Comic takes fifteen minutes to read

>Comic takes fifteen minutes to read
>Comes out once a month
>Literally three hours of entertainment a year
>For $48
How the fuck has this medium survived?
I don't get why Disney and Warner Bros keep the comic divisions of Marvel and DC alive. They're completely useless and everyone ignores that garbage.

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>Comic takes fifteen minutes to read
If you're reading Alan Moore, maybe.

The usual comic takes less than 10 minutes.

They still make a profit.

Comics need a revamp. Suppose a company released a magazine containing most of their monthly titles for ten or fifteen bucks in cheaper paper. Or released various graphic novels a year instead of monthly titles.

I find their current model is shitty as fuck.

>15 minutes
Most of the shit today takes like 30 seconds per page.

I've been rereading the old New Mutants run, and it's amazing how long it can take to get through some of those issues.

It's shitty, but it turns a profit.

>Or released various graphic novels a year instead of monthly titles.

More-or-less what they do with TPs? Cheaper to buy TPs as well.

Old comics had much more text. The writers were paid by words, so it is not really surprising.

Just skip every other panel. You won't miss anything.

You mean be more like things like shounen jump in japan which is wildly popular and can also be brought in convenience stores so comics overall would get more exposure? Shit, someone get DC and Marvel on the phone and tell them about all this potential money their not making, I'm SURE they would listen.

>mfw I learned that Dragonball from Pilaf to Kid Buu was done in 9 years

If it was done monthly it would have only finished about 3 years ago. The structure of Western comics is trash

The consumer base hates anthologies. They don't buy them.

>Or released various graphic novels a year instead of monthly titles.

Works for little girl comics.

It would be nice to know just how much Super hero girls actually sells

Digital comics are weekly. Maybe the future is there.

Dragon Ball chapters were only 14 pages a standard comic is about 24(?) without ads. It would have been finished by the late 2000's which is still too long though

People buy books of multiple short stories all the time. It's all about the marketing.

Pretty sure they could do a transition period where they sell both: monthly floppies alongside the monthly magazine that collects them all for cheaper on a cheaper material. Pretty sure people would go for it. Specially since you could even keep track of crossover events much easier.

The difference is that people don't want the cheaper paper. They want to think that they're buying a quality story on quality paper.
People who buy comics don't act rationally, don't try too hard to figure it out.

>How the fuck has this medium survived?
Well up until the last couple years they contained good/entertaining stories that justified their existence.

Now...I don't even wanna bother typing that negativity.

>people don't want the cheaper paper
They wouldn't buy marvel if this where true. Their paper is fucking garbage.

You know what I mean, pedantic ass.

And t
Waiting for trades is a bitch since 97% of anything you could ever read is online still I like to support sometime started collecting the Grendel omnibus Wagners can be a genius sometimes

Not really. DC's paper is like twice the quality of marvel's. Downgrade to marvel tier, sell four monthly comics as one magazine for 15 bux. People buy it anyway, because they already do.

>Suppose a company released a magazine containing most of their monthly titles for ten or fifteen bucks in cheaper paper. Or released various graphic novels a year instead of monthly titles.
It's almost like that very thing has been happening in another country for decades and has worked out incredibly well.

And knowing Americans if western comics ever adopted the methods of release used by Manga they'll try to make it sound groundbreaking and original and something that's never been done by any other country or industry.

I wish some titles did weekly chapters.

fuck of DC shill

I thought I was only one.

Nah, bruh. Go to your LGS and hold a couple of floppies for both companies. I hadn't noticed until the owner pointed it out to me. Apparently, people have been buying a lot less marvel as of late partially due to this. (And partially due to too many crossovers, apparently. I thought people loved that shit?)

The problem with that shit is that Toriyama just comes up with his shit on the fly.

Batman: Year One. 4 issues, 4 months, absolutely excellent throughout and beats Dragon Ball writing-wise at any point of its 9 years running.

Mini series are not quite the same as ongoings. They have a beginning and an end and are much more attractive to buy in general.

