JD's Comic Book Thread

[JD]

I finished Death of the Family last night, and I really enjoyed it. It was a really great examination of both Batman, and The Joker, and their relationship. I read that this actually went on the have a pretty big impact on Batman Family, and I can see where that started at the end. The Joker really got to them, didn't he?
Snyder and Capullo have really been knocking it out of the park so far.

 

[theenglish]

I finished Death of the Family last night, and I really enjoyed it. It was a really great examination of both Batman, and The Joker, and their relationship. I read that this actually went on the have a pretty big impact on Batman Family, and I can see where that started at the end. The Joker really got to them, didn't he?
Snyder and Capullo have really been knocking it out of the park so far.

That was a really great Batman story. I became a fan of Snyder's work during the first few years of the New 52 run. Death of the Family was one of the few comics stories that I've read as an adult that actually influenced my dreams. The Joker was just very creepy and the hit some heavy emotional beats.

 

[JD]

Oh yeah, I think this was pretty much the creepiest The Joker has ever been. I didn't even realize it was possible for a comic book to be as intense as the opening scene with the Joker's attack on the police station.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

So, time for an update on the Distributor Wars, as not only has DC gone back to Diamond UK for distribution in Europe (after Lunar and UCS really fucked up in that regard), but now DC is dropping UCS entirely. Lunar will now be the sole distributor of floppies in the US (Hard- and Softcovers are distributed by Penguin Random House). They also introduce a minimum of orders retailers have to do every month of $ 500,-.

 

[JD]

Going back to just one distributor has got to make things a lot easier for the comic shops.
$500 for minimum order seems kind high when you think about how small a lot of comic shops are.

 

[Mike Farley]

For digital readers, as of this week, new comics on Marvel Unlimited will only be 3 months behind newstand release rather than 6.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Is that why they've been adding issues of the same series so much more often lately? I thought they'd just fallen behind on some things due to Corona and were catching up again.

Nice to know I'm not as far behind everyone else anymore.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Going back to just one distributor has got to make things a lot easier for the comic shops.
$500 for minimum order seems kind high when you think about how small a lot of comic shops are.

It's really high when you consider that this minimum is floppies only. Collected editions are going through Penguin Random House. And those $500 minimum is probably purchasing price, not retail price, so one copy of a book with a cover price of $3.99 would be about half that. So, we're looking at a minimum order of about 250 copies per month.

 

[JD]

Wow, that's even worse than I thought.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

It appears to have been Midtown/UCS' decision to stop distribution for DC.

A couple of retailers are now petitioning DC to step into UCS' place and distribute through Diamond, so retailers would have two distributors to choose from, arguing that competition would produce better service from both distributors. I can certainly see the appeal, what with Lunar's insane minimum order policy. The reality is, though, even without the minimum order, most retailers would probably prefer to just deal with one distributor for all their books, and that would end up being Diamond.

 

[JD]

Personally, I would think it be a pain in the ass to have to deal with two distributors.
EDIT: I just went back and read the article and apparently I've been misunderstanding what was happening this whole time. I thought that DC's books were split between the two distributors, but from the article it sounds like they both carried all of them, and the retailers chose who to use.

 

[Mike Farley]

I believe the two distributors serviced different areas of the country.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

^That's how it's been so far, yes. Also, it seems that European distribution was not exclusively done by Diamond UK, either, as the retailer I get my monthly shipment from is still with UCS and will now go to Lunar (don't quite understand why they don't go with Diamond UK, but I'm not gonna argue).

Lunar Restricts DC Comics Distribution

Okay, the minimum order is a bit more complicated. Turns out, it's a $125 per order, if one week's order fall below that, the order will be shipped with the next week's order. I guess that makes some kind of sense, but it would lead to smaller comic shops getting quite a few books late.

I've some experience with that, getting my books collected in a monthly shipment from the store in Berlin, but I'm also not involved with everyday discussions, on- or offline, of the current releases, and I know better than to read online articles on new releases. So, yeah, works for me, but there may be a lot of fans in the US for which this will mean spoilers galore.

In any event, the minimum order is not the only thing Lunar is requiring from retailers. Still related to the minimum order, stores that don't get to the $500 mark over a three month period will get their accounts suspended. Harsh. Also, accounts that aren't for a brick-and-mortar store, their own online shop, or an "online platform selling directly to customers in a format other than auctions". Presumably, this is to counter those who order to auction off on eBay. And, apparently, groups of fans who got a collective account to get their comics with retailer discounts. That's a thing? Okay, I can understand them wanting to get rid off those.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Wow. According to this article, Lunar will have to increase on staff and warehouse space quite a lot, as UCS apparently sold more than twice as many DC comics as Lunar up till now.

 

[JD]

I started reading Monstress Vol. 1: Awkening last night, and it's one of the most gorgeous comics I've ever read. The story's been good so far, but I'm not that far into it yet, so it hasn't really gotten going.

 

[TheSeeker]

I started reading Monstress Vol. 1: Awkening last night, and it's one of the most gorgeous comics I've ever read. The story's been good so far, but I'm not that far into it yet, so it hasn't really gotten going.

I love the art but I couldn't really get into the story.

In other news, I thought I'd share this little tidbit. The programmer of the database program I use to track my comics decided to run some stats on the percentage of variant covers vs. regular covers over time. Things really started to get out of control about 10 years ago.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Well, we knew that already, but I guess it's nice to have the numbers.

 

[JD]

I finished reading the Spider-Man: New Ways to Live omnibus last night, which contains ASM 602-611, A Chemical Roman, The Root of All Annoyance, ASM Presents Anti-Venom: New Ways to Live 1-3, and ASM Presents Jackpot 1-3. I enjoyed it over all, my favorites were the Deadpool team up issue #611, and Root of All annoyance. A while back they announced that a Jackpot movie was being developed, and after reading her miniseries, I could see a movie with her being pretty good if they based it off the comic. The whole backstory with Sarah Ehret taking the reluctantly taking back the Jackpot identity after Alana Jobson's death was pretty good, and while Spider-Man was a big part of it, it wouldn't be that hard to work around him in a movie.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Didn’t know where else to post this. Haven’t bought a comic in years but when I did I was mostly a Marvel guy, at least initially. The new doc/promo series on Disney+ called Marvel 616 has been a fun watch. I watched the first four episodes so far.

Ep 1- Japanese Spider-Man, really fun, I liked the way everyone involved thinks very fondly back on it and their thoughts on it have a different and earnest perspective than might be expected.

Ep 2, Women, I have to admit I enjoyed this way more than I expected. Some great classic old timers mixed with newer talent and a great tone throughout.

Ep 3, Spanish Artists, focuses on the life stories of a couple of artists from Spain obviously. This one, the subject and material are decent enough but man is it ever beautifully filmed. This one is worth it for the visuals alone.

Ep 4, Paul Scheer jokingly pitches a TV show with obscure comic characters, this one was the first misfire I thought. It’s OK and funny at times but nowhere as engaging as the previous episodes. If you’ve been around you will probably sense that you’ve “seen this before”.

 

[JD]

That one is pretty high on list of stuff I want to check out. First I want to get through the other stuff I'm watching though.