For many, many years, I was an avid comic-book purchaser. But for a number of reasons, I gave it up cold turkey; I stopped buying comics in a weekly format about four or five years ago. (I still buy a number of graphic novels, but even then I've mostly been limiting myself to those that have ultra-snazzy "Absolute"-style oversized hardcovers, since I have so little free time; I figure, if it's good enough to put in an oversized slipcase, it's probably worth my (meager) time and money.)
However, DC Comics, often an innovator, came up with an idea recently that is exciting enough that I actually wanted to buy an actual non-trade-paperback comic book again. The project is Wednesday Comics, and . . . well, here's the pitch, from Newsarama:
Okay; so, it's a weekly huge-ass comic series, with big-name creators (Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred, Joe Kubert, Amanda Conner, Kyle Baker, Jimmy Palmiotti, etc.) each tackling DC heroes in a stand-alone serial format with one "story page" per issue per feature. In short, something like this has never been done before.
I'm sold.
Now, the only problem I have is... how do I get it?
See, I don't want to start buying this series off the stand, only to have to miss an issue and get screwed half-way through.
Unfortunately, at least among the two comic shops I checked with for Free Comic Day today, I'm not at all confident the comic industry wants my business.
The first comic shop would only start up a subscription service if I wanted a minimum of 10 books a month. When I called the second comic shop, the person I spoke with indicated that I might be able to stop in and pick up the issues in a file (although he seemed reluctant to start a file with one comic, and indicated that I'd need to stop in every other week or so or else risk the file being closed . . . despite the fact that the comic shop is about 30 minutes away). Alternatively, he indicated I could subscribe, which might involve prepayment, a minimum of $10 a month, etc. When I got to the store, though (about 30 minutes later), the clerk I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about. He gave me a sheet with a bunch of titles listed (one of which was Wednesday Comics), asked me to check the titles I wanted (I checked the singular title), and then he wrote my name and phone number on the sheet. There was no request for payment information, no information about terms or my obligations or anything like that. "You want a new comic series? Scribble what you want on this piece of bark, and I'll hand it to this ostrich. Then come back in two months and hope for the best."
I am, suffice it to say, not filled with confidence.
Comic shops have no idea how to handle a person wanting to come in and purchase one title, as often as it comes out, for as long as the customer wants it. They only know how to handle the weekly omnivores, who come in every seven days and pick up their stack from their files or shelves; or the browsers, who pick up random issues or trade paperbacks as the fancy strikes them.
Each issue of Wednesday Comics is $3.99. This comic is not out yet; orders can still be placed and adjusted, so it is not "out of print." (In other words, I'm not trying to scam the system by trying to get a hot comic that's already sold out in preorders.) I am willing to spend full price. I am willing to prepay, by the month or for the entire series, if a store wanted. (I am not willing to go to a comic store every week for this one issue, since my time is worth more than that, and it just seems wasteful. Besides, at least one of the comic shops I checked didn't want to start a file for me unless I added nine other titles.)
In other words, I am a guaranteed customer, worth $16 a month for three months -- or $48 all at once -- if someone would only take my money and guarantee my product.
Why is the comic industry in trouble? This is one reason. DC has created a new comic book of strong interest to non-comic buyers, and the brick-and-mortar industry has no idea how to deliver the product to those buyers.
In other words, my best bet is probably to concede that the pamphlet (a somewhat derogatory term for single-issue comics) is dead and hope for the "trade paperback."
However, DC Comics, often an innovator, came up with an idea recently that is exciting enough that I actually wanted to buy an actual non-trade-paperback comic book again. The project is Wednesday Comics, and . . . well, here's the pitch, from Newsarama:
[Each issue of Wednesday Comics] is 14 inches wide by 20 inches tall, so it's big. That's the front page – so when you open it, it gets 28 inches wide, so it's an enormous page. So for 12 weeks, that “cover” will be an installment of the Brian Azzarello/Eduardo Risso Batman story. Page 2 will be Sgt. Rock, and so on. So essentially, it's 12 big-ass pages. Each story takes up one whole page, with no staples. It'll be just like the Sunday funnies you read as a kid.
Okay; so, it's a weekly huge-ass comic series, with big-name creators (Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred, Joe Kubert, Amanda Conner, Kyle Baker, Jimmy Palmiotti, etc.) each tackling DC heroes in a stand-alone serial format with one "story page" per issue per feature. In short, something like this has never been done before.
I'm sold.
Now, the only problem I have is... how do I get it?
See, I don't want to start buying this series off the stand, only to have to miss an issue and get screwed half-way through.
Unfortunately, at least among the two comic shops I checked with for Free Comic Day today, I'm not at all confident the comic industry wants my business.
The first comic shop would only start up a subscription service if I wanted a minimum of 10 books a month. When I called the second comic shop, the person I spoke with indicated that I might be able to stop in and pick up the issues in a file (although he seemed reluctant to start a file with one comic, and indicated that I'd need to stop in every other week or so or else risk the file being closed . . . despite the fact that the comic shop is about 30 minutes away). Alternatively, he indicated I could subscribe, which might involve prepayment, a minimum of $10 a month, etc. When I got to the store, though (about 30 minutes later), the clerk I spoke with didn't know what I was talking about. He gave me a sheet with a bunch of titles listed (one of which was Wednesday Comics), asked me to check the titles I wanted (I checked the singular title), and then he wrote my name and phone number on the sheet. There was no request for payment information, no information about terms or my obligations or anything like that. "You want a new comic series? Scribble what you want on this piece of bark, and I'll hand it to this ostrich. Then come back in two months and hope for the best."
