Wolf359

Anything that helps get comics into kids hands is a good thing I think. I'll pick up a few just to support them.

http://m.ign.com/articles/2018/06/22...-league-comics

stingermck

I totally agree. This and Gamestops deal only helps to get more exposure. Tho there are butt hurt fans and comic owners upset about it. but fuck em.

I was getting comics off the rack in a grocery store for years before I went to a comic shop.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/06...omics-walmart/

Wolf359

Exactly. I'm sure it's been argued ad nauseum but a kid not being able to go into a convenience store and look at comics is what killed the industry. I've got so many fond memories of being given a dollar and picking up 3 comics from our local chain store.

Timber

Is it going to help with the prices? What kid is going to go in and send $3.95 on a single floppy? Having them on spinner racks always produced horribly beat up comics that I avoided in my teens once things like that became important to me.

Wolf359

That part of what you said is also part of the problem. When they switched from something to be read and enjoyed into something that supposedly would be worth money.

The price is a little high but they are 100 pages.

stingermck

Well these are 100 pages for $5

fujishig

I was reading up on the deal that Barnes and Noble had when they put comics out a couple of years ago (they stopped recently). Instead of getting it from Diamond, they got it via newsstand distribution. However, newsstand distribution has prices that are actually a dollar higher than normal. That seemed ridiculous to me, the prices are already insane, and you have an avenue to drive comics to a wider audience and you make the price even higher?

Anyway, I agree this is good for exposure, and something that traditionally wouldn't sell at all in comic stores, but hopefully they carefully curate some great standalone stories. I'll pick them up for my kids when I see them. Some of my fondest memories were picking up those huge digest reprints of DC stories, back when I didn't even realize how comics were published.

Mike86

I’m for this. There isn’t a local shop in my area so maybe I’ll pick up some of these occasionally. Too bad it’s not just the regular monthly issues or trades though.

Red Hood

I agree with this move by DC Comis and Wal-Mart. I've seen that it's the "old school" comic shop owners the ones fighting these the most, with the newer generation of shop owner either being indifferent or pro-DC doing these 100 page books. I've seen most fans be in favor of this too, with the only complain about how some of their local wal-marts not stocking comic books at all in the past. I've talked to a lot of the people in the industry over the past several years who are trying to get their books back in the newsstands at an affordable price. And when they talk newsstand, they don't think about Barnes and Noble. They are thinking grocery stores and pharmacies like Walgreens and departments stores like Wal-Mart and Target. Most of them remember that their first experience getting a comic book was at this type of place and not a comic book store.

What irks me the most about these old school comic book stores is how they seem to hire the most petulant, elitist, judgemental, nerdy assholes who dismiss anything that new customers are into.

fujishig

Old school spinner racks aren't going to happen unless there's a new distribution mechanism that a) doesn't go through Diamond and is fully returnable and b) isn't a dollar more than normal price. No way are grocery stores going to order non returnable product. And IIRC, when we last discussed this, it came out that the grocery stores were the ones who cut down on the spinner rack because it wasn't making them much money even with stuff fully returnable, and they'd rather use that space for something else.

Even the magazine sections of most stores are way, way down from what they used to be.

The barrier to entry is not only cost, but interest. I said it before but I give my kids comics, essentially for free, and they're just not interested in the cape stuff as much as playing ipad. Even my daughter, who loves to read, just adores manga but is indifferent to American comics.

brayzie

I bought a similar magazine from Marvel years ago, at Borders.



One story was Fantastic Four illustrated by Mike Wieringo. It was okay.

The Power Pack story though, featuring Spider-man was awesome! The art looked like a high quality anime, and the story was really enjoyable. I later found out this magazine was just featuring reprints of stories.

I highly recommend any of the Power Packs illustrated by Gurihiru.

Anyways, I like the idea of what Walmart and DC is doing. I hate making a special trip to the comic shop. I prefer doing some shopping at a drug store or supermarket and then-what's this? A comic? This looks interesting. Lemme add that to my basket and read later.

