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FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2005 -- Saturday, May 7.
- Thread starter Spike Spiegel
- Start date
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evil solrac v3.0
Member
any comic book or just a select few?
evil solrac v3.0 said:
Publishers are giving retailers comics either dirt cheap or free to be given out at their discretion. It'll depend on your local store; the sterotypical Comic Book Guy shop owner may only give out one comic, while a good indy shop will probably go all out with multiple free comics per person, sales on other merchandising, dragging out the quarter boxes, the whole nine yards. Fortunatly, my local shop is among the more enlightened, and has been giving away three comics per person, with the full staff on hand to answer questions and point people towards titles they'd like. Woo!
FnordChan
Chesapeake Silt
Member
There's an oni book that has a SHARKNIFE story in it. I really liked SHARKNIFE... it's like capcom's library of 2d fighters, crossed with realultimatepower.net and lots of pop action manga. 100% Fight Comics!! I'd probably get the Flight book, and the book with the cool Darwyn Cooke cover, but there's no way of knowing if a shop is going to have the good books, or just the usual bag of shit, so I'm skipping.
Spike Spiegel
Member
Sorry 'bout that... Usually I try to give earlier notice. But I didn't go to the shop this week, so FCBD kind of slipped my mind until I saw a thread about it on another board Friday.Shinobi said:
The big one I picked up was Only a Poor Old Man (Uncle Scrooge). This is possibly my favorite comic book story of all time. I remember reading a Whitman reprint of this probably 6000000 times when I was a kid. I wore out the book and the cover fell off (obviously) but even worse, the pages eventually came apart at the fold.. just read the hell out of it and have been waiting for the current disney books to reprint is at sometime..
What was really nice is that I've been out of comics for around 8 months. It was this that got me back into the store. Also picked up that $1 Infinite Crisis book or whatever (Still have to read it), Elfquest digests 1-3, and Bleach volumes 1-3.
Then I found out my old regular shop was closed down for just over a month as they had to vacate their old shop and move.. now I find out Diamond won't be shipping to them for another two weeks. oh well, will still shop there once they get things going in a couple weeks. I've been out for over 8 months.. two more weeks won't kill me.
hey spike. are there any big books selling out now that I should be looking out for that are worth reading?
What was really nice is that I've been out of comics for around 8 months. It was this that got me back into the store. Also picked up that $1 Infinite Crisis book or whatever (Still have to read it), Elfquest digests 1-3, and Bleach volumes 1-3.
Then I found out my old regular shop was closed down for just over a month as they had to vacate their old shop and move.. now I find out Diamond won't be shipping to them for another two weeks. oh well, will still shop there once they get things going in a couple weeks. I've been out for over 8 months.. two more weeks won't kill me.
hey spike. are there any big books selling out now that I should be looking out for that are worth reading?
Spike Spiegel said:
Oh it's not your fault...if this thread had been kept on the first page every day for the last week, fate would've still had me missing it until today. :lol Can't say the freebie comics interested me this year anyway, so no big loss.
Was planning to make a trek in a couple weeks and pick up a couple more Batman and Ultimate Spidey graphic novels, since some stores here are selling them at the US listed prices (which basically means a 20-25% savings for us Canucks). Would've done so already, but my pockets aren't exactly ringing with the song of change.
Thanks for the heads up. Picked up a lot of the freebies including the Wizard Top 100 Trades. Looked around my shop for the trades I wanted to try on that list but they didn't have them (the shop was having a 25% off trades sale too). There was even a guy dressed up as Spidey walking around the shopping center to promote the day. Some hot girls were all over him. :lol
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
A bit OT, but can anyone fill me in on how the comic industry collapsed in the mid-late 90s and how things are now basically--is Marvel or DC on top, what are the popular books, etc? When I was a kid I was really into Marvel (I read all of the Infinity Gauntlet crossovers and l loved every minute of it) but I gave my collection to my little brother right when Spawn debuted in the early 90s and never looked back.
I read part of Marvel's bankruptcy reorganization case in class and it got me wondering how it happened. When I last picked up a comic, Marvel was the unquestioned industry leader in comics and cards.
