plus kids like the ads if they are aimed at them.

I don't mind print ads myself; as a matter of fact, part of my enjoyment of vintage issues are the ads <g>!

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That actually represents a fairly short portion of the history of comics, and, to be technically accurate, a 50/50 ad/editorial balance was not reached. The closest we got was when the page count shrank to 17 for the actual stories, which, adding in the letter column and the bullpen page, meant 13 out of 32 pages were turned over to advertising (including house ads).

That lowest period lasted from shortly after I joined the industry (my second issue of IRON FIST, in MARVEL PREMIERE, was one page shorter than my first) to around the time we did X-MEN 138 (there I added some pages to our original plot, to bring it up to the new count of 22). So that's about three years of the minimal page count.

The drop to that point had been spasmodic, to say the least. Page counts were evidently not so important in the Lee/Kirby days, for instance, as sometimes a book like FANTASTIC FOUR would have 22 pages of story, sometimes 24. It took about ten years for the pages to trend downwards to 18, when the count sat for a while, until the drop to 17 happened.*

After the return to 22, tho, the number remained consistent until very recently -- almost thirty years!!

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* Roger Stern used to tell of working with Marie Severin on one of the Spider-Man titles. She turned in her first issue with 18 pages, and Rog assumed his plot had required that extra page. Then the next issue also came with with 18. Don't recall how many issues it took, but eventually someone realized that no one had told Marie the books now had 17 pages!

***

I see no trend to suggest that they "will"

But niether do I see a reason that they "can't"

If new strategies are not invented, it appears they "won't"

What is happening in the industry currently is a classic representation of the old definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result each time.

**
Ha! We showed that cat!

Sort of... The sense of your post was accurate for most directors in the
biz, but the rules are different for the elite. Some famous gigantic pay-
days have occurred for projects that were never shot or shot by other
people. Not every director can get a first look deal or a pay or play offer.

So I was "correcting" you only in the sense that you said comics should
be held to the standards of Hollywood directors, and the irony is that
because there are two standards-- they already are.

***

I just witnessed a small reason to believe in this strategy.

I just had a big party and my friends brought their kids-- 15 total. I have a box of old comics in the living room for anyone to grab and read (and tear apart, etc). A great moment at
the party was going in the living room and finding six kids (6y.o to 11y.o.) spread out and reading comic books.

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.

Here's an easier way, and cheaper too.On the animated, have a character that likes to read comics, and put it in the show, during the show, so it isn't even a paid ad. ( product placement )

Wonder if Marvel's watching...

Brevoort compared the various comics series to "Lost," which had some episodes that might try to catch new viewers up to speed. "Now, we're doing 'a very special episode' of these series," he said. "We're giving people a nice, labelled, spotlighted, 'start here.'" Brevoort said there may be some manner of guide to future issues or other .1 titles in the back of the issue, but "nothing sells you on the next issue better than making this issue really good." Alonso compared potential backmatter to "next week on 'Mission Impossible'"-type teasers. "Nothing got me more excited," he said, "so we've talked about doing something like that."

Here's the link to the complete article.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=29213

Edited by Rick Whiting on 02 November 2010 at 1:48pm

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Accidentally got something right! Doesn't fit with the rest of what they say, of course.