I remember back in the 80's and 90's going to the grocery store and picking 10 or 12 comics every week. The fact the industry killed off the grocery store spinners was a major contributor to me dropping comic books as a hobby.
Thank you for commenting! Absolutely agree that it was brutal loss for comics that they lost their presence in major stores like grocery stores, gas stations and pharmacies, its great for comic book stores that they basically are the only game in town but for fans, they are not always near a store and making a special stop to a specialty store is absolutely going to drive away some fans. This especially pushes away kids, who are only going to be able to get books if their parents are willing to find, drive and go out of their way to go to a comic shop, I know for both of us here on the channel had that been the case when we were kids we basically would have had a very limited amount of comics instead of the larger collections we had.
One of the major factors for sure, you don't just remove a staple or foundation of your industry without a alternative idea. I sometimes still see spinner racks at stores but its very rare. Not sure what they were thinking getting rid of that.
What you said about Ghost Machine having great quality and consistent creative team is why my pull list is completely image comics. Geiger-verse, spawn, gunslinger, all emerging universe is my pull list. I like Marvels Black White and blood series as a pallette cleanser.
I've also become worn out with all the super heroes from the big 2, I don't care anymore about Spider-Man or wolverine. Which X-Men title is the main one? Which Batman is the main title? Typing this is increasing my hate for marvel.
@@curtisc2581 Thanks for watching and commenting! Comics absolutely have some issues when you can't even tell which is the main title to buy for a character, as much as we are fans of the character on the channel batman having 6 concurrent series makes it hard for anyone to jump onboard as a reader, same for spider-man, x-men, superman and a few others, when you have stuff like ghost machine, energon and spawn that are easy to follow and creatively consistent, its easy to see why the big 2 are losing some folks
In 1939, you could purchase a comic book featuring Batman for 10 cents. That would be roughly $2.25 in today’s money. Until 1961, the cover price remained 10 cents, but considering inflation, the book would be worth roughly $1 today. Over the years, the cover price increased. In 1984, a Batman comic book had a cover price of 75 cents, roughly the same as 10 cents in 1939, equivalent to about $2.25 in today’s money. When the cover price changed to $1.00 in 1991, it would be about $2.40 today. When it increased to $1.25 in 1992, it was roughly $2.79 today. In 1995, the cover price for a Batman book was $1.95, which would be $4 today. In 2012, the cover price was $3.99, roughly $5.50 today. When the cover price dropped to $2.99 in 2017, it was roughly $3.80 today. In 2021, the cover price jumped to $4.99, which was roughly $5.80 today. So, for the last twelve years, a Batman comic book averaged about $5. Twelve years prior, it was $4. Twelve years prior, it was $3. Forty-eight years prior, it was $1.50. Contradictory arguments could be made that the average comic book is destined to increase to $6 soon and that the average comic book shouldn’t cost more than $1.50 - $2.25 today. I recall having looked at what the trend was over a 10 year period for the last 80 years. What I came up with was that the industry liked to increase the cost of comic books 20%. So, that gets you a $6.25 comic by 2030 and $8 by 2040. I had assumed a $5 cover price for today's period (2020-2030). If you hop in the DeLorean and come out in 2061, bring $12.50 with you so you can afford a copy of Batman then. The 20% is a made up number though. I had to fudge the periods because some years would increase 50%-75% depending on which years were included in the 10 year range.
Thanks for commenting and sharing your perspective. Really interesting to see a mathematical breakdown on how much the pricing has changed over the year and how even with inflation it seems like pricing is higher than it should be. While certain things like printing costs and all of the associated things with making comics has gone up as well, it seems like it may not be sustainable for customers if it continues at this rate.
I dont even bother buying new books. I'm lucky that one of my local stores has a HUGE dollar bin section that my gf and I almost exclusively buy from. Lots of great older characters have fallen through the cracks and we'd rather spend $10 on 10 obscure older books than $10 on 2 new books that most people end up saying suck.
Thanks for commenting! Really sad that comics are in such a state that so many are making it to the dollar bin. Great for you that you are finding a way to get a great deal on comics though.
