Mike and Reed talk about the presence of QR codes in X-Men comics and discuss the notion of redband comics and why they feel both trends are a bad decision for marvel and a disrespectful move towards customers
Sounds like the last hurrah of comics for our middle aged generation, my friends. I came back into comics in 2022 when I started reading them with my kid. Blood Hunt was the first real summer event that I bought into, and now it will be my last. Moved onto indies now.
Can't blame you at all for moving to indies. They truly seem to value customers and the reading experience more than marvel and DC right now and that shows in the quality of the comics as well as the overall experience for readers when it relates to price, amount of books and release schedule
With the red band it's all about squeezing the dwindling customer base for as much money as possible (as opposed to bringing in ANY new customers.) Which is why like Reed many of us get the feeling we are being cheated (leading to further dwindling of customers.)
Really does feel that way, really wish they would spend as much effort actually trying to get new customers with quality stories as they do squeezing current customers for as much as possible.
Certainly understand the dislike of QR codes, just an annoying step that should not be part of the comic book buying experience, especially for folks making the trip to a local comic store to buy the physical copy of the book.
The QR code thing is clearly an attempt to onboard readers to the digital format, and possiby just a data gathering exercise to showmthem how many readers might be willing and have the ability to read digitally. My feeling was that I did get the whole story and the digital page was kind of like an after-credits scene, so I wasn't terribly upset by the whole thing. I had to use my tablet to read it rather than my phone, as it presented too small to read and I wasn't able to zoom in, which was kind of annoying. Still, was relieved to see it not appear in #2. Honestly, it be more worried about what it might mean for the future of traditional paper comics than anything else - it's happened to most other forms of entertainment including music and TV. I just picked up the Red Band editions for Blood Hunt, and will probably continue to do so as long as the extra cost seems worth the additional material which has been the case so far for me. As far as I understand, my LCS only ordered the RB editions of Blood Hunt and of Wolverine, as those were the only editins of the books requested on pull lists - so something must be resonating with readers 🤷
Thanks for sharing your perspective, always good to hear how things are at different shops and how books are selling in different places. The QR codes being a precursor to digital is certainly something that they could be doing. It was good to see that it wasnt in issue 2. Hopefully the QR codes were just a one time gimmick that does not return but would not be surprised at all if this is revisted in some form or fashion later on
What if technology changes within the next 10yrs and we no longer do QR codes. The last page will be forever lost. Remember technology is always changing
Certainly something that is not at all helping the comic book industry, especially a bad idea given the already struggling sales numbers and dissatisfaction with so many of the books
