Author Topic: Comic Book Thread  (Read 135670 times)

Offline DSJ™

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Offline BillCable

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #331 on: February 5, 2012, 05:02 PM »
DC is doing a fantastic job of becoming the worst comic publisher in the industry.
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Offline McMetal

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #332 on: February 5, 2012, 08:19 PM »
There is no profanity extreme or vulgar enough to fully reflect my outrage over this abomination.

Any professional in comics with a shred of dignity should have nothing to do with this project.

Complete dollar chasing blasphemy.
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Offline BillCable

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #333 on: February 5, 2012, 10:28 PM »
I loved Moore's quote (paraphrased here):  "You didn't see any sequels to Moby Dick."
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Offline DSJ™

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #334 on: February 9, 2012, 04:41 PM »
SMALLVILLE TO CONTINUE IN COMIC BOOK FORM

Why, the show is done... DC is scraping the barrel...  ::)

Offline DSJ™

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #335 on: February 23, 2012, 02:25 AM »
Comics trove fetches $3.5M at auction

Quote
A copy of Detective Comics No. 27, which sold for 10 cents in 1939 and features the debut of Batman, got the top bid at the New York City auction Wednesday. It sold for about $523,000, including a buyer's premium, said Lon Allen, managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale.

Action Comics No. 1, a 1938 issue featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for about $299,000; Batman No. 1, from 1940, sold for about $275,000; and Captain America No. 2, a 1941 issue with a frightened Adolf Hitler on the cover, brought in about $114,000, Allen said.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #336 on: February 23, 2012, 08:18 AM »
I saw this on the morning news too.  Pretty amazing find with books like Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #1.  What a stash.
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #337 on: March 9, 2012, 12:05 PM »
Well, this is a big comics week for me.  I finally pulled the trigger and quit...  yep, after 33 years of reading DC Comics, I think I'm finally done. 

I really tried to give this "New 52" whoop-de-do a chance and rode out the first story arcs for my favorite characters, but I'm just not feeling it.  I miss "my" DCU.  :-\

DC's new 52 may be selling gang-busters for them, but it's just not for me I guess.  I remember reading so many of these characters in elementary school, but there is no way I could hand my five-year olds any of these modern DC Comics versions.  Basically, I just got tired of telling my kids "no, even though I know you love Batman, you can't read this".  Better to not even have the damn things in the house I guess.

So, enjoy your "new 52" DCnU, xbox-generation kids!  I'll be over here re-reading the Trial of Barry Allen, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Death in the Family, etc.   :-X
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #338 on: March 12, 2012, 12:14 PM »
Well, this is a big comics week for me.  I finally pulled the trigger and quit...  yep, after 33 years of reading DC Comics, I think I'm finally done. 

Wow, definitely a big step for a longtime reader (even GL?).  I'm not sure how I feel about the whole "New 52" thing either.  I'm still reading some of the books, but honestly - aside from Aquaman and Batgirl - I don't think there are any titles that I wasn't already reading at some point.  Also, I don't think any of the ones I'm still reading (again, aside from Batgirl) necessarily needed the restart either.  I was enjoying them just fine before (although I'm glad to see the big guns back in the Justice League again).

Overall, I'm still really enjoying reading comics and I'm sure I'll always at least reading Amazing Spider-Man the rest of my life, but - much like collecting - the amount of space (and money) it starts taking up does take its toll as well.  If I had an iPad or something, I could see switching to digital for virtually everything and save the space.  You also make an excellent point on current comics (particularly the new 52 stuff), where things are so crazy violent and often over the top just for the sake of being that way.  Much of DC's new line has a "90s" vibe to it too in some ways.  There's still some really good books out there, but some bad too.

