http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=158232
Newsarama has an interesting discussion with comics retailers about the impact of the weakening national economy on comic book sales. Even as people start to curb their spending on entertainment, comics publishers are more likely to charge four bucks for a comic, and to interconnect them so deeply that we're required to buy two dozen if we want to follow one storyline. Bad timing!
One good trend: Some fanboys are ruthlessly culling their pull lists to remove the titles they just buy out of habit, even though they haven't enjoyed them in a long time.
I have drastically cut back on what I spend on comics (DC is out completely, not counting some vertigo titles) for multiple reasons:
1. Multi part stories that require a minimum $100.00 to read the complete story
2. The publishers treating us like the blind sheep we are and treating us as cash cows instead of valued customers. I removed the suction hoses from my teats, boys.
3. I AM 31 years old now, I don't really want to see the silliness of the silver age combined with the "grittiness" of today. It makes for bad storytelling... trying to go backwards (bringing back dead characters) while trying to be more "mature" (needlessly bloody violence). That plus I have a mortgage and grown up pursuits to spend my time on instead of wasting it on nostalgia.
4. It is a HORRIBLE investment. I by a trade for $20-40.00 and if I try to re-sell it I am likely to get 5-8.00 for it. That means I spent an average of 16.00 for a half hour of entertainment.
5. Nobody is interested in comic books anymore.
It was fun while it lasted, but the medium is passe'. It's not dead completely, and there is still hope to revitalize the industry, but the big guns aren't looking at those opportunities.
They are running under the same business plan as the American Automobile industry.
Newsarama has an interesting discussion with comics retailers about the impact of the weakening national economy on comic book sales. Even as people start to curb their spending on entertainment, comics publishers are more likely to charge four bucks for a comic, and to interconnect them so deeply that we're required to buy two dozen if we want to follow one storyline. Bad timing!
One good trend: Some fanboys are ruthlessly culling their pull lists to remove the titles they just buy out of habit, even though they haven't enjoyed them in a long time.
I have drastically cut back on what I spend on comics (DC is out completely, not counting some vertigo titles) for multiple reasons:
1. Multi part stories that require a minimum $100.00 to read the complete story
2. The publishers treating us like the blind sheep we are and treating us as cash cows instead of valued customers. I removed the suction hoses from my teats, boys.
3. I AM 31 years old now, I don't really want to see the silliness of the silver age combined with the "grittiness" of today. It makes for bad storytelling... trying to go backwards (bringing back dead characters) while trying to be more "mature" (needlessly bloody violence). That plus I have a mortgage and grown up pursuits to spend my time on instead of wasting it on nostalgia.
4. It is a HORRIBLE investment. I by a trade for $20-40.00 and if I try to re-sell it I am likely to get 5-8.00 for it. That means I spent an average of 16.00 for a half hour of entertainment.
5. Nobody is interested in comic books anymore.
It was fun while it lasted, but the medium is passe'. It's not dead completely, and there is still hope to revitalize the industry, but the big guns aren't looking at those opportunities.
They are running under the same business plan as the American Automobile industry.
