Don't forget Daredevil by Bendis Vol. 2, Doom Patrol by Byrne, Wonder Woman by Gail Simone, and Harley Quinn and the Gotham City Sirens ' omnibi. Feb. 2020 is going to be packed...
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COMICS!!!|OT| July 2019 | No, More Mutants!
- Thread starter Messi
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Wait what is the Harley/Sirens Omni? Different from the current Gotham City Sirens one?
OP
OP
That Gotham City Sirens omni is already out. Is it gone oop?
It's a reissue due to Birds of Prey.
Conan feels like one of those things I can't get into because I missed the era. Visually the dude looks boring af.
....No thanks lol. And I don't remember feeling that way about Garfield/Stone at all in that first film. It was cute.
I'm just saying I was an awkward teen once. you would feel second hand embarrassment if some of my early romances were put on screen.
I could basically just write DIAMOND and it would be accurate, but there's lots and lots of stuff.
- Books are non-returnable. This makes everything a gamble for stores, because they have to guess how many they want so they're not left with stock they can't shift. The Big Bang tweets are a great example.
- Floppies are just a poor quality physical product. There's room for physical media, but it has to be nice, it can't just be okay. That's why the CD has dropped off while there's still a market for vinyl even in the face of streaming.
- Digital should be cheaper on release date, but you can't do that without disrupting the market as it is which could be disastrous.
- There are lots of books that are solicited as monthlies that really should go straight to trade, or be sold as an anthology-style format of a TPB-sized thing with 5-6 books. I got into comics through the UK reprints, which were (and still are) 3-4 issues with a cardstock cover at roughly the price of one floppy.
- There are so, so many books where I think it's fair to ask "Who is the market for this?" It's not like you're printing groundbreaking stuff. I'm talking stuff like when Deadpool and the Mercs for Money was a thing for three months and they greenlit like four books off the back of that. I also think things like Marvel putting off their kids line to IDW is wack, but that's a whole other story.
Basically, even with multiple billion-dollar movies per year, it is a miracle anyone gets into comics in 2019 and that's really telling. There's a generation of kids who've realised $4 for 22 pages is a cod and they're reading manga and the occasional thing they see in a regular book store, not a comic store.
These are pretty succinct explanations that strike at things that i actually agree with.
That era being...1932?
I still put the dark horse Conan stories over the Marvel stuff so far, but as far as "sword and sorcery" style stuff goes it's amazing content across the board. Doesn't hurt that Conan completely avoids the dull as dishwater arthurian legend tropes in favor of far more exotic locales of the middle east, africa, high seas, etc. quite frequently.
edit: this week's issue of Savage Sword is a good issue, for instance-
The story begins with a young Conan (these stories skip through eras, they aren't linear) in Shadizar, which appears to be somewhere analogous to the middle east circa Arabian Nights. A wealthy merchant is being waylaid in an alley, both bodyguards swiftly killed by assassins with the Merchant due to be next.
Conan is promised his weight in Gold to save the man, and swiftly dispatches all four assassins with ease- as they are little more than back alley brawlers, no match for a cimmerian warrior.
The merchant introduces himself as Maraudus, and doubles his offer if Conan agrees to be his bodyguard for the remainder of the night, and the two proceed to a notorious Gambling hall known as the Demon's Den. Conan's entry is initially barred, of course- the wealthy who frequent the Den would not appreciate a savage among them. Conan's entry is granted only with the merchant swearing an elaborate oath that he and the cimmerian are brothers in arms, brothers in blood- one and the same. If you wound the one, the other shall bleed and other such flowery language.
The guards find this ludicrous explanation acceptable, and the two proceed into the Den- Conan had seen his fair share of taverns and alehouses, but this was far more exotic, far more intense. Writhing, glittering dancers, spice in the air- fortunes being made and lost at the throw of a die. A Mysterious "holy item" radiates from the center of the den, but little is known about it other than the eerie glow it creates as well as rumors of good luck to those who pray to it.
