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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 14:04:44 GMT -5
A question for our Brit members or non-North American members...how viable would comic shops be in your area if they did not have American comic books (i.e. comics from American publishers and their intellectual property) available to sell? How much of their revenue stream is from American comics vs. comics from other areas? Is there enough other product available to keep a specialty shop viable selling comics only? -M No, there isn't. But then, as I said, the comic shops only really exist to sell US imports, and there are less than a hundred of them in the UK. But they are not the primary source of comics in the UK. You'll find several shelves of comics in most of the larger branches of WH Smith, for instance, and there are far, far more of them than there are comic shops. Most people in the UK are not really aware of the existence of comic shops, but everyone has a local newsagent who sells at least some comics. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 13:57:07 GMT -5
On a more serious note, I would love to see more cogent analysis of the comic market outside the US, but I never see any outside of the occasional article on a new Asterix and how it is selling or how European or Asian books fare in the American markets. If you have links to actual analysis of those markets and their impact on the comic industry as a whole, I would love to see them, as my google fu turns up bupkiss whenever I look. The only thing I find is British comic shop owners talking about American comics and their importance to their business model on shops who have features about them on Bleeding Cool. So help enlighten us if you have relevant info on the larger broader comic markets. -M The thing is, you're seeing British comic shop owners talking about American comics because 90% of what those shops sell are American comics. That's why the specialist shops exist. But the thing is, unlike America, the UK still has a high street comics industry, admittedly a fraction of the size it once was, but still there. And the comics sold in the newsagents and supermarkets, the UK originated comics, for the most part don't get sold in the comic shops-but then, they don't need to, since there are an awful lot more newsagents and supermarkets than there are comic shops. It's a completely different market. I could probably rustle up some figures for UK comics sales outside of the comic shops, but not all publishers submit sales figures for public scrutiny. Rebellion, who publish the 2000 AD stable of titles, don't for a start, and I suspect their sales are a lot higher than those of some of the companies that do. I'll see if I can dig up some figures for comparison. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 12:56:37 GMT -5
I could have sworn the original post referred to "the world", not just America.But it always seems to come back down to just discussions about America and the US comics industry.
I give up...
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 7:28:57 GMT -5
I see, so how do we know that Comic book fandom is dying as is always reported? We don't. I personally don't believe it is. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 7:11:54 GMT -5
I was reading in the Nightforce thread that cancelation for nu52 books were 18-20K. The top selling books these days are in the 80-100K range. How many comic fans are left in the world? How do you go about finding an approximate number of who still buys comics a regular basis? You can't. And you certainly can't do so for the entire world based on sales of comics from just one country, since a lot of country's have their own comics industries, most of which aren't totally reliant on US imports. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 4:42:56 GMT -5
Mike Moran's "suicide" is still one of the most quietly powerful scenes I've ever encountered in a comic.
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 10, 2017 4:13:26 GMT -5
Captain Britain #28 (April '77)Script: Gary Friedrich/Larry Lieber Art: John Buscema/Tom Palmer "Night of the Hawk!"  Our story begins with a slumbering Brian Braddock conveniently dreaming an expository flashback scene in which he builds a remote controlled robot hawk for kindly old Professor Scott, testing it out as Captain Britain (so this is a recent development) before handing it over. Unfortunately, Scott (who is referred to in the text as Robert, though several years later a volume of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe will inexplicably decide his first name is Willard) is, unbeknown to Brian, as mad as an extremely mad thing indeed, and as our scene shifts we find him busily using his now weaponized robo-hawk to destroy a factory while proclaiming that "our misguided nation has fouled its air, polluted its water and sold its soul!" The self styled Lord Hawk is on a mission to purify the land by the systematic destruction of everythinng that pollutes it, and we find out via Brian and his continuing flashback problem (he's awake now, but still conveniently daydreaming his way through Hawk's origin story) that the event which set him on this course was the death of the last of his beloved hunting hawks, apparently poisoned by pollution. Scott's grief over his bird's passing prompted Brian to create Robo-bird for him, which seems a spectacularly stupid move to have made given that the Professor was widely regarded as a nutcase and even Brian reflects of the bird that "I'm glad you'll belong to a kind and trustworthy old gentleman! In the wrong hands, you could be a menace!" Well why build the bloody thing, then? And come to think of it, how did a physics student build an advanced flying robot, anyway? Eventually, Brian stops daydreaming and arranges via a phone call to visit the Professor, who entreats him to "come early"...before thinking to himself "for the sooner you arrive--the sooner you will die!!" There's gratitude for you...anyway, Hawk then picks up the daydream narrative, explaining to us how the arrival of Brian's gift caused him to hatch his plan to get revenge on the society that killed his pets, and how he hired an unemployed munitions worker to weaponize his bird, before shooting the man dead when it became apparent that he thought they were going to use it for personal profit in a criminal partnership. Back in London, Captain Britain stumbles upon some thugs trying to mug Brian Braddock's cleaner, Mrs Anderson, and saves her, only for her to mistake him for another robber on the fairly sensible grounds that he's wearing a mask. A disillusioned Brian then runs into the long absent Courtney Ross, but any development of his neglected social life is forestalled by his seeing a report about Lord Hawk's attack on the factory in The Times (which is, of course, the newspaper of choice for students, and not in any way the only British newspaper Gary Friedrich had actually heard of) and realizing what a complete twonk he's been. Brian abandons a baffled Courtney and runs off to track down Lord Hawk, which should be easy enough as the villain is even now waiting in ambush for him, having reasoned that "even though the son of my late friend has treated me most kindly, when he learns to what purpose I have turned his "gift", he will become a bitter and deadly foe!" No good deed ever goes unpunished, Brian... Oh, and we're also told that the entire interminable Red Skull storyline occurred over just three days for Brian. Now that's just not fair!
