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Post by The Captain on Aug 19, 2020 15:49:41 GMT -5
As some of you know, 2020 has not exactly been the easiest year for me, beyond just the coronavirus issues. My mom's deteriorating mental health condition, coupled with her and my dad separating after 51 years of marriage, has put a lot of unwanted and unneeded stress on me and my sister, not to mention my wife and daughters.
Well, the universe decided that the shit sundae that I've been served this year wasn't quite full enough, so it threw a couple more scoops of poop on it yesterday. My father was out filling his bird feeders last night when he tripped and fell on his driveway, fracturing his right hip. I spent last evening with him at the hospital, and he was in surgery this afternoon. He'll wind up at a rehab facility for at least 6, but more likely 8 or more, weeks, and then we'll have to figure out a long-term solution for him if he can't return home.
Sad thing for him is, he wasn't drunk. Used to be, we could chalk this up to him being hammered, but he hasn't been drinking since my mom left. After the paramedics took him away, they told me to wait about 45 minutes before heading down to the hospital since they would have to get him there and get him checked in, and there would be nothing for me to do. With the time, I did a little snooping and found not a drop of booze in the house. No bottles behind the bar, no beer in the fridge, no empties in the recycling; nothing. Just an accident where a 73-year old man tripped over his own two feet and wound up smashing his hip.
2020 can go find Negan, grab Lucille, and do unspeakable and very painful things to itself with that bat. I'm done with this year. It can go fluff itself.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 15, 2020 8:47:08 GMT -5
So Constantine may be a character, if there is a market in more-mainstream retail outlets, that gets a couple of OGNs per year rather than an ongoing monthly series. If these companies are going to make any money off of their lesser-known IP, they are going to have to get creative and try things outside of the usual options, because it's clearly not working any more. I'd be down with that, supernatural/horror stories tend to read better long form anyway. Agreed. The only series I have ever collected solely in TPBs was Fables because each volume contained, for the most part, a self-contained arc tied into the greater umbrella story. I think I would have gone insane buying that series in floppies, getting an issue and reading it, then having to wait 4-5 weeks for the next installment. At this point, the industry should do whatever it needs to do to survive. I only get four series per month, likely soon to be two. Much as I liked Marauders and X-Men when they started, the entire X-Universe has already started becoming too intertwined, to the point that I literally understood nothing going on in the most-recent issue of X-Men from last week, as it's part of the Empyre cross-over. I don't have the interest to buy 10+ titles to make sense of what's going on in a series, so I think they are going to be culled, leaving me getting just Captain America and Firefly, although I MIGHT get the new Iron Man book that is launching soon. If DC put out a couple of Hellblazer OGNs per year, each consisting of a single focused story, I could be down for that.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 15, 2020 8:11:01 GMT -5
Every current Black Label title is ending or cancelled. The Ridley penned Other History has been scheduled, but I am not sure how many other Black Label books will be see the light of day since the new head honcho is not fond of the more mature approach to comics. -M That's too bad, there's definitely a sizable market in book stores for material like Constantine. So Constantine may be a character, if there is a market in more-mainstream retail outlets, that gets a couple of OGNs per year rather than an ongoing monthly series. If these companies are going to make any money off of their lesser-known IP, they are going to have to get creative and try things outside of the usual options, because it's clearly not working any more.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 14, 2020 11:54:51 GMT -5
Eventually, that is what will likely happen. Hawkman might be a great book, but there isn't going to be a Hawkman movie, and if the IP isn't going to make money through alternative media streams, there is no reason to keep publishing a book that ships (not sells) 13K issues per month (February ship figure was 13,279, while March was 12,987). However, Harley Quinn only shipped 22K copies in March, and that character was the focal point of two movies, and Aquaman had a solo film and only shipped 17.7K copies, so maybe what we're seeing is the era of the monthly floppie rapidly coming to a close. Maybe DC is onto something, putting out monthly floppies for their top sellers and doing OGNs for their other properties instead of paying creators to make monthly books that don't move enough to cover costs. Sake of argument for me is something like John Constantine. I might not buy his monthly series, but if they were doing an OGN that had an interesting premise, I could possibly be tempted to pay $12.99 for it once or twice a year, rather than investing $3.99 per month over 12 issues, of which maybe I only like 4 in the same way as the OGN. Sell me a great one-and-done story in 48 pages, not six decompressed issues that leave hanging threads that I need to keep buying the series to resolve. Agree. But I will ask out loud if maybe the pandemic has affected those numbers. I just started going to a comic shop the last month or so, and maybe your regular comic fan begged off of visiting brick and mortar stores. It's a tough time for floppy comics in general. The only monthly book I still try to track down is Savage Dragon and I read somewhere that it only sells about 4k books a month. Erik Larsen dream of doing 301 issues might be cut short with the types of numbers. No, those numbers had nothing to do with the pandemic. Those were shipped to the stores in March, which means they were ordered in January, and the February figure for Hawkman was based on orders from December.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 14, 2020 11:00:16 GMT -5
