Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Jul 24, 2024 0:21:32 GMT -5
Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I didn't see it. According to a few articles I've read, Marvel is doing a new thing where the last page of each issue is going to be digital only. Basically, there will be a QR code at the end of the comic you need to scan to read the final page. They have apparently already done it in the new X-Men #1 and a couple other new X-books. Here's an article about it. This, I have to say, is the absolute dumbest thing I have ever heard of in my 40 years collecting comics. Tom Brevoort has confirmed that these pages will be included in trade collections, meaning that people buying floppies month to month are buying incomplete books. I don't know if they are trying to get everyone to switch to digital, since this now requires everyone to read digital anyway, or if they are trying to get everyone to switch to reading the trades, but it seems like a massive F-U to monthly readers and to comic stores in the direct market. If I were still buying any Marvel books, I think I would drop all of them. This just seems insane! |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jul 24, 2024 8:01:26 GMT -5
Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but I didn't see it. According to a few articles I've read, Marvel is doing a new thing where the last page of each issue is going to be digital only. Basically, there will be a QR code at the end of the comic you need to scan to read the final page. They have apparently already done it in the new X-Men #1 and a couple other new X-books. Here's an article about it. This, I have to say, is the absolute dumbest thing I have ever heard of in my 40 years collecting comics. Tom Brevoort has confirmed that these pages will be included in trade collections, meaning that people buying floppies month to month are buying incomplete books. I don't know if they are trying to get everyone to switch to digital, since this now requires everyone to read digital anyway, or if they are trying to get everyone to switch to reading the trades, but it seems like a massive F-U to monthly readers and to comic stores in the direct market. If I were still buying any Marvel books, I think I would drop all of them. This just seems insane! So I bought and read X-Men #1. The story is complete. There is a QR code after the last story page. It takes you to a black and white "bonus scene" that is a teaser for upcoming stuff, not a part of the story in the issue. Whether it is a page form an upcoming story or something created as a marketing bit, I don't know, but X-Men #1 gave me a complete story (or as complete as you get in the write for the trade everything is an arc mode comics operate in today), and I did not need what was on the page the QR linked to to have enjoyed the issue. In fact, until you mentioned it, I had ignored the QR code as I always do those sorts of things and had thought nothing of it and didn't feel I had missed an ending in the story. The issue ended with 2 X-Men discussing things after the events of the issue and then a big splash page foreshadowing a coming threat the serve as a counterpoint to the last line of their dialogue which appeared on that last page, and then the traditional X in a circle on the bottom corner of that page that denoted "The End" in a lot of X-books and has since the 90s. The next page is the QR code, and it takes you to a scene with a bunch of different people sitting around a table talking but has no bearing on the completeness of the issue in hand. I looked up the reddit conversation which is the only result I got when I searched Marvel QR code last page, nothing on Bleeding Cool or rumor sites or even those attempting to be legitimate comic news sites, and all it seems ot be is a bunch of complainers misreading something and blowing it out of proportion so they can be negative about comics and a bunch of people grabbing torches and pitchforks to join in the mob mentality snowball effect without even knowing what it is they are talking about, or typical internet comic fandom in the 21st century. -M |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jul 24, 2024 23:06:27 GMT -5
And here's what Gail Simone (who's writing Uncanny) posted about the whole thing:
Yeah, so no conspiracy to try to get people to switch to digital or trades, just some bonus teasers in the first issues.
-M
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,958
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Post by Crimebuster on Jul 25, 2024 14:30:51 GMT -5
And here's what Gail Simone (who's writing Uncanny) posted about the whole thing: Yeah, so no conspiracy to try to get people to switch to digital or trades, just some bonus teasers in the first issues. -M If it's just for the first issues, that's less egregious. I have to say that was not at all clear from the comments I read from Tom Brevoort about this initiative. Re-reading what he said about it, he said "You'll find that we're doing similar pages in most of the new X-launches." and "You'll see the pattern repeated in most of the other X-launches of this era." Those comments can be read to only mean the first issues, but when I read it, I thought he meant it will be in every issue, and I'm certain from other people who have commented on this that they read it the same way. I wish they had been more clear explaining it. I also read the bonus page from X-Men #1, and found it to be a complete nothingburger. So on the one hand, it's less of a big deal since it turns out it didn't say or do anything. But on the other hand, if the bonus page is so completely innocuous, why hide it behind this QR code to begin with? Brevoort was saying they wanted to have a special teaser that isn't spoiled for people in advance, but there didn't really seem to be much tease to the tease. I dunno, I still don't really like it. 🤷♂️ |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Jul 25, 2024 14:42:46 GMT -5
It's a standard marketing tactic used in several markets. Customer buys the product is guided online someway for additional content/teasers/ads what have you. Supposed to make the customer feel they are getting more for their money-I got what I paid for and this extra. Works in almost every field, except it seems in comics where fans assume the publishers are trying to pull one over on them or that they are getting less than what they pay for. For me that comes down to expectations and bias of the consumer rather than anything the publisher did or didn't do. There's a large segment of comic fandom looking for things to complain about and because they go looking, they will find it, and there's another significant segment that are just waiting for someone to complain about something so they can grab the torch and pitchforks and go all mob mentality with the slightest provocation. Most of them are doing it for the hits, clicks and validation rather than anything to do with the actual comics. It's part of the pervasiveness of negativity and toxicity in online comic fandom, and it no longer surprises me that a lot of potential new readers are scared away, not by the comics themselves, but by the way online fandom presents itself and they don't want to read comics because they don't want to expose themselves to that kind of toxicity. Fandom is becoming one of comics greatest enemies and biggest obstacles to growing readership. It's becoming more of a problem than anything about the comics themselves, because it is easier to get access to comic fandom than it is to comics themselves as they are hidden away in their niche destination shops that most potential readers will never go to and never want to go to because of how fandom presents itself online.