People genuinely do like events, but only when they actually feel important. DC's Manhattan event is going to be huge. Marvels problem is that they have so many events that they don't seem important. Just look at this year. IvX is going on at the same time as Monsters unleashed and we have Secret Empire coming up soon and this is just after Civil War II ended. Fuck knows how many events Marvel will have this year

>Year One
>Mini-series
If I had to choose an example of a mini-series, I would've used Dark Knight Returns, genius.

The problem, as you put it, is that it's a different medium. Manga don't use color, they'll often have simpler styles (and often times just drop backgrounds all together in many panels), and the popular ones will have multiple assistants helping the original artist.
They're then sold in an anthology before being sold in a collected volume on cheap pulp paper.

The costs involved are completely different scales.

yeah i considered reading grendel but i'm not sure what the appeal is.

>4 issues
>4 months
Sounds like a mini series to me. I wouldn't know, because, I never bothered even looking at year one.

>and often times just drop backgrounds all together in many panels

I've seen way to many comics also do this lately to be fair

i don't either. i rarely by single issues if ever. i get TPBs and trade em back for more TPBs. this way i'm able to read more comics than the shelfporn bitches

Oh man I have to respond to you so that guy doesn't think you're me Because I love Year One it's probably my favorite Batman story

>They're completely useless and everyone ignores that garbage.
Same reason pornos still come out in physical media. Still enough aged fatsos dumb enough to buy it. Meanwhile, normies buy GNs and nothing else.

It wasn't.

That's called a run. Year One is a storyline that unfolded in issues #404-407 of Batman monthly comic.

You could just download them for free and save yourself the trip

Yes, but it's still a timely process to run pages through color printing and not just BW/Greyscale.

tell me how.

i've seen people post the new zealand site, but it's not user friendly. it never loads for me. also i'm paranoid about malware

Well I use Mega and I've never had any problems. Guess I can't hep you man

So basically, go the way of European publishers like Dupuis' Spirou magazine, Pif Gadget, etc.?
Mite b cool.

Doing so would definitely help keep up with tie-ins and crossover issues you otherwise wouldn't be buying.

> it's a different medium
No, they're all comics. Anyone who thinks comics becomes a different medium because they're made in a different country is retarded

It's not a different medium, but there are different formats and expectations between the countries that make them wildly different products. Just because they're both comics printed on paper doesn't make them the same.

But isn't the problem that this kind of turbo autist isn't enough to keep the big two prosperous? Wouldn't trying to attract a larger, different audience be more beneficial?

>can also be brought in convenience stores so comics overall would get more exposure?
Serious question
Why isnt that a thing over here?
I sometimes see the odd Archie book in supermarkets, nothing in convenience stores, trades in most bookstores, and weekly issues very rarely in bookstores.

don't know what that is

No because it's exactly the turboautist that actually buys comics consistently.
Normal people don't buy comics. Normal people don't know where their LCS is. Normal people don't know that new comics don't come out on Wednesdays.
Floppies are the lifeblood of the modern comic industry, and you can't sell floppies to normal people. They just don't want them.

Because of fucking Diamond Comics and their stronghold on the industry.

Because they don't want to bother with it. It used to be easy, just stick a spinner before the checkout, and restock when it gets low. Now that space is occupied with candy and soda, and those sell better than comics.
Also .

Please explain. Who are diamond comics and why is it their doing?

>Floppies are the lifeblood of the modern comic industry
Considering all comic shops in my area are completely getting rid of floppies and are only carrying trades from now on, I'd say this statement is bullshit.

It's amazing how casuals will watch 5+ hours a week of absolute garbage cheap television like CW and Netflix cape shows, but can't focus for 10 minutes to read a damn comic.

A lot of publishers outside the US sell licensed Marvel and DC comics like this, it's shit and helps no one.

Where do you live? I'm in NYC and I know of no shops who would even dare attempt this.

How bout that anecdotal evidence.
Check out comichron.