I went to a newsstand and everything was unrecognizable--vastly different books with weird numbering (did they just start over?) Looks like the X-Men are still popular, how many books do they have? Is Marvel just an X-Men/Spiderman operation now?
So...why did the industry, and Marvel, collapse? Was it because of a drop in editorial quality? What's going on now with the industry? Is there any hope for someone like me, who literally hasn't picked up a comic in more than 10 years? I tried basic google research but it just confused me more.
I read part of Marvel's bankruptcy reorganization case in class and it got me wondering how it happened. When I last picked up a comic, Marvel was the unquestioned industry leader in comics and cards.
I went to a newsstand and everything was unrecognizable--vastly different books with weird numbering (did they just start over?) Looks like the X-Men are still popular, how many books do they have? Is Marvel just an X-Men/Spiderman operation now?
So...why did the industry, and Marvel, collapse? Was it because of a drop in editorial quality? What's going on now with the industry? Is there any hope for someone like me, who literally hasn't picked up a comic in more than 10 years? I tried basic google research but it just confused me more.
100Bullets
Member
All my local comic shops were closed by the time I got out of work, damn it all.
Guileless said:
The jist of it, is that during the early 90s, around the time Image started, they did a good job of bringing in many new customers, in large part due to the glossy paper, computerized coloring, and fancy artwork. Artists who had struggled for so long were now making money ass over hand (Rob Liefield alone made $20 million the first year Image started), and with that came greed and laziness. Everyone noticed collectors were buying new #1 issues, variant covers, and other gimmicky shit to make a quick buck, and so they went where the money was and catered to them. It didn't take long before most people started noticing that all these new books, and even long time series, were becoming nothing but flash over substance, and that the shit wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. The collectors left the marker, and a large portion of the long time fans went with them.
The industry now is at a point where things are for the most part healthy. Launching new books is very risky, but usually when one becomes a hit, it hits big. Most of the books you see with odd numbering are Marvel books that started with new volumes, but once they reached what would have been the 400 or 500th issue of the old volume, they changed the numbering back.
That should answer most of your questions.
Spike Spiegel
Member
Guileless: Speculators happened, that's what.
People were looking for creative, "safer" ways to invest their money in the early 1990s, and some idiots got it in their heads that comic books were a smart investment, because some financial gurus told them this was true. After all, rare classics like Action Comics #1 are worth tens of thousands of dollars, right? Yeah, well... So, the industry experienced a massive influx of new collectors, and sales soared to all-time highs. When DC, Marvel, and the other comics companies realized what they had on their hands, they (naturally) decided to cash in by offering more special "collector's" issues. Variant covers, foil covers, new #1 issues, milestone issues, shocking "Death" issues etc etc. And collectors snatched them up, hoping to bankroll their retirements or send their kids off to college with their "rare" comics. In the process they made the comics companies and creators very rich, very greedy, very spendthrift, and - unfortuntately - creatively bankrupt.
The problem was, those rare comics from the 30s/40s/50s/60s are worth so damn much because THEY'RE RARE. And these new comics of the 90s simply weren't. Publishers were printing millions of copies of their comics each month to rake in the money, and that would've been okay if there were millions of customers buying them... but there weren't. What you had was a small core audience of fans, and then a sh*tload of speculators buying dozens of copies of single issues hoping to strike it rich. A comic with a monthly print run of 500k+ copies might only have 100k fans reading it, with the remaining 400k being bought up by speculators. And when the speculators figured out their comics weren't going to be worth spit, they quit buying, and the bubble burst.
The retailers (the only folks not getting rich off this) were left with hundreds, even thousands of unsold comics on their racks, a greatly diminished or nonexistent customer base, and bills they couldn't afford to pay. Stores across the country shut down for good, speculators just weren't interested anymore, the youth of America were moving on to other sources of entertainment like video games, and the fans... the fans were either left out in the cold when their LCS closed, or quit buying because the comics were all flash and no substance. And without retailers to sell their comics through, the comics companies were in deep, deep trouble.
I think DC fared better than Marvel after the bubble burst, because of their connection to Warner Bros. Even then, they barely got by, and IIRC there was talk of WB doing away with the whole operation. Marvel was in serious trouble for a looooong time, hence their bankruptcy filing and reorganization a few years ago. Image got broken up pretty good after the crash, with only the stronger titles and studios surviving. A lot of smaller independent publishers got hurt and went under too.
