QUIT CALLING THEM “FLOPPIES! QUIT CALLING THEM “PAMPHLETS”!

Floppies are DISKS, and pamphlets are wht you get at the free clinic!

Acceptable terms are: comics, comic books, issues, perodicals, monthlies, pubications, and “overpriced collectibles”

“The total story page counts per issue of participating “Origins and Omens” books went up by two pages each.”

My bad. The solicitation copy gave the total page count as 32 pages, as usual, so I presumed the “Origins and Omens” backups were at the expense of the lead story. I should have double-checked that.

Dan D. - I’m sure he’s a nice man and all, but as several have mentioned, the editorial direction at DC is just south of pathetic. There is NO excuse for all the delays and the constant ‘events’ (who really thought “faces of evil” would be a good idea or generate any sales, other than Dan? Is he running the ship solo there? Is there no one to stand up and say “hey… maybe there are better ideas than this!”

Jonah Hex - I’ve heard several times that the title pulls its weight with the trades… I don’t think ‘editorial favor’ is the reason it’s still going. I get all the trades, love them, and would not pay the outrageous price for the floppies. Same for Sgt. Rock and the Haunted Tank - I’m all over them when the books come out.

One other thing - I don’t read too much about the Geoff Johns factor. I was really getting into Action/Superman, and then, OF COURSE, they get greedy as soon as they sniff something good going on and all of a sudden GJ is off to a mini-series chaos breaks out. ANOTHER good thing that was on the way that was blown by editorial… greed.

In many cases, the savings still add up over the life of a series. For instance, when the final volume of 100 Bullets is published in July, the difference between buying the 100 pamphlets ($268) and the 13 paperbacks ($185) is $83, just over 30% savings.

“Just think of the upcoming Fables crossover: surely it’s much more fun to pick up a new part of this almost every week than to read it in one huge chunk.”

For some people, yes, if they don’t mind spending the extra money.

Others will probably appreciate that the paperback will probably run about $20 vs. $27 for the 9 pamphlets.

It will be interesting to see whether Jack of Fables (and the Literals) rise to Fables numbers or whether they stay at expected levels, perhaps with a slight bump.

Well, as morganagrom mentioned, those huge discounts only seem to apply to each book’s first trade. For this reason, I’ve decided to try out promising new series via trade. On the other hand, I still prefer the singles with long-running series, for the simple reason that I don’t want to wait half a year or longer for each new installment. Just think of the upcoming Fables crossover: surely it’s much more fun to pick up a new part of this almost every week than to read it in one huge chunk.

House of Mystery paperback was a good deal? Try Northlanders Vol. 1: Sven The Returned which costs 58% less than buying the ad-filled pamphlets. Maybe some people prefer getting to read the story in advance over months and months, but a lot of people might prefer the extra $14 to put towards volume 2 (it’s $15 and comes out this summer and costs $3 less than buying the same story as pamphlets).

DC’s website also lists the first Madame Xanadu paperback as containing the first 10 pamphlets for only $13. That’s a 56% price break and an extra $17 in the wallet.

With deals like that, it’s no wonder why the Vertigo numbers (as reflected in this column) appear to drop the way they do.

I was FURIOUS when the trade of House of Mystery was 30% less than what I paid for ad-laden singles.

Once the new arc finishes, I’m done with it. Right now, my pull list is about 3-5 comics a month and shrinking regularly. Trades all the way.

Do I have to repeat this every time? NO US COMIC IS THE BEST-SELLING WESTERN COMIC NOWADAYS!

A new Asterix book sells about seven million copies. Italy’s Topolino (Mickey) magazine sells over 300k a WEEK.

Comic sales on the US are incredibly low considering its enormous population and wealth. Not that long ago there were monthly US comics selling over half a million copies every month, but the US comics industry did a remarkable job alienating itself from its audience.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

“And that short-sighted approach is one of the reasons why comic sales are in the toilet.”

Yes, it is.

LL

>DC Comics is simply not interested in selling its comics to people who don’t already read them. I’m not making this up.

And that short-sighted approach is one of the reasons why comic sales are in the toilet. The reasons why you promote a title like Vixen at least a bit instead of just throwing everything behind Flash are…

1. Get the folks who are already going to be buying Flash to try Vixen. Which is more likely, getting an extra 10 thousand people to buy Flash or getting 10 thousand people who are buying Flash to also buy Vixen?

2. People who might never buy Flash, no matter what, might buy Vixen.

Mike

As for variants, I wait for the trade, since they are usually placed in the appendix of the collection.

The only DC periodical I buy is the Johnny DC Supergirl miniseries. I’l give the Vertigo Noir titles a chance. Wish Wildstorm would produce more Pushing Daisies comics.

In the ‘real world’ people lose family (or whatever) all the time and are still somehow expected to show up to work once in a while.

That’s odd. I have a Westfield Comics catalog that has a listing for a hardcover graphic novel of the “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” by Gaiman. It’s also listed on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Whatever-Happened-Crusader-Hardcover/dp/1401223036

He said in a Newsarama interview that when he went to DC, all he wanted to do was Superman, and after he did the six issues, he really didn’t want to do much else.

So DC REALLY paid well for 3 years exclusivity there!

Andy however is not through with DC yet and still has other work planeed with them at least according to Didio.

And Heidi, I’m one who believes that least when extenuating circumstances cause delays like what the Kuberts have gone through (exeption of course for the passing of their mother), more info should be given out to the retailers/fans so at least we don’t sit around complaining on message boards.

We’re an understanding bunch when we’re treated like adults.

DCU: Average periodical sales are almost exactly at the same level as 5 years ago (5 years : - 1.3%). Of course there were lots of sales bumps inbetween, and another one is surely coming up, as there is no doubt that Blackest Night will do pretty well. No reason for concern here.

Vertigo: Average periodical sales have declined as TPB sales have risen. I just wish more people would read (and remember!) Brian Wood’s incredibly frank statements on this subject (he gives another one in the Millarworld thread about this very post) so they might get the simple fact that Vertigo is doing just fine into their thick skulls.

Wildstorm: By all available data, this imprint is indeed doing badly, though there is the not-quite-irrelevant fact that, according to Rich Johnston and others, it publishes the best-selling comics books in the western hemisphere (the licensed properties). The exact nature of this seems to be unknown, but it’s certainly food for thought.

Maybe… but some seem to be in the process of being pulled to the bottom of the bowl (DC) while others are still managing to float at the top (Marvel).

Two months late (at least)? What a bunch of bullshit. When will these publishers stand up to these creators who can’t seem to meet a deadline (continually)?

Well, gee, how DARE those unwashed fanboys criticize DC’s editorial direction!