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Post by mwynn on Mar 1, 2023 13:22:46 GMT -6
I recently attended a Comic Book retailer summit. A lot of the publishers had some ideas on keeping and engaging readers.
I have two questions for people who still and used to visit comic shops.
1. For the people who are still going what keeps you engaged?
2. For people who do not, what would bring you back?
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kingkevzilla 
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 1, 2023 13:55:04 GMT -6
Well, I've dropped out of reading new mainstream comics and I can think of a lot of things that could get me back as a reader.
1. A lower price point, something like 1.99 - 2.99.
2. Better paper quality.
3. Good, talented writers and artists that can keep their political views and personal baggage out of it.
4. Writers not using comics as a pitch for their failed screenplay.
5. No more Tumblr cutesy wutesy, dog shit art.
6. Respect for the customer.
7. Respect for the medium and history of comics.
8. No more variant covers.
9. Stop the consent cancelling and relaunching of titles.
10. No more big events.
11. More Hermes than superhero comics. Bring back War,Horror, Crime, Sci-fi, fanasty, comedy and action.
12.Stop changing characters to fit some political view point.
13. Stop making derivatives of classic characters. No one want 50 versions of Spider-Man or the Hulk.
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Post by mwynn on Mar 1, 2023 14:00:28 GMT -6
Well, I've dropped out of reading new mainstream comics and I can think of a lot of things that could get me back as a reader. 1. A lower price point, something like 1.99 - 2.99. 2. Better paper quality. 3. Good, talented writers and artists that can keep their political views and personal baggage out of it. 4. Writers not using comics as a pitch for their failed screenplay. 5. No more Tumblr cutesy wutesy, dog shit art. 6. Respect for the customer. 7. Respect for the medium and history of comics. 8. No more variant covers. 9. Stop the consent cancelling and relaunching of titles. 10. No more big events. 11. More Hermes than superhero comics. Bring back War,Horror, Crime, Sci-fi, fanasty, comedy and action. 12.Stop changing characters to fit some political view point. 13. Stop making derivatives of classic characters. No one want 50 versions of Spider-Man or the Hulk. I think I will address these one at a time. Can you also expand your answer out of the mainstream? As of now I consider mainstream Marvel and DC only. 1. Lower prices would mean shorter books. Paper is more expensive so printing cost are higher which would make books cost more. For me I have no choice but to charge 4.99. |
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Post by kylor on Mar 1, 2023 15:18:39 GMT -6
2. For people who do not, what would bring you back?
A physical store to visit. There are literally no stores in my town that sell comics. There's at least 3 stores that sell Mangas but not comics. So without online stores or seeing them on flea markets I wouldn't even have any.
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 1, 2023 15:24:52 GMT -6
Well, I've dropped out of reading new mainstream comics and I can think of a lot of things that could get me back as a reader. 1. A lower price point, something like 1.99 - 2.99. 2. Better paper quality. 3. Good, talented writers and artists that can keep their political views and personal baggage out of it. 4. Writers not using comics as a pitch for their failed screenplay. 5. No more Tumblr cutesy wutesy, dog shit art. 6. Respect for the customer. 7. Respect for the medium and history of comics. 8. No more variant covers. 9. Stop the consent cancelling and relaunching of titles. 10. No more big events. 11. More Hermes than superhero comics. Bring back War,Horror, Crime, Sci-fi, fanasty, comedy and action. 12.Stop changing characters to fit some political view point. 13. Stop making derivatives of classic characters. No one want 50 versions of Spider-Man or the Hulk. I think I will address these one at a time. Can you also expand your answer out of the mainstream? As of now I consider mainstream Marvel and DC only. 1. Lower prices would mean shorter books. Paper is more expensive so printing cost are higher which would make books cost more. For me I have no choice but to charge 4.99. By mainstream, I mean Marvel, DC and the other big comic companies like IDW and Image. Again, you can blame Marvel for this. As they've been putting out such a poor quality product at that price for so long. There have been times, that I was holding a marvel comic that the ink was coming off on my hands. As well as stories been so short that clearly not worth that cost. I understand why you have to charge £5, it just with the costs of everything going up and up. A lot of people don't feel that it's worth buying. |
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 1, 2023 15:47:22 GMT -6
I have four more points.
14. Stop with the morale ambiguity. Heroes should be heroes and villains should be villains.
15. No more deconstruction of characters. This has done nothing ruin good characters, look what Tom King did to Batman, Wally West and Mr Terrific. I
16. Make the villains be threats again. I'm sick of seeing what should be terrifying nightmares, murderous psychos and ruthless warlords getting their asses hand to them by little girls. Looking at what they've done with M.O.D.O.K and Taskmaster.
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Post by mwynn on Mar 2, 2023 6:24:59 GMT -6
Yeah Marvel's paper quality is bad. They can afford to use better paper.