Grendel is fucking great the hunter rose stories are some of the best thriller villain protagonist comics I've ever read Hunter rose is a one of this characters that makes the story worth buy just to see how he gets hos way he's smarter and stronger than anyone he goes against but he's not perfect he has faults that bite him in the ass when he least expects it I really recommend it

That's it.

I don't even know where the fuck to begin... Why do people like you find western comics something to joke about? You think because you get to sit in your warm homes on a computer that you can just joke about horrible things like this? What the actual fuck is wrong with you guys? This is very fucked up, yet crazy assfucks like you are posting pages like it's nothing. Sick fucks, doing this shit does fucking nothing. So you want to come on an imageboard to be an asshole about things like this? Let me tell you guys, you are all fucking weak. You would never be useful to the world with such behavior you present. Honestly why do people like you guys even exist? I bet you don't even know about half of what people have gone through from then till now when they have someone they've known die. You are all such disgusting bullies. Isn't it bad enough that people go through hardships of their loved ones? Seriously what do you guys really find funny about this? Stupid fuckers I'm so angry right now that I wish I can fucking punch my computer screen so that my fist can get a good hit on that asshole face of yours. Sick fuck. Seriously, just fucking grow up and actually act properly about comics. Stupid fuck, keep eating those cheetoes that you stain on your shirts every day.

...

Puerto Rico. Local stores only have back issues for floppies from 2015 or so and nothing new, since they are eliminating them. The owners tell me that they just don't sell, so they are moving to only selling trades (and their other non-comic stuff.).

Judging by the sales threads on this board and the reports of overshipping, I'd say that floppies selling well is more of an exception due to some local markets rather than a norm.

Diamond Comics is the the only distributor of comics in America so they basically have a monopoly which makes the industry bend to their will.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Comic_Distributors

I've forked over a few hundred to Marvel and at least a hundred on Rebirth.
I don't feel any shame in just reading the only three comics I like on here.

Plenty of manga are released monthly. What is the problem here?

this is how it's done in Italy, and it just works.

I just learned about them now I hate them.
Fuck Diamond!

Are you implying that your local Puerto Rican LCS's are accurate forecasters for the whole of U.S. comic market?

No, I'm implying that comic books selling 100,000 comics world wide WITH overshipping is definitely not a bread and butter product for the thousands of stores selling them thus, not the "lifeblood of the modern comic industry" outside of a few local markets. I'm using personal experience to reinforce the point.

So what's this pasta original about?

gore/dead body posts, i believe.

Not him but I'd just say it's more evidence for the coming collapse of the market

I thought the diamond charts were America only? Shit it's worse than I thought

I think you're right and it's only america sales. It's still a pretty shitty position to be in. I mean, how many stores are there selling comics in the US? Diamond comics had 2,600 accounts in 2013. That means a store is selling, on average, thirty books per month of each title. Assuming they are selling for about twice the price they bought them from (shipping costs for some markets and overshipping will murder these figures), they would be earning about two dollars per book.

This means about 60 dollars per title carried. Assuming 50 titles (a generous figure). That is 3,000 dollars a month for selling 1,500 books. And that's the raw earnings, once you pay for the power, water and store space, you probably will barely have enough to pay one employee (yourself, the owner) minimum wage.

Definitely not a bread and butter product.

>It's amazing how casuals will watch 5+ hours a week of absolute garbage cheap television like CW and Netflix cape shows, but can't focus for 10 minutes to read a damn comic.

Because comics are for children.

The thing is though, LCS aren't just comic shops.
The smart stores are turning into general purpose nerd shops selling those funco dolls and t-shirts. Comics aren't lucrative for the store owners period, the floppies are basically just there to cater to the largest niche. TPBs sell even worse, and are more expensive than just bundling 4 or 5 issues together (especially if they're hardbound)

No, because people already have bought in with those products so they don't feel like they're wasting their time, they're just using it already.
You have to go out of your way to find and read comics, and even then they're bad investments.
What's the better way to spend $10: a month long netflix subscription that lets you watch hours and hours of film and shows, or a couple of comics that you're done with by the end of an hour?