I've been dropping a couple titles here and there, but really should be paring things back even more.  I guess it is the collector mentality kicking in, but sometimes I have a hard time stopping a series when I've been at it for awhile (particularly from a #1).  Dumb, I know, but I know it is there to some extent.  I'm at that crossroads right now with a book like Detective Comics.  It isn't anything special, and I can't say I look forward to it all that much, but I've been reading Detective Comics off and on for quite awhile (as long as Batman was the main character), so it is tougher to stop.  Probably the next to go though.  I think I read about 20 books a month right now, and honestly I should cut that in half.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #339 on: March 12, 2012, 04:38 PM »
I am down to about a dozen monthly titles now, and maybe 5-6 limited series type books a month.  Like Jeff, I've given some serious thought to dropping them all.  I've limited myself to mostly Avengers-Based Marvel titels, Star Wars, Transformers, and Walking Dead, so can't relate to the DC issues as well, but Marvel has their own problems. 

My biggest gripe is the lack of continuity.  Marvel has prioritized marketing over storytelling, which is obviously problematic when you publish books.  I remember reading fun stories about the characters when I was a kid - the conflicts that arose from a dual life as a superhero, relationship issues across the teams, and obviously mixing it up with the bad guys.  One of my favorite storylines ever was the Demon in a Bottle story from Iron Man, when Stark's alcoholism finally gets the best of him and he loses everything.  I love the armors and IM villians, but as I recall, most of that story is just Stark either in a gutter or in a lab, while Rhodes takes over the suit.  And the best part was how the story integrated with the rest of the Marvel U.  Rhodes was the Iron Man sent to the Secret Wars and the Iron Man that founded the West Coast Avengers.  He had to deal with people thinking he was Stark or at least white, which added to the story within a story to make it allso interesting.

Nowadays, the stories don't make sense at all.  I can read about a huge lineup change, then see a totally different lineup represented in another book for months and months beyond that point.  There's no explanation for HUGE shakeups, ranks, or even costume changes.  When did Rogers decide to go back to being Cap? That should have been a big decision, not something just glossed over.  We spent half a year agonizing over who was going to be the new shield bearer when he died, but he apparently quits as head of security and goes back to just another supe between panels.  When and why did Hawkeye change his costume?  He just shows up in several books with a new outfit and no explanation?  Of course, he has the old costume all through his own limited series just finishing up now.  How is Hank Pym fighting crime, mentoring the next generation of Avengers, AND now a part of the Secret Avengers group, where he just whipped together a space station for their new base.  Really?  Give me 12 months of them trying to rebuild the NY mansion after the Masters of Evil beat Jarvis to a pulp.  I get that it's all make believe, but do they really need to suspend the concept of time to tell these stories?  I just think it comes down to lazy storytelling.

And don't even get me started on the marketing BS.  How can Wolverine possibly be in multiple Avengers and X-Men teams?  He's always hanging out at Avengers HQ, but supposedly he's running his own branch of the X-Men now too?  And Spiderman...I guess spiders don't sleep, because there is no other way he can be in that many storylines all at once.  He has how many individual books in addition to being in the new Team-up book, an active member of the Fantastic Four, and at least one Avengers team or the other.  Oh, and every major event in the Marvel U as well.  I'm sure it won't be long until one of those guys are killed and resurrected, just like we've seen with Captain America, Herc, Thor, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Jocasta, Vision, Bucky, Mockingbird, Elektra, etc. in the last few years.  If you're going to kill someone off, then off them and be done with it, or at least keep them dead for a full 2-3 years.  Its hard to have any concern for these characters anymore - my only real fear for any of them is that they might fall out of popularity and then you'll never hear about them again (where are you Stature, Black Knight, and Photon!?).

The storylines get worse while the price skyrockets.  At $4 an issue, I definitely need to put some serious thought into taking a comic hiatus as well.  Its really a shame that despite all the advancements in the comic industry, the major players can't tell a good story to save their lives (or their businesses). 
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #340 on: March 12, 2012, 09:00 PM »
I'm more of a Marvel reader as well, but have picked up more DC over the years now too.  I think some of the problem (with many things these days it seems) is that there is just too much out there.  I mean, they know their market and everything better than I do, but when I look back at the issues from when I was a kid - and they list the subscriptions you could get - there would be like 10-20 ongoings that would cover the entire Marvel Universe.  Rarely did a character have more than one book (other than big names like Spidey, Batman, or Superman), and you could basically pick up the entire universe in 10 books or so (maybe a little more).  I think that made it easier to have things line up to some extent.  Obviously, putting Wolvie and Spidey on every team doesn't help either - but in some cases I can see why they do it too.

