Thursday, August 23, 2012

Whoops! You Just Killed Comic Books.

     
    You may not know it, you may not even think about it, but when you go to your local comic book store you have a responsibility. That responsibility is to buy monthly issues of comics. Not trades, not omnibus, not definitive editions, monthly issues. That floppy you aren't buying because you want to "wait for trade" is killing the comics industry. 
     We all have that series that we need to own every bit of. The original issues, the variant issues, trade paperbacks, omnibus edition, definitive edition, original art, etc. I'm not talking about that. This is a boots on the ground, nerd-in-front-of-the-rack war that is being lost, and we are all going to be casualties. The reality of being a fan of comic books is that it takes some work. Pre-ordering books from your local retailer months in advance is how a book may live or die even before it’s born. As much as we would like to be able to go to our local store and buy whatever comic we want whenever we want, that isn't how the industry works and it’s up to us to do our part to ensure that the medium we love continues.
     This isn’t meant to be a long rant but a reminder that creators, publishers and shops rely on us, the fan, to go in weekly and buy the issues off the rack. Not only that, but you need to research and order in advanced the titles you think you want to read. If you love comics, and if you are reading this chances are you do, then do your part. Pre-order, pick up weekly and enjoy!

9 comments:

  1. With all respect I have to disagree. I do not think it is up to the consumer to save the 'Industry'.

    I buy comics, each and every week and do so at a fantastic comic shop (shout out to the mighty All Star Comics Melbourne) that I love to support. I follow creators whose work I love while keeping an eye out for new and exciting books. I have shelves full of great books that I love to show off and use to introduce people to comics. But I do not buy any monthly books.

    As far quality goes I feel we are at an all time high in the world of comics. There are many great new books being written and thanks to the popularity of trade paperbacks we can now read just about any of the great stories of the past (that's without including the availability of digital). If the current format is not working financially for publishers they will find other ways. I support the comics medium not the comics 'industry'.

    I don't mean to rant, and I have nothing against buying comics monthly, I just prefer to get trades.

    Many thanks for the post Aaron it got me thinking.

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    1. First off, please rant away! You bring up the crux of my argument. Maybe you are right, from the feedback I've gotten a lot of people feel like you do, and perhaps its not the "job" of the fan to ensure monthly's get sold, to pre-order etc. Would you say then that the industry is the one who needs to change how books get published and distributed? I wrote this because I had seen books get killed off, priced hiked or never come out at all because pre-order's on the title we're too low. Ultimately the rise of digital sales will change all of this but I think we are years away from that. Digital also makes me feel nervous for the fate of the comic book shop, but that's a topic for another time. Thanks very much for reading!

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  2. I'm with you on being nervous about the fate of comic shops. It's only going to get harder as digital grows. My hope is that they will survive by becoming specialist stores for the print collections of the digital issues. Personally I will always buy well presented, actual physical books. I might read them digitally first and then buy the trade if I love it.

    You've inspired me to write my own post on why I read trades and maybe ramble about where I see things going. I'll link back here if that's ok with you?

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    1. I would love that! Please post the link here when you've done it, that would be great. I'll make sure to spread the word. I look forward to it!

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  3. I have to agree with JoeBlogs, in that if the industry is changing, people must change with it, not force people into a particular buying habit.

    Much with how the the music industry was blaming file sharing on the internet as a major loss of revenue (while I agree there is some loss, I do not think it is nearly as significant as they claim), while my opinion is closer to that is the way people wanted music. They wanted to option of buying a single song, getting it anytime they wanted, and cutting down of physical clutter in their place.

    Now comics and books might be a little bit of the opposite, as they want the option to buy more at one time, instead of piecing it together like some monthly collectible. Also being able to buy it when they want it and not worry about it being sold out helps the digital front. But some of the same arguments such as storage come into effect.

    And once again, I don't think the download numbers on torrents even remotely equal lost sales. I talk to people who torrent comics, and most of them don't read the majority of what they download. They download it because it is there, not because they want it. There are exceptions of course, and this could be a 10 page long rant about both sides of this particular issue, but lets not open that can of worms.

    There are series I want to check out in the monthly format as I think some comics read better this way, but the collected or GN format is easier to store, lend to people or keep you in the story for the duration.

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    1. I agree that the piracy issue is separate, Ive been thinking about wiring about that in a different post. The more ive been thinking about this I feel now that Id like an industry that made it profitable for creators to make GN's of the series that should be made in that format, as well as a better way for them to sell print and digital copies of their work be it in a store on online. there's no doubt that will happen but I think we are years away from that, in the meantime it kills me to see good series die before their time because of the current system.

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  4. I have to disagree as well. We may need to suggest to friends and buy the books we want to help a book succeed but ultimately the burden is up to the creators and publisher to evolve. I used to feel this stress to buy all these monthlies but I felt that was a mistreatment of me as a fan.

    I do believe smaller books need help and we should all be aware of what may happen if we don't preorder issue one but ultimately the comics industry is taking advantage of us if they continue to beat us over the head with this system that isn't working and put the responsibility to promote their books on us.

    Most people don't do that but I feel some take advantage of the good natured fan and drum up that anxiety in us.

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    1. Very good points for sure. It is the small press comics, the indys that the current direct market system hurts and at the same time still helps the most. I think the model will change, but its going to take time. I guess in every economic model change there will be casualties. But its the great books that may never come out that makes me sad. Cant save them all I guess. Thanks for reading, great feedback!

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  5. That being said it is Johns fault crystal Pepsi didn't last and that king of the hill got cancelled because he didn't preorder them :P

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