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 9, 2017 8:47:23 GMT -5
As we can see with the scene on the last page, this is something of an understatement, as "some fifty miles to the north", the bizarrely garbed Professor Scott prepares to unleash his metallic avian companion on a smoke belching factory, while proclaiming "let naught but rubble remain, where yon palace of pollution stands! So commands Lord Hawk!" Is an eco-warrior super-villain in the offing?  Yep, and long before it became fashionable! |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 9, 2017 6:08:16 GMT -5
Captain Britain #27 (April '77)Script: Gary Friedrich/Larry Lieber Art: John Buscema/Fred Kida "Wil You Never Win?"  A somewhat ironic title, it seems to me, as "when will this story end" was basically the question I was asking last issue. However, thankfully, this issue it finally does just that, albeit in a fairly low key and rather unsatisfying way: the Red Skull, having survived his fall from the clock tower, simply teleports away on the first page vowing terrible vengeance at some unspecified point in the future, we get a blink-and-you'll-miss-it acknowledgement of the fact that, oh yeah, Commander Hunter defused the Skull's germ bomb, and our heroes head back to the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier to pat each other on the back and get a congratulatory transatlantic video call from President Carter. As Captain Britain and Hunter head off, Captain America and Nick Fury reflect that "the UK's having a rough time right now--and they're lucky to have guys like that around!", whie Hunter and C.B are pleased to have fought beside "two living legends". It's all a bit over the top, and one can't help thinking the very sudden wrap-up of the Red Skull storyline after what seems like millennia was just because the writers finally realized they hadn't a clue what to do with it. We do get a short scene between the Prime Minister and Dai Thomas, though, in which Dai gets to remind us that he hates superheroes because of his wife's death. And there's a bit of foreshadowing which will ultimately come to nothing, as Hunter offers C.B a job with S.T.R.I.K.E and, when rebuffed, gives a sly smile and thinks to himself that the police take a dim view of vigilantes, and sooner or later the Captain will have to join the agency or retire. With the main story over, Captain Britain gets a cab back to Thames University (indulging in a brief origin flashback along the way) only to then remember that his costume has no pockets so he has no money. He rather unheroically runs out on the driver without paying, which I'm sure Captain America would have disapproved of. Returning to his rooms as Brian Braddock, our hopeless hero then finds a letter from his father's old friend Professor Scott, and wonders to himself whether the "kind old gentleman" is enjoying "the radio controlled hawk I built for him (!)" As we can see with the scene on the last page, this is something of an understatement, as "some fifty miles to the north", the bizarrely garbed Professor Scott prepares to unleash his metallic avian companion on a smoke belching factory, while proclaiming "let naught but rubble remain, where yon palace of pollution stands! So commands Lord Hawk!" Oh, Brian. What have you done now...?
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 7, 2017 8:26:14 GMT -5
It's kind of my specialist subject... And how lucky we are that folks here have such specialist knowledge to share with us all.  Just for the sake of it, here's Wardog as drawn by David Lloyd in his first appearance...  ...and a centrespread poster of the Special Executive from The Daredevils.
