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Post by Doctor Bong Crosby on Aug 31, 2011 16:42:16 GMT -5
I gotta say I'm trembling at the thought of the guys over at Marvel (or their masters at Disney) thinking it's a good idea and deciding to try it too... .
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Post by humanbelly on Aug 31, 2011 17:25:01 GMT -5
I imagine, Doc, that DisneyCorp would at least prudently wait and see what the outcome of DC's panicky, hail-mary, desperation play here is, and then weigh their options (current profitability vs. a reduced (from DC's) result that being a blatant bandwagon-jumper would bring). Other than the obvious, predictable, and ultimately meaningless bump in sales for all of these multiple first issues, I can't find anything that convinces me that this is a solid, substantial strategy that will yield long-term, lasting results in increased sales.
New, young readers? Heck, it's already too late-- they're already spoken for, and don't show any interest in coming back. But STEP NUMBER ONE would HAVE to be to CUT THE FLIPPIN' COVER PRICE IN HALF!!! Sell the cheaper lamer ads, go back to lower grade paper, whatever it takes-- but $4 per issue is going to keep that market out of reach forever. Ignoring that is simply delusional & irresponsible.
Re-image/brand the characters? Please-- it's happened with every one of DC's characters individually-- some of them multiple times. Remember Red and Blue Superman(s)? And it never sticks. Never. Even Barry Allen eventually came back, I believe, didn't he? And if it's not "your parents' Batman", well then what exactly makes him Batman anymore? Couldn't he be just about any character at all? If someone's not picking up the "old" Green Lantern, why exactly will they suddenly decide to spontaneously pick up the new, re-booted one? There seems to be an assumption that people are born with an innate Green Lantern Interest waiting to be fed. . .
I can't speak to DC as much (JSA is the only title I've followed much in the last couple of years-- and I've really liked it a lot)-- but I'm guessing that their creative troubles must be similar to Marvel's:
1) Story arcs that are too long, overly complex, told far too slowly, and are impenetrably self-referential. They basically say "New Readers Keep Out!" right there on the cover.
2) A general coarsening of the material to appeal to "adult" readership, with numerous instances of outright vulgarity, hyper-violence, and highly questionable sexual content.
3) Big Events that either interfere with every titles internal continuity OR are somehow not connected to the Universal continuity at all.
4) A trend in the industry's artwork that has it focusing almost exclusively on pretty "pictures", and has all but sacrificed the element of visual storytelling. There are many exceptions, yes-- but I cannot remember ever reading so many stories where I had to make a conscious effort to figure out what the heck I was looking at, and what the heck was happening in front of me-- even though the figures are practically photo-realistic.
5) Editors completely held at bay and under the thumb of writer/artist "stars".
Oops, WifeBelly's calling-- gotta end the treatise--!
HB
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Post by goldenfist on Oct 18, 2011 9:12:21 GMT -5
Humanbelly
DC is going to go in a direction that you are not going to like, This happens with alot of compaines.
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Post by Crimson Cowl on Jun 16, 2013 9:30:49 GMT -5
1) Story arcs that are too long, overly complex, told far too slowly, and are inpenetrably self-referential. They basically say "New Readers Keep Out!" right there on the cover. 2) A general coarsening of the material to appeal to "adult" readership, with numerous instances of outright vulgarity, hyper-violence, and highly questionable sexual content. 3) Big Events that either interfere with every titles internal continuity OR are somehow not connected to the Universal continuity at all. 4) A trend in the industry's artwork that has it focusing almost exclusively on pretty "pictures", and has all but sacrificed the element of visual storytelling. There are many exceptions, yes-- but I cannot remember every reading so many stories where I had to make a conscious effort to figure out what the heck I was looking at, and what the heck was happening in front of me-- even though the figures are practically photo-realistic. 5) Editors completely held at bay and under the thumb of writer/artist "stars". Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I just read this. Fantastic stuff HB. This should actually be published as an indictment of the modern comics industry and as a manifesto for how to save it. Sadly it'll never happen of course... Incidentally, on the actual topic of this thread, after having had some initial success DC's market share stats over the last few months have been looking a bit bleak (I think May's weren't quite so dire but the preceding two months looked catastrophic).
