there's a lot of bi-weekly / non-monthly comics that would get messed up by that
― Nhex, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:40 (six years ago) link
Fuck 'em!
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:41 (six years ago) link
Srsly, tho -- don't most consumer publications use cover date as the main thing, and then also print "Vol. #, Issue #" in the publication data (so if you're afraid you missed an issue, or in cases of irregular publication schedule, you can keep track)?
I swear that issue numbering is one of those super geeky comics things that I would think serves as an accessibility barrier, no matter if the numbers are high or low... Isn't it cooler to ask the guy/gal at the counter if they have the March issue of "Captain Marvel," rather than "Issue #15" (*push glasses up on bridge of nose*)?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:54 (six years ago) link
I kind of hate calling into comic shops and and having to say something like "hey, er, do you have Captain America 673" but that is *literally* what the clerk is there for so I guess it's ok
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 January 2018 23:58 (six years ago) link
I find comic shop employees/owners often treat customers as if they're "in the way"; so AFAIC, they can and should answer whatever you ask when you call.
I was once browsing in a shop on a Tuesday afternoon, and a guy came over and scolded / warned me that I couldn't touch the new issues he was putting out, as they're embargoed until the next morning. (I was like, "Gotcha... I'm not looking at those.")
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:04 (six years ago) link
they're not all Comic Book Guys anymore, these days. most owners i've met have been quite chill
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:07 (six years ago) link
xpost I'm sorry that that's been your experience, but it's fairly reductive as a general statement. There are plenty of cool and helpful comic shop staffers. None of the shops I visit semi-regularly are run by chuds.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:10 (six years ago) link
Also, the place you mention shouldn't be putting embargoed issues out on a Tuesday. That shit's kinda on them.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:11 (six years ago) link
Didn't mean to be reductive, tho it has been my experience at several places (one of which went out of business soon afterward, so there's that). There is a shop in my hood whose owner is cool, and has a female-centric focus in the product she stocks, which I think is interesting. Somewhat less fortunately (IMO), she calls her shop "The Perky Nerd" (she also serves coffee).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:14 (six years ago) link
As a former book (and comic book) store clerk, I didn't work with a lot of chuds, but any public-facing retail job will turn you into an asshole eventually.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 25 January 2018 00:19 (six years ago) link
there's a lot of bi-weekly / non-monthly comics that would get messed up by thatBi-weekly comics are a bad thing for the DM overall so discouraging them is only a positive
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 02:23 (six years ago) link
is there anything good for the direct market that doesn’t involve enforcing the weird direct market rules more stringently to make sure people only can buy comics according to existing rules?
I wonder if upturning the ideas of what’s bad and coming up with things that fit how people who want to casually buy comics instead of enforcing the rules would work better
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 05:24 (six years ago) link
Marvel kind of flirted with the idea with their “timely comics” revival but limited it to a specific collection idea
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 05:26 (six years ago) link
how are bi-weekly comics hurting the direct market? i've only seen 'em for very successful titles like Batman or Superman
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 06:50 (six years ago) link
Biweekly titles require Marvel's customers to spend double upfront every month on titles they "have" to stock, reducing the capital available to invest on material that grows their business with their customers
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 06:53 (six years ago) link
is there anything good for the direct market that doesn’t involve enforcing the weird direct market rules more stringently to make sure people only can buy comics according to existing rules?I wonder if upturning the ideas of what’s bad and coming up with things that fit how people who want to casually buy comics instead of enforcing the rules would work betterCasual customers are not the ones who come in so frequently that biweekly titles suit them. If the shops have spent 79% of their budget on stuff of which they haven't been given time to assess the sales potential, likely with bullshit variant percentages leaving them choking on even more unsold stock, there is even less possibility for them to shelf-stock with material that appeals to the casual buyer.
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:00 (six years ago) link
Heroes World was TWENTY-THREE years ago. To imagine that Marvel will do something revolutionary to repair the damage of that one act, let alone what they have continued to do since then, is more creative than anything they've published in that time.
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:06 (six years ago) link
seems like the answer to most shops (as I've seen, anyway) is to diversify and get away from relying on floppies as main income. floppies are far less than half the product in most shops i've been in this past decade, filled with toys, collectibles, trades, etc
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:25 (six years ago) link
those rules for prebuys from Diamond are obviously awful ofc
― Nhex, Thursday, 25 January 2018 07:31 (six years ago) link
Sadly they seem to diversify by having walls of fucking funko pops.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 25 January 2018 09:45 (six years ago) link
started to draft a post of my past comics buying habits but it's really tl;dr
I guess the bottom line is that Marvel and company need to make some significant change or single monthly issues are pretty much fucked, more so than they are now.
If they were a freestanding company and not owned by Disney I'd joke that they'd be merging with Funko
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 14:58 (six years ago) link
Are digital floppies from the Big Two still the same price as physical floppies? The physical floppies that often include a free digital download? Because if I were looking to make changes, that's a place I'd start.
― Senior Soft-Serve Tech at the Froyo Arroyo (Old Lunch), Thursday, 25 January 2018 15:03 (six years ago) link
Yes, although I believe they're discounting more rapidly. Digital pricing is a complete shitshow, though
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 15:55 (six years ago) link
marvel's (6 month late) subscription service Unlimited seems the right model but i have no idea how much money it's making.
