IMO comic prices have reached the old glass ceiling. At $2.99 it is too expensive. Can anyone honestly say that after reading a paper thin issue in 10 minutes they got their money's worth? I have spent so much money over the past 30+ years on comic books, everytime I see those long white boxes in storage I cringe because I probably won't ever read them again. Why buy them anyway? If the comic companies raise their prices anytime soon I am dropping most of my monthly titles. My LCS will be pissed but $3 an issue is just nuts...

This thread is like asking DVDTalkers to stop waiting for the DVD and go to the theaters instead. Ultimately it comes down to one thing: cost. Comics just cost way too much. At $3 an issue it costs $18 to read an average 6-issue storyline, which can usually be had for $15 - or sometimes even less - when the trade comes out. That and the trade format is sturdier with better paper quality and holds together better after multiple readings.

Just like any major entertainment industry, you have people on one side saying that the classic, romantic way of enjoying something is the way to go, and you have people who say that you can get the exact same product for cheaper, but something's lost in the experience. Ultimately, that classic experience just slowly dies off. It's sad and sentimental to see it go, but you should realize that the companies are in it for profit too. And they way they treat comic buyers with massive crossovers, oversaturating the market, and endless, endless promotions that add no value to the product whatsoever, only to generate the same kind of hype-based market that utterly crippled the industry in the early 90s.

And as said before, regardless of publisher, the greatest obstacle with single issues for me is lateness. This is not acceptable. This is never acceptable. If you show up late to work, you get fired. If TV shows were months late between episodes, no one would watch them. If movies kept coming out late they would fail. You can't stamp a date on something and then tell someone "Sorry, it's not done, please continue waiting". I think there are a lot of people out there holding onto 3 issues of Spider-man/Black Cat and wondering, "so now i have to buy the story all over again just to get the final issue?". So until this constant lateness changes, I will not have any sympathy for the struggle of the comics industry.

Or like buying every TV episode through iTunes rather than waiting for the complete-season DVD (I know, it's not quite the same because we still have free weekly TV).

That's still a good example.

there's only a few comics that I read so it seems apparent that I am patient about waiting for them to be packed together later. I finally get to read volume three of astonishing x-men when it comes out this week. If I had bought the issues individually, I probably would still have wanted to buy the trade pb.

I don't think I have seen the monthly releases at the bookstores anyway.

Not the best example, as many of us still go to the movies on a regular basis. The itunes video example was much better.

I won't argue most of this, except the TPB is just as likely to be $20 as it is to be $15.

I think the fallacy with this argument is that because you have decided there is no value to monthlies, therefore it is not profitable for comic companies to release monthlies. If they really were not profitable in any form or fashion, then we wouldn't be having this argument at all.

I can't argue with the lateness, but your argument that movies coming out late means they would fail is a bit ridiculous. Movies get pushed back all the time, or delayed for some reason or another. TV shows, with the exception of 24, often have repeats from other seasons mixed in with the regular run of the show. So to point the finger at comics and giving a pass to those other mediums weakens your overall argument.

And all the benefits of the trade still apply though.

I didn't say that it wasn't profitable. I said that because it is based on a profit structure that has already show itself to be detrimental to the industry that the industry will eventually fail.


So you can live off 5 episodes of 24 in one year when you expect a full 24? TV shows that are late or can't keep up often get cancelled. Movies can take time to finish, but waiting to release them only harms them. Still, you agree that it is unacceptable for comics to be late. And that problem has only gotten much, much worse in the past two decades.

Hey check it out! Marvel Comics for May are up:

CRIMINAL VOLUME 1: COWARD

Written by Ed Brubaker, art by Sean Phillips.

Collecting the sold-out and hard-to-find first arc "Coward," the story of Leo, a man who can plan and execute almost any heist, but only if he can convinced the plan is safe enough. But sometimes the reward is worth the risk, and when a woman from Leo's past comes to him with a sure-fire score to nab a few million worth of diamonds from Police Evidence, all his rules and cautions go right out the window. But in the world Leo lives in, as he may soon learn, those rules may be the only thing keeping him alive.

128 pages, $14.99, in stores on May 2.

Sold out, and hard to find? Guess its doing ok then.

Coincidentally while we were having this conversation about delays and such, I just received the Astonishing X-Men vol 3 that I had ordered from Amazon back in July. I had noted in my mind that it had been pushed back to sometime in 2007 and not given it much further thought.

I wonder what Sessa would say if I mentioned I was planning on waiting for the hardcover?

This is why I'm all for digital distribution of comics. I would gladly pay $1 per issue (even a $1.25-$1.50 depending) to read the titles I like. I like a lot of comics, but I only want to own certain stories I'll probably read again. There are people who own 1,000s upon 1,000 of comics and I seriously doubt that most of those people reread a fraction of their collections.

I would much rather own 3-7 bookshelves of trades that I can and will reread again and again, than long box after long box of stuff I need to find storage for. That applies to trades too, but I just resell the trades I've read and don't like. I could do the same with single issues, but they seem to do better when you have a complete story.

So yeah, give me my iTunes for comics. Big two, dark horse, IDW, Devil's Due(which already has something up), and other indies under one roof. That would be so awesome.

Yick! I wouldn't read a comic online for free, much less pay for it. I sit at a computer all day at work and now I have to go home and sit at the computer to read a comic? Wooo! What a joy that would be.

I fiddle faddle so much online, that I don't even notice how much time I spend on my comp anymore. And it should be said that I don't want digital comics to replace monthlies or trades, I just wish I had the option (legally).

Plus I can't take my computer into the bathroom with me, where I do a lot of good comic reading.