A momentary distraction occurs as a Gambler who reneges on a debt is dragged by enforcers to the "Debtor's Lounge" despite promises to pay his debts in platinum to avoid the place. His promises are far too late as the "Lounge" is shown to be a pit in the floor akin to a Rancor's den where the gambler is swiftly torn apart by whatever horror resides down there. Bone snaps, flesh tears- then silence.
Maraudus finds his target for the night- a card table where Kero the Callous resides, a guildmaster with whom the merchant is engaged in a bloody and expensive trade war. Kero denies sending the assassins after the merchant- at least on THIS day. The trade war will be settled with a match of Serpent's Bluff. First to five games wins, The Loser abandons the war and leaves the country permanently.
Serpent's Bluff is explained to be a game not dissimilar to blackjack. Each player tries to assemble cards totaling as close to Thirteen as possible without going over. There are special cards that add complications, however- A serpent may "eat" cards, adjusting the total. A King protects from a serpent attack. A witch allows a player to see a hidden card. All special cards may be played face down as a bluff, baiting the other player to call it out. if they do and are wrong- a "penalty" is paid.
Maraudus wins the first hand.
Then a second.
He becomes confident and cocky, leading even Conan to caution him that the night is early and to calm himself.
Kero remains stonefaced as Maraudus wins his third hand.
Throwing caution to the wind, Maraudus boasts that this night is destiny, and luck smiles upon them both- immediately before he grips his chest, falling stone dead to the floor.
Conan is swift to his feet and his hand to his dagger, accusing Kero of a setup- Kero again denies killing Maraudus. He's been at the table the entire night, never touched Maraudus, and the game had just begun. Conan (almost certainly correct) believes an assassin lies among them, and swears to find him. But he's warned not to be so fast-
The enforcers of the entire den have spears at his back, and he is confronted by a representative of the Den. The representative reminds him that Conan was only granted entrance to the Den at all because of the oath of Maraudus- that the two were one and the same. 'Prick one, and the other shall bleed' . Conan is now responsible for the commitment of Maraudus. Forfeiture means conan will be subdued, beaten, and cast into the Debtor's Lounge to be torn apart by whatever lies there.
Conan assesses the situation and even with his strength and skill such a confrontation means swift death and little else. With dozens of eyes watching- one of whom is certainly his benefactor's killer- conan seats himself.
"deal me in."
(to be continued)
Conan is promised his weight in Gold to save the man, and swiftly dispatches all four assassins with ease- as they are little more than back alley brawlers, no match for a cimmerian warrior.
The merchant introduces himself as Maraudus, and doubles his offer if Conan agrees to be his bodyguard for the remainder of the night, and the two proceed to a notorious Gambling hall known as the Demon's Den. Conan's entry is initially barred, of course- the wealthy who frequent the Den would not appreciate a savage among them. Conan's entry is granted only with the merchant swearing an elaborate oath that he and the cimmerian are brothers in arms, brothers in blood- one and the same. If you wound the one, the other shall bleed and other such flowery language.
The guards find this ludicrous explanation acceptable, and the two proceed into the Den- Conan had seen his fair share of taverns and alehouses, but this was far more exotic, far more intense. Writhing, glittering dancers, spice in the air- fortunes being made and lost at the throw of a die. A Mysterious "holy item" radiates from the center of the den, but little is known about it other than the eerie glow it creates as well as rumors of good luck to those who pray to it.
A momentary distraction occurs as a Gambler who reneges on a debt is dragged by enforcers to the "Debtor's Lounge" despite promises to pay his debts in platinum to avoid the place. His promises are far too late as the "Lounge" is shown to be a pit in the floor akin to a Rancor's den where the gambler is swiftly torn apart by whatever horror resides down there. Bone snaps, flesh tears- then silence.
Maraudus finds his target for the night- a card table where Kero the Callous resides, a guildmaster with whom the merchant is engaged in a bloody and expensive trade war. Kero denies sending the assassins after the merchant- at least on THIS day. The trade war will be settled with a match of Serpent's Bluff. First to five games wins, The Loser abandons the war and leaves the country permanently.
