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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134847
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| Posted: 21 January 2008 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | 1
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(Recaps) can be annoying if you are reading a succession of issues in one
sitting, but if I am reading as I buy it then they are critical.
••
One of the more profound impacts of the Direct Sales Market that I have
noticed is that many people no longer pick up their comics every week.
They have "pull-lists" and will let a stack of books accumulate for weeks
or even months. Then, when they finally get around to reading them,
they are doing so not at all in the manner intended, and thus do not get
the "experience" intended.
It's like the people who would complain about recaps and the like in
conventional trade paperback collections, were all the issues for a
particular story are assembled without editing.
Bit like complaining about the lousy mileage on the car you drive without
tires.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134847
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| Posted: 21 January 2008 at 8:39pm | IP Logged | 2
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"I once found myself confronted by an internet poster (as always from the
safe anonymity of an fake screen name) listing all the good Byrne
stories, and telling me, in so many words, that they don't
count."
They were retconned.
••
Pray it never happens to you, Marc. Pray it never happens to you!!
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Emery Calame
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5773
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| Posted: 21 January 2008 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | 3
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" Bit like complaining about the lousy mileage on the car you drive without
tires. "
Oh dear God! It's not just my paranoia! You really HAVE been watching me!
Edited by Emery Calame on 21 January 2008 at 9:14pm
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Marc Guggenheim
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 489
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| Posted: 21 January 2008 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | 4
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JB: "Pray it never happens to you, Marc. Pray it never happens to you!!"
Well played, sir. Well played.
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***Mick Ward
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 January 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 11
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 12:30am | IP Logged | 5
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One of the more profound impacts of the Direct Sales Market that I have
noticed is that many people no longer pick up their comics every week.
They have "pull-lists" and will let a stack of books accumulate for weeks
or even months. Then, when they finally get around to reading them,
they are doing so not at all in the manner intended, and thus do not get
the "experience" intended.
+++
I've been falling into this trap lately - three kids and full time work and I just can't read em when I want so they accumulate... although this is not deliberate it sure makes reading them more a chore (for want of a better word) than an experience. Not nearly as fun! Can't see a way out of this anytime soon but hey, I'm still reading ;)
Edited by Mick Ward on 22 January 2008 at 12:33am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134847
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 5:02am | IP Logged | 6
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Perhaps, as well as "writing for the trade" we will soon be hearing the very
un-combicbooky manner in which so many seem to work these days being
described as "writing for the pull-list".
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Thorsten Brochhaus
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Posts: 328
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 5:26am | IP Logged | 7
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Then, when they finally get around to reading them,
they are doing so not at all in the manner intended, and thus do not get
the "experience" intended.
------
There is nothing like waiting a month after a good cliffhanger.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134847
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 5:57am | IP Logged | 8
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Even without a cliffhanger! I've commented in other threads how the little
lead figurines being produced by Eaglemoss of England have reawakened in
me a feeling much like what I used to get waiting for the next issues to
come out when I was a kid. Especially since, as a kid, I never did figure out
the shipping schedules, and now the figurines seem to appear on my
doorstep in a somewhat random manner.
Sometimes just the anticipation was enough, back in the days before
continued stories and cliffhangers.
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Thorsten Brochhaus
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Posts: 328
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 6:20am | IP Logged | 9
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Like the joy, "back in the days" (only about 8-10 years ago), discovering a new record of your favourite band in the story and the anticipation when on the way home before you can hear it.
Nowadays you know the release date half a year in advance and have the possibility to hear a good size of it (or all of it, illegal) before it's even out.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134847
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 7:26am | IP Logged | 10
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There is no question that the DSM "saved" the American comicbook
industry, when it first came along. It became, for one thing, a place
where marginal sellers could find a safe haven. When every issue that
ships is pre-sold, the Companies can take a much more lenient view of
what constitutes a good seller.
Unfortunately, it did not take long for the DSM to morph from a solution
into a problem in and of itself. When it stopped being the after-market,
and became the sole venue, for all intents and purposes the last nail was
driven into the coffin of comics as mass market periodicals. No longer
mass market, and all too soon, hardly ever periodic.
Along the way, the Speculator Boom came along, and in addition to
virtually destroying the industry, changed the very way in which comics
are sold. No longer did the publishers ship out the books, as many as
they wanted, where they wanted, what they wanted. Now the shops
ordered only what they wanted, and, to feed the speculation,
demanded details months in advance as to content, talent, "events", etc.
Hotshot artists and flavor of the month characters became the driving
force, and pretty soon -- even before the Boom turned into the Bust of
the 90s -- the "other genres" were being burned away. The romance
comics died. The funny animals. The westerns. The hard boiled
detectives. The space operas. One by one these kinds of books, which
once represented the bulk of the product, saw their shelf space shrink.
And since the audience for those books were not of the kind that actively
sought them out, unlike superhero fans, we soon saw what was to
become an all too familiar cycle -- low sales = low orders = low sales.
In the end, it's selling farm trucks like they are Ferraris -- and we begin to
see the farm trucks being priced like Ferraris, without being much
more than farm trucks with fancy paint jobs.
Nowhere else, in all the history of merchandizing, have we seen this kind
of insane cycle manifest.
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Thanos Kollias
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 June 2004
Location: Greece
Posts: 5009
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 7:59am | IP Logged | 11
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Concerning a post JB made earlier about stacked books in pull-lists, I'd like to add the comment that most books are easier to read as "trades", that is 5-6 issues in a raw. I don't like it, but it happens to me quite frequently of late.
There are some exceptions (Spirit, Detective Comics), but most seem to be actually written for the trade (DD or Cap are in this category).
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Allen Moyer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 January 2008
Posts: 43
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| Posted: 22 January 2008 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 12
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They have "pull-lists" and will let a stack of books accumulate for weeks
or even months. Then, when they finally get around to reading them,
they are doing so not at all in the manner intended, and thus do not get
the "experience" intended.
---
Another excellent observation, JB. This is not unlike those people who
insist on "waiting for the DVD" when it comes to television. Instead of
watching a show week by week, the way the creators intended it
to be "watched," these people let episodes accumulate for weeks or even
months. Then, when they finally get around to watching them, they are
doing so not at all in the manner intended, and thus do not get
the "experience" intended. If the show's creators intended people to
watch the show that way they would have aired the "episodes" that way.
And now they'r ebeing "catered" to! Selfish television fans are
changing the way TV shows are made.
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