16. Is that happening in the comics? I picked up Taskmasters book awhile ago and have not read it.
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 2, 2023 8:05:16 GMT -6
Yeah Marvel's paper quality is bad. They can afford to use better paper. 16. Is that happening in the comics? I picked up Taskmasters book awhile ago and have not read it. Yeah, it happens a lot. To use a wrestling term, they've turned a guy that fight Spider-man, Captain America and Daredevil all at once and push them to their limits and turned him in a jobber. A sad joke made to lose badly to the newest character to make them look good. |
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Post by mwynn on Mar 2, 2023 8:16:49 GMT -6
Yeah Marvel's paper quality is bad. They can afford to use better paper. 16. Is that happening in the comics? I picked up Taskmasters book awhile ago and have not read it. Yeah, it happens a lot. To use a wrestling term, they've turned a guy that fight Spider-man, Captain America and Daredevil all at once and push them to their limits and turned him in a jobber. A sad joke made to lose badly to the newest character to make them look good. I think generally that is the writer who may not like a certain character. There was a writer on Punisher that hated Wolverine, so had Punisher run him over with a steam shovel. Claremont left X-men because he did not want to use Wolverine anymore. Then there are writer who love a character and make them the focus. |
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 2, 2023 8:59:33 GMT -6
Yeah, it happens a lot. To use a wrestling term, they've turned a guy that fight Spider-man, Captain America and Daredevil all at once and push them to their limits and turned him in a jobber. A sad joke made to lose badly to the newest character to make them look good. I think generally that is the writer who may not like a certain character. There was a writer on Punisher that hated Wolverine, so had Punisher run him over with a steam shovel. Claremont left X-men because he did not want to use Wolverine anymore. Then there are writer who love a character and make them the focus. This wasn't just one writer, it was several. |
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Post by mwynn on Mar 2, 2023 9:11:02 GMT -6
I think generally that is the writer who may not like a certain character. There was a writer on Punisher that hated Wolverine, so had Punisher run him over with a steam shovel. Claremont left X-men because he did not want to use Wolverine anymore. Then there are writer who love a character and make them the focus. This wasn't just one writer, it was several. Of course. So new writer comes onto a title. They make character x the new lead. The writer ends their run and a new writer comes on board. The new writer does not like character x, so they knock them down to rise up another character. It has been a thing for years, and something editorial should not allow. Like when Squirrel Girl beat up Thanos. |
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Mar 2, 2023 9:39:51 GMT -6
This wasn't just one writer, it was several. Of course. So new writer comes onto a title. They make character x the new lead. The writer ends their run and a new writer comes on board. The new writer does not like character x, so they knock them down to rise up another character. It has been a thing for years, and something editorial should not allow. Like when Squirrel Girl beat up Thanos. It sucks that a dumb, one off joke is now the standard. I think that its a symptom of a bigger problem, that lot of writers don't care about comics and make it all one dumb joke. Like a few weeks back, with what god awful Joker comic. |
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Post by mwynn on Mar 8, 2023 13:26:14 GMT -6
Of course. So new writer comes onto a title. They make character x the new lead. The writer ends their run and a new writer comes on board. The new writer does not like character x, so they knock them down to rise up another character. It has been a thing for years, and something editorial should not allow. Like when Squirrel Girl beat up Thanos. It sucks that a dumb, one off joke is now the standard. I think that its a symptom of a bigger problem, that lot of writers don't care about comics and make it all one dumb joke. Like a few weeks back, with what god awful Joker comic. I think a few of the writers they hire come from novels and not comics. Marvel and DC are not trying to bring up Indie Writers only the Artist. Writing a novel is not the same as comics, so the story structure and beats are off. |
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Post by mwynn on Sept 7, 2023 15:24:54 GMT -6
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Post by mwynn on Oct 18, 2023 14:40:08 GMT -6
So really good data came out if this.
You also get to listen to me run my mouth again.
ComicsPro Day 1.
ComicsPro
ComicsPro Day 2
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Post by mwynn on Dec 12, 2023 13:12:41 GMT -6
ComicsPro is coming up in February. This year I started some stuff about Crowdfunding and how the stores should embrace it. I am sure this year it will be about the mass amount of stores closing and circling the wagons. While I have my thoughts on Marvel and DC neither is relevant to my path. So all I will be doing is trying to convince the hold out stores, that they need to embrace indie comics. As well as stop treating their stores like they are a library.
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Post by mwynn on Jan 10, 2024 16:48:40 GMT -6
Printing costs are up again this year. Shipping has gone down a little for priority. It is becoming harder and harder to run and independent business. Some hard choices are going to be made. I said awhile ago that prices would probably go up to 5.99 for books.
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Post by mwynn on Feb 25, 2024 9:40:54 GMT -6
After doing two of these shows, it just reinforced the idea that the indies can do this on our own.
We got seriously blocked by Boom Studios. They scheduled a concert in the hotel, the same time we were doing our event.
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kingkevzilla
Posts: 3,652 Likes: 609
Last Active: Sept 7, 2024 14:54:07 GMT -6
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Post by kingkevzilla on Feb 25, 2024 15:25:03 GMT -6
After doing two of these shows, it just reinforced the idea that the indies can do this on our own. We got seriously blocked by Boom Studios. They scheduled a concert in the hotel, the same time we were doing our event. Wow that's a dick move. Glad I don't read anything from them. As I've been saying for ages now, independence is the future of entertainment. We're seeing this comics, books, video games and movies & shows. |
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Post by mwynn on Feb 26, 2024 7:08:29 GMT -6
After doing two of these shows, it just reinforced the idea that the indies can do this on our own. We got seriously blocked by Boom Studios. They scheduled a concert in the hotel, the same time we were doing our event. Wow that's a dick move. Glad I don't read anything from them. As I've been saying for ages now, independence is the future of entertainment. We're seeing this comics, books, video games and movies & shows. We are gnats compared to them there was no reason for them to care about what we were doing. It was a teaching moment for us. The event went well, yet this just gave me more thought on doing this on our own. |
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