 Marvel actually promoted the characters quite heavily for a few months, evidently hoping they'd take off in a big way (they reprinted the DWM stories in The Daredevils alongside their new appearances, and the group also appeared with Daredevil, Captain Britain and Night Raven on a promotional poster for the magazine) but they then rather shot themselves in the foot by alienating the Grand Wizard of Northampton... |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 6, 2017 15:15:38 GMT -5
The Special Executive...or at least, some of them...first appeared in the second and third parts of the Star Death trilogy, an intermittent series of back-up strips about the early days of the Time Lords of Gallifrey in Doctor Who Monthly in 1981, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Of the later group, only Wardog, Cobweb and Zeitgeist appear, Wardog debuting in DWM #51 (in which he loses his left arm) and the others in #57. They are identified as parahuman agents of the Time Lords. Later, in the Captain Britain series, Wardog mentions their having worked for time travellers. This, plus the fact that one of the forms that Merlin briefly adopts in A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair is the form of the Merlin encountered twice by the Doctor in DWM seems to indicate that they exist in the same multiverse. When Alan Moore fell out with Marvel over the Marvelman situation and denied them the right to reprint his work, he also forbade them from using the three Special Executive characters he and Lloyd originally co-created, forcing Alan Davis and Jamie Delano to create the Technet instead, essentially the same group minus Wardog, Cobweb and Zeitgeist. Fascinating. I had no idea. It's kind of my specialist subject... |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 6, 2017 13:45:35 GMT -5
I presume you are aware of the Special Executive's past history, yes? You've read their appearances in Doctor Who Monhly? Errr...nope! The Special Executive...or at least, some of them...first appeared in the second and third parts of the Star Death trilogy, an intermittent series of back-up strips about the early days of the Time Lords of Gallifrey in Doctor Who Monthly in 1981, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Of the later group, only Wardog, Cobweb and Zeitgeist appear, Wardog debuting in DWM #51 (in which he loses his left arm) and the others in #57. They are identified as parahuman agents of the Time Lords. Later, in the Captain Britain series, Wardog mentions their having worked for time travellers. This, plus the fact that one of the forms that Merlin briefly adopts in A Rag, a Bone, a Hank of Hair is the form of the Merlin encountered twice by the Doctor in DWM seems to indicate that they exist in the same multiverse. When Alan Moore fell out with Marvel over the Marvelman situation and denied them the right to reprint his work, he also forbade them from using the three Special Executive characters he and Lloyd originally co-created, forcing Alan Davis and Jamie Delano to create the Technet instead, essentially the same group minus Wardog, Cobweb and Zeitgeist. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 6, 2017 11:03:20 GMT -5
So, I read another three issues of Alan Moore's Captain Britian last night ( Daredevils #3-5), tingramretro . I'm still really enjoying this and I particularly liked Moore's obvious disdain for McDonalds (or McBurgers, as it is in the story) and also the fact that the battle with Slaymaster takes place in a comic shop on Denmark Street (obviously meant to be the original Forbidden Planet shop).  Lots of good writing here and I'm really into this now. I'm surprised that I like this so much, actually, because traditionally I've not been a fan of Captain Britain at all. Also, the Special Executive, who have just shown up and invaded Braddock Manor, seem like a cool bunch of characters...although their means of entry, just to ask Brian a favour, seems a bit much! I presume you are aware of the Special Executive's past history, yes? You've read their appearances in Doctor Who Monhly? |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 6, 2017 4:10:33 GMT -5
I find entering your top bid and hoping for the best ,is the best method. Otherwise you risk buyers remorse for overpaying. Funny Ebay story. If you're anything like me, you know exactly where you were and what you were doing the day Ron Palillo died. Perhaps best known for his portrayal of Arnold Horshack on the beloved sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter, Palillo delighted audiences around the globe with his braying laughter, nasal delivery, and endearing comic hi-jinks. That night, after a few cocktails, I bought a full set of Mattel's 1976 Welcome Back, Kotter figures mint on the card, fully expecting to turn a tidy profit by selling them to the biggest Kotter fan on the 'net. Turns out that fan was me. Five years later, it's still the highest price ever paid for the set.  I think I have a single issue of a DC Comics Welcome Back Kotter title which I bought as part of a job lot of stuff, but I don't think it made much of an impression on me, and I certainly didn't realize it was based on a TV show. Never heard of Ron Palilo either. |
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Post by tingramretro on Apr 6, 2017 3:34:59 GMT -5
Michael Moorcock wrote Michael Moorcock's Multiverse #1-12 and Tom Strong #31 & 32. According to GCD, Harry Harrison wrote strips in All-American Men of War #8 and Star Spangled War Stories #16. He also wrote Rick Random strips in Super Detective #127, 129, 139 & 143. He did indeed. Which makes it rather puzzling that the comics adaptations of Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels in 2000 AD were actually written by someone else. |
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