Monday, June 6, 2011

My disconnect with many comic readers

Looking at a lot of different geek forums, I have been surprised that this seems to be one of the most popular sentiments about the DC relaunches: "I am so excited about this. I am reading marvel, but now I can read some DC without worrying about lots of old continuity."

This reaction makes me wonder if these people made sure to read all the Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Avengers from the 60's to the present before reading any new marvel.

Of course there are titles like Sandman or Y the Last Man. Stuff with a beginning, middle and end. But in superhero comics there is no end, and "beginnings" seem to happen every 10-15 years. Even as a kid I knew this. I never went up to the cashier and asked how could I read detective comics #487 without reading the four hundred and eighty six before it.

A lot of these characters have existed over 75 years. Sure, you can get the archives and check out the art form in it's infancy. But you need know nothing to dive into a mainstream  supers tale!

Don't Be That Guy.

Friday, June 3, 2011

New DCU or old/new DCU or will digitial kill my comics take your pick

So with DC's big annoucment this week we have been getting a lot of questions.  What do we think?  Will it hurt Tribe business?  Will it be a total reboot?

Roy thought it would be a good idea if we had a blog post to answer some of these things.  He thought I should be the one to write it, my guess is because he is now on his weekend.   So here it goes:

The digital annoucnment does not concern me in the slightest.  Most of our customers do not buy digital comics.  Those that do are supplementing their buying that way not replacing.  We have also seen those that buy digital come back and purchase the trades collecting their digital stories.  I am sure you will be reading and hearing about how digital will kill floppy sales.  This may eventually be true.  However they said the same thing almost 12 years ago when both DC and Marvel moved to collected trades of their current runs.  Many people predicted people would move away from monthly to get the collected editions.  What really happened was some people switched over, some bought both, and others got into it just to get the trades.  Only time will tell on digital and the future it holds for the industry.

As for the New DCU.  DC sent an email to retailers explaining that was not a reboot.  It seems they are gonig to be keeping some aspects, if not most, of the current timeline.  As a reader I am very nervous.  Most of my favorite comic characters are DC 2nd and 3rd tier.  They are usually the ones to get the most "reimagining."  As a retailer I am very excited by this.  Right after Infinite Crisis DC did a one year later jump.  Many people picked up those books to see what all the excitment was.  It did not work out as well as it could of, mainly because several creative directions were not to fans liking.  However if this is done right it could greatly increase DC and Tribes sales.  How can I not love that.  DC is also the company that goes out of their way to help  retailers.  Many of these #1, #2, and #3's will be returnable so that we can take a risk and not lose our shirts as it were.

So I guess the over all upshot is Digital no worries.  Reboot (or whatever it is) reader in me nervous.  Retailer in me is excited.

In other news Roy thinks this will change nothing and it is a bunch of hype.

There you go