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Post by humanbelly on Jun 16, 2013 11:41:12 GMT -5
1) Story arcs that are too long, overly complex, told far too slowly, and are inpenetrably self-referential. They basically say "New Readers Keep Out!" right there on the cover. 2) A general coarsening of the material to appeal to "adult" readership, with numerous instances of outright vulgarity, hyper-violence, and highly questionable sexual content. 3) Big Events that either interfere with every titles internal continuity OR are somehow not connected to the Universal continuity at all. 4) A trend in the industry's artwork that has it focusing almost exclusively on pretty "pictures", and has all but sacrificed the element of visual storytelling. There are many exceptions, yes-- but I cannot remember every reading so many stories where I had to make a conscious effort to figure out what the heck I was looking at, and what the heck was happening in front of me-- even though the figures are practically photo-realistic. 5) Editors completely held at bay and under the thumb of writer/artist "stars". Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I just read this. Fantastic stuff HB. This should actually be published as an indictment of the modern comics industry and as a manifesto for how to save it. Sadly it'll never happen of course... Incidentally, on the actual topic of this thread, after having had some initial success DC's market share stats over the last few months have been looking a bit bleak (I think May's weren't quite so dire but the preceding two months looked catastrophic). Oh wow- thanks Crimson C. I tend to forget what I've written not too long after it leaves the keyboard (which has led to occasional embarrassment-!), and I'm very happy to see that I still very much agree with. . uh. . . myself-! Man, I surely need to do a better job of pre-post proofreading, though. But feel free to quote the passages above wherever you think they might fall on receptive ears, eh? We may prevail. . . HB
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Post by ultron69 on Jun 19, 2013 13:34:08 GMT -5
New, young readers? Heck, it's already too late-- they're already spoken for, and don't show any ihterest in coming back. But STEP NUMBER ONE would HAVE to be to CUT THE FLIPPIN' COVER PRICE IN HALF!!! Sell the cheaper lamer ads, go back to lower grade paper, whatever it takes-- but $4 per issue is going to keep that market out of reach forever. Ignoring that is simply delusional & irresponsible. I made this suggestion on another message board a few years ago (I think it may have been DC's message board, back when they had one) and somebody gave me some stuff about how they can't go back to the cheap newsprint paper because the printers are no longer set up for it, so they “have" to use the high quality (i.e. expensive) stuff that we have now. I didn't quite understand why, after all, aren't newspapers still made with that cheap newsprint stuff? Still, this guy seemed to know a lot more about the printing industry than I do, so I didn't argue the point. By the way, I agree wholeheartedly with your diatribe against the modern comics industry, and I'm glad I grew up when I did!
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Post by humanbelly on Jun 19, 2013 15:09:36 GMT -5
New, young readers? Heck, it's already too late-- they're already spoken for, and don't show any ihterest in coming back. But STEP NUMBER ONE would HAVE to be to CUT THE FLIPPIN' COVER PRICE IN HALF!!! Sell the cheaper lamer ads, go back to lower grade paper, whatever it takes-- but $4 per issue is going to keep that market out of reach forever. Ignoring that is simply delusional & irresponsible. I made this suggestion on another message board a few years ago (I think it may have been DC's message board, back when they had one) and somebody gave me some stuff about how they can't go back to the cheap newsprint paper because the printers are no longer set up for it, so they “have" to use the high quality (i.e. expensive) stuff that we have now. I didn't quite understand why, after all, aren't newspapers still made with that cheap newsprint stuff? Still, this guy seemed to know a lot more about the printing industry than I do, so I didn't argue the point. By the way, I agree wholeheartedly with your diatribe against the modern comics industry, and I'm glad I grew up when I did! Hmm-- and one would think those newspaper printing presses are becoming more and more idle as that industry slowly, slowly dies. I wonder how adaptable (if at all) they are to running print runs of comic-books? I mean, they're obviously able to print Sunday Comics with no trouble. . . Boy, you guys' pulling this old post up forced me to go back and do some proof-correcting on it-! ;D HB
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