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[Tom_Cody]

Mark Millar on the problems with digital comic book distribution:

MY BIG CONCERN WITH COMIC DOWNLOADS
THE ONE THING NOBODY'S SAYING

Okay, I'm loving the fact that Millarworld books account for 7 of the top 10 downloads in 2010. That's cool, but what superficially looks like a great deal for creators is less so under a little scrutiny. Yes, you're eliminating paper, printing, comic store and distributor costs, but there's hidden costs here I haven't seen highlighted anywhere.

1/ Apple take 30% right off the bat.
2/ In the case of Wanted, Comixology then splits 50/50 with the publisher.
3/ Then the publisher pays the agent and creative team out of the remaining cash depending on their deal.

In hard numbers, the digital comic is normally half the price of the paper comic, but you have just as many percentages to pay out as a creative team to an electronic distributor and publisher. So effectively the creative team is getting half as much money. For creators, this isn't great and for comic stores this is awful. I don't mind paying thirty percent to a local store where my friends work and the guys care about the product. But do I want this money going to Apple?

In a nutshell, I'm very, very on the fence with this one. I don't like the idea of digital replacing paper anyway, but unless sales more than double creators are going to be worse off and the lifeblood of the industry, the stores, are going to feel the pain more than anyone. Y'know, like, the guys who keep us in business? I know lots of stores who weather the economic busts we face periodically because they love comics and will always stick around. Would Apple do the same?

Also, and perhaps the most worrying question of all, how do we know what we're selling? It's quite hard to fake what comics are doing as you can check with the printers, distributors and a number of places. Official, quite accurate numbers are printed online. But I checked several sources last night and nobody could tell me what my download numbers were for these supposed record-breaking numbers of mine. Just their chart position. I'm really not liking this at all.

In other words, keep buying paper comics.

MM

source

Also, here's a ranking of the top digital comic sales in 2010:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/01/06/news-rewind-2010-top-digital-comics/

 

[Odious Tea]

Bagley is looking better than I remember.

Source.

 

[tim1138]

Bagley is looking better than I remember.

Source.

I always liked Bagley's Spidey stuff, especially his run on ASM and the first half of the first Venom mini in the 90's. God I remember getting issue 4 of Venom: Lethal Protector and just hating Ron Lim's art.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Mark Millar on the problems with digital comic book distribution:



source

"I'm not so sure about these subways."

*train barrels past him*

 

[Odious Tea]

"I'm not so sure about these subways."

*train barrels past him*

What happened to the smilies? I wanted to do the three laughing ones because this is perfect. ):

 

[Blader]

What happened to the smilies? I wanted to do the three laughing ones because this is perfect. ):

Some guy on gaming side made a crack about a couple PC games, so Evillore took them away.

:lol

 

[Odious Tea]

Clay Mann's pencils on X-Men Legacy #245 (when Age of X starts) are fucking hot.

 

[tim1138]

Clay Mann's pencils on X-Men Legacy #245 (when Age of X starts) are fucking hot.

Will that be a good time to try and jump back into X-Men? I want to try and get back into but it seems like there's always some major crossover event going on.

 

[Foov]

I always liked Bagley's Spidey stuff, especially his run on ASM and the first half of the first Venom mini in the 90's. God I remember getting issue 4 of Venom: Lethal Protector and just hating Ron Lim's art.

Bagley's work during the clone saga is probably the best he's ever done. Don't know if he just had a really good inker and colorist helping him out but that stuff was really really good.

 

[jmdajr]

I have not read spawn in years. that sound crazy.

 

[Penguin]

Finally getting around to reading my comics, and all I have to say is F JMS and screw this entire god damn Grounded story. It is AWFUL! TERRIBLE!

Superman... the fans... everyone deserves better than this.

 

[Odious Tea]

Finally getting around to reading my comics, and all I have to say is F JMS and screw this entire god damn Grounded story. It is AWFUL! TERRIBLE!

Superman... the fans... everyone deserves better than this.

Hrm. That's unfortunate. I was hoping it would become marginally better with Roberson stepping in.

Wonder Woman still sucking it up, as well?

 

[Dead]

Its too bad that DC are continuing these garbage JMS storylines despite JMS leaving the titles. They should have just acted as if they never happened in the first place and gone back to whatever was going on before

 

[krypt0nian]

Bagley's work during the clone saga is probably the best he's ever done. Don't know if he just had a really good inker and colorist helping him out but that stuff was really really good.