Serpent's Bluff is explained to be a game not dissimilar to blackjack. Each player tries to assemble cards totaling as close to Thirteen as possible without going over. There are special cards that add complications, however- A serpent may "eat" cards, adjusting the total. A King protects from a serpent attack. A witch allows a player to see a hidden card. All special cards may be played face down as a bluff, baiting the other player to call it out. if they do and are wrong- a "penalty" is paid.
Maraudus wins the first hand.
Then a second.
He becomes confident and cocky, leading even Conan to caution him that the night is early and to calm himself.
Kero remains stonefaced as Maraudus wins his third hand.
Throwing caution to the wind, Maraudus boasts that this night is destiny, and luck smiles upon them both- immediately before he grips his chest, falling stone dead to the floor.
Conan is swift to his feet and his hand to his dagger, accusing Kero of a setup- Kero again denies killing Maraudus. He's been at the table the entire night, never touched Maraudus, and the game had just begun. Conan (almost certainly correct) believes an assassin lies among them, and swears to find him. But he's warned not to be so fast-
The enforcers of the entire den have spears at his back, and he is confronted by a representative of the Den. The representative reminds him that Conan was only granted entrance to the Den at all because of the oath of Maraudus- that the two were one and the same. 'Prick one, and the other shall bleed' . Conan is now responsible for the commitment of Maraudus. Forfeiture means conan will be subdued, beaten, and cast into the Debtor's Lounge to be torn apart by whatever lies there.
Conan assesses the situation and even with his strength and skill such a confrontation means swift death and little else. With dozens of eyes watching- one of whom is certainly his benefactor's killer- conan seats himself.
"deal me in."
(to be continued)
Its extremely fun stuff. It's a lot of worldbuilding, mystery, that sort of thing more than knights in armor hacking away at each other. I'd avoid anything with Conan in 616, because that's just ludicrous and misses the point, but his own books are filling a niche that's sorely missed.
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Cosigned.
The infrastructure of the medium is a Jenga tower. So short of pulling the whole thing down and starting again, we just keep stacking on teetering blocks that makes it difficult for new readers, new publishers and new creators.
I love the medium (obviously, being in it) but there are very clear and painful problems that we're a long way off fixing.
Messi on point. Doesn't look like it's out of print.
Lol at 1932. I agree that DH Conan has been better so far but they also had years to cover a ton of stories. I'm also a big fan of how Conan incorporates the exotic stuff. Reading a million stories about dragons and knights can't hold a candle to a drunken angry barbarian tearing his way through everything and everyone.
I don't see him leaving the role for another 10-15 years. Dude has gotten the role of a life time that's gonna keep him in demand, paid, and able to do work on other films. Doing a movie every two years with a maybe every few years having to film 2 back to back is prime.
Plus Holland seems to have been been a fan of the character before taking the role.
I'm sure I saw a reprint solicited not long ago. They did the same thing with the Grayson omnibus shortly after it came out.
It's magazines that surprise me. There's no reason for those to still be a thing.
Yeah, that's the problem. All that stuff isn't interesting visually to me. I prefer the "dull as dishwaster" Arthurian legend tropes. Or maybe something more asian inspired. The visual influences of Conan put me to sleep. But I mean, everything isn't for everyone so I understand how he remains popular.
hmm? I'd disagree. Magazines are great for long form journalism that isn't particularly time sensitive. Newsweek is pointless, for instance- but Mother Jones, The Atlantic, New Yorker, The Nation?
The internet is Not Good for long form journalism- clickbait seems to have taken over everywhere. sometimes you want to consume that content without blinking banner ads, intrusive video, or pop up reminders to subscribe.
Right. this is where I'm at. The Hyborian Age is a schizophrenic mashup of just about EVERY mythology there is- Conan will be hanging with Aesir one day, dismantling skeletal pirates another, found fighting in Roman gladitorial slave pits for his freedom and glory by midweek, dueling egyptian sorcerers the day after that, slaughtering giant serpents or undead witches in deep jungles the next.
And because the story isn't linear you may see these stories from the perspective of young warrior, experienced thief, seasoned veteran, or warrior king in his twilight.