Absolutley, i look at something like Bloodhunt and realise i could go on holiday for what that set is going to cost. 50 plus issues without even buying red band & variants. Worth noting Todd can still hold Spawn at $2.99
Thanks for watching and commenting! Absolutely agree something like blood hunt which is with tie ins and side stories, around 80 or so issues at 5 bucks a pop is about 400 plus dollars to get it all, hard to justify that for a singular storyline, when you could instead use that money on a vacation, video game system or something with more long term value. Also great call out on Spawn, that Todd has that still at 2.99 says alot especially because spawn typically has consistent art and storytelling
I have dropped everything Marvel & DC. Just buying indy books now with a focus on the Spawn Universe at $2.99 and the Massive-Verse and Ghost Machine books at $3.99. Also grabbing SIKTC because the creative team hasnt changed and it has been a fun story and interesting world in the Slaughterverse. For the most part same creative teams all year, stories are entertaining, and the art is top notch. Plus Spawn & Ghost Machine covers are cardstock.
Thanks for commenting. Makes completed sense that you would stick with the Spawn universe books especially given the pricing on those books and the long term storytelling approach those books have that reward long term fans as opposed to the constant renumberings and reboots with marvel and DC. With stuff like that out there its hard to stay with marvel and dc
It’s pretty easy to figure out. The companies don’t pay enough The stories are trash Paper costs but the technology has come so far(25 years in printing industry)
Creator compensation absolutely seems to be a major issue as well. seems that so many big names have been driven to the indies because they cannot make even close to the same with the big 2 as opposed to something they launch on their own like Ghost Machine or Spawn
I can’t express how exactly this matches the mental gymnastics I also have to do at my comic shop. I was so excited for a fresh starting point for X-men only to completely do a 180 when I saw 9+ titles. The same situation with Bloodhunt. It’s going to be so many different books (including MULTIPLE different Spider-Man titles) just to get the full picture. I think the industry is on a precipice and these events and prices might push way more folks to digital formats. That’s my current plan is to read a large portion of these titles on marvel unlimited.
Thanks for commenting! Absolutely is sad that due to cost so many books just get passed over because there is just too much cost to collecting. X-Men is a great example as you stated, we on the channel were so excited to see a fresh starting point only to turn around and see that it was gonna be even more books and even more money required to keep up with the story
New subscriber! Just found your channel from this video and really appreciate the discussion around the cost of modern comics. I've struggled with buying new comics and made the recent decision to stop. I want to support the hobby but found that I was spending hundreds of dollars a month on new books and was not enjoying them. It felt more like a very expensive obligation. I can wait six months, and get the same books digitally for a lot less per issue.
Thanks for watching and subscribing! Makes complete sense that you are waiting for digital at this point, there seems to be a lot of folks where pricing finally pushed them out of the habit and either made them quit cold turkey or move to digital
Great feedback. I look forward to more of these videos! I'm new to buying single issues, so I haven't noticed the price increases. It saddens me, as I get used to the trends of the big two publishers, to see how much they're gouging fans so randomly, knowing they're also gouging creators. I hope Ghost Machine can reset expectations a bit -- another round of creator-driven comics that set respectable pricing as part of their goals. More of the same please!
Thanks as always for watching and commenting! It really is sad to see how random the prices seem to increase, hopefully ghost machine keeps its pricing and consistency and forces a bit more from the big 2. We absolutely will have a few more of these videos coming as well, hopefully you will enjoy those a well
Yeah I definitely scaled back my list. I pretty much canceled all DC and most of Marvel cause of price. I’m canceling Hulk cause Nick Cline is barely the main artist, and his art is what I want when I open that book. Loving the Spawn stuff right now, even trying all the new ones that started the last month or 2 cause they’re 2.99. Mostly just focusing on Energon Universe, Spawn Universe, Conan, and the new Ultimate Universe.