Consider the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the "80/20 Rule". Batman, Superman, and the JL books are likely around 20% of their total series output while accounting for 80% of their sales, with the other 80% of their total series output accounting for 20% of their sales. They have said the series in the first group are going to be retained, but they will also cut their total output by 40%. Sake of argument, since I like round numbers, let's say they are printing 100 series per month, so reducing total output by 40% means going down to 60 series per month, with 20 of them being the aforementioned "Big Three" that were accounting for 80 issues sold out of every 100 and should continue to sell 80 issues per month going forward, regardless of total company output. That means there are 40 other series left (from a group of 80) that previously were selling 20 out of every 100 issues moved. Cutting the output in half ostensibly means a corresponding equal drop in issues sold, putting this new slimmed down group at 10 issues sold per month. A reduction from 10% in the number of issues sold (90, down from 100) will certainly impact their bottom line, but the comment from thwhtguardian was that it would not be a "significantly lower number", and the numbers here bear that out. Additionally, there will be some ancillary cost savings benefits from not having to manage so many titles, including those that sell fractions of issues per 100 issues sold. When I'm managing my warehouses for my company, if I can eliminate SKUs from the shelves because we have two functionally-similar items from multiple manufacturers, I do that, because one invariably moves faster than the other one. Likewise, if I can move items from our stock to a vendor-managed inventory system (which I do for non-technical, consumable items like paper towels, toilet paper, batteries, Gatorade, gloves, safety glasses, and the like), it reduces the amount of non-value add activities I have to engage in, which frees up time to negotiate better contracts, find cheaper sources of supply for more technical items, etc. **Caveat: I produced this off of simply applying the Pareto Principle to DC's theoretical situation, without analyzing their monthly sales data. It might be off by some factor based on the actual data, but it's a fair place to start the discussion. The terrible result is that DC might only produce Superman, Batman and JLA books. That's all you have to choose from. Eventually, that is what will likely happen. Hawkman might be a great book, but there isn't going to be a Hawkman movie, and if the IP isn't going to make money through alternative media streams, there is no reason to keep publishing a book that ships (not sells) 13K issues per month (February ship figure was 13,279, while March was 12,987). However, Harley Quinn only shipped 22K copies in March, and that character was the focal point of two movies, and Aquaman had a solo film and only shipped 17.7K copies, so maybe what we're seeing is the era of the monthly floppie rapidly coming to a close. Maybe DC is onto something, putting out monthly floppies for their top sellers and doing OGNs for their other properties instead of paying creators to make monthly books that don't move enough to cover costs. Sake of argument for me is something like John Constantine. I might not buy his monthly series, but if they were doing an OGN that had an interesting premise, I could possibly be tempted to pay $12.99 for it once or twice a year, rather than investing $3.99 per month over 12 issues, of which maybe I only like 4 in the same way as the OGN. Sell me a great one-and-done story in 48 pages, not six decompressed issues that leave hanging threads that I need to keep buying the series to resolve.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 13, 2020 14:48:03 GMT -5
About 2 years ago, I discovered that 2 charges were made on my ebay account for about 1000 dollars. I immediately contacted my credit card companies and changed all my passwords. Do not wait. Absolutely agree. A few years back, we found almost $1K of vintage Mustang car parts charged to our CC from some website for a shop in California at 3:00 AM EDT the day before. Immediately contacted our CC company, who shut down our cards, sent replacements overnight mail, and eliminated the charges.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 13, 2020 14:21:16 GMT -5
Wasn't sure whether to put this in this thread or the What's on TV thread, but I wanted to know if anyone here has YouTube TV and if so, what are your opinions of it? My wife and I don't necessarily want to get back into having cable, so this has some appeal to us (it has Turner Classic Movies, which we love, and I could get NBCSN, which has Premier League on it).
