fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3532 ]

[ SECRET POST #3532 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3532 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Rupaul's Drag Race: All Stars 2]

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03.

(Breaking Bad)

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04.

[Facts, Max Byrne a.k.a. "Leather Jacket Guy"]

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05.

(Tuesdays with Morrie)

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06.

[Xena Warrior Princess]

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07.

[Longmire - Walt/Vic]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 40 secrets from Secret Submission Post #505.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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SO what do the other comic readers here on F!S think about the latest storm in a teacup over comics? I speak of course about Bendis's blaming the failure of Nighthawk on people not pre-ordering and various sites firing back that a requirement to pre-order in order to ensure success is both a mark of a broken industry and a ludicrous requirement to demand. Do you fall on the side of the comics industry being broken, or on the side of comics needing readers to take a chance on something new and pre-order in good faith?

Personally I'm on the let it burn side, too many sleazy comic shops, too many confusing numbering systems, too many cancellations on incomplete stories (fuck you, whoever was in charge of cancelling and writing JL3001), and too many poor descriptions of what the comics are about to make pre-ordering worth it. The comics industry needs to get out of the diamond market rut, and really innovate, if it wants to deserve to survive.

If you nee to pre-order to make your business plan work, your business plan is flawed.

That being said: single-issue comics have gotten too expensive. Bundles, especually softcover take too long to come out.

For most things, I just buy bundles cause the're better value for money and often have stuff like alternate covers, concept art etc.

I'd love to get into comics but it is just too hard to figure out where to start. Which is why I have only read The Walking Dead and a couple of one shot independent ones.

And no, pre-ordering is BS that inevitably just causes trouble for consumers.

I can suggest Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, it is just coming up to a major jumping on point. Look for Transformers: The Lost Light in shops around October time or pre-order now (hah). Ignore the 80s robots, what it really is is a rag-tag bunch of misfits bumming around the universe supposedly on a quest to find some mystic macguffin but really just having random adventures.

Is it a funny comic series or dark?

Re: The burning of the comic industry

(Anonymous) - 2016-09-04 20:57 (UTC) - Expand

Relying on pre-orders is never a good idea on the producers' side.

Buying pre-orders is never a good idea on the buyers' side.

If it all works out for everyone, it's a stroke of luck, not a sign that it was ever a good idea.

I haven't read comics in a while, partially cause I've thought the pre-order system has been broken for a long time. (That isn't the only way the industry sucks though - I am a bitter ex comics fan who hates everything about it.)

The comics industry is absolutely broken and much of the blame for it can be laid at the feet of Diamond Comic Distributors and their collaborators at Marvel and DC. It used to be that you could buy comics off the rack at a grocery store -- in fact, that's where I got a lot of my comics when I was a kid. Now you HAVE to go to a comic shop.

Readers don't take chances anymore because it's not worth it anymore.

This article breaks it down really well.

Interesting article. But IDK who call Bendis "the great one" and I laughed at Peter David's 'my stuff is so good but no one buys it."

It's Outhousers -- pretty sure they were kidding with that Bendis thing.

(Then again, they might not have been -- pretty strong pro-Marvel slant over there.)

Both still better than Frank Cho though.

It's complete bullshit. And as a former comic fan, fuck comics. Let comics die. No matter how many new #1s they put out or how many times they start up a new fucking universe, it's not going to attract new fans.

Not at five bucks an issue it isn't. And certainly not when you have to go to a cartoon porno store to buy them. I judge any parent hard that takes their kid to a comic book store.

You have a point about the price, but i honestly wonder what comic book stores you go to to call them porno stores. Mine's like a cellar with comics where some nerds also dwell and play board games, but that's about it.

Re: The burning of the comic industry

(Anonymous) - 2016-09-04 22:09 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The burning of the comic industry

dethtoll - 2016-09-04 22:43 (UTC) - Expand

Honestly the rebooting is part of the issue, I think. They just screw over fans of some characters SO bad. There's a million stories you could write with them while keeping their past true to them.

Also DAMN CROSSOVERS. Like, I don't currently read DC but with Marvel it's a pest.

Like, the comics are expensive, and there's currently 3 titles on my order list (yes, I do order, sigh) but then you sort of have storylines that go on in titles you don't read and ugghg. I mean, yes this is a ploy to make you buy more - but no, at those prices, I'm not buying all your damn titles.

Crossovers are the worst. I'm not buying a dozen different titles just to get a single story, and forcing me to read characters I hate in order to get a book about characters I like does not magically make me like the former. Even IDW is pulling that crap now. No matter what they do, I am not going to read a G>I> Joe book. What I will do is drop a Transformers book that they've shoved G>I> Joe into.

Re: The burning of the comic industry

(Anonymous) - 2016-09-04 21:34 (UTC) - Expand

Burn it the hell down

*The burning of the US superhero comic industry

underground and European comics are still going strong, tyvm

I mean, as strong as something still labeled "underground" could be :/

I know you probably mean indie comics and stuff, or creator-owned comics, but "underground comics" makes me think of R. Crumb and Mike Diana and I'll be honest, I'll gleefully put a torch to comics as a concept if it takes human dumpsters like Crumb et al. with it.

Re: The burning of the comic industry

(Anonymous) - 2016-09-04 22:58 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The burning of the comic industry

dethtoll - 2016-09-04 23:07 (UTC) - Expand

The economic and distribution model for the mainstream comics industry does need to be torn down and rebuilt. Unfortunately, it's probably not going to be rebuilt into something that works, they're probably just going to turn them into an appanage of the movie franchises even more than they already have.

Or maybe it's failing because Bendis is a fucking terrible writer and his work is a torturous slog to read. Why would anyone trust his recommendations even if the guy who's writing Nighthawk turns out to actually be good?

I tried getting into comics, but I hated how difficult it was. I had to order things two months in advance (so three copies ordered before I'd even read the first one), and I just really couldn't let myself take the risk on that for much. Especially considering it was a pain to get to the one comic store in the area, given their hours, my work hours, and their location. And also especially as I am the type of reader who doesn't do well with short instances of story parceled out in small doses over periods of time. I still buy some compilations sometimes, but I can't do "normal" comic buying anymore. I only pulled it off for around a year.

It was fun while it lasted, but tbh I'll be glad to see it go. Marvel & DC have both built up such a huge backlog that at this point they don't even need to come out with new content; they'll make plenty of bank from TPB sales alone.

If I have to rely on preorder to have something published im not preordering it.

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