I still hold his work on New Warriors close to my heart.

On JMS, he's on the same hack ride as Loeb now as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty much done with him as a comic creator.

 

[Mistouze]

This week's Knight & Squire was pretty pretty pretty good, I'd buy an ongoing by same creative team. Liking Cornell more and more really, thought his Batman & Robin arc turned out to have a surprising ending after a somewhat weak start, I've seen worse fillers really :lol

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Bagley is looking better than I remember.

Source.

No.

That looks like standard Bagley with some amazing coloring.

Been saying it for years.

Computer colors = the new inking.

It can kill or save a book. Though this also looks like that atrocious non-inked art. I'd love to see the B&W to confirm.

Also more news from another local shop on the hard cover DOOM!

Diamond is blowing out Marvel hardcovers so another shop ordered a bunch and is selling them at 50% off cover. So if the shop is selling them at 50% off, Diamond has to be blowing this sh*t out at at least 60% off to the vendor. This isn't a very big shop either so he's not ordering a ton of books, which is how Diamond scales the retailer discount.

It's only Marvel titles so far; but it's good to see the bottom continuing to fall out from under the hard cover funnybook racket.

Then again Marvel has been crapping out a ton of new hardbacks, so Diamond may just be desperate to get sh*t out of inventory. I'm hoping it's just the market getting fed up with the format.

I snagged the first Hickman FF trade. Yes it's sh*tty hardback, but it's also $10 @ 50% off.

 

[Odious Tea]

Will that be a good time to try and jump back into X-Men? I want to try and get back into but it seems like there's always some major crossover event going on.

Maybe, but as far as I know it'll be taking place on an alternate timeline -- so as far as I know it's out of continuity.. And it's also a crossover. If you want a great X-Men story that you won't have to work too hard to read, I'd recommended X-Men Second Coming. It was my first X-Men story in years and I absolutely loved it and you really don't really need to know much to follow it.

It's a bit expensive, but you get quite a book.

 

[favouriteflavour]

Mark Millar on the problems with digital comic book distribution:

How many of those digital sales would have translated into actual books sold? 10%?

 

[krypt0nian]

I think since Age of X is self-contained(?) I'll jump back into the X-Men for a while. Old home week, and all.

 

[Ephemeris]

God I do. It looked like Tim again.

And damn wasn't Batgirl damn amazing?

Yes sir!

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Mark Bagley is the definition of a plugger. He has a long track record of hitting his deadlines while drawing lots of guys. He can do all the standard poses. He's got a decent sense of dynamism, proportion and angle. He's built up a name by doing yeomanlike work on a number of franchises. The kind of thing an editor with an eye for fundamentals would like.

But considering the insane talent in the industry right now, I see nothing above average about him in any way - in fact his faces often look downright amateurish. He was ideally suited for something like his original Thunderbolts run, which was trying to channel everything that was cool about middle of the road Marvel books from the 70s & 80s. It was like he was born to draw that.


One of my locals was having a back issue sale, so I went on a bit of an Avengers tear.

Avengers: I originally bought the first two issues, then decided it wasn't for me. But after reading the whole run up to now...gasp...I think I like it better than New overall. Bendis does a good job reigning in the talking heads and giving it a different feel, and JRJ nails the sense of scale. Really fun book so far. Only thing that bugs me is Maria Hill. It makes no sense to me that Iron Man, Thor, Bucky Cap, Wolverine & Hawkeye are all getting bossed around by her. It just reads wrong.

Secret Avengers: This is just kind of Secret Warriors with different guys. It reminds me of when Marvel took the concept from Thunderbolts and made it into Dark Avengers. Good idea + Avengers on cover = $$$profit$$$? Anyway, the book's alright but Brubaker's really writing it as Steve Rogers + 8 Buckys. It feels like hardly anybody else gets any screen time. In fact, I think he gave more lines to that random armored space guy & Nova than any of the people actually on the team.

 

[8bit]

Mark Millar on the problems with digital comic book distribution:



source

Also, here's a ranking of the top digital comic sales in 2010:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/01/06/news-rewind-2010-top-digital-comics/

Points one and two are unrelated, no? For someone that sells so many comics he could drive his own content model, but is more interested in his own crappy comic with his pals instead of trying to forge a UK digital one.

 

[Thai]

just read superman 707....

i can't...i dont know how to say it....if he's suddenly under someone's mental controls then this whole exercise is completely pointless.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Holy crap @ Savage Dragon! :O

Erik Larsen is a god!