Certainly agree that is frustrating when an artist is the main drive for you to pick up a book and they largely disappear a few issues in like Cline has on Hulk. With all the competition that Spawn at 2.99, ghost machine at 3.99, conan at 3.99, energon at 3.99 with the rare 4.99 book that normally is almost double length the indies are really cornering the market and the big 2 are losing more and more market share as a result
@@Fullmetal737 They certainly have so far, Really enjoying the varying tones and characters we are getting so far, and the top notch talent on the books makes a huge difference.
This week, I have 14 issues to buy because I'm getting all of Marvel's "Blood Hunt" storyline. It's going to cost me $66 plus tax. I'm spending over $200 per month just on new issues, while also trying to catch up on back issues after almost 30 years of not collecting. I think back to my college days when I was spending about $100 per month, but I was getting 70 to 80 titles. My local store back then also had a good deal on new issues... 20% off the cover, round to the nearest nickel, tax is included in that price.
Thanks for commenting! Absolutely crazy that it costs that much for you to follow a storyline that you are interested in. The cover price just seems to have increase too much and collecting is getting more and more expensive every day.
This is such a thorny topic to address - bravo for taking it on. Personally, I'm a big fan of Batman, X-Men, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Star Wars (which is a beast unto itself), Daredevil, and Titans. That's just the "Big Two" publishers. Ghost Machine is on my list. The Energon Universe is *incredibly* good so far. I also dig a lot of what DSTLRY is putting out (that's a heavy price tag to digest). Needless to say comics have gotten very expensive at a time when budgets are tight. I'm all for creators getting paid a good wage for their abilities and work, so price hikes can be warranted - and there's a LOT of great stuff out there. But when prices are as high as they are now, tough choices have to be made - and I agree with you guys - big titles are overpriced in order to make up for underselling titles...and that's not right. If a title isn't selling, cancel it. If not enough people are reading it then it doesn't deserve an ongoing title. Take those characters and create "elseworld" stories for them so that they can still exist in the medium but don't put pressure on other titles to pick up their slack. I've absolutely had to pare down my pull list, and have had to skip out on a lot of titles because I just can't afford them all in money, time, and storage space. Hell, Capullo is doing Wolverine later this year. Justice League is poised for a relaunch. The next era of X-books are now hitting FOC. We're spoiled for choice, but we're being put over a barrel with price. I think we're pretty lucky to have a long list of creators that are doing amazing work; Zdarsky, King, Williamson, Snyder, Tynion, Fabok, Chechetto, Ram V, Soule, Aaron, Cates....the list goes on and on for a long time. The problem is we can't sustain these prices with the sheer volume of content being sold every week. Personally I've started shifting my pull list to mini series / black label / limited series. It makes it easier for me to keep up with the story, it ensures that I'll get the same creative team start-to-finish, and I get to move on relatively quickly to the next thing without feeling like I've lost touch with a certain character, team, creator, etc. I felt like with multiple ongoings on my pull list, I was in an endless trap where I feel like even if I wasn't enjoying the title, you have to stick with it. The Big Two have played every card in the deck in order to rope in fans and milk them for every cent. As part of larger machines, they have a fiduciary duty to pull in the most revenue and profit as possible. It's dirty and transparent AF, and it's not going away. Like you guys said....pricing only goes one way. We're not going back to $2.99 comics. Ever. It's up to each one of us to be as discerning with our time and money as we can.
Thanks for commenting and sharing your perspective! Certainly is a ton of choices out there right now and its at the point where there is just too much content to consume. Almost every franchise inside of the big 2 has 4-6 books at least and it largely just becomes impossible to follow the whole universe of either marvel or dc at this point. Hopefully since pricing is never gonna go back down, at least the big 2 might be able to bring consistency back to the forefront.