I'm fine with a character having a solo book and being part of one team - when it stretches to two, three teams, it starts to strain believability a bit.  I'm a huge Spidey fan, and pretty much pick up everything he is in (and enjoy it), but it does seem silly when he's in so many teams at once.  Things are scaling down a bit now (he's only on one Avengers team, and may be more of a supporting character in F4 now that Torch is back), and honestly I'd rather have it that way.

It may just be me, but I prefer things to be simplified a bit.  I'm sure it doesn't make as much sense in today's retail environment, but I find I feel that way with action figures, comics, movies, etc.  There is just so much of everything, which I guess is good so that there is more variety for all different people, but I guess I miss the days of seeing a movie be "the" movie of the year - the one that everyone sees and talks about (and stays in the theaters for a year or more).  Also years of keeping up with an action figure line and not having to buy 60-80 figures a year, or the comics example from earlier.  A different time I guess.

I will say though, overall, I still enjoy a lot of the stories in comics today.  They aren't all great of course, but there's still some good stuff out there.  Of the books I read, I think things like Batman (Scott Snyder), Daredevil (Mark Waid), Wolverine and the X-Men (Jason Aaron), Amazing Spider-Man (Dan Slott), and Fantastic Four (Jonathan Hickman) are all very well done right now - and I've always enjoyed pretty much everything by Geoff Johns.

Offline JediJman

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #341 on: March 13, 2012, 12:52 PM »
I'm more of a Marvel reader as well, but have picked up more DC over the years now too.  I think some of the problem (with many things these days it seems) is that there is just too much out there.  I mean, they know their market and everything better than I do, but when I look back at the issues from when I was a kid - and they list the subscriptions you could get - there would be like 10-20 ongoings that would cover the entire Marvel Universe.  Rarely did a character have more than one book (other than big names like Spidey, Batman, or Superman), and you could basically pick up the entire universe in 10 books or so (maybe a little more).  I think that made it easier to have things line up to some extent.  Obviously, putting Wolvie and Spidey on every team doesn't help either - but in some cases I can see why they do it too.

I hear that on there just being a lot of different books, but it's not as different as you may remember it to be.  I thought about this a little and went back to my old Marvel subscriptions...

In the same month I was buying Spectacular Spiderman, Amazing Spiderman, and Web of Spiderman.  They went bi-weekly on all 3 titles for a while, so that's essentially 6 Spiderman books a month plus anything else he might guest star in (annuals, limited series, etc.).  If you go back and read those stories, they all align pretty well - in a lot of cases they actually told one story throughout the multiple titles.

Then I looked at my Avengers books.  Again, in the same month I was buying Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Solo Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America.  Solo Avengers typically involved stories outside the core plot, but the other 5 books all worked in tandem.  When Iron Man moved out West, you saw reference to in the Avengers title, it was a main story in the WCA, and it was part of the Iron Man title all at once.  When Rhodey is Iron Man, you see the toll it takes on him in WCA, Avengers, and the Secret Wars limited series all at once.  That's 6 titles in each case that had well managed continuity on a monthly basis. 

Right now we have maybe 6 books with Spiderman in there (Including Avengers and FF) and 4 Avengers books (New, Mighty, Secret, Academy).  Thor and Iron Man never really tie back to the Avengers stories anymore outside of the big events - not sure about Cap as I stopped reading that after he returned.  Not maintaining a similar balance in this day and age is just plain lazy. 

I'll grant you that there are more titles, so an expanded continuity to keep track of, but that would be less of a problem if you didn't have all the old X-Men joining the ranks of the Avengers or Spiderman limited to maybe just one superteam.  I think the crossover crap is just marketing to get you to buy other books - there's no real need for the Thing to be on the Avengers and FF or for Wolverine to be in every Marvel title published.  I'm going to give this fall's Avengers vs. X-Men crossover a chance, then determine whether or not I want to be done with Marvel books.  Can't wait to see the "Avengers" including Wolvie, Beast, and Storm fight the X-Men.   ::)
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Offline Brian