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Post by The Captain on Aug 13, 2020 12:02:06 GMT -5
I don't know if it necessarily means they'll be selling a significantly lower number of units just because they are producing fewer titles.
Sorry, can't follow you here: why wouldn't they be selling less if DC is producing less?
Consider the Pareto Principle, otherwise known as the "80/20 Rule". Batman, Superman, and the JL books are likely around 20% of their total series output while accounting for 80% of their sales, with the other 80% of their total series output accounting for 20% of their sales. They have said the series in the first group are going to be retained, but they will also cut their total output by 40%. Sake of argument, since I like round numbers, let's say they are printing 100 series per month, so reducing total output by 40% means going down to 60 series per month, with 20 of them being the aforementioned "Big Three" that were accounting for 80 issues sold out of every 100 and should continue to sell 80 issues per month going forward, regardless of total company output. That means there are 40 other series left (from a group of 80) that previously were selling 20 out of every 100 issues moved. Cutting the output in half ostensibly means a corresponding equal drop in issues sold, putting this new slimmed down group at 10 issues sold per month. A reduction from 10% in the number of issues sold (90, down from 100) will certainly impact their bottom line, but the comment from thwhtguardian was that it would not be a "significantly lower number", and the numbers here bear that out. Additionally, there will be some ancillary cost savings benefits from not having to manage so many titles, including those that sell fractions of issues per 100 issues sold. When I'm managing my warehouses for my company, if I can eliminate SKUs from the shelves because we have two functionally-similar items from multiple manufacturers, I do that, because one invariably moves faster than the other one. Likewise, if I can move items from our stock to a vendor-managed inventory system (which I do for non-technical, consumable items like paper towels, toilet paper, batteries, Gatorade, gloves, safety glasses, and the like), it reduces the amount of non-value add activities I have to engage in, which frees up time to negotiate better contracts, find cheaper sources of supply for more technical items, etc. **Caveat: I produced this off of simply applying the Pareto Principle to DC's theoretical situation, without analyzing their monthly sales data. It might be off by some factor based on the actual data, but it's a fair place to start the discussion.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 11, 2020 15:27:05 GMT -5
Short comic book runs seem to get more love than longer ones. The Steranko Captain America and Stern/Byrne Cap run being some quick examples. In the Steranko run, I feel like it's way too short to be loved the way it is. There I said it. A couple of thoughts on this: 1. Steranko's three issues get the love they do because they showed what the comic COULD be absent of Jack Kirby. The art was such a departure from the "six-panels per page, with a splash page now and then" formula that Kirby was a master of, playing with shapes and forms and angles in ways never seen in the series. Was Jack Kirby going to do this, using the shape of Madam Hydra's leg to influence the panel design: Was Kirby going to give you this kind of page, based entirely on Rick Jones tripping? Or this, where the sole color, outside of the word bubble, is a sparing use of Hydra's green for emphasis? 2. Steranko was one of those guys who was bigger than life. Even his departure on the series is just so...Steranko, quitting because he felt insulted that they jammed a reprint issue into the middle of his storyline because he missed a deadline. Guys like that attract attention and adoration, rightly or wrongly, because they don't play by "the rules". Personally, I think it's a great run, even at just three issues (even if it did bring a certain someone who shall not be named into the Captain America mythos), as it was a move forward from the traditionalism of Jack Kirby (not that it was bad, just very conservative compared to what Steranko put out).
