 12:31:08 GMT -5
Why didn't I know that Enrique Sánchez Abuli and Eduardo Risso have been doing a new version of Torpedo? That's worth looking for. It's pretty fun... I think you'll like it. #4 is in my file ready to read... not use if its 4 or 5 issues, so a trade should be soon. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 17, 2024 13:24:54 GMT -5
I haven't seen anything but the one page ad...but I'm pleasantly intrigued by the concept of Batman the Barbarian.
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Post by Batflunkie on Sept 21, 2024 20:20:22 GMT -5
Well, wasn't expecting this  Can somebody get me a mop for all the drool please? Hears hoping the Micronauts get a similar treatment |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 21, 2024 22:39:45 GMT -5
nice! that'll be fun!
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Post by jtrw2024 on Sept 22, 2024 4:08:51 GMT -5
Well, wasn't expecting this Can somebody get me a mop for all the drool please? Hears hoping the Micronauts get a similar treatment According to a listing on Wikipedia, there's an Epic Collection for Micronauts scheduled next summer en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Ultimate_Collection,_Complete_Epic_and_Epic_Collection_lines |
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