Comic Companies continue to drive me away...maybe you as well??

[Captain Craig]

It seems that as of Feb. '09 DC Comics will cease to publish its satellite Batman titles of Nightwing, Robin and Birds of Prey.

These three titles will conclude as some part of wrap up to the R.I.P. story line. Its speculated that relaunches are inevitable and maybe not entirely the same.

I've been slowly, due to cost of individual books, moving towards only reading in the TBP editions anyway. However, I do like the monthly trip to the comic store and told myself that as long as certain books continue with their numbering I'm going regardless of the increasingly ridiculous per issue cover price. The cancellation of Nightwing at #153, Robin #183 and Birds of Prey #127 have me that much closer to not visiting a comic store with regularity. Which means its that much more less likely I'll stumble onto something else to buy because I'll just get a trade at some discounted price later anyway.

I don't care for a new #1 on any of these titles. Even if the new Nightwing isn't Dick or whatever their gimmick I'm not interested. Don't care if the new book is Red Robin('net rumor), don't want it. The irony of course is I'd pick up the next immediate issue of each title and stomach the change knowing its temporary but I long ago(cancel of ASM) drew the line in the sand on cancel and reboot. Its the slow pushing away the industry has done by making their once unique collectible product, bland.

I guess with Barry back that Flash will end as well? I haven't heard yet on that. Flash will be the last DC book I'm buying monthly if its still around come March '09 and Moon Knight and Ghost Rider will be the last Marvel books I get monthly. When those 3 are done I'm done with comics as a monthly purchase.

All Good Things....

 

[Professor Zoom]

Personally, I think the monthly is on the way out...Trade paperbacks is what people are buying...

But, then, I hear you say, "Professor Zoom, if the monthly is on the way out and the trade paperback is a reprint of the monthly, where will the new monthly material come from?"

I think they will eventually move to basically graphic novels...longer stories, and sold for 12-15 bucks...publish one every three months...and you'll probably make more than a 2.50 comic sold 12 times a year...

But...I left after rebooting and rebooting...I just realized, it wasn't fun anymore...the stories weren't grabbing me, it took forever to get a STORY finished...because they are all written for trades now, not monthly story telling...meh.

 

[Mr Light]

Since I just lost my job I am absolutely dropping monthly titles. I can buy the trades, read them, and then sell them on Amazon Marketplace and almost make my money back. Ca-ching. It is nice making the trip to the comic store, though.

It's a shame as I only back into comics a year ago. They're such a rip off anyway- 3 or 4 dollars for a ten minute read?!?!

 

[RJDiogenes]

I don't read any of those books, but I just read about their cancellation and it disturbed me; it always disturbs me when long-running books are canceled.

At this point, I'm buying almost no mainstream Marvel and DC books; I just removed Fantastic Four and the two Avengers books from my sub after being loyal for far too long. It's getting harder and harder to work up any interest in the current incarnations of these characters that I've loved for so long.

 

[Mysterion]

What's pushing me to buy fewer and fewer books is the mania to do these big epic "event" things every year with a zillion cross-overs and one-shots, etc. Just give me the monthly book, please, so I can foillow a title and not have to read a bunch of other crap to understand it.

And i agree with the OP, the the trades are getting to be the way to go.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

What is pushing me away is that the comic book companies have turned into the trading card industry with graded comics, chase comics, and bland stories.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Since I just lost my job

Wow, sorry.

 

[Mr Nighttime]

I stopped collecting comics years ago when this gimmick crap started. Multiple covers, tie ins, etc. I think that was shortly after the Batman/bane/Azrael deal. I was griping back then at comics getting to $1.50 or so an issue...what are they now?

 

[Ben Sisko3]

I guess with Barry back that Flash will end as well? I haven't heard yet on that. Flash will be the last DC book I'm buying monthly if its still around come March '09 and Moon Knight and Ghost Rider will be the last Marvel books I get monthly. When those 3 are done I'm done with comics as a monthly purchase.

All Good Things....

Flash ends in December, with Flash: Rebirth starting up in April. Poor Wally...

And you're still reading Moon Knight? You're braver than me.

