DC Universe reboot!

[chamber715]

One is designed to generate return business, the other is designed to give a company a short window to make money off of their product.

I disagree I see both as a way to generate return buisness.

I can't see how. All other things equal, given the choice between a product that's free and a product that costs money, I think people will gravitate towards the free product. I think there would be some people willing to pay a premium for immediate access, but also I think that number is less than the current number of people who would pay for comics at all.

And while they are re-visitable... I highly doubt people will. I think people will revisit music far more than they will anything else. Movies every few years. Books every decade. And comics maybe once or twice in their life.

I think one of the biggest differences between us is that I haven't purchased a comic book for a few years. I download them. I read them for the story, visuals, etc but then I delete them. I don't revisit them. The only thing I have was All Star Supes, but that's because of the dvd, and the quality of the work. However that is one comic series out of a good 70 i've viewed. Currently I have no money to invest in the commodity that is comics. But one day I will and the first thing I will do is spend money on All Star supes. The industry hasn't lost my money because it would have never gotten it. But because I can still view the comics I will spend and invest later on the things I want. It's not great for the producers of comics but it is perfect for me. I get to decide what is and isn't good quality with out an investment.

I think most people make the argument that pirates don't cost companies money because people who pirate wouldn't have paid for what they took in the first place. I think that's crap. I think the pirates cost companies money, but it's not a 1 to 1 ratio of people who pirate to lost sales. I think some people would buy some of the things they pirate if they couldn't pirate it.

So out of the 70 or so comics you've viewed how many of them would you have bought if you had the money and if you couldn't pirate it?

And I would ask you how many times do you think you will reread that book? You paid for unlimited access to a small collection and IMO you were overcharged. I will concede however that old comics still have value. Intrinsic value for sure. But as to properly putting a price on it, I think that almost any price you put on individual comics, after they have been released... will be too high for the consumer, and too low for the initial distributor/publisher.

I don't know how many times I'll read the Thor Omnibus, but I don't think it matters. I paid what I think is a fair price for those comics and I'm enjoying them. Why does it matter if I'll reread it?

The Thor Omnibus retails for $125. I bought it for half that at a sale. Would I have liked to pay less for it? Sure. Do I think I paid too much for it? No. It's up to the company selling the product to determine what price to sell it for and it's up to the consumer to decide for themselves if it's worth that price.

While I Agree heavily with the 2nd half of this.. remember that comic industry company prints and ships x volumes of product x times a year. Individuals pay for that product and then keep or resell that product. Once this initial sale has happened a collector could easily open up a comic art house and charge a fee for access to this collection. This would not hurt the original company at all. They were purchased at original price. It would however hurt the brick and mortar people reselling these goods. They would order less product... even possibly no product at all. This would start to hurt the original company. However the original company should have reduced the number of products it printed. while also started trying to figure out how to adapt to these art houses. However this is the digital age and these art houses are pirates and they aren't even charging for access.

A comic company currently prints and ships X volumes of product because the stores who carry those comics order X number of product because consumers buy X number of product. If these "comic art houses" (which, I'm pretty sure would be illegal) started popping up and people went to them instead of buying their own copies, sales would shrink. Consumers buy less, so stores order less, so companies print and ship less. If sales continuously shrink, it will eventually get to a level where it's no longer profitable for a comic company to print their product. What happens then? They stop producing product.

Companies need to make profit off of their product or service. That's as basic as business gets. If companies can't make a profit, eventually they cease to exist.

[chamber715]

P.S. One very last thought I just had: by having readily available an expansive back catalogue, could this reduce the pressure on distributors like Marvel and DC to reboot their universes every few years? This would probably be the best thing for the development of continuity in the comics universe, as instead of having to push "great jump on points for new readers!" continuously, we could actually keep developing these universes naturally, and instead promote that new readers "check out these great / relevant stories from our expansive back catalogue!"

While I think reboots are usually unnecessary, I think there will still be a need for "jumping on points". Some people get intimidated by the expansive back catalog of comics. They fear that in order to understand the comic they're reading currently that they need read 60 to 80 years of previous comics.

[chamber715]

I do think part of the problem is these big linked-in events though. And the way mainstream continuity is so closely tied nowadays, there is a sense you need to read -everything- to understand whats going on, and even in TPB form thats crazy expensive.

I feel like that's more a problem with DC rather than Marvel. I pretty much stopped reading DC comics because they feel impenetrable to me. The last DC event that I read was Final Crisis. I like both Grant Morrison and JG Jones, so I decided to give it a shot. Somewhere in the middle of the miniseries, it was like I had missed an issue. But I looked at what I had and I had bought and read all of the issues. But the comics referenced things that happened in other books which was frustrating.