Exactly. Comics are going to be dead unless somebody finds a better way to market them or a more lucrative method for the store. Comic stores are essentially becoming hot topics full of quirky collectibles and clothes to make ends meet.

>and are more expensive than just bundling 4 or 5 issues together

That's just Marvel if we're talking your standard tpb. DC has 6 issue collections for $14.99

There's really no easy answer to it.
Print media in general is going down the shitter, and there's no great indication that a straight up switch to digital will be able to pull the same numbers. They'd lose a lot of consumers in the transition that would just stop buying them because they want the physical media to collect.
The only way I can think to do it is to put actual commercials for comics on television, and possibly set up a kiosk in movie theater lobbies when there are big Capefilms (while making it clear where the actual store is located to possibly buy more at a later time).
Maybe if they could fold their entire building into things like Barnes and Noble, so that they aren't just selling the "hot new event Omnis".

Marvel survives from people buying 1's. Good luck keeping that shit up on digital

Wait around for the Wednesday threads where people post download links and get a CBR reader.

They were not always 21 pages.

Comics in the 90's and before were in the 40-ish page range.

And most were anthologies. Seriously a 2000AD style books would be welcome

>Comics in the 90
You guys really need to be more specific. The 90's was a tumultuous time for comics, and wrapping it up all into one decade doesn't help.
>most were anthologies
I have no doubt many were, but I very much doubt that most were.

Actually even today a lot of indie stuff goes over 22 pages.

>How the fuck has this medium survived?
trades

I've never seen a pure "comic shop." They're all hobby stores. Tabletop RPGs, board games, miniatures, card games. Been this way in my area for 20 years or more.

Only retro videogames are a relatively new addition to this lineup.

yea but with hero movies being the new hotness I'd think they try expanding.
You know, every time i read about the buisiness side of comic history, this ball of anger rises from the pit of my stomach. Now all i want is for it all to crash and burn.

so why don't DC and Marvel tell them to fuck off - sure it mainly affects retailers more than the big two themselves but at the same time it puts a lot of people off

they have disney and warner bros behind them

>It's amazing how casuals will watch 5+ hours a week of absolute garbage cheap television like CW and Netflix cape shows, but can't focus for 10 minutes to read a damn comic.

Don't pretend like it's easy for a normie to get invested in the current comic scene.

>Oh hey Marvel I like their movies lets check out the comics
>Civil War sweet just like the movie
>Iron Man is fighting some dyke I never heard about over some faggot kid, everyone's just repeating what everyone else is saying, no fight scenes happen, there's some group of other faggots called Inhumans and the plot barely advanced and I feel like I wasted five dollars

Then Marvel makes their comics more like the movies and you moan like a dying cow

Holy shit, this is terrifyingly accurate.

it really just highlights both how well johns and didio are doing over at DC

even though their non-comic everything is fucking shit, they're still managing to out-sell the two largest media franchises in the world in terms of comic books, an already shit medium with shit retention rates

In my country there are for example 2 Spider-Man titles. In those 2 different titles, you will get every current comic related to the character.
There will be a title where you get the main stuff, another title where there are the less important shit.

It's an example but that's how it's done here. Every title is around 60-80 pages

What country? That sounds fucking fantastic. I'd prefer that.
I'd even prefer a return to the days of less detailed colouring and more stylised/silver age art. More Early john byrne, less bryan hitch.

Talking for France but it's probably the whole Europe.
They are monthly and more expensive than the regular floppies tho

Basically pic rel has in it Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #16, Spider-Man 2099 (2015) #12, Free Comic Book Day 2016 (II), Civil War II: Spider-Man (2016) #1-2.

>Talking for France
Lucky you.
You lot get good comics made locally, too.
I have to pay more than most other countries for American comics and, partly because I can't into other languages, have to wait for translations of the great shit that comes out of France.

Yeah too bad I read none of them m, ik I'm missing something but I'm broke and bored