Today, the industry outlook is... cautiously optimistic, I'd say. The industry's top-selling comics average only 100-150k copies per month, with a vast majority selling far below that. And as many of you can probably attest, there aren't a whole lot of LCSs left out there. Sales of graphic novels on the other hand, are definitely on the rise, thanks in large part to their availability through mass-market retailers. Merchandising also plays a bigger part these days, in specialty markets and direct sales. And manga is definitely making waves, drawing out young readers in ways that American comics can't; Marvel and DC have both been looking to get a piece of that market for a few years now... with only a small degree of success.
DC and Marvel are both doing fairly well while still recovering, though not because of their comics; it's because of their efforts in other entertainment mediums, namely TV and movies, that they're prospering today. How long that'll last is anyone's guess, though, and I wouldn't bet my company's entire future on the tastes of fickle moviegoers. Image looks nothing like the company it started as in the early 90s, but is more true to its original spirit as a haven for innovative, creator-owned originals. Dark Horse has a strong stable of licensed properties like Star Wars, a number of ground-breaking works like Hellboy and Sin City, and high-profile manga titles that sell strongly. And independent publishers tend to do well by not getting overinflated, and by knowing just how big their audiences are and exactly what they want.
People were looking for creative, "safer" ways to invest their money in the early 1990s, and some idiots got it in their heads that comic books were a smart investment, because some financial gurus told them this was true. After all, rare classics like Action Comics #1 are worth tens of thousands of dollars, right? Yeah, well... So, the industry experienced a massive influx of new collectors, and sales soared to all-time highs. When DC, Marvel, and the other comics companies realized what they had on their hands, they (naturally) decided to cash in by offering more special "collector's" issues. Variant covers, foil covers, new #1 issues, milestone issues, shocking "Death" issues etc etc. And collectors snatched them up, hoping to bankroll their retirements or send their kids off to college with their "rare" comics. In the process they made the comics companies and creators very rich, very greedy, very spendthrift, and - unfortuntately - creatively bankrupt.
The problem was, those rare comics from the 30s/40s/50s/60s are worth so damn much because THEY'RE RARE. And these new comics of the 90s simply weren't. Publishers were printing millions of copies of their comics each month to rake in the money, and that would've been okay if there were millions of customers buying them... but there weren't. What you had was a small core audience of fans, and then a sh*tload of speculators buying dozens of copies of single issues hoping to strike it rich. A comic with a monthly print run of 500k+ copies might only have 100k fans reading it, with the remaining 400k being bought up by speculators. And when the speculators figured out their comics weren't going to be worth spit, they quit buying, and the bubble burst.
The retailers (the only folks not getting rich off this) were left with hundreds, even thousands of unsold comics on their racks, a greatly diminished or nonexistent customer base, and bills they couldn't afford to pay. Stores across the country shut down for good, speculators just weren't interested anymore, the youth of America were moving on to other sources of entertainment like video games, and the fans... the fans were either left out in the cold when their LCS closed, or quit buying because the comics were all flash and no substance. And without retailers to sell their comics through, the comics companies were in deep, deep trouble.
I think DC fared better than Marvel after the bubble burst, because of their connection to Warner Bros. Even then, they barely got by, and IIRC there was talk of WB doing away with the whole operation. Marvel was in serious trouble for a looooong time, hence their bankruptcy filing and reorganization a few years ago. Image got broken up pretty good after the crash, with only the stronger titles and studios surviving. A lot of smaller independent publishers got hurt and went under too.
Today, the industry outlook is... cautiously optimistic, I'd say. The industry's top-selling comics average only 100-150k copies per month, with a vast majority selling far below that. And as many of you can probably attest, there aren't a whole lot of LCSs left out there. Sales of graphic novels on the other hand, are definitely on the rise, thanks in large part to their availability through mass-market retailers. Merchandising also plays a bigger part these days, in specialty markets and direct sales. And manga is definitely making waves, drawing out young readers in ways that American comics can't; Marvel and DC have both been looking to get a piece of that market for a few years now... with only a small degree of success.