@@RMLitegrade Yes, there is just too much content. From a publisher's perspective, I assume part of the justification is that they want to have something on the shelves that appeals to everybody no matter how obscure their interest is. I get that. But what I can't abide by is having half a dozen X-titles and another half dozen solo tie-in titles that all interconnect. It's predatory in some respect. Multiply that by X # of Spidey titles, Y number of Avenger titles, Z # of Bat-family titles, etc etc....there's no way for fans to keep up with it all. We still had elements of this in the 80's when crossovers and additional titles really began to take over but it's chronic now and personally, it pushes me away. I love the X-Men, but I simply can't get into them anymore because I know that it won't be long before they slam me with "summer crossover event that will change the Marvel universe forever!" Sorry, Marvel. I'm out. In fact, I don't even think I'll dip my toe in this time. Okay, I'm off to watch part 2 of this video. I'll probably have another overly long reply to that one too. Sorry. :)
The price point is probably the biggest turn off for American comic fans. To compete with Manga, American style comics would need to drastically decrease qualtiy. Sure the independent titles are trying to but even then you are trying to compete with Manga, which is still just cheaper for the quantity of content. Also we should own up to one of the biggest off putting qualities to new readers, the massive continuity tied up in the titles. Some people love finding out there is all this back catalog stories you gotta read to really get this character etc....most people don't. Its impossible imo to point to why are Manga out selling American comics and not point out the lack of required reading to enjoy a title. Also younger readers are more openly welcomed into Manga fandoms while American Comicbooks are gatekeepery af and like rock wonder why all the youth want nothing to do with us
I’m a lapsed weekly comic reader. I came back for Ultimate Spider-Man. I even picked up a few other books just to pad out my pull list. The Marvel/DC books didn’t stick. Mostly for the reasons you mentioned. The books I’m excited for are Rook and Last Mermaid because they are delivering fun stories and consistency.
Thanks for commenting! Great to hear that ultimate Spider-man brought you back to comics. It has been a great book so far and hopefully keeps up the solid content. Not surprised that some of the other marvel and dc books didn't last too long, especially with books like Rook that are great entry points with top notch talent.
I stopped collecting when the price tag hit $3.99 in the what, late 2ks early 2010s? And even then I was selective with my purchases. I started in the early 90s when comics were $1.25, $1.50. $2.50 on a premium cover. $4-5 bucks on a monthly is just ridiculous. You know when I really started to notice it? when Wizard Magazine went from its standard binding format to the fold over "comic" format; the page count kept decreasing but the price kept going up. A standard issue of Wizard was 150-170 pages for like $3 at its most premium, and I think the last issue of Wizard I bought was $4 something, maybe $5 for like 70-something pages.
Thanks for watching! Certainly is hard to sustain sales with increasing prices and decreasing page count. Great to see someone recall Wizard Magazine! It truly was sad how quickly wizard went down in count and quality, it was such a great resource for comic readers back in the day
The price point will never go down. Paper is more expensive, printing is more expensive, shipping is more expensive, artists are more expensive, advertising and marketing is more expensive. As long as you produce a good quality product, the cost will always be high when you add in inflation. We may love seeing $1.25 on our favorite comics from the 1990s but those days are gone.
Thanks for commenting and sharing you perspective. Certainly agree with you that the pricing is never going to go back down. I think the main issue for customers is the lack of consistency, its very weird that books like Iron Man, Hulk and Flash are all 3.99 books and stuff like spider-man for the same page count is 4.99. I think its absolutely ok that pricing will continue to go up because everything is more expensive but would be great if especially the big 2 could give at least some consistency, whereas Indie publishers make complete sense that they need to charge more. Thank you again for sharing, always good to hear folks perspective
If that is true American comic books are dead. The average age of readers is going to continue rising to something like people 40-50+ years old as comic companies continue to fail to replenish readership. (I'm in my mid 30s and they killed off newstand/spinner by the time I was a teenager. Can't imagine getting into floppy comics if I was 13 right now, didn't have millionaire parents.