It's treading ground that's been *out there* but is largely ignored. The series drips deep magic all over the place, but none of it ever seems to be a match for a sharp sword and sharper wits. If "sword and sorcery" is your thing, that's the book- I can respect how it's not everyone's bag but you're definitely missing out if you're skipping it because only arthurian legend is "visually interesting."
It's obvious that it was supposed to be more integral in terms of outcome, but it's clear that post Johns' demotion and various delays that it's been sectioned off into its own spot in the DCU.
Because Stone and Garfield didn't feel like high school kids. You remember your high school romances? I can tell you most of them were probably really bad and awkward.
We're trapped in the 22-page floppy format and specialty store distribution for absolutely no reason. A good half of what Marvel and DC publishes should be in a page count, format, and distribution that suits the intended audience. Like, why is Squirrel Girl not just a funny Webtoon or webcomic? Or a series of OGNs? Do they all need be in color? Or have any physical footprint? Should some just be hardcover only, or manga-sized? I just don't think the one-size-fits-all works.
I would probably still buy EDGE if my local book store stocked it. SFX too, but I'm fairly sure that one was stopped because they keep obscuring the logo to make it look like SEX.
What I see a lot these days are what the publishers call Bookazines. The gaming section has like "RetroGamer Presents The Ultimate Guide to the NES" and there's a shitload of HOW TO WIN AT FORTNITE and such. The tech ones have stuff like "Blogging: A Beginner's Guide", you get the idea.
To be fair, "high school kids who look and act like they're 25" has been a thing in US media for so long I don't think that was the issue. I mean...
Remember when these were supposed to be high school kids and everyone just ate it the fuck up?
Garfield and Stone were just not well cast. Garfield in particular had Parker coming off as a cocky asshole constantly, which is just so not Parker I don't know where to begin. It worked for his spidey (somewhat) but Maguire at least nailed that part of the role. HIS parker was convincingly a socially awkward, constantly down on his luck kid who didn't know what to do with the powers he had. Garfield's portrayal was a 180 from this, and I think that's a lot of why the negativity towards his version exists. He was the "anti-maguire" for no good reason and it went over like a lead balloon.
Squirrel Girl is an interesting case because Squirrel Girl ISN'T REALLY sold with the intention of being sold in 22 page floppies for specialty stores. Despite being 50ish issues in, that series sells virtually nothing through Diamond.
Marvel sells the bulk of that through their deal with Scholastic, and no one really knows how many copies of that Marvel moves through that market other than a few vague quotes that it's "a lot."
Which raises the question of 'Why bother with the floppies?"
Squirrel Girl is like their longest running series, and I don't understand why they bother with floppies.
Why is Aero, a webcomic that's dropped in 100 page multichapters, being sold as single issues?
Why aren't more things being sold like Kelly Thompson's JJ series?
Squirrel Girl is like their longest running series, and I don't understand why they bother with floppies.
Why is Aero, a webcomic that's dropped in 100 page multichapters, being sold as single issues?
Why aren't more things being sold like Kelly Thompson's JJ series?
There's also an issue where trades are an incomprehensible mess unless you already know what you want. Going to a book store and seeing 20 different volumes of Spider-Man from different eras, some not even properly numbered (like Brand New Day) probably scares off casual readers.
I always like when comic fans pretend like getting into comics isn't confusing as fuck and requires you to google a bunch of shit to figure out where to even begin.
Back in the day kids would just pick up any random comic and read it. Boom, you're into comics now.
Can you think of any medium where you need to do preliminary research?
Comics don't seem to be written like that anymore. Everything's a Character Defining Run.
It's all relative. Compared to almost anything else, that's a big fuckin' hurdle. There's plenty of people that get home, plop on the couch and flip through Netflix or whatever for the next thing and if they're not immediately grabbed, it's binned. Research beyond Rotten Tomatoes is asking a lot these days.
My first "real" comic as such was an issue of the Clone Saga. I was basically forged in fire.
Lol my first modern Marvel book was some random JMS issue of Spider-Man with him with Ezekiel. I was a kid and I did alright.
The internet age has conditioned people to do that whether it's required or not. Because there's so much out there and because something just for you is only a google search away, I think most people take that step whether they even realize it or not.