Laptop, brother! Not only can you save money by not turning on the bathroom light, but on those cold winter days, your lap will be nice and toasty.

If I had access to the internet while in the bathroom I would be in there for days at a time.

I have 30+ long boxes of "single issues" and I would say that I do reread a good portion of what I've got, or at least as much as my trades. Not long ago I made it through my full runs of Thunderbolts, West Coast Avengers, Nova, Sleepwalker, and a nice chunk of Hulk. I have a ton of Essential/Showcase Presents books to read right now, otherwise I'd be hitting the back issue boxes.

There is a good portion of stuff I probably won't get back to for years, but just like my massive DVD collection, it's good to know it's there if I want it.

Fair enough. I probably should have just spoken for myself and not been so generalization happy. I'm pretty much the same way with my tiny dvd collection.

I don't see myself paying for digital only content. When it comes to reading, comics or otherwise, I have to hold it in my hands.

I can browse the internet for hours, but it is almost always quick bits of information, not full books or even stories.

DVDs full of comics that I would otherwise not be able to afford are another matter. I'm all for that.

I think that comics online are the only way they have a future. But comics on DVD are a failure - no marketing and they're not sold in the right markets.

I see them sold at the local Fry's, and some other similar stores, near my place all the time. And my LCS can't keep them in stock (of course, they only buy a few at a time).
As for marketing, fanboys have spread the word on this easily enough; no need for excessive advertising costs [which would be passed on to the consumer]; when someone says,"Hey! I got a whole run of the FF for less than $50!", people immediately want to know how/where/why, and will definitely tell others about it. I have, and I own 3 of the 4 "full-run" Marvel DVD-Roms.
I would LOVE to see Marvel release everything they'd done since the Silver Age began on DVD-Rom, especially books with shorter runs that seem to be getting harder to find, like The Defenders, Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel, Nick Fury, etc. A good idea would be to have these books (as many titles as feasible, anyway) on one DVD-Rom.

Here is an update from the best writer in comics himself, who agrees with me on stressing the importance of buying comics in their monthly format & goes out of his way to show how damn awesome each monthly issue of Criminal is, I can't wait for the roundtable discussion he talks about in issue #5:

Taker from his interview at newsarama:

Ed Brubaker: "We're doing good sales right now, but it'd be nice to have more people checking the book out regularly. And there are all the cool text pieces and illustrations in the back that aren't being reprinted in the trades. So we're really going all out to make the single issues something worth owning and keeping. In issue 5, we've even got an all-star round-table about late ‘60s to mid ‘70s crime movies, with about 6 big name writers. That one was a blast."

This cover to issue #6 alone, should be worth everyone spending a little $3 on.

I am one of those with those exact three issues who wondered, WTH?

My primary reason for dropping my monthly list and going to trades only was the fact i never re-read single issues and they had absolutely no trade/resale value. Once my books made them into their bags and a longbox i might as well have thrown them away because i never dug them out again versus the couple shelves of trades i have on my bookshelf now that i can loan out or pick up and read any time.

The Spider-Man/Black Cat thing also severely pissed me off.

Now if i could just find some more Jim Mahfood stuff and i would be happy.

As a second point i would also be all about digital distribution if there was an affordable electronic viewing unit approximately the size of a page. In my fantasy future something like that exists and is how i read comics.

I was going to start a another thread for this, but seeing how the comic talk is almost dead I'll post this here.

Some may know, I am very strongly against the "waiting for trade" form of reading comics. I love trades, I buy tons, but I support every creator & book I enjoy by buying both the monthly & TPB. I know most here are trade only, & I can't change your minds, but I thought this was very interesting, & at the very least, maybe someone will go support a book like Criminal because of this.

A friend just emailed me this, it is directly from Ed Brubaker, posted on a recent message board by him. . . .

"Trade-waiting isn't killing the industry, but people who do it don't seem to understand the way the industry actually WORKS, is the problem. They don't realize how many books (like some of mine and some of BKVs) only exist at all because their single sales are enough to keep them afloat. There'd be no trades if the singles didn't sell enough. The cost of switching over to trade-only publishing would break the industry frankly, and when people go on and on about how manga does it, well, the fact is, they don't. All the manga that's seen over here is paid for by the fans in Japan who buy the weekly magazines that those stories appear in first, before they're collected. That's how the European publishing was until a decade or so back, too, magazine serialization and then collection. Now they go straight to HBs instead, and you get about 50 pages of comics for 15 bucks. That's how they can afford to do that.

So, people who wait for the trades on books they really like and want to see more of are being a bit Utopian, is the point I have tried to make. The market just doesn't buy OGNs in high enough number for it to be feasible, and artists have to be paid as they work so they can feed their children and pay their bills.

Look at Team Zero, a WW2 book drawn by Doug Manhke put out through WS. It got great reviews, was beautiful and cool, and it's never going to get collected because they lost money and are cutting their losses on it."

I totally understand that point, that's why I don't want the market to go trades only. Not only would trades instantly cost more they would probably have ads as well. Sales of monthlies are subsidizing trades now, and that is the only reason they can be sold so cheaply.

The thing I don't get from my fellow trade readers, is why some of them want the market to move to trades exclusively. I can read EVERYTHING I want to in trade now. So I can live in a trade only market if I want to and completely ignore the single issues or buy mostly trades and only read select books in monthly forms.

I love comics, but I've said before that I don't look at it as my job to "support" the industry. They create a product I like and as long as they continue to do that, I will buy their products. But I have no delusions that I get over big time because of how the trade market is now. You can even see the prices for trades very slowly starting to creep up, not to mention the staggered releases of HC's and then softcover editions.