Think about it, if your first exposure to something when trying to learn about comics online is this kind of toxic mob mentality, what reasonable person would want to dive into that to seek out a comic shop where they might be able to find and actually buy a comic?
-M
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Post by thwhtguardian on Jul 25, 2024 15:56:46 GMT -5
And here's what Gail Simone (who's writing Uncanny) posted about the whole thing: Yeah, so no conspiracy to try to get people to switch to digital or trades, just some bonus teasers in the first issues. -M If it's just for the first issues, that's less egregious. I have to say that was not at all clear from the comments I read from Tom Brevoort about this initiative. Re-reading what he said about it, he said "You'll find that we're doing similar pages in most of the new X-launches." and "You'll see the pattern repeated in most of the other X-launches of this era." Those comments can be read to only mean the first issues, but when I read it, I thought he meant it will be in every issue, and I'm certain from other people who have commented on this that they read it the same way. I wish they had been more clear explaining it. I also read the bonus page from X-Men #1, and found it to be a complete nothingburger. So on the one hand, it's less of a big deal since it turns out it didn't say or do anything. But on the other hand, if the bonus page is so completely innocuous, why hide it behind this QR code to begin with? Brevoort was saying they wanted to have a special teaser that isn't spoiled for people in advance, but there didn't really seem to be much tease to the tease. I dunno, I still don't really like it. 🤷♂️ ...From what Gail said it sounds like it's just teasers for now but it sounds like in the future it might be other bonus content that you have to go online to see and I don't see the issue really. |
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Post by rberman on Aug 9, 2024 10:46:55 GMT -5
It's a standard marketing tactic used in several markets. Customer buys the product is guided online someway for additional content/teasers/ads what have you. Supposed to make the customer feel they are getting more for their money-I got what I paid for and this extra. Works in almost every field, except it seems in comics where fans assume the publishers are trying to pull one over on them or that they are getting less than what they pay for. For me that comes down to expectations and bias of the consumer rather than anything the publisher did or didn't do. There's a large segment of comic fandom looking for things to complain about and because they go looking, they will find it, and there's another significant segment that are just waiting for someone to complain about something so they can grab the torch and pitchforks and go all mob mentality with the slightest provocation. Most of them are doing it for the hits, clicks and validation rather than anything to do with the actual comics. It's part of the pervasiveness of negativity and toxicity in online comic fandom, and it no longer surprises me that a lot of potential new readers are scared away, not by the comics themselves, but by the way online fandom presents itself and they don't want to read comics because they don't want to expose themselves to that kind of toxicity. Fandom is becoming one of comics greatest enemies and biggest obstacles to growing readership. It's becoming more of a problem than anything about the comics themselves, because it is easier to get access to comic fandom than it is to comics themselves as they are hidden away in their niche destination shops that most potential readers will never go to and never want to go to because of how fandom presents itself online. Think about it, if your first exposure to something when trying to learn about comics online is this kind of toxic mob mentality, what reasonable person would want to dive into that to seek out a comic shop where they might be able to find and actually buy a comic? -M Good points about toxic fandom. Probably one element is the insecurity of the field in general, with dwindling circulation and sales. It's reasonable for the companies to look for opportunities to get fans acclimated to seeking out the content online. A 22 page full color slick paper periodical is just not an efficient way to deliver narrative content in 2024. |
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Post by Batflunkie on Aug 9, 2024 11:05:55 GMT -5
Sounds like another day at the office for Tom
Be grateful that Marvel's a big brand name that has the backing power of Disney, because if another company (excusing DC) tried to do this they'd be six-feet-under within days
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 10, 2024 7:50:34 GMT -5
Sounds like another day at the office for Tom Be grateful that Marvel's a big brand name that has the backing power of Disney, because if another company (excusing DC) tried to do this they'd be six-feet-under within days Why would they be six feet under? They're offering bonus content online that is linked to the physical book...and it's free. I still don't understand what's so upsetting about this. |
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