DC and Marvel are both doing fairly well while still recovering, though not because of their comics; it's because of their efforts in other entertainment mediums, namely TV and movies, that they're prospering today. How long that'll last is anyone's guess, though, and I wouldn't bet my company's entire future on the tastes of fickle moviegoers. Image looks nothing like the company it started as in the early 90s, but is more true to its original spirit as a haven for innovative, creator-owned originals. Dark Horse has a strong stable of licensed properties like Star Wars, a number of ground-breaking works like Hellboy and Sin City, and high-profile manga titles that sell strongly. And independent publishers tend to do well by not getting overinflated, and by knowing just how big their audiences are and exactly what they want.
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Thanks for the responses lord and spike. That's a fascinating story. Did they start over the numbering just to sell some "#1 Collector's Editions" to saps? That's incredibly short-sighted and must have been offensive to a loyal reader like I was, who as a kid marveled (no pun intended) at the high numbers of the succesful books like Fantastic Four and Amazing Spiderman. It reminded you how timeless and sucessful the characters were.
I do remember buying all the variants of Liefield's X-Force #1, I guess that was like ground zero of the whole collapse. Bagged with a card, I believe.
I do remember buying all the variants of Liefield's X-Force #1, I guess that was like ground zero of the whole collapse. Bagged with a card, I believe.
Spike Spiegel
Member
I wasn't collecting at the time (I moved on to manga after the Spider-Clone fiasco, and returned to comics shortly before the first X-Men movie), but IIRC the new #1's that Marvel put forth in the late 90s were a product of the "Heroes Reborn" period. Basically, the Marvel heroes that "perished" fighting Onslaught were actually sent to a pocket dimension created by Franklin Richards, where they relived their lives and had all-new adventures before returning to 616 continuity. When they came back, rather than continue the old numbering system, Marvel started over with a new #1 issue.
So yeah, it was a "Collector's Item" cash-in thing.
But you have to understand that by then, the only customers left were the diehard fans "in it for the long haul," and Marvel knew they'd still buy despite making a lot of noise about the change. So, if a new #1 brings in new readers (and by readers I mean suckers), why not? And like lordmw said, once they reached a milestone Marvel switched back to the old numbering system.
...
Y'know, there's been a troubling resurgence of variant covers and new #1 issues lately, and I don't really know how to feel about that. On the one hand, when it's a small publisher like UDON I don't really mind; they're doing it because the comic wouldn't sell enough copies to stay afloat without the multiple covers. However, when it's Marvel canning an old series to start over with a new #1 (with variant covers, natch), or DC putting new covers on their 2nd and 3rd printings, I've gotta say I'm a little PO'ed that they're pulling this crap again.
But you know what? Nobody's gonna do anything about it. Because like I said, the diehards will buy them anyway, and #1's still bring in the occassional new or returning su- uhh, collector or fan.
So yeah, it was a "Collector's Item" cash-in thing.
But you have to understand that by then, the only customers left were the diehard fans "in it for the long haul," and Marvel knew they'd still buy despite making a lot of noise about the change. So, if a new #1 brings in new readers (and by readers I mean suckers), why not? And like lordmw said, once they reached a milestone Marvel switched back to the old numbering system.
...
Y'know, there's been a troubling resurgence of variant covers and new #1 issues lately, and I don't really know how to feel about that. On the one hand, when it's a small publisher like UDON I don't really mind; they're doing it because the comic wouldn't sell enough copies to stay afloat without the multiple covers. However, when it's Marvel canning an old series to start over with a new #1 (with variant covers, natch), or DC putting new covers on their 2nd and 3rd printings, I've gotta say I'm a little PO'ed that they're pulling this crap again.
But you know what? Nobody's gonna do anything about it. Because like I said, the diehards will buy them anyway, and #1's still bring in the occassional new or returning su- uhh, collector or fan.
The Take Out Bandit
Member
I got a free toy, that sweet fucking Tokyopop sampler, Flight, and uhhhh. . . uhhh. . . shit - brains don't fail me now!
The Bongo comics freebie. BECAUSE LEELA = HOT!
The Bongo comics freebie. BECAUSE LEELA = HOT!
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