 

[Lowdarzz]

I gave up Amazing Spider-man after OMD and am rapidly losing interest in both Avengers titles and Ultimate Spider-man.

The only title that rocks in my mind right now is Ghost Rider. Captain America and Incredible Hercules aka Incredible Hulk are still doing okay.

 

[Leroy]

I think it's disappointing that DC is scaling back its Archives Editions, I really like collecting old silver age stories, yeah I know they're expensive but those things are built to last, and for Marvel Masterworks they keep releasing the same stories over and over, canceling a line and starting over again and again.

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah the entire store closed, everybody laid off. We had under a week unofficial warning, 48 hours official warning. Fun fun!

Comics cost $3 if you're lucky now, but more and more they're $4. When I stopped getting comics around 1999 they were only $1.95!

At my comic book store and at my local bookstore you can get a vast array of Marvel trades for $5 each. Including those massive phone book black n white essential collections which have like 25 comics in them. Great deal!

 

[nx1701g]

Eh they drove me away a long time ago.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I bought single issue comics for 28 years; for 16 of those years, I was spending over 100 dollars a month on single issue comics. I ordered my last comic 5 months ago; I purchased my last comic 3 months ago. I have decided to finally, outright quit; and it's all because of the expense.

It's not that I can't afford it; I just don't see where it's going to stop. As I'm seeing now across message boards, we're about to have another unexpected jump to $3.99 for a 32 page comic (a full dollar jump this time with no steps in between). There's no justification for it in my mind. It's in the same category as saying it can't be helped that gas is 4 dollars a gallon. Yeah. Right.

Out of curiosity, I've read some of the illegal comics scans using the CBR program; it's the solution. The people who know what they're doing can manipulate even the two page spreads to work into a continuous read on a computer screen. Using the online method, these companies would cut out shipping costs; printing costs; etc. Comics could go back to 99 cents an issue just like a song on iTunes; I could get 100 comics a month again instead of just 25.

But instead of using an iTunes forumla, we have Marvel who has decided to use a subscription format where you have no ownership of the material and are forced to use a clunky browser that only has access when the internet is up and running. Marvel is afraid you'll share the files illegally...which is already happening regardless just like it did with music. Hell, you can go to your local Books-a-million and read all the main comics for free if you're not worried about some form of ownership.

Basically, comic companies fall into the same mold as current American car manufacturers; comic companies just don't really know how to run their business anymore. It may change eventually, but all I see for the foreseeable future are these companies asking for "bail outs". The comic companies' form of it is to jack up their price inexplicably high to make up for the customers they've lost from prices being too high. It's a strategy that forms a closing loop, and it's going to close pretty soon at this rate. How many people do we really think are going to regularly pay $3.99 for one 32 page comic? What about 2 or 3 years from now when it's $4.99?

I'm been at this 28 years. I reached my limit.

 

[Hermiod]

Eh they drove me away a long time ago.

DC did (nice one, Amazons Attack), Marvel didn't.

 

[TheBrew]

If all my monthlies became $3.99, I would drop them. I don't get much (around $30 a month), but that would push me over the edge. I would actually dig a dedicated comic reader electronic device that I could store a bunch of issues on: sort of like an iPod for comics.

 

[Supervisor 194]

I couldn't care less about DC's shared universe, but I'm enjoying what Geoff Johns is doing with Superman--I haven't been a regular reader of the Super-Titles in two decades, but their current approach has brought me back. Escape from Bizarro World, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac, Legion of Three Worlds, and New Krypton have all been superb. Throw in the terrific Green Lantern series and the upcoming Flash: Rebirth, and I'm very satisfied.

 

[Siwilliams]

I have wanted to subscribe to a Batman comic, which is the best?

 

[Lonemagpie]

Over at Blue Water the monthly is strong, like, for example, William Shatner's Quest For Tomorrow, which starts in March...

 

[Cicero]

I have wanted to subscribe to a Batman comic, which is the best?

They're all being canceled or changing direction in February (Batman, Detective Comics, and Batman and the Outsiders are changing direction, while, as noted above, Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey will be canceled), so you might want to wait a few months before choosing one.