••

I think they COULD be, but that, so far as I can tell, virtually nothing is really being done that would help this happen.

If they ran an ad on TV for the printed comics in the middle of the same comic's cartoon show, I'm sure it'd boost sales. In the places that carry newsstand edition comics anyway.

A fan who works at a comic shop asked after how Marvel set the standard for their rating system, wondering why some books for kids seemed to have content that was over the line. "Like any grading system, it's always going to be objective. What one person finds mild, another will find way over the top. It's always hard to judge," Quesada said, noting that even on bigger media outlets like cable TV channels work in a wide range of subject matter depending on who owned them and how they saw their audience. Alonso said one staffer is hired at Marvel to read each book objectively without having been in on the creation of the books, so that editors could only discuss issues of standards once the core of the creative process was done. "This is art, so we don't want to make it like an assembly line," he said. "Once you say 'You can't do this' it sucks the creative life out of the room."

Says a lot about the mentality of the current editorial regime at Marvel.

Here's the link to the full whole article.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28797

Edited by Rick Whiting on 02 November 2010 at 10:24am

is there anyone engaged in this discussion who actually believes that
comicbooks printed on paper will ever be a growing business again?

I look at Harry Potter and Twilight as examples of concepts that captured the imagination of across-the-board demographics, and built rabid fan bases. I realize it's comparing apples and oranges, but I believe that an appealling concept, properly marketed, and easily available to new readers could catch lightning in a bottle.

The current attitude of the Big Two precludes any growth! It's trying the same tricks over and over, and throwing heaps of manure at the wall (although pretentious and professionally colored), desperately hoping something sticks.

••

It's not apples and oranges at all! Harry and the Teen Vamps are classic comicbook material. What are they, in fact, if not variations on the X-Men?

The difference lies in them being sold in real book stores, to mass audiences, rather than being deliberately squirreled away in out of the corner shops that require effort to reach.

Either Queseda was misquoted, or "objective" doesn't mean what he thinks it
means.

••

What a pity Jack Kirby never produced any art.

----

Nathan: It's part of their development process. I see nothing wrong
there...

***

I agree with you-- I think you misunderstood my post. I'm not criticising
Hollywood. I'm saying that comparing comic production to Hollywood
production isn't a good idea. We shouldn't want comics made the way
they make movies.

Studio development is fine for creating studio films. But when studio's
chase the top talent in the field, they end up paying that talent for lots of
stuff that never quite pays off. That's just part of the game when dealing
with that top 3% of the talent pool.

Emulating that process to develop comic books would be stupid-- yet it
seems like what Marvel and DC are doing more and more of.

I'm not saying this to be snarky or contentious -- I really want to know: is
there anyone engaged in this discussion who actually believes that
comicbooks printed on paper will ever be a growing business again?

Look at Japanese manga in the US. I remember when I first got into it I had to find people on the internet (on newsgroups, remember those?) who made trips to Japan and sold used copies. Now bookstores have a whole aisle dedicated to them, I never dreamed I would have seen that.

Since a lot of US comics sales are trade paperbacks maybe they just need to switch formats and sell like manga. Sell monthly B&W compilation books then collect the individual series in trades, printed on better paper and maybe in color (though with how bad modern coloring ruins pencils I'd say leave it B&W).