I am, suffice it to say, not filled with confidence.
Comic shops have no idea how to handle a person wanting to come in and purchase one title, as often as it comes out, for as long as the customer wants it. They only know how to handle the weekly omnivores, who come in every seven days and pick up their stack from their files or shelves; or the browsers, who pick up random issues or trade paperbacks as the fancy strikes them.
Each issue of Wednesday Comics is $3.99. This comic is not out yet; orders can still be placed and adjusted, so it is not "out of print." (In other words, I'm not trying to scam the system by trying to get a hot comic that's already sold out in preorders.) I am willing to spend full price. I am willing to prepay, by the month or for the entire series, if a store wanted. (I am not willing to go to a comic store every week for this one issue, since my time is worth more than that, and it just seems wasteful. Besides, at least one of the comic shops I checked didn't want to start a file for me unless I added nine other titles.)
In other words, I am a guaranteed customer, worth $16 a month for three months -- or $48 all at once -- if someone would only take my money and guarantee my product.
Why is the comic industry in trouble? This is one reason. DC has created a new comic book of strong interest to non-comic buyers, and the brick-and-mortar industry has no idea how to deliver the product to those buyers.
In other words, my best bet is probably to concede that the pamphlet (a somewhat derogatory term for single-issue comics) is dead and hope for the "trade paperback."
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Comments
However -- given the oversize nature of this booklet, I bet it physically doesn't fit in any of the setups that comic shops typically use for holding pulled titles. That, to me, would be an acceptable reason not to do pulls of that title.
Did you ask the second comic shop about payment, terms, etc? I bet they find customers paying in advance actually a bit awkward, but you could have bough a gift certificate for roughly the right amount, and just used that whenever you picked them up.
At the second shop, I did try to push the issue of, "Did you want my credit card information, or can I give you some payment info, or . . .?" and the clerk I spoke with shrugged it off. He obviously wasn't the one who was in charge of orders, or files, or . . . well, anything but the register, really.
Edited at 2009-05-03 02:32 am (UTC)
I've heard good stuff about mycomicshop.com, but I think that with the small number of titles you want, the shipping would just suck -- unless you also moved your GN purchases over to them.
Honestly, I'm not sure that game and comic shops going the way of the dodo is a bad thing anymore....
Examples:
* The modern comic shop emerged out of the collapse of the traditional means of selling comics: newsstands.
* The PDF gaming field emerged out of local game shops failing to stock new paper books in quantities and regularities that could ensure their profitability. Now instead of printing 5,000 hardcovers and praying they sell to distribution (who, in turn, you pray can sell them to stores, who, in turn, you pray can sell them to customers), you can generate electrons as needed directly for customers.
* Book "super-stores" emerged out of the fact that many local book shops weren't cutting it in terms of offering selection.
* Amazon emerged out of the fact that book super-stores weren't giving the customer what they wanted.
* What we think of as the "arcade" is pretty much a dinosaur, having been utterly replaced with a model of electronic entertainment that pretty much exceeds the old arcade model in every conceivable respect.
On the comic side of things, I suspect that a collapse of the direct market would force publishers to think long and hard about what they were really producing; are 22 pages (15 minutes) of entertainment for $4 apiece serving customers healthily? What about 100 super-hero titles a month split between two companies? Would the industry be healthier if digital comics at 25% the price were the periodical norm, with "special-event" hardcovers or slipcases that one can purchase via traditional book outlets?
On the game side of things, a collapse of the specialty game store (and, let's face it, it's already just about collapsed for the RPG world) would force it to come to grips with whatever it is trying to do.
To put it another way: How much has the dinosaur-like inertia of the Friendly Local Shop hurt more than helped? Comics that aren't super-heroes? Good luck getting more than three copies in a store. RPG book? Good luck getting it restocked after it's been out a month. RPG book that isn't in the traditional 8.5" x 11" size? Good luck getting in the store in the first place.
Browse through just about every aisle of a well-stocked bookstore and be amazed by the diversity of content, possibility, presentation, and product from almost every genre publisher that doesn't have a direct-market retail possibility. Now compare it with the comic and game sections.
Been wondering this myself lately. My previous LCS (one that won an Eisner special recognition retail awards, also very indie-friendly) told me that pamphlets pay the rent, graphic novels pay the gravy (his living). If his situation is the norm amongst retailers, (no idea if it is) and pamphlets are a necessity to "pay the rent," I'm not sure a serialized $.99 iPhone Marvel/DC iComic transition wouldn't kill the direct market and the pamphlet in one fell click. Readers would pay 1/4 the amount for the same number of comics, publishers would ditch unnecessary printing cost, Diamond would be without the revenue generated by a few hundred thousand comics to distribute every month, and retailers would suddenly find themselves without rent money. Not so hard to fathom with newspapers dropping like flies these days.
Chris
http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/
I buy my one or two comics a month from Heavy Ink - www.heavyink.com - they give a 20% discount, and shipping on all orders, no matter how large, is a buck.
So, if you order one copy of Wednesday Comics it will be delivered to your door for $4.19 - 20 cents more than you’d pay at a comic book store, without the five dollar hassle.