But the bait and switch covers are bullshit. You got Jim Lee art on the cover for the Batman one, but apparently someone else is illustrating the interiors. I hated that stuff when I was a kid. I remember checking out Wonder Woman with the Brian Bolland covers, opening it to see noticeably inferior art, and putting it back on the spinner rack.

It's funny too, that while they're trying to appeal to kids, it's like the graphics department is speaking down to them. That Superman cover is extremely generic looking. Kids like stuff that's new or feels new, and here DC is going with the original Superman costume, not the movie version, and still doing the stupid, dated, 1960s "80 Page GIANT!" banner.
I feel like when comic companies do this, they're trying to fail. Why, I don't know, but it just seems purposeful. It's a visual medium, you got top notch artists and designers at your company and...they come up with this.

Timber

That drove me crazy as a kid when I didn't know what a cover artist was. See a Jim Lee cover and Mike Collins interior...Ugh

cultshock

I think you may have answered your own question in one of your later posts, but direct sales has always offered a good discount off the newsstand distributor rate simply because the books would not be returnable. When direct sales started, comic book stores were willing to take the discount and the risk on non-returnable books but normal retailers (for example, B&N) would never take that risk. (if I misunderstood what you were getting at, I apologize)

fujishig

When I said newsstand prices were a dollar higher, I wasn't meaning what the seller paid for the comic but the actual retail price of the comic, printed on the cover. I realize direct sales gets a higher discount, I was just surprised to see it reflected on the newsstand price, was it always like this? IIRC they did other things to enhance direct sales, like different paper stock and even, for some time, different stories so that the newsstand was behind by like a year or so.

Because that 3.95 comic, that's already a hard sell to a casual customer, became a 4.95 comic at Barnes and Noble, which is even more ridiculous.

Giantrobo

I'm trying to gently force my Comic Fandom on my 3yo. I buy him Hero shirts and kids Hero books. This might be yet another way to offload my DC Comic Fanboyism onto him.

fujishig

Time to subscribe when that DC streaming sub hits and stream BTAS straight into his brain.

Just don't force him to collect floppies.

davidh777

Anyone seen these Walmart editions out in the wild?

Red Hood

No. This is one of the things that sucks the most about these books being at Wal-Mart. Even though release date was today, there's no rhyme or reason to see when the employees decide to put these out. Even worse, the stores that have put them out have been raided by flippers that are buying all or most copies and selling them on eBay for at least $15.

The Valeyard

3k out of 5k Wal-Marts are getting them. Dan DiDio said that they'll mainly be at the Super Centers. They are tucked away in the Collectibles Section with the Pokemon cards. People started reporting them on Thursday. I found all 4 issues at my local Super Center on Saturday.

Trevor

Crap, didn’t realize they were released early. Stopped by 3 super centers on the way home from work; all three had the displays, but they were mostly empty. 4 total copies of just 2 titles between the 3 stores, I got Batman and Justice League.

Red Hood

I see people now on Facebook selling the full set for $80. Great job DC! Instead of folding Wal-Mart with tons of copies, you've gone the Nintendo route and made these books a haven for scalpers.

robin2099

Went to two stores and was able to grab all four. One store had every issue except for Teen Titans and the other only had one Teen Titans left. Makes me wonder if that was only limited to 2-3 copies.

fujishig

If the demand is high, whether it's scalpers or not, that bodes well for future collaboration, at least. I mean comics (basically reprints) in demand at Wal-mart?

PhantomStranger

I have a hunch this is in fact a ploy straight out of Nintendo's playbook. For the initial launch, keep inventory low so it looks like the book is "in demand" and selling out.

Red Hood

In the short term, yes, but this isn't the purpose of these books being at Wal-Mart. The purpose is to bring new readers who don't visit comic book shops and lapse ones who recognize the design of the 100 page specials they did back in the 60's and 70's. It doesn't serve anyone good that a bunch of scalpers pick these books up and worse, that no one gets to read them.