Here's a better question: Do I engage any piece of media sight unseen? Very rarely.
Even something as simple as reading the synopsis on the back of a novel - if you can stand in a book store and do that, I trust you're not so helpless you can't do the same with a graphic novel, whether we're talking about a big two character or anything else. If you just got out of your theater from Batman, Spidey, whatever, you can find a comic. Because chances are, you're not that miffed about the status quo, the run, the volume, etc. You could be lobotomized and still be able to find a trade with the character you want, with a "1" on the spine, and just enjoy your book.
Comics aren't doing good for a lot of reasons, I just think accessibility is much further down the list than a lot of distribution geeks realize.
More than anything, they're doing poorly because we aren't depression-era kids with no money and nothing to do. Comics have to compete with a ton of other stuff that's better funded, releases much faster, and usually on a bunch of different platforms.
ah yes, everyone loves coming home from the office , taking care of their family and then sitting down on the sofa to do a bit of light research on the history of the legion of super heroes timelines so they can dive into a comic book for the first time
It's not. My 7 year old loves them.
you don't have to do this any more than you did back in 1988 or whatever. As far as Marvel is concerned, most titles start at #1 and go to #15 or 20 to complete a single arc (or two, depending) before being cancelled and rebooted into something else. Everything you need to know about that series will be explained within those two dozen issues- there's no need to read comics from ten years ago to understand what's going on this week, the stories just aren't written that way.
Long time fans will likely appreciate winks, jokes, and nods to continuity but these aren't necessary to understand the story.
I don't think the issue is kids, it's more the college age/adults who can't wrap their minds around the idea that you don't need the entire knowledge of a characters continuity to enjoy a book.
Well, we DID just have MCU movie #22 and MCU movie #23 release in movie theatres and break records. There's definitely a lot of googling going on before casual fans walk in the theatre for those.
edit: Soap Operas are probably another good example of this. General Hospital has 14,000 episodes and has been running continuously since 1963. How does anyone watch any episodes of that, ever? Somehow housewives have watched it for decades, and there's even dedicated magazines to EXPLAIN the relationships going on that week sitting at your grocery stores.
Sure. I get that. but that's an erroneous expectation, not a flaw in the medium.
Bro, a new fan will have no clue that any of that is a thing.
My first comic book was the Dreamwave Mega Man. I remember being really disappointed that it never went past its four issues.
There's a difference between brushing up on My Hero Academia's wikipedia article to get a general synopsis and going to a forum to ask which Captain Marvel #1 you're supposed to buy.
There's a difference between brushing up on My Hero Academia's wikipedia article to get a general synopsis and going to a forum to ask which Captain Marvel #1 you're supposed to buy.
For sure.
Most people aren't asking any questions on any forum to begin with.
New fans will typically start at #1, and this is easy to do because #1s pop up every couple of months and few series run more than a couple dozen issues. The current format is designed to be as accessible as possible by avoiding labeling things issue #567 or whatever.
edit: looking at what's out this week-
Amazing spider man #25
Avengers #21
Black Cat #2
Champions #7
Giant Size X-statix #1
Invisible Woman #1
Ironheart #8
Miles Morales- Spider Man #8
Savage Sword of Conan #7
Thor #15
Venom #16
Wolverine and Captain America #1
anyone who wants to "start at the beginning" at #1 usually doesn't have very far to go.
We've had multiple instances of people making threads in the OT or people coming into this thread to say they want to get into comics but it's all just too confusing and they need advice.
Comics for new people is how everyone looks at the Kingdom Hearts storyline.
yeah pretty much this. you have to have some knowledge of all the convoluted-ness of comics to be overwhelmed by it. as a kid ignorant of all that stuff you just buy a book with a cool looking cover/main hero and read it. if you like it you buy another book in that series. then everything else just falls into place.
Again, a new person will look at this and be, like, "what the fuck?".
This doesn't seem confusing to you because you already understand it, a new person will be confused by this. Imagine trying to get into a TV show and there's multiple season 1s. Like, a ton of season 1s. And you might say, "well, it's two different things, you can't compare them" but that's how new people see it.
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