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Post by The Captain on Aug 10, 2020 14:55:15 GMT -5
As a kid it would have been Hawkeye because I was an Avengers nut who cut my eyeteeth reading older Avengers reprints in Marvel Triple Action and got excited whenever Hawkeye turned up in the main book, but I also liked Green Arrow and his Mego figure was one of my favorites. However, once I got to adolescence and then read the Grell run, Ollie catapulted to one of my favorite characters and Hawkeye in WCA was pretty lame and he didn't get interesting again until under the pen of Busiek in Avengers/T-Bolts, and then not again until the Fraction/Aja series. So choosing now it would be Ollie. -M This is very similar, at least in sentiment, to my response. Was a Marvel guy for most of my life and liked Hawkeye as an Avenger, Thunderbolt, and in Fraction's series, but didn't know much about Green Arrow. However, within the past 20 months, I have acquired the first 80 issues of Grell's GA run and found a much deeper, more "adult" character than Hawkeye ever was. Oliver has layers and angles that Hawkeye doesn't, political views and wisdom that his bow-slinging Marvel counterpart lacks. They're both hotheads, but Clint is mad because he feels he can't measure up to others (usually Steve Rogers), while Oliver is mad because he feels the world doesn't measure up to what is could be. It's inward versus outward focus, and as I get older, I identify more with the latter and less with the former. It's close because of history, but I have to give the nod to Oliver Queen at this point in time.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 7, 2020 18:01:24 GMT -5
WHOOP!!! Montreal made the series!!! Against the Penguins, I didn't see that happening, if truth be told! I'm not surprised. The Penguins are an aging team with poor defense and average goaltending in the process of decline due to trying to prop open "the window" for one more Cup run for Crosby, Malkin, and Letang, so they've traded their prospects and draft picks year after year for guys like Patrick Marleau (although the Jason Zucker trade should work out) Also, the best of 5 format meant that a goalie like Carey Price could get hot for a few games and take a series. Best of luck, Habs. I'm hoping the ping pong balls fall right and the Pens get the first pick in the draft.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 7, 2020 15:58:38 GMT -5
Wife and daughters went out of town this weekend to Ohio to visit her brother and his family. The "big event" for the weekend is the birthday party for our niece's 3-year old son, and since I get limited vacation days from work, I didn't feel it was a prudent move to burn two of them for something that I really have little interest in attending. My plans for my bachelor weekend are pretty minimal. Doing some genealogy research this afternoon, then going to have some leftover BBQ ribs and potato salad for dinner tonight, followed by watching Blazing Saddles (and possibly another movie if I can stay up that late). Tomorrow, probably some comic book reorganization in the morning, then going to hang out with my sister and mom in the afternoon (my mom needs a couch for her new apartment), and finish the day getting sushi with my sister for dinner and watching Inglourious Basterds (which she has never seen). Sunday, I am going to do the weekly grocery shopping early in the morning, do some more genealogy research before lunch, then do a back-to-back of Infinity War and Endgame, with leftover baked chicken legs and grilled zucchini for dinner. Not that I won't miss them, but it's been almost a year since I had a weekend to myself (they all went on a church youth retreat last October), and I'm looking forward to just having a little "me" time to do some things I want to do without feeling like I'm ignoring them so that I can do them. 100% understand this. I adore my family and love spending time with them. Having the house to myself is an exceedingly rare treat. It also sounds like you have a much more organized and deliberate strategy than I would do. I would probably order unhealthy delivery, binge eat, and play video games until I hate myself. Yours is much better. And no pants at all. If only underwear had a pocket for my cell phone...I told my wife that tonight after work was going to be POF, and she knew exactly that I meant "Pants-Optional Friday". After I get back from the store on Sunday, it will likely be more of that, as the temps are expected to reach 90 here. AC+floor fans+no pants = happy Captain.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 7, 2020 15:44:09 GMT -5
Wife and daughters went out of town this weekend to Ohio to visit her brother and his family. The "big event" for the weekend is the birthday party for our niece's 3-year old son, and since I get limited vacation days from work, I didn't feel it was a prudent move to burn two of them for something that I really have little interest in attending.