@@billybarnett2846 newstand wasn't though... They still had some in grocery store magazine sections, actual newstands, book store magazine sections etc
You are preaching to the choir! I came across this video by accident, and I have liked and subscribed. I love comic books (been reading them for 35 years plus), but the pricing strategy infuriates me and seems highly cynical. The depressing thing is I wouldn't recommend to my kid to get into comics, a habit that I love, because it's so damn expensive. The real WTF moment for me was when Hickman's Gods #1 came out at 9.99. That's just counterintuitive, as you should arguably make a loss on the first issue in order to attract new readers. Guess what - Gods went from being an ongoing to a limited because the sales weren't there. I still buy alot of comics, but if this pricing trend continues, I may stop and switch to graphics. And don't get me started on variants and events, lol. What I don't understand is that it's such a short-sighted strategy. They may be making money now, but the next generation are increasingly not interested because they can't afford to get into the medium. Thanks, Stuart
Thanks for watching and for the kind comments. Happy to hear that we aren't the only ones feeling this way about pricing in comics. It truly is difficult that comics are so expensive now that it actually can deter folks from even recommending the hobby to new readers. We have a few other videos on modern comics that will be coming out over the next few weeks, hopefully you can check those out as well.
Great stream, really appreciate the conversation. To one of your points though I don’t think Marvel and DC have A-list creators right now. Their top notch tier in 2024 are B and C list creators. They have regressed their business so much that they can’t afford …let me put it this way. Ghost Machine was originally planned to be a DC imprint a few years ago and now those creators are all out of DC’s price range.
Excellent points, DC and Marvel really are lacking A list talent, there are a few big names left but overall they are absolutely missing the type of creators who can really move the needle in terms of audience engagement and driving folks to the store
@@RMLitegrade and it seems like their top talents in terms of art are used to launch books to get a sales boost on the first issue and then promptly moved to another relaunch within 3-4 issues. I fully expect Ryan Stegman and David Marquez to be moved from their X launches to another title before the first arcs are over.
@@bradfrederick1135 Would not be surprising at all if they were done before issue 5 or 6, highly doubt either make it to issue 3 or 4 based on how things have gone lately
And my recent comic shop purchases? Conan #20 featuring Barry Smith, an old back issue of Famous Monsters, a copy 23:26 of Creature From The Black Lagoon #2 and a $1 Geiger preview by Geoff Johns. NO marvels! Independents only. And almost entirely back issues only - a better, more economical read.
Excellent point! Spawn has been consistent with price and storyline for years, and its hard to believe that Spawn can maintain 2.99 but marvel and dc can't.
@@RMLitegrade Is Spawn owned by stockbrokers? or the company that makes it problaby not hence no infinite growth is needed as they can make due with what they have instead of "showing or making" infinite growth or a stock owner gets angry why the company didn't grew by X amount of % it goes up till boom or bust
I really wish they would stop with the two ASMs a month nonsense. Slow down and put more effort into the one book a month instead of rushing out glorified toilet paper. Definitely slimmed down my pull list in the last few years. Ive dropped everything from DC and only have ASM at marvel now, and thats at risk of being cut due to the two issues a month. The rest of my pull list is all the Spawn Universe books.
Completely agree at a 4.99 price point, which quite frequently get increased due to stuff like issue 25 costing 7.99 or the recent issue 50 costing 9.99 ASM is a really expensive book to have on your pull list and given it's strong sales regardless of the quality of the run, absolutely has to be a reason some other books just never get added to peoples list because the money is all going to stuff like ASM and Batman
@RMLitegrade yeah for real, cant buy another 4.99 book if im buying a 9.99 ASM... if the ASM was 4.99 i could get another book. That coupled with the quite frankly abysmal standard of writing in most of the titles from marvel and DC means loads of cancelled series and constant reboots... and what do you get with a reboot??? A new number 1 issue for 9.99!
Good and important show, guys. I appreciate some of the more unusual and expensive titles DC is producing, like Black Label. I bought Batman First Knight and was willing to pay a bit more for better printing and larger format. The price was good, the quality was there. Sadly though, the third and final issue really turned out to be a disappointment. The story was flat and the artwork seemed awkwardly staged. But l don't feel burned. It was a great effort that mostly paid off. But l am spending less and choosing my purchases very carefully. My only monthly titles now: Usagi Yojimbo and Conan.
Thanks for commenting! Totally agree on first knight, it was more expensive but completely worth it for consistency. Great to hear you are enjoying Conan as well, it is a great book
All kids grow out of comics anyway we discover better things as we get older todays generation is no different. Kids now are just ahead of the curve they are doing better things with the money they have interested of collecting comics .
