|
||||||
The great comics crash of May, 2009As reported on The Beat and elsewhere. The skinny, so far as I can tell is that comic sales were down 18% from May, 2008. Trade sales were down 13% from that time period as well. There’s a lot of people suggesting that the sky is free of its mooring and indeed, feeling gravity’s pull. What gravity’s pull may sound and look like. I’m not one of them just yet. Why? 1) May 2008 apparently was a five-week-month. That’s five new comics days, as opposed to four in 2009. 2) Event comics (which are currently the backbone of the market, for better or worse) were both hot and heavy last year with SECRET INVASION (which I maintain should have been named SACRED INVASION) and FINAL CRISIS (yeah right) either just launching or going full bore in May of 2008. For better or worse, those events get people to come to the stores on Wednesday. Not me, but other people who buy more comics than I do. 3) Additionally, event comics in May 0f 2009 are neither hot nor heavy with just a couple entries into BATMAN RIP/BATTLE FOR THE COWL and I think some DARK REIGN, but not the backbone books, coming out last month. If I were a real analyst, I’d bust out some numbers minus the big events and with an additional say 15% for missing the fifth week (and that may be generous, fifth weeks are better referred to as “fifth weaks” and often don’t generate the same kind of enthusiasm that a “standard” week in a four-week month does. Let’s say 10% instead. Now, given that, I imagine that numbers are probably pretty comparable. Not sure if these are dollar or unit comparisons (I’ve seen both tossed around), but factoring in the higher cover prices (for better or worse) might make this a more profitable month, or at least comparable. Probably not an unmitigated disaster. Then I could be wrong and the whole thing could be on the verge of a massive collapse of the distribution system we all know so well. But I really don’t think so. There are some interesting points being brought up, however. None of the top books cracked the 100K mark. Books that cracked the 50K mark are down some 40%. This would indicate a pretty big swell in the middle of the list, and maybe even at the bottom. Instead of the top ten holding up some what, 40% of the sales, they might only be holding up 25% (these numbers were pulled out of thin air). Even if it’s nothing that dramatic, it’s intriguing, and far more meaningful than an annual drop of 17% in sales (even with the numbers skewed by comparing to what appears to be a very fat May, 2008.) 2 comments to The great comics crash of May, 2009 |
||||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Highway 62 - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
Compare Marvel and DC comics of today with their comics of the ’80s and you’ll find vastly inferior writing, characterization, and editing today. What’s wrong with today’s comics? It doesn’t take a genius to figure out. Here’s the facts:
1. Poor writing. Pages and pages of large panels with talking and no action does not generate interest from me! If i want to watch a bunch of talking and no action, i’d turn on C-SPAN. Writers today, don’t know the characters they write. I haven’t seriously collected comics in over 20 years and even i know the characters better than many of the so-called writers, today. Bendis? Give me a break! He got famous for panels with no dialogue and killing characters. This is a big problem in comics today, that nobody seems to notice or even care about, but i notice.
2. Too many comics on any give month are above $2.99. I refuse to pay $3.99 for a comic. With tax, a $2.99 comic comes to $3.24 in California. Combine that with the above problem and it’s simply not worth it, let alone paying an extra buck for variant cover or some other dumb gimmick.
3. Bad editing. Back in the ’80s when Jim Shooter was editor in chief, Marvel comics were good overall. The editors under Shooter knew how to do their jobs and put out comics that long time fans could relate to. This doesn’t happen anymore. Today, the editors seem to be out to lunch or they just don’t know how to do their jobs. Where does one go to train to be an editor, anyway? If the buck stops at Marvel’s current editor in chief, Joe Quesada, i have to say he’s failed misserably. I see so many flaws in comics these days. From poor covers like the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man (# 602) with Mary Jane awkwardly leaning on a moped trying to look sexy with nothing else happening on the cover! A cover like that would’ve never seen the light of day back when Marvel had better editing, but now it’s accepted. The cover looks downright dumb, but i guess deadlines and lack of professionalism rule the Marvel universe today.
4 DC”s obsession with blood ‘n guts. What’s up with DC comics of the last few years?? It seems like they go out of their way to drench every page with blood spatter and flying body parts! Is this a “mature” product or just lowest common denominator entertainment? I’ve thought that DC’s motto should be “THE NEW BLOOD ‘N GUTS DC! THERE”S NO STOPPING US NOW! And they havent been stopped. DC comics are still bloodier than ever. Go Jonah Hex! Shoot ‘em in the face! Let’s see that brain splatter! OOO!! Did i see an eyeball fly off panel? COOL! Do you see how DC comics have become like Beavis and Butt-Head? It’s all so juvenile! DC, your comics will never be respected until you produce comics that truly respect the intelligence of the older readership nowadays, rather than just throwing adult content at everyone hoping some of it will stick and become something memorable. FINAL CRISIS was memorable, alright. It was memorable in that you managed to destroy whatever was left of the DC universe everyone knew from their childhood and pervert it into a gore fest that has no relation to the iconic characters you’ve tried misserably to reinvent as respectable entertainment. But, you know what? No matter how much blood ‘n guts you throw at us in every panel, we still know the truth and the truth is DC superheroes are still a bunch of silly looking guys and gals running around in brightly colored spandex costumes.
Yeah, comics are such a mature and respectable art form today. I wonder why the sales are suffering so much as a result?
‘Nuff said?
p.s. Correction, i meant INFINITE CRISIS. You know, the one where Superman beats up the old Superman to a bloody pulp? Did he die? I never bought the issue.