My plans for my bachelor weekend are pretty minimal. Doing some genealogy research this afternoon, then going to have some leftover BBQ ribs and potato salad for dinner tonight, followed by watching Blazing Saddles (and possibly another movie if I can stay up that late). Tomorrow, probably some comic book reorganization in the morning, then going to hang out with my sister and mom in the afternoon (my mom needs a couch for her new apartment), and finish the day getting sushi with my sister for dinner and watching Inglourious Basterds (which she has never seen). Sunday, I am going to do the weekly grocery shopping early in the morning, do some more genealogy research before lunch, then do a back-to-back of Infinity War and Endgame, with leftover baked chicken legs and grilled zucchini for dinner.
Not that I won't miss them, but it's been almost a year since I had a weekend to myself (they all went on a church youth retreat last October), and I'm looking forward to just having a little "me" time to do some things I want to do without feeling like I'm ignoring them so that I can do them.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 7, 2020 10:11:06 GMT -5
Captain America #21 Written by Ta-Nehisi Coates Art by Bob Quinn It's the first new issue of Captain America since March, when a little virus brought everything, including comic production and shipping, to a grinding halt. I've been tough, I mean REALLY tough, on what I've felt is a lackluster effort by writer Ta-Nehisi Coates on this title, as he has focused heavily on the Daughters of Liberty while pushing Bucky, Sam, and yes, even Steve himself to the background. Did this return effort get the title back on track, or is it more disappointment? Let's dig in. This is a huge improvement (not that the bar, sadly, was very high), mainly because the focus of the book is Steve (along with Sam and Bucky), which is as it should be. The main plot shows the three men infiltrating the town of Adamsville, which has been set up, ostensibly, to provide disenfranchised American men a place to go work with their hands in building and farming and give them a sense of purpose that has been taken from them, with the underlying message being this was done by liberals; one man says "But here, a man don't just exist. He lives. He don't just punch keys or collect food stamps. He builds things. He hunts. He tends the earth as the Almighty intended". Thing is, Adamsville is designed by Selene, the ancient Roman energy vampire and usual foe of the X-Men, who is part of a shadowy cabal known as the Power Elite; this group has been behind everything going on in the series so far, with members like Wilson Fisk, Norman Osborne, Zeke Stane, Baron Strucker, and Alexa & Alexsander Lukin (more on them later). Selene, in the guise of Vicar Gallo, has been syphoning off the life force of some of the men to fuel her plan for immortality, along with resurrection for Alexsander Lukin (??). Cap, Sam, and Bucky bust in on one of her feeding sessions, only to find her powers amplified, allowing her to mentally control the other inhabitants of the town, who she turns on the heroes. In the main subplot, which takes place in Madripoor, we see a slave auction headed by William Taurey and attended by the Lukins, as well as Taurey's niece Cheer Chadwick. This is an OLD-SCHOOL callback, as Taurey was introduced in Captain America #194 and Chadwick in issue #195 as part of The Elite, during Jack Kirby's return to the title after his time at DC. There is some flirting between Taurey and Alexa Lukin, as well as some flirting AND sinister encouragement from Cheer to Alexsander Lukin, who takes her advice and removes an obstacle from his path on the final page, while also revealing to his victim that he is harboring an aspect of Cap's oldest and deadliest foe, The Red Skull, within him. This stems out of the Brubaker Cap run and should be the driver of the rest of the arc, entitled "All Die Young". After being incredibly disappointed by Coates' work on the title, this offers a glimmer of hope that he was playing the long game and things are on the upswing. I like his use of continuity in Taurey and Chadwick as well as the Lukin/Red Skull dynamic, and having Cap and crew up against an unconventional (for them) foe in Selene is a nice change of pace. Lastly, the reduction of page space for the Daughters of Liberty, limited to a string of text messages between Sharon and Steve, is greatly welcomed; it's not that they're a bad concept, but the title of this book is CAPTAIN AMERICA, and when I plunk down my $4.27, that is who I want to read about, not them. Grade: 7/10, as a return to the real star of the show and some awesome Cap continuity make this a winner.
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Post by The Captain on Aug 5, 2020 15:05:00 GMT -5
Icctrombone - I can't believe it was shipped in such a poor manner. That was just begging to show up at your doorstep mangled beyond identification. That said, it isn't horrible, and that price was pretty decent.
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