--ComicBookResources.com
-Because we are desperately trying to justify charging you $3.99 for 20 pages of story.
“We’re committed to bringing fans the best value in comics. By including codes for free digital copies in all our $3.99 super hero comics, we’re doing just that” said David Gabriel, SVP of Sales, Marvel Entertainment. “We’ve seen a tremendous response to the digital codes in Avenging Spider-Man, our Season One graphic novels and the Ultimate Comics line. The positive reactions from both retailers and fans make it clear that including these codes with our books drives customers into comic stores on a repeated basis.”
--ComicBookResources.com
-But if I only want to read the comic digitally why would I go into a comic book store to buy a book with a digital code?
-If you really wanted to give fans the best value you would stop trying to make gimmicks work?
-How did that $5 coupon work out for the retailers?
-I wonder if the people who buy the comic with the digital code are just giving the code away to friends or maybe they are selling it for a dollar or two to get back some money for that 20 page comic book.
""Self cover” prints cover and insides on the same stock, and the cover is printed as part of the internal pages. Which also means the page count drops slightly – instead of 24 or 32 pages, with four pages of cover, now those four pages will be printed as part of the multiple-of-eight page count."
--BleedingCool.com
-So, not only is the cover now cheaper material that can easily be damaged (i.e. ripped, sweat rings from clammy fingers, or even folded wrong) you are also going to lose pages on the $2.99 titles. I thought cheaper material meant you could keep cost down.
Febuary Sales Chart Numbers were released and Marvel did well while DC fell off a little. Of course there was no mention of this:
"Cut out the double-shipping books and the $3.99 price point, and these charts look a lot different for @Marvel..."
--@RyanHigginsRyan
-Or the fact that there were some increases in sales from other publishers who had titles sell out left and right.
After I laughed at all this Marvel garbage (especially since Aquaman beat every Marvel book for the second month in a row)I was sad, because with these changes I will most likely stop getting Marvel titles in single issue format all together. Marvel keeps trying to draw their own line, and I'm not impressed with what that represents; gimmicks which try to justify lower production quality, a hard push to physical readers to go digital which isn't necessary, and the fact that Marvel seems to have no real grasp of their readership or just don't care.
So, I'm drawing my own line...
I haven't bought a marvel title in probably a year or so outside of Daredevil, and a few random issues of things here and there.
ReplyDeleteI was planning on switching to all digital for space reasons, but this might make me buy a few physical titles still. So it will help some comic stores get a few dollars from me that they might not have otherwise. I hope more companies do this since I'm not buying many marvel titles at the moment.
Understand the space issue, but still wanting certain titles in your physical collection. I just don't want to spend $3.99 on that few pages of story.
DeleteIt's not like low production quality has been exclusive to Marvel lately: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/05/david-mazzucchelli-hopes-people-dont-buy-batman-year-one/
ReplyDeleteI like that the $3.99 titles are coming with a code now, so i can give them to my friends who don't read comics. You say they don't have a grasp on their readership, but honestly i don't think either of the big two really do; nevertheless i still somehow enjoy them
Giving away the code to your friends...you are a kind man (in the drug dealer sort of way), but if they get exposed to comics digitally and that doesn't (with Marvel) support local comic book shops.
DeleteOr my dad who doesn't buy comics anyway. It's not like i'm going to use them. On the other hand, I can give away a few codes and maybe there'll be a slim chance that they'll buy in a shop, but very few/none of my friends actually read comics regularly anyway.
DeleteNever mind, i'm listening to the most recent CC episode and you're already aware of this
ReplyDelete