With Marvel, I feel like they've been keeping their events self-contained. I only pick up a few Marvel books regularly but I've read all of their major events from the past 10 years. I never felt like I was missing anything. Although, I think their current event, Fear Itself, might be leaning that way...

[Mongbert]

Marvel seem to have a habit to keep all the major stuff to a few issues (Siege was like, 4, right?). The tie-ins just seem to be about how characters react to it. I guess its an interesting way of keeping drama in lieu of reacting to real-world events. If you've read all the issues and you still feel like you're missing something thats just as likely to be bad writing as it is anything else. I guess there's a tension between alienating people who don't want to buy all the books, and encouraging people to buy as many as possible. I think Marvel have done a pretty good job of that.

Have you ever picked up one of the weird event book things they give away for free occassionally? They're not comics as such, kind of a 'catch up' of events/characters leading up to an event. I remember a 'Wolverine Saga' one and I think there was one for 'War of Kings'. Not that I know what Wolverine Saga was, might've been around the time of Wolverine Origins film, actually.

On the issue of jumping on points, anyone look into the #.1 thing Marvel did?

[chamber715]

On the issue of jumping on points, anyone look into the #.1 thing Marvel did?

The .1 initiative was kind of confusing. As I understood it, it was supposed to be a good jumping on point for new readers. Something to catch them up or to lead into the next storyline. But I heard only a few of the .1 issues actually did that. I picked up the Avengers .1 but it set up a story that wasn't followed through with in the next issue. The Spider-man .1 was felt like an introduction to the Venom miniseries than a Spider-man issue.

[chamber715]

Ok, so I know DC wanted to update the designs for their characters, but I think Superman's costume looks needlessly complex. He looks a little more traditional, but why the complex boots?
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/09/ ... -superboy/

I kind of like the new Supergirl costume... with a few exceptions. I've heard that there was an editorial mandate to cover up the legs of all the female superheroes. Why does Supergirl get a pass? And I can understand not wanting to put her in a skirt or have her wear her underwear on the outside... but that red patch that would have been red underpants in another era just screams "this is where my vagina is".

[Mongbert]

I don't think thats a good picture generally, his legs look too short. I see what you mean though, looks pretty normill but then it has mad looking sci-fi boots.

The red patch, yes, it does those things, hm.

[chamber715]

I don't think thats a good picture generally, his legs look too short. I see what you mean though, looks pretty normill but then it has mad looking sci-fi boots.

Yeah, and I also think George Perez is the wrong guy to draw this book. I think he's a great artist, he just doesn't feel consistent with the fresh and new angle they've been pursuing.

But this is probably the best thing to come out of this relaunch:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/10/ ... -relaunch/
When was the last time you saw comics being advertised anywhere except for in comics?

[BluTGI]

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2011/06/action1jhasnasdnms.jpg

I have to say. Reboot or not this is the kind of thing I want in posters in my home.

[chamber715]

Today's the day! Is anyone else picking up the new rebooted DC titles?

This morning, I decided I'd try to buy a digital copy of Justice League #1... but then I couldn't figure out where to buy it. I went to DCcomics.com, looked through their online store... nothing. After a few minutes of googleing, I found that it was on sale at Comixology. Except not until 2pm Eastern. Out of curiosity, I checked the torrent sites and it's already up there. DC Comics, I'm trying to give you money in exchange for goods! Why are you making this difficult?!?

[chamber715]

Aaaand, it's a little after 2pm Eastern. I just checked Comixology and a digital copy of Justice League #1 is the same as the print copy. I'll just wait the 2+ hours so I can pick up a print copy at my local comic book store.

[IsaacMahomie]

I think I'll just wait for the TPB's. Or if my library gets them. They have a ton of New Avengers (the Luke Cage group). If they have that, they may get this too.

[chamber715]

I think I'll just wait for the TPB's. Or if my library gets them. They have a ton of New Avengers (the Luke Cage group). If they have that, they may get this too.

Does your library get the issues or the trades? I guess either would make sense, since libraries get periodicals like magazines...

So apparently, the next issue of Justice League is out on the 19th... of October. That's 7 weeks after the first issue! What happened to a monthly comic being monthly DC?

[Mongbert]

I can't imagine a library getting single issues; they'd die or get stolen. I see your point about periodicals, but most periodicals aren't coveted by hyped-up 8 year olds.

[chamber715]

I can't imagine a library getting single issues; they'd die or get stolen. I see your point about periodicals, but most periodicals aren't coveted by hyped-up 8 year olds.

Didn't they used to put newspapers on those giant sticks? Not that anyone is really going to steal a newspaper...