 

[Thai]

I still hold his work on New Warriors close to my heart.

On JMS, he's on the same hack ride as Loeb now as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty much done with him as a comic creator.

totally agree...JMS has not been good since the first few issues of Thor

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Holy crap @ Savage Dragon! :O

Erik Larsen is a god!

You can't just make oblique references to a comic when you're the only person alive who remembers it exists.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

You can't just make oblique references to a comic when you're the only person alive who remembers it exists.

Spoiler

This whole run has been crazy town. In the past Dragon has been able to crazy regenerate and return from the dead because of this power. He was attacked by a parasite that absorbs identities by consuming the brain. The Vicious Circle kills the parasite IIRC. Then the Vicious Circle goes and siphons out Dragon's blood before he can regenerate. Without the blood he couldn't regenerate. His kids are desperate to have him back so his son gives the body that wasn't regenerating a blood transfusion.

Instead of regenerating Dragon, it goes deeper and regenerates Dragon before he arrived on Earth - Emperor Kurr, whose mission it was to kill all life on Earth to make the planet inhabitable for his people.

None of Earth's heroes can stop him. Kurr kills every human on Earth with some bio weapon. Dragon's kids take the parasite that ate Dragon's brain and try to use it to kill Kurr. The parasite has been in stasis for a while and when it's out is experiencing some of Dragon's memories. Kurr incapacitates the parasite then kills his Daughter from another Earth. Kills his daughter from this Earth. Kills his son from Rapture.

The Parasite sneak attacks Kurr and kills him. Then Dragon's people who tried to stop Kurr the first time show up and heal the Parasite. Dragon also runs into Darklord who he pleads with to let him go back in time to save his children.

Darklord does this, Dragon kills Kurr before he can destroy all life on Earth.

Then Darklord informs Dragon that he's been the catalyst for the destruction of two Earths and can't be allowed to live and kills Dragon.

Malcolm and Angel are now alone in the world.

Sorry, that's not 100% accurate as I missed a lot of details and glossed over story points; but that's about as good a summary as I can write up. :O

 

[movie_club]

********I NEED HELP FROM DC READERS*********

Hey guys. My uncle works for DC and gives me a fat stack of comics every time I see him. For a long time I was a regular reader, especially Batman and Green Lantern. However, I got pretty pissed at the ending of Batman R.I.P. and Final crisis and started college so I really have not read anything since Battle for the Cowl.

Fast Forward to yesterday. I just finished all of Batman and Robin and have read Return of Bruce Wayne 1. Diddnt really know what was going on in the latter but loved the former. What did you guys think? I plan on catching up on Darkest Night and Brightest day, what else did i miss?

Also, what is the consensus on Final Crisis and R.I.P. these days?

Thanks!

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Spoiler

This whole run has been crazy town. In the past Dragon has been able to crazy regenerate and return from the dead because of this power. He was attacked by a parasite that absorbs identities by consuming the brain. The Vicious Circle kills the parasite IIRC. Then the Vicious Circle goes and siphons out Dragon's blood before he can regenerate. Without the blood he couldn't regenerate. His kids are desperate to have him back so his son gives the body that wasn't regenerating a blood transfusion.

Instead of regenerating Dragon, it goes deeper and regenerates Dragon before he arrived on Earth - Emperor Kurr, whose mission it was to kill all life on Earth to make the planet inhabitable for his people.

None of Earth's heroes can stop him. Kurr kills every human on Earth with some bio weapon. Dragon's kids take the parasite that ate Dragon's brain and try to use it to kill Kurr. The parasite has been in stasis for a while and when it's out is experiencing some of Dragon's memories. Kurr incapacitates the parasite then kills his Daughter from another Earth. Kills his daughter from this Earth. Kills his son from Rapture.

The Parasite sneak attacks Kurr and kills him. Then Dragon's people who tried to stop Kurr the first time show up and heal the Parasite. Dragon also runs into Darklord who he pleads with to let him go back in time to save his children.

Darklord does this, Dragon kills Kurr before he can destroy all life on Earth.

Then Darklord informs Dragon that he's been the catalyst for the destruction of two Earths and can't be allowed to live and kills Dragon.

Malcolm and Angel are now alone in the world.

Sorry, that's not 100% accurate as I missed a lot of details and glossed over story points; but that's about as good a summary as I can write up. :O

Sounds fun. (Sounds like it also mostly has to get a reset.)

