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Jeremy Simington
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 April 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 687
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | 1
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I just re-read Amazing Spider-Man 226 (July 1980, Stern/Byrne/Day). The whole story takes place in 2 locations: Daily Bugle offices & Jonas Harrow's hideout. The plot is Harrow using his variator ray to make anyone it's pointed at nuts. Spider-Man has to knock out the ray, rescue a kidnapped JJJ, and stop Harrow.
I agree with Robbie Parry. This issue had it all without needing everything to be cataclysmic. Thank goodness for the Marvel Essentials, DC Showcase, and Omnibuses
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11296
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | 2
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Some of the low key stories were brilliant.I`d agree with Robbie`s comparison with Christmas on a monthly basis,if only the comics were as good as Christmas! The latest idiocy from Marvel...Spider-Ma`am...yes it`s aunt May!
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Steven Legge
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 866
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | 3
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What's wrong with low-key, anyway?
No idea. Think of how easy it might be for Iron Man to help out in an amber alert. I guess the writers think that's below him, he has bigger fish to fry... But maybe it might not be so easy after all.. for you know, drama.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15953
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | 4
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or the No-Buy age----------------- That's what it is for me. I popped into a comic shop at the weekend and glanced over the new titles... and then went straight back to the back issues from the 80s.
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Kip Lewis
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 March 2011
Posts: 2880
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | 5
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What's wrong with low-key, anyway? Was
every issue of vintage titles earth-
shattering? No! But they were enjoyable.
Let's have routine Batman taking down bank
robbers stories or a one-shot tale where
Spider-Man tracks Scorpion across town.
Not everything needs to be earth-
shattering and involving 20 books and 3
months of stories.
.......
One of the problems with event after event
is the stand alone story becomes
irrelevant. Then you run into, "Why
spend money in an issue that didn't move
the greater story along?" Basically it
has created a mentality that every story
has to count.
Personally I have given up on monthlies
from the big two and I either buy a tpb I
want or I read the library copies. I say
this has reduced my spending to 1/4th of
what it was. Or less.
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7526
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | 6
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It's a good point, Kip. Now the business model is to sell collected editions; a stand alone story doesn't contribute to a package of six bundled together under one story arc. It makes business sense but it encourages the reckless "everything is IMPORTANT! AND YES I AM SCREAMING!" mindset that's becoming prevalent. So I guess we do have to go to archive editions if we want to see those kinds of stories, the done-in-one or two issue cliffhanger. We need more of those. As it is, heroes are growing less and less heroic and spend more time fighting each other. The villains might as well sit back and enjoy the show, because the heroes sure as heck aren't going to bother them... unless they're about to destroy the world and end humanity as we know it, that is.
Edited by Andrew Bitner on 15 January 2015 at 1:43pm
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Stephen Churay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 8369
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | 7
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You can get back to the one and dones, or even JB's model using a
three issue structure, but it's got to be gradual. Start with the four
issue story, then step into the three issue structure. Once you start
establishing a subplot for the next story in the current one, you keep
the reader or a continual hook(amazing how that works to keep the
reader coming back). If you try to go from the current 6-12 issue arch
right into a one and done, you'll lose most current readers.
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4079
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | 8
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The low-key books have been the real standouts for Marvel recently, oddly enough. Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Silver Surfer...they aren't burning up the sales charts, necessarily, but they're telling smaller-scale stories and building dedicated audiences of, you know, readers.
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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 8:14pm | IP Logged | 9
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If unread comics stack up in a corner of your den like a pile of unfinished work, there's a problem.
If you're going through DC and Marvel's solicitations, trying to figure out how to minimize your order for that month, like its some kind of insurance payment, there's a problem.
If on the way to the comic store checkout counter in the back of your mind you're asking yourself how the clerk would react to your choice of comics, there's a problem.
If having finished reading your new books, you find you need to watch a cartoon or take a walk to "lighten up", there's problem.
These problem shouldn't be yours. Its the comic industry's, and they don't deserve your money until they solve them.
Edited by Joe Zhang on 15 January 2015 at 8:16pm
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Aaron Smith
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 10461
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | 10
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The bigger the story, the smaller the pieces feel. That's part of what finally drove me away from Marvel and DC. When it's expected that a reader reads every single issue and views the title (or the publisher's whole line), as a string of continuity, there's no longer an effort to make each issue an experience in and of itself.
When comics were new to me (mid-1980s), even if an issue was part of something bigger or had continuing plotlines, every comic book I read felt like a whole story. I never once felt I hadn't gotten my money's worth. That's no longer the case. The last DC comic I bought (with the exception of the Joe Kubert stuff I kept getting until he died) was a JLA issue that contained not one action scene, not a single power being used, not a villain or a threat. It was just 22 pages of characters standing around talking. I was so annoyed I tore it in half, threw it out, and never looked back.
A comic book should make a reader want to find the next issue (or previous issues if that's the case) because it was a good comic book, not because it's incomplete. The key is to make readers WANT more, not NEED more.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17699
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | 11
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I'm a big Archie Comics fan, and used to think it was immune to the
madness that has infected the Big Two. That's no longer true. The
contamination started to creep in with the whole "new look" approach
years ago, and slowly but surely the luster of Riverdale, USA is being
rubbed away. After reading about the new direction the stories will be
taking, the future looks decidedly bleak.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17699
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| Posted: 15 January 2015 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | 12
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On a more positive note...
INVINCIBLE continues to entertain, though I'm hoping for a more
upbeat storyline after the current one ends.
Oh, and it's hard to go wrong with Stan Sakai's USAGI YOJIMBO.
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