Thanks for watching and sharing your perspective, While we may not fully agree, yours is certainly a perspective that lots of folks share and the evidence of kids doing this more and more now certainly seems to be there giving declining sales and the fact that the readership seems to keep getting older and older and isnt being replaced by new folks
Great comments, guys. I am a big Geoff Johns fan so l wanted to check out his new line. I paid $1 for the Geiger preview book. Nice little read, but gotta tell you - the smell of the color printing nearly overwhelmed me and nearly made it unreadable! Beautiful art and printing quality, but it was like huffing model kit glue! What's going on here?
Is the cost of comics actually not in line with normal inflation? Seems like modern comics are keeping pace with a gallon of milk, a gallon of gas, etc. Pretty much the singular reason modern comics are “failing” in terms of book sales is because Marvel and DC and Inage, et al, make their books available in HD, and those HD books are immediately uploaded to website for free to read. Just ONE of those free comic websites gets over 21 MILLION unique readers per month. Like…lol The reality is that Marvel/DC have very, very little interest in maintaining the direct market. Any reader can tell you about those endless emails they receive where marvel is willing to send you their entire library every month for 50% off directly to your door. I think at this point we have to accept that comics are a loss leader. The readership is massive, and that’s all marvel and DC really care about. The production of the books simply needs to break even. Which they do. As for “kids aren’t reading comic books”…I don’t know where you’re getting that. Webtoon is an absolute behemoth and is dominated almost entirely by children. That likely goes for all those free comic book reading sites as well. This is an issue of commerce, and Marvel and DC, if they wanted to, could end all pirating of their books tomorrow by switching off digital and only making their products available as printed materials. They have no desire to do that. So this is all trying to solve a problem that marvel and DC do not perceive to be a problem. The only ones suffering are distributors and storefronts. And…those just aren’t the responsibilty of Marvel and DC. EDIT: just to add to this. The example you gave is “I used to get 75 cents for allowance per week and would be able to buy three comics.” I mean…to my point, a kid’s weekly allowance nowadays is probably $20? I’m just not seeing comic book prices as somehow more inflated than any other service or product we purchase. Seems like they’ve stayed pretty in line with inflation.
Thanks for commenting and sharing your perspective. I think the main reason we feel comics readership is declining is the sales in the direct market but you are correct that there are a ton of other sources for books that while harder to track certainly have their readership as well.
The price is arbitrary. They overproduce books and what they don't sell yo comic shops ends up at Ollie's. They sell multipacks of comics with each book being like 69 cents each for a ten pack.
It certainly does seem like there are so major overprodution issues that occur with comic ending up in the dollar bin at stores or like you mentioned in multipacks at ollie's or other stores. Certainly seems like price aside they need to be making a lot less books
Most new comics are marketed to adults now. I think distribution needs to go back to places like 7 Eleven as well as comic shops. I also think comics should go back to newsprint which should help to lower prices. I also think that comics should just go back to one great cover. I'm sick of 5 variants for every issue.
The variant covers are absolutely problem, while there are some great covers that are variants, largely they seem to really hurt the lcs who often get stuck with tons of copies in order to get some of these 1:100 or 1:25 variants
I keep my pull list pretty tight. That way I dont feel guilty adding a mini series from time to time. I get annoyed with the crossover stuff. Take Superman. He has the house of Braniac going on in several of his titles plus one -shots. As soon as this wraps up its going in to DC's big summer crossover. No thanks. Amazing Spidey two times a month, uhg. There was a time in Spidey were it was twice a month and every storyline wrapped up in a one shot for an additional $7.99-9.99. Takes the fun out of it.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Certainly agree there is too much content each month for the big characters, reading Batman, Spider-man, Superman or wolverine takes like 30 dollars per month for each character, and probably more like 50 for batman, its just to hard to sustain for any fan who has any sort of budget
American comics needs to decrease the quality of the art, manga is just done at a far less technical quality than American comics, with the American equivalent probably being closer to cartoon tie in comics. Less depth to stories as is required in the quicker turnover in manga issues. Perhaps the American comicbook industry simply cannot survive period
It would be best if comics got back to their roots. Newspaper print and whole stories in 1 or 2 books. Little less colors. Lower the price to 2/3 USD and maybe you have got a better viable business case.
