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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 30 May 2017 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | 1
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The reason why writing for trade doesn't
work for monthlies has everything to do
with the number of titles on the market,
of which, Marvel is the worst offender.
LCS only have so much money to spend on
product. If a shop can only afford to buy
5 to 10 copies of a book, so they can
carry every Marvel title, then a good
series that spreads by word of mouth can
be found by customers late to the series,
because they can't find the issues to put
the story together. So, they wait for the
trade. If enough people are quit worrying
about monthlies, the number of issues sold
drops but trade sales increase.
If publishers base their titles' success
on monthlies alone, which is my
understanding, they are going to
eventually screw themselves. That's where
Marvel is at.
It's compounded by the fact that they are
sidelining their biggest characters to
promote a more diverse roster. You can
promote these characters but not at the
expense of the ones that made the company.
Again, Marvel needs to bring the Marvel
Universe mainstays back to the forefront
and drop the number of titles to about 25
or 30. Give the retailer a deeper discount
for a limited time to boost their ability
to purchase, and rebuild the fan base.
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 30 May 2017 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | 2
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Also, while I absolutely agree with moving the content
meter back to all ages. That said, you have to move that
needle slowly or you stand to lose the readers of the more
mature content. You can attempt to move it all at once but
you had better have a good hook. The only way I could do
it is by bringing back creators that did the book right
that will bring in the nostalgia factor. (Example: JB on
Fantastic Four and Walt Simonson on Thor.
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Mike Norris
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4274
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| Posted: 30 May 2017 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | 3
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Marvel needs a top down barnacle scraping of editorial.
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Rick Whiting
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2188
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| Posted: 30 May 2017 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | 4
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Also, while I absolutely agree with moving the contentmeter back to all ages. That said, you have to move thatneedle slowly or you stand to lose the readers of the moremature content. You can attempt to move it all at once butyou had better have a good hook. The only way I could doit is by bringing back creators that did the book rightthat will bring in the nostalgia factor. (Example: JB onFantastic Four and Walt Simonson on Thor.
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It seems to me that the current adult readership and most of the creators and editors who are working on the books don't really know what a true all ages story is. Many of them think that the all ages comics that they read as kids were not all ages comics. For example, Joe Quesada once said that the Dark Phoenix Saga was not an all ages comic. He also said that Spider-Girl wasn't really an all ages title. That kind of ignorant thinking is part of the problem when it comes to the Big 2 returning to producing true all ages comics.
Edited by Rick Whiting on 30 May 2017 at 10:26pm
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Eric Sofer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 January 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 4789
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 3:47am | IP Logged | 5
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Marvel is potent enough to publish both all-ages AND mature books.
I see no clear cut path to restoration of Marvel even if the publishers were willing to make changes that I believe they're not.
Maybe it DC were distributing their books again... it would at least focus the stories a lot more.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132301
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 6
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"All-Ages" is dead in the water as long as there are enough fans -- some of whom run shops -- who insist on reading that as "kiddie stuff".
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Rick Whiting
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2188
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 7
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"All-Ages" is dead in the water as long as there are enough fans -- some of whom run shops -- who insist on reading that as "kiddie stuff".
________________________________
It's not just the fans turned comic shop owners. It's also the fans turned pro. Read a comic from the now defunct Marvel Adventures all ages line of books and then read a comic from Marvel's defunct MC2 line of books and you will see a stark difference. The MA line (which was started under Quesada and Alonso and their editorial staff) is Quesada and Alonso's idea of what an all ages comic is, which is "kiddie stuff". Contrast that with the all ages MC2 line of books headed up by DeFalco which are written in layers so as to appeal to people of all ages on different levels. Why Quesada and Alonso didn't or refuse to look at how the MC2 line was being done as a model of how to do the Marvel Adventures line is beyond me.
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4067
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 5:38pm | IP Logged | 8
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Trade paperbacks aren't the enemy. That's still money in the publisher's pocket. Movie studios want ticket sales, but they don't turn their noses up at DVDs and digital sales of the same content.
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Rick Whiting
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 22 April 2004
Posts: 2188
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | 9
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Trade paperbacks aren't the enemy. That's still money in the publisher's pocket. Movie studios want ticket sales, but they don't turn their noses up at DVDs and digital sales of the same content.
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Granted. However, writing padded stories for the trades is bad for the publishers. Also, if a monthly book doesn't sell well, then said book might not be collected into a tpb.
OMT, in most cases a monthly comic that sells terribly will most likely sell terribly in tpb form. So publishers won't be making that much money off of sales of the trades. Ditto for digital sales.
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Warren Scott
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 July 2016
Posts: 201
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| Posted: 31 May 2017 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | 10
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A while back when I said perhaps regular comics should come out as trade paperbacks every few months, I meant instead of continuing stories in monthly installments. It would be more like following a book series, like Harry Potter, Twilight or Hunger Games. Those stories weren't my cup of tea, but they were huge successes.
The books could contain all-new material though I can see comics being offered in shorter installments online first and later in book form. This has has been done for many comic strips over the years.
I miss the large display of comics I once found at the local drugstore, but kids today are more likely to tune in to them online especially with the prices for a monthly comic.
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Bert Kruger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 June 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 266
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| Posted: 01 June 2017 at 8:04am | IP Logged | 11
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I was talking to the LCS owner the other day and he said right now trades are selling better than the comics at his store.Seems people will wait to get a whole story at once in the trade and in most instances they have a cheaper cover price than if you would buy all the comics.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 01 June 2017 at 9:18am | IP Logged | 12
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Trade paperbacks aren't the enemy. That's still money in the publisher's pocket. Movie studios want ticket sales, but they don't turn their noses up at DVDs and digital sales of the same content.•• "Writing for the trade" is the "enemy". Even the dimmest readers eventually realize there's no point to spending $25 for multiple issues containing parts of a story that will eventually be collected. This is why the monthly issues themselves have to be written as complete packages (no more than two issues to a story, no counting subplots) so that readers will still be drawn to them. Trades should be strictly after-market, intended for audiences years down the line.
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