Some of you may recall my thread discussing why I think the format of comics needs to change:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13413 &KW=future

Well, I learned that the letter I had sent to "Wizard" magazine on this matter got printed!

Not only was it printed Matt, but you even got first letter placement.  Hopefully people will take notice.  I am so on board with ya!

(I know this because I occasionally grab a copy of Wizard at the grocery store on impulse.  I smoke too so I know there are a lot of bad things I do to myself yet just can't help it.)

Matt,

Your letter was printed in the most recent issue of CBG...probably still available.  Issue #1623 with the Justice League cover.

In the UK most comics are magazine sized. Pannini who produce Marvel comics over here do Ultimate Spider-man and Ultimate X-Men in magazine format and the regular titles like Avengers etc in standard comic format. I don't think it makes much difference to sales though.

Joe, Dave, and Joe: Thanks for letting me know about the CBG issue. I started a subscription to the magazine, but I still haven't received my first issue. I don't have any at the shop, either.

... Just called Diamond and placed a reorder for the magazine. They have it in stock! Yay!

I believe that I had another letter printed in CBG in the past year, and missed that one totally, darn it. Now that I've subscribed (shhh... It's actually cheaper for me than ordering myself a copy through Diamond.... shhh...), hopefully, I won't miss any more letters I may have printed. ;-)

John, thanks for you comments, as well!

Hey Matt, if the comic book market was indeed rebuilt by whatever means, do you think the independently owned comic shop might give way to national chains, as the video rental industry went from little Mom and Pop video shops to the likes of Blockbuster Video?

Matt,

How is this different from the formats of the 70s? 

Marvel published various magazines, some in color most in black and white.  The only one that lasted long was Savage Sword of Conan.

DC consolidated various Superman and Batman titles into Superman Family and Batman Family as well as Detective Comics.  This didn't last too long.

Pete wrote: ...Hey Matt, if the comic book market was indeed rebuilt by whatever means, do you think the independently owned comic shop might give way to national chains, as the video rental industry went from little Mom and Pop video shops to the likes of Blockbuster Video? ...

I don't think that will ever happen on a large scale basically because while I do think we can increase readership if publishers took certain steps in marketing, publishing, scheduling, format, and content, I am enough of a realist to know that comics would still be more of a niche market.

In other words, I think we in the comic industry (Publishers, retailers, distributors) can do better, but I don't think it will ever be the mass medium it was in the 1940's. The world has changed too much.

But, yes, we can do better than what we are doing currently.

Bodhi wrote: ...Sorry, but I don't like the idea of the magzine format....

I respect your view, Bodhi. Not everyone will agree with my suggestion or like it. I honestly do think that IF my idea was carried out exactly as I wrote ("Wizard" edited out some of my additional points that I believe are too important to leave out... See my full message linked to in my first post), things could improve for this industry.

I don't think newsprint will be accepted by the average customer anymore, and I'm not sure that the publishers would lower the prices that much if they did revert back to that kind of paper. Also, I think that making comics newsprint again would affect the way comics are laid out and colored.

Can anyone with the publishing knowledge confirm this?

About multi-part stories: We're on the same page, more or less, so to speak.

"Wizard" noted this, too.

First, as stated in my original, unedited letter (again, you can read the full version at the thread I linked to above), the conversion would have to be absolute. That means that there is NO "regular" version of the series, like "Spider-Man," or "Detective Comics."

In other words, the whole line would be magazine-size (magazine, NOT treasury-sized), and in color. No variant, smaller, "regular" version to compete with and cannibalize sales from the new format.

Most fans perceived the magazines of yore as being "not the real comic series." The total conversion would fix that way of thinking, because it would be the only format for the series.

For every failure story there is a success story, and, yes, vice-versa. "Mad" magazine started out as a comic book. In order to escape the Comics Code, EC stopped publishing the comic-sized "Mad" and changed the format to that of a black-and-white magazine. The magazine became more popular than ever, and, in fact, became iconic. It is still published to this day, though it now has advertisements and is in color. It made William Gaines very rich. It was successful as a comic-sized publication, but nowhere near as successful as it became as a magazine.

DC wrote: ...DC consolidated various Superman and Batman titles into Superman Family and Batman Family as well as Detective Comics.  This didn't last too long...

BUT... according to what I have heard (ask Kurt Busiek to hear for certain) changing "Detective Comics" into "Batman Family" actually saved it from being cancelled. Now, why did it revert back after a period? I don't know.

I had the thought about changing the format of comics, all comics across the lines, for a long time. I realized all along that any talk of change is going to be met with debate, and I respect and welcome that. I want everyone thinking and talking about this. That's why I sent my letters to "Wizard," "CBG," and posted it here, and elsewhere. I put my thoughts on the table so that it is out there and can be discussed. I wanted DC and Marvel and other publishers to hear it and at least look into the practicality of implementing such a plan.

Thanks to everyone on this thread, and the former thread, that has added to this discussion.