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:17 (six years ago) link
unlimited is fantastic value, even if the app could use a good overhaul
― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:20 (six years ago) link
It's really weird in that Marvel Unlimited still has some horrible app design decisions, freezes on start because it updates all the "new/featured issue" feeds before it lets you do anything, has weird metadata problems (clicking on a writer's name sometimes sends you to some series from 1995 instead of books by that writer), and their curation is iffy
Comixology Unlimited also has some Marvel stuff, although typically only to tease current series, and has none of the technical problems. The depressing thing to me is that each has an exclusive Black Panther series (read neither so far) in the run up to the movie. Comixology gets an original series that's free with Unlimited or purchasable per issue. Marvel Unlimited gets... "BLACK PANTHER: SOUL OF A MACHINE" which is a multi-issue Lexus advertisement
Somehow MU has the car advertisement in their "most read" section, over the Priest run they have highlighted in their featured content. o_O
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:27 (six years ago) link
Marvel had a job posting for someone to work on the app and I almost wanted to apply, not because I'd want the job, but because I'm embarrassed by how bad some of the issues with the app are
― mh, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:28 (six years ago) link
it's def better than it was a couple of years ago but they certainly don't seem to be in a hurry to fix any of the longstanding issues
― your skeleton is ready to hatch (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:34 (six years ago) link
Said this before, but there's gotta be a ton of nerds who would literally pay to work on cataloguing and fixing Unlimited. It's lame that that's still not fixed.
A small problem that's always bugged me with iPads and Comixology - why is the page always resized to fit screen? Seems much better to fix it to page width and scroll a little.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 25 January 2018 16:38 (six years ago) link
It is very very weird that a major event book is being written by an ex-ILXor and Mark Waid.
The book itself isn’t, sadly, very weird at all, just packing 3 or 4 dozen characters in and ending with another person who’s been injected into continuity as an Avengers founder.
― Andrew Farrell, Friday, 2 February 2018 23:05 (six years ago) link
What’s the deal with Ms. Sentry? And why should anyone care? So far this thing’s a steaming pile.
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 3 February 2018 00:02 (six years ago) link
^ yr reading marvel comics tbh
― Haribo Hancock (sic), Saturday, 3 February 2018 07:48 (six years ago) link
sadly true
― EZ Snappin, Saturday, 3 February 2018 16:06 (six years ago) link
Kinda not the look I was expecting: https://pagesix.com/2018/01/25/first-look-at-brie-larson-as-captain-marvel/
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:01 (six years ago) link
She is too young. I assume the green is either to enable digital replacement because of because the costume is still Kree(ish)?
― rb (soda), Saturday, 3 February 2018 19:49 (six years ago) link
Beyond the costume — when I heard “set in the ’90s,” I guess I wasn’t expecting her to literally have the “Rachel” haircut.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 3 February 2018 22:59 (six years ago) link
it's the original Kree costume, makes sense
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:00 (six years ago) link
candid set photos always look like garbage tbf
― i gotta be a gazpacho man (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:01 (six years ago) link
word
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 February 2018 23:02 (six years ago) link
If you are drawing women characters, you may not want to make their boobs sketchy, impressionistic blobs: http://media.comicbook.com/2018/02/x-men-red-1-1080574.jpeg
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:22 (six years ago) link
I for one am scandalized to see comics art that betrays a hazy understanding of human anatomy, particularly female human anatomy. An unprecedented affront imo.
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:44 (six years ago) link
decades of mainstream comics have warped my mind and my thought was "whatever, seems ok"
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:09 (six years ago) link
The new Jean Grey costume is a... weird bit of design. Cheek and forehead pads?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:13 (six years ago) link
I think it's pretty much the classic headpiece from the 90s but most of it's covered up by her hair
not that it ever made a lot of sense as a practical piece of clothing
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:17 (six years ago) link
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/cmx-images-prod/Item/609190/609190._SX1280_QL80_TTD_.jpg
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:18 (six years ago) link
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, February 15, 2018 9:44 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mh, Thursday, February 15, 2018 10:09 AM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The bar has been raised, tho -- there's been some great art in recent years, and I'm looking for that trend to continue! (That said, I know I'm nitpicking here; and this artist doesn't seem bad overall, if maybe not my style.)
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link
There is nothing classic about any 90s Marvel designs
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:26 (six years ago) link
I particularly liked the way David Lopez drew Laura (see below), because he gave her a somewhat unique anatomy (shorter/ more muscular) -- similar to Logan, which made sense. But subsequent artists have drawn her taller/leaner. (Not that I obsess over female anatomy in comics, but it was handled so poorly for so long...)
http://www.multiversitycomics.com/wp-content/themes/mvc/images/timthumb.php?src=https://multiversitystatic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2015/12/All-New-Wolverine.jpg&q=95&w=488&zc=1&a=t
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:29 (six years ago) link
Well, David Lopez is a legitimately good artist. Granted, Marvel does employ an unusually high number of those at the moment. But there are also probably not enough good artists to cover all 453,921 titles they put out every month, so you're gonna get some weird boobs from time to time.
― I Wanna Be A Door (Old Lunch), Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:35 (six years ago) link
I had the same thought as EZ immediately after typing the word "classic" but.. I think that is really where they're at with their throwback strategy right now.
― mh, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link