Then you'd see a exodus of readers, because another way of describing what you said is " a drop in quality" in the quality of the paper, in the quality of the pencils, the ink, the color.
@@TheEvolver311 Thanks for sharing your perspective, certainly raises a great point, while nostalgic newsprint does affect lots of other factors as well
When I was a kid, I could not afford all of the comics I wanted. As an adult, I still can't afford all of the comics I want. Give me black and white, newsprint comics. Just lower the price.
For comics approaching singular issues as more sizable chunks like graphic novels seems like a great idea. Manga largely seems to be dominating because of the price and large amount of content and consistency with each volume (as well as the quality of the storytelling for manga) Comic publishers would be smart to approximate that approach so that fans aren't paying 4-5 dollars for something they can finish in 4-5 minutes.
@@RMLitegrade I've been thinking about making digital Floppies for my comics and then collecting them into TPBs for physical releases, because releasing 24 page comics physically just isn't really viable due to the profit margins. In fact I could colour them and sell them at no extra cost.
@@CreativeWM_Personal Hopefully that would be successful for you, certainly is tough given the profit margins to go into the market, really hope all works out for you with your comics! Best of luck!
Spot on with artist can barely complete a first arc... Let alone a multi year run.... Example the incredible hulk current series....first 5 issues 2 different artists.... Why not just announce a rotation at the beginning of the series... LoL like in baseball... These 5 artist will be our rotation for ASM..
100% agree, up front announcing the creative team with rotating artists would fix so many issues, cant tell you how many runs make it seem like they misled customers by advertising an artist who only appears in 1-2 issues but seems like they were advertised as the main artist. I think it would go over way better with fans if they would just be up front about the fact that the artist will be changing with every other issue.
Value = cost vs quality. Quality is really low, imo. Cost is really high. But in truth, I wouldn't bother with most Marvel and DC even if they were free. I haven't reread a new comic since Geoff Johns left Green Lantern and Aquaman. And that doesn't factor in all the changes to the characters... I got real tired of all of that.
There are certainly alot of issues with quality as well, if quality was better there would be very few complaints about cost. Losing Johns absolutely brutal for DC, he was really their last great creator
For me the prices are too high to try out a new series or character. I’ve always been into marvel but found myself going and grabbing image and ghost machine books each week because they’re cheaper and also I find the art more appealing to me. The big two have more digital looking art which I’m not a fan of
Thanks for commenting! Certainly makes sense in modern age to pick up image and ghost maching, more consistent artist and pricing, overall they are both doing an excellent job of providing customers with what they want and earning customers with each book they publish instead of just expecting customers to buy like the big 2 frequently seem to do now
Honestly, nothing you guys have talked about have not been mentioned here and there in other YT channels and IG channels for the last few years. We can talk about it until we are blue in the face. Me---I vote with my wallet. I came back around 2018-2019 after being in the hobby from '88-95/96....got sticker shock at first. I've been out again for the last 4/5 months now. Still watching YT comic vids and follow other comic book people on social media, but I haven't bought any books. For me, if the industry dies oh well....sad for those who really REALLY love the hobby, but I have other priorities in life now.
Thanks for commenting and watching! We always appreciate feedback, and certainly appreciate you sharing your perspective on the industry and how you feel as a fan. Its sad that comics have seemingly pushed away so many fans like yourself and voting with your wallet is certainly a great way to make your voice heard
HAHAHA. Very true even readers in the 90's were stunned when it went from 1.25 to 1.50, the prices just seem to go up and up and while inflation seems to be an explanation, it just seems like comics increase faster than everything else does.
@@RMLitegradeFlash and Iron Man were ok but they were not near the top of my list. Back in those days, the comics were delivered to the back door of the supermarket tied loosely with string, back in those days the supermarket didn't open until 10am so nobody there until 9am School class started at 8am, that means me and my friend were walking around the new comics drop off at 7:30 AM every week
