In the modern era of binge-watching...

In the modern era of binge-watching, why dont comics just focus on the graphic novel format and have them placed in walmart/target? Single issues are flimsy, stupid 1/6th of a story and LCS always smell like shit.

Because that would require them to basically completely overhaul their entire distribution model for the great big maybe that is trade sales, while basically crippling LCS' overnight in the hopes that a great big maybe might work out?

You can understand why they'd be pretty hesitant to do this, right?

You can pretty just binge digitally

Its time. Like closing down arcades and blockbuster video.

Oh wow guys, don't worry about a thing, Captain Obvious over here is on this shit.

If you said this 5 years ago I might have agreed with you, but the fact that they're still open and outlasting the dying lurches of sporting goods stores and electronics retailers says something positive about the LCS.

And soon the last few local restaurants and movie theatres. Why keep local businesses amiright?

LCSs are the only place where I can have a genuine discussion about comics, cartoons, and games with strangers. It's the first thing I look for in a new town. They don't have to be kill if they lose floppies anyway, 50/50 the owner is doing it part time already and very able to shift gears to novels and other niche merch.

even the highest selling graphic novel doesn't sell much compared to comics. regardless, there's a difference between binging a tv show & binge-reading

Not in the long run. Floppies dont keep getting reprinted.

Why do casuals think this is some amazing idea only they had?

>even the highest selling graphic novel doesn't sell much compared to comics.
Raina Telgemeier alone sells millions of copies.

I think it's worth noting that children already do what OP wants, buying graphic novels from general stores and book stores and Amazon. But children read different comics than the manchildren of Sup Forums and the LCS, so you shouldn't expect the audience of one to cross over to the business model of the other.

Except binge-watching is done through streaming services. Graphic novels are still physical objects, and require the reader to go to an actual place to buy them. It's not comparable.

What you want is a 100% digital model where everything is released as a graphic novel, which would just about cripple the entire comics industry overnight. You'd have to wait longer between issues, and the LCS is still the major sales centre of comic books today. It's not where comic publishers make most of their money (that's in movies and merch), so if comic books ceased being profitable at all, we probably wouldn't get any any more.

Also, digital is a new up-and-coming medium, and will probably be the future of comics (and magazines and books), but tablets aren't as ubiquitous as they were 10 years ago, so the accessibility isn't quite so simple as just buying a comic in a shop.

Is everyone in here retarded? Has no one in this entire thread ever touched a comic book? Trade paperbacks (not (((graphic novels)))) have been a thing for fucking ever, account for as much profit as floppies for Marvel and DC and ARE sold at bookstores and in some weird loose walmarts and targets. there is literally no reason for this thread to exist.

OP means as a replacement for floppies.
So you get the entire story in one go, right from the start.

It's not a viable idea, tho (people still have to draw them, so we'd be waiting just as long, except without the floppy sales in the meantime).

You mean like manga?

As others have said, even if you did that it would target the audience you seek. Casuals wanna watch shows, not read, and do not appreciate art or the collecting aspect. So you're alienating your niche to capitalize on a consumer base that still for the most part is ambivalent. Some collectors might prefer trade paperback for convenience as would some comicbook readers. I'd be one such. But for the most part it's a losing bet. The comic industry as a whole is. What can only be counted on is fan-service. Be that intriguing shit that grabs attention, anime tiddies, good artwork, or social commentary. (Which Marvel cannot do AT ALL)

You filthy gaijin secondary, manga is sold per volume and later collected as a trade paperback too, the only difference is that instead of floppies chapters come in variety collection like Jump!. Anthologies traditionally do not sell well on the US market, but that is how a lot of the international distribution for American comics is made.

i think it's because they're able to cut corners and produce capeshit trash for the normies.

capeshit could be tolerable but business is business, and that means hiring malleable young writers and douchebags *COUGH marvel COUGH* that actively hate the characters they write about and/or are objectively bad writers.

good writers should be paid more and corporations are fuckin stingy. the tax rate used to be like 90% or something in the 50s but if someone wants to raise taxes like 2% people scream that bernie sanders is a communist

You're all over the place. Writing pay for comics has literally only gone up with time, as has deepened the competition and the number of "real" writers getting into the field. Golden Age writers got paid with pennies per page.

Movies take a long time to make but you dont see people releasing 15 minutes of the movie on dvd

You can already buy graphic novels and even floppies sometimes at big box stores. They aren't at every store I've been to but I seem to run across them semi frequently. And like said, most people don't give a shit about comics so stocking them en mass in these stores wont make a difference trying to reach people that won't read them anyway.

They'd have to go on hiatus for six months or find and invest in outside talent to produce months worth of work that they won't see a return on for half a year.

Yeah they do, and have been doing since serials were a thing. Are you deliberately being obtuse here?

Your last point is a major one. Digital did not take off as was expected. The only people I generally see pushing so hard for digital prioritization are those that already do use their phone or tablets like that.

Television shows are more comparable. And even then they have multi-part series.

>closing down arcades
you're cancer

The writers already had this idea, it's called "writing for the trades".
It's not a bad idea, but the writers who want to do it already do, the TPB or HC releases just can't carry poor floppy sales, and there's still "good" floppy sales so there's no reason to make the switch.

I think the fact that they sell merchandise like shirts, pops, action figures, board games etc. rather than just comics helps. Most comic book shops these days are more like general stores for geek items.

People were binge watching TV box sets long before streaming services were a thing. Binge watching is just watching an entire series at once, doesn't matter if it's physical or not.

DC is doing that with their new kids and young adult lines. Straight to tpb/gn.

I'd be okay with chapters sold digitally to keep the serial format alive, then print is reserved for the collection.

It worked for Charles Dickens on some of his most beloved works. He published a chapter or two at a time as magazine serials because the big hardback books of the day were too expensive for the masses and he wanted everyone to be able to afford to buy his work. That serial model was used in American pulps, which is where our comics get the model from. We only just recently began collecting serial comic stories in the past couple of decades tho. Pulps were collected in book format right from the start. Lots of major detective, adventure and science fiction / fantasy books and series were actually just pulps collected later in book form.

>Raina Telgemeier alone sells millions of copies.
this, she is 5% of the entire comic market and doesn't sell floppies at all. This is all the proof you need that floppies are hurting the industry

Would you want to do six months of work without pay and live on the hope that at the end of those six months what you made will make a profit?

All writers have to do that. You write a novel for a year, then spend a couple more trying to get it published and then wait to see sales. Only big writers can get paid up front by publishers, why are comic writer babied?

There's a reason that writers have historically been well off enough that they can afford to work without pay. And I'm talking more from the perspective of artists, whose work takes more time and doesn't leave the luxury of working another job to make ends meet.

Real wages are a thing, because of inflation. A dollar back in 1970 bought far more then a dollar today.

but you don't have to pay every time you want to watch a new single episode

but it's still cheaper than current format

You know, there is this thing called technology.
Imagine, how much more work would Kirby produce if he had modern technology? Kids these days are lazy

What about purely digital floppies? It doesn't cost the company any more (no production costs of printing, shipping, distribution etc). So they could make floppies like two dollars apiece. Then combine the issues as as a whole, for a dollar fifty. So a ten issue collection would be $15 instead of $20 for ten seperate issues.

Then produce the collections, which is that base price + printing, shipping and distribution cost. Which go to book stores, super stores, etc.

It isn't that far. 3.99 is the base price for most floppies it seems nowadays, and it includes all those costs.