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #342 on: March 13, 2012, 09:08 PM »
I totally agree, I like to see everything "line up" as much as possible too....and although we've been seeing the multiple teams thing for awhile now, it does begin to stretch believability a bit.  I guess they know what sells though.  I like a more simplified universe (not that I have to buy them all of course), with maybe a few less books.  I'm fine with each of the "big" franchises having two books at most (although I see why X-Men maybe gets more).  If you look now, things like Avengers and X-Men are the ones that are really getting out of control.  You have:

Avengers
New Avengers
Secret Avengers
Avengers Academy
Avengers Assemble

Uncanny X-Men
X-Men
Wolverine and the X-Men
X-Force
Astonishing X-Men
X-Men Legacy
New Mutants
X-Factor
Age of Apocalypse

And that's not even including the individual characters that have their own titles.  That, to me, is getting a bit out of hand.  I can see having two "main" books for franchises like that, and maybe a "teen" book if it is applicable.  X-Men is a little different beast in some ways, because things like X-Force and X-Factor really have their own niche that is fairly different from the regular X-books (and both have their fanbases).  I have a feeling there is going to be a big shakeup with the Avengers books (and maybe X-Men and everything else) post AvX.  Rumors are swirling of creators changing books or even a possible DC-like relaunch, so we'll see how Marvel looks by the end of the year.

I'm curious how long DC sticks with their reboot.  I'm sure they will, because it is new and it is selling well, but they've already sort of given themselves a backdoor with this Pandora character that has been appearing (and had a backup in the recent JL issue).

It is interesting, because if they are turning off even longtime DC fans like Jeff, it can't bode well for the future of things.  Just out of curiosity Jeff, did you stick with at least GL - in books or online?  Also, I echo Jeff's earlier point about comics really not being "for kids" anymore.  I know that isn't the audience that comes into stores, but it is supposedly the one they are after (new readers) and I don't think they'll get there with only the "kiddie" titles.  I started into comics at around age 5 and read into HS before getting back shortly after college, and I never remember having a comics that either felt like it talked down to me or was too gruesome/scary for a kid to read.  Maybe it was just the characters I wanted to follow back then, but it doesn't seem that way quite as much these days (again, depending on the character I guess).

Offline JediJman

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #343 on: March 13, 2012, 10:25 PM »
I can't imagine they're really targeting kids anymore.  Would be interesting to see who the core demographic target is though.  My mom ordered me a subscription in 3rd grade to boost my reading skills and by the time I Was in high school I was up to 15-20 books a month.  But back then, comics were $.75 to $1.00 each.  I could afford to throw down $20 or $30 a month on comics.  These days, the books are at least $3 and most are $4.  That same level of collecting would cost a kid $80 today...I just can't see any of the teens I know dropping that kind of cash on comics. 

They're also much harder for kids to get.  You can't get a subscription anymore.  I suppose you can order over the internet, but in most cases that's going to require a subscription.  I remember getting hooked on additional titles like Micronauts and New Mutants because I'd look at them in the grocery store or at the mall.  Those outlets don't seem to carry comics anymore for some reason.

Good point on the simplified universe.  Would be interesting to see Marvel or DC shrink back a bit and dump their current business model in favor of something closer to what we had as kids.  Write some really great stories on the most popular characters, use lower quality material, drop the price back down to $2.50 and get distribution of core titles back out to where kids can browse through them.  I don't see any reason why Walmart & Target shouldn't carry them - I'm sure they'd sell better than the 15 auto mechanic or body builder magazines they offer.  I'm glad I still have a lot of my old stuff from when I was a kid in case my children have an interest.  I'd much rather have them reading those stories than the stuff we're getting now.
Climbed a mountain & never came back. I will not quit & I always fight back 
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: Comic Book Thread
« Reply #344 on: March 14, 2012, 09:46 AM »
It does seem weird that comic books are not sold at regular retail stores. I see them at TRU but they are pretty out of date usually. There are no comic book stores anymore within thirty miles of me which is weird since I don't exactly live in the woods. Its a high population area and yet there are no comic book stores. How do publishers sell their books?

I've had a scription with scifigen.com  for a while to get books sent to me. That has worked but its wierd that you can't just get a straight subscription from Marvel or DC. I guess they live off of movie and toy licenses.
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