********I NEED HELP FROM DC READERS*********

Hey guys. My uncle works for DC and gives me a fat stack of comics every time I see him. For a long time I was a regular reader, especially Batman and Green Lantern. However, I got pretty pissed at the ending of Batman R.I.P. and Final crisis and started college so I really have not read anything since Battle for the Cowl.

Fast Forward to yesterday. I just finished all of Batman and Robin and have read Return of Bruce Wayne 1. Diddnt really know what was going on in the latter but loved the former. What did you guys think? I plan on catching up on Darkest Night and Brightest day, what else did i miss?

Also, what is the consensus on Final Crisis and R.I.P. these days?

Thanks!

Hmm..what you missed depends on what you like. Personally I thought RIP was operatic and brilliant, while FC was flawed but brilliant.

Check out Batman Inc & Detective Comics, and YMMV but I didn't think the new Dark Knight book was bad either. You might enjoy the Blackest Night event and Brightest day that follows it. The Flash was another big Geoff Johns series that launched recently. There's an Action Comics run starring Lex Luthor that people seem to like a lot. Legion of Superheroes has been fun if you're into that sort of thing. The new Green Arrow run has been entertaining. Secret Six is a pretty badass series. If he can get you the first few issues of the Adventure Comics relaunch, those were great too.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Sounds fun. (Sounds like it also mostly has to get a reset.)

Larsen pretty regularly reboots the series, or makes it friendly to new readers.

- She-Dragon taking over briefly.
- Dragon returning and defeating Darklord.
- The Kamandi-esque This Savage World arc

So issue #169 may be a good starting point if it focuses on Angel and Malcolm. Angel has been on Malcolm to go rescue the original Angel from Dimension X.

Larsen just manages to take his book all over the place. I have no doubt Dragon will return down the road, but I'm more interested in She-Dragon coming back IIRC Amy lost her powers a while back.

However Malcolm Dragon is an interesting enough character and we're starting to see the depth of his abilities, being the son of Dragon and Rapture.

I'm not sure if Angel is as powerful Jennifer.

 

[krypt0nian]

Larsen pretty regularly reboots the series, or makes it friendly to new readers.

- She-Dragon taking over briefly.
- Dragon returning and defeating Darklord.
- The Kamandi-esque This Savage World arc

So issue #169 may be a good starting point if it focuses on Angel and Malcolm. Angel has been on Malcolm to go rescue the original Angel from Dimension X.

Larsen just manages to take his book all over the place. I have no doubt Dragon will return down the road, but I'm more interested in She-Dragon coming back IIRC Amy lost her powers a while back.

However Malcolm Dragon is an interesting enough character and we're starting to see the depth of his abilities, being the son of Dragon and Rapture.

I'm not sure if Angel is as powerful Jennifer.

The Kamandi-esque This Savage World arc

What issues? This sounds perfect!

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

The Kamandi-esque This Savage World arc

What issues? This sounds perfect!

TPB #15 or issues #76 - 100 IIRC.

 

[krypt0nian]

TPB #15 or issues #76 - 100 IIRC.

Sweet. You had me at Kamandi.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

So Bullseye: The Perfect game? If you know baseball at all, highly recommended. Only a 2 issue mini, fucking awesome story. Really great hook, Bullseye gets contracted to kill a schmuck major league pitcher who welches on an agreement to throw a game. It's the story of him trying to make the majors as a pitcher to kill this guy in front of 50 000 people without anybody realizing what's happened, it's really well told with some cool twists.

 

[Odious Tea]

So Bullseye: The Perfect game? If you know baseball at all, highly recommended. Only a 2 issue mini, fucking awesome story. Really great hook, Bullseye gets contracted to kill a schmuck major league pitcher who welches on an agreement to throw a game. It's the story of him trying to make the majors as a pitcher to kill this guy in front of 50 000 people without anybody realizing what's happened, it's really well told with some cool twists.

You've got me interested. I'll check to see if I can't find it.

 

[Cow Mengde]

You guys forgot a comic.

 

[Dead]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30376

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, Olivier Coipel returning to THOR.

Matt Fraction, new ongoing, Mighty Thor.

How has Fractions run been so far?

 

[Odious Tea]

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30376

Holy fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, Olivier Coipel returning to THOR.

Matt Fraction, new ongoing, Mighty Thor.

How has Fractions run been so far?

Meh. This could be good, though. In fact, it makes perfect sense. What Fraction's doing in his current run could very well be the launchpad to how Mighty Thor starts off. Glad to see Coipel back in the saddle.