rocket1312

Marvel or DC killing off a character is usually the highest form of promotion.

fujishig

If you're going to use that argument about Spawn not being relevant these days, I think you can say the same thing about Gambit.

madcougar

I was SHOCKED to see how much New Mutants 98 is selling for these days...

rocket1312

Gambit may not be particularly relevant in current comics culture, but there's still millions out there who think of him as one of the "core X-Men" thanks to the 90's cartoon. The fact that a Gambit solo film (starring Channing Tatum no less) is a thing that might actually happen speaks to the character's profile as well. Spawn wishes he had that kind of exposure.

Timber

So was I. I think it was one of the few comics that I've held on to. But lets be honest I'm not going to go through the hassle of trying to sell it.

fujishig

These same people think of Jubilee as one of the core X-men too, right?

PhantomStranger

Well, more people saw that X-Men cartoon than ever read the comics. It's the same way with the Super Friends, which is why the mass audience believes Aquaman is a lame character.

rocket1312

I sold mine last summer for ~$100 and the guy who bought it on ebay sent me an e-mail to thank me for selling it to him at such a reasonable price. I felt weird about it because I thought I was ripping him off. Out of curiosity I just checked now and see that less than a year later the price has skyrocketed even higher. I could have easily gotten double or even triple for it today. That alone is proof of Deadpool's popularity.

fumanstan

/taffer idonttalktofish.jpg

mrhan

I can't believe one of the shittiest looking comics ever is going for a minimum of $200 on ebay. I have NM copy but I don't even bother putting it in a mylar.
Looks like X-Force 11 is going up in value, also.

davidh777

I just saw this floppy cover that reminded me of how they used to market JLA comic books by tying them to Super Friends.

PhantomStranger

My earliest memories of Marvel were from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. I was very disappointed to find out in the comics that Iceman wasn't really friends with Spider-Man and that Firestar was barely around.

mrhan

Cool story. They bought back Snapper Carr for this one.

She wasn't part of Marvel continuity until she appeared in X-Men 190 something. I forgot the specific issue and then she had her own mini series. I really liked the TV series and the Dave Cockrum version of the X-Men that guest starred.

Obi-Wanma

Yeah, Firestar was an original creation of the TV series. She's also been an Avenger. I believe that she's still the only Avenger whose origins are outside of Marvel comics continuity.

fujishig

Hmm. That's a tough one, Patsy Walker/Hellcat had her origins in Timely romance comics, but that's as close as I can think of, unless you count X 23 as a member of Avengers Academy.

Trevor

I wonder why we never see 'bonus' reprints in Marvel and DC books anymore? Is it because paper and printing costs are too high now?

rocket1312

There isn't the need anymore. It used to be once a comic came and went, you'd never see it again if you didn't have a copy or know someone else who had a copy. Nowadays just about everything is available at the click of a button in some form or another.

Comics have also changed in some pretty fundamental ways. Single issues barely tell a coherent story anymore, so reprinting most issues from this century would be pointless. They're also no longer impulse buys at the grocery store where things like page counts and value matter. You're already either in or out. Reprinting some old story isn't going to sway you one way or another.

That said, Marvel does still occasionally reprint old stories in the form of new Giant Size #1's. At least they did as recently as 9 or 10 years ago. Spider-Woman was a good example. Marvel was re-introducing the character into a prominent role, so they package a new story along with reprints of key issues in the character's history to get newer readers up to speed.

Trevor

Good points. Comics are very different from when I was a kid.

Still, I think throwing in a 'classic' 10-20 page complete story from the past would get some extra sales; especially if they went with 'never before reprinted' stories and that cover blurb.

mrhan

It's like the past never existed without reprints. Besides, today's readers don't give a shit about it.

PhantomStranger

It's printing costs today. I've always heard that reprints were popular before comic book stores came around but the rise of the collector's market made back issues much easier to acquire for interested readers.

joltman

Before every marvel cinmatic universe movie, there's a one-shot set in the mcu that's released a month before that features a relevant classic reprint as a backup. For example, last month they released The Avengers: Operation Hydra which featured a reprint of Avengers #16, and next month will be Ant-Man: Larger Than Life which features Tales to Astonish #27 & 35.

fujishig

Yeah, reprints aren't going to get you that many extra sales, if anything it's going to get ignored by the retailers (if the content is available without the reprint) or grumbled at by the fans for having to shell out more money.

Heck, we don't even have covers depicting what's inside any more. As a comic fan you either already collect a series, or you love the character, or you hear good word of mouth, otherwise I'd think it's really tough to just go to a comic store and pick out something because of the cover.

Now a free digital code for an older, relevant issue would be cool, but probably a pain to implement.

mrhan

When I was a kid I use to pick up every cover that Neal Adams drew. My dumbass never looked inside. I wasn't really disappointed with the story but I thought the inside art was just ok. I changed my mind over the years regarding the art, though. I've grown to appreciate the differences and styles of the artists. They are way better than the artists of today; half of which didn't even attend art school and most mimic Jim Lee. What a joke. He's average at best.

fujishig

I would tend to agree with you if you made that statement in the 90s, when Lee and Liefeld and Silvestri created whole studios of people who drew like them. But there are a ton of guys who are great artists, and I think in general the quality is pretty high outside of a fill in here or there. There are also a lot of different artistic styles now, as opposed to the Marvel Style that was prevalent back in the day, where faces were redrawn and such if they didn't closely adhere to the standard. And I say that as a guy who loved the Image style back in the day but whose tastes have drifted away from it; Lee isn't the draw he used to be for me, and I'm not really that big of a fan of guys like Finch.

I also think we tend to forget that not all of the art back in the day was a masterpiece, it's just that the really good guys were really prolific.

What I mean by the covers is not just that they have different cover artists than the interior, but that most of the time they don't really convey the story inside, especially when we have variant cover month or whatever.

mrhan

Honestly, the last time I tried to read a recent comic (besides WD) was the new 52. A friend gave me almost every issue from 1-10 of every title. I just could not get through them. Everything looked like Jim Lee art and what irked me the most is every character looked Asian. They're in a pile in my garage collecting dust now. I keep forgetting to throw them in the recycle bin.