Comics have increased in price over the years not because of printing expenditures or the increase of page rates to creators, but because the ever-shrinking number of outlets the books are being sold to. You get the publishers to reinstate their mail order subscriptions. You get them to build their market through the newsstand again properly. Build the sales up by getting them back in the public eye, instead of hiding them in your little fanboy clubhouses, and then the price points will go down. The only problem is, the prices probably will stay where they are because they’ve not got the guts to lower them back to where they should be (about $1.50 cover price, comparably with the prices of most magazine price increases over the same time span).

And if worse comes to worse, you collect brand titles into anthology books and have higher page counts. But you don’t need to have 100-300 pages per issue at $3-$4. 64 pages of story with some advertising space in there is more than sufficient.

As for NARUTO and ONE PIECE and most of the rest of the manga – most are reprints for their respective publishers. As such, the publishers don’t pay the full going rate, only a reprint license fee. If Tokyopop or Del Rey actually had to pay equitable page rates to the creators for those materials, they wouldn’t be any $8.95 retail, I assure you. They would be more around the price point of $24.95 a book retail, and Manga would be doing a whole lot worse in sales.

You also then have an “all ages / early teen” monthly title that is always a one-shot self contained book for whatever it is your releasing. And no, you don’t have to have it in “DCU Animated” style art. It can be any art style and any writing style, as long as it’s self contained and well done.

That gives you even more diversity and opportunity to offer to the talent pool, and gives something to the casual buyer who can get in on the ground floor like Jim MacQ wants, before you lead them to the arcs and GNs.

Your students would be just as happy with self-contained short stories as you and I were when we were kids, Greg. They don’t really care if it’s 32 pages or 320 pages, as long as the whole story is there, they don’t have to buy any more books if they don’t want to, and the price is reasonable. It really is just that simple.

***********

I am trying to imagine how Marvel could work in this way. It’s not easy.

Sure it is. Let me show you.

Let’s take Spider-Man, shall we?

Let’s cut the releases down to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. These will be our monthly titles, scheduled to be released bi-weekly.

Then I schedule four quarterly 200 page original self-contained GNs for the year. This means I’m going to have two AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and two PETER PARKER GNs out each during 2007. Follow?

Then I solicit creators for the GNs. I go to my current writers on the monthly books and offer them the gig first, letting them know up front that this will be their focus piece for the character and that if they take this assignment, I’m going to replace them as writer on the monthly series for 2007. They give me two cool ideas, and I buy them. I then schedule the art team – it could be the team from the monthly book, it could be a completely different team. But that will be the team for that writer’s GN. I schedule the first AMAZING GN to be released in May 2007, and the first SPECTACULAR GN for July 2007. That gives the AMAZING GN team a maximum of 8 months to complete the story from today, and the SPECTACULAR team 10 months, given the necessary lead time for solicitations and production.

I then get two other creative teams and get them on board with two other GN ideas, and schedule them for October 2007 and December 2007 releases. Plenty of time for them to produce their books.

That covers my four original GNs.

Now, on to the monthlies.

Since AMAZING has May and October GNs, I schedule those two months to be produced by the respective creative teams as self-contained stories that had lead ins to their respective GNs, before they do the GNs. Same with PETER PARKER for July and December, respectively.

That leaves me with ten months open per title for the year.

In AMAZING, I hire my first creative team to write a four issue story arc to be released January to April. In May, I release a the one shot “fill in” by the GN team as the lead in story. From June through September, I have another four issue arc by either the same creative team as the Jan-April team, or a new team. In October, I do the one-shot fill in lead story for October’s GN.

November and December I hire someone to do a two part story and close out the year. Then the cycle begins all over again.

For PETER PARKER, I either hire one team or two teams to do two three issue story arcs through June. In July, I have the one-shot set up story for the GN. For August-October, I have one more three issue story arc, and a fill in one shot for November before the set up story for the December GN.

That takes care of Spider-Man.

For any solo character book that only has one title (THOR, HULK, CAPTAIN AMERICA, IRON MAN, etc.), I can do two GNs a year, scheduled for releases four to six months apart, staggered, and keep the same three issue story arc system, with one issue set up for the GN as described above.

For the team books like AVENGERS or THUNDERBOLTS or what have you, I would probably make the arcs six issues long instead of three, and only do one GN a year.

The only real problematic books are the X-Titles, and that’s a separate issue altogether that I would probably be tarred and feathered for no matter what I did with them.

The problem is, you really need to be able to schedule this sort of publishing system 12-16 months ahead of time, so by doing it now, I’d be racing the clock to put books out on time for 2007. If I were to schedule this for 2008, there would be far less problems. I also would likely be hiring a wider variety of talents, and when I collected my TPBs for each year, I would have 2-4 complete stories in each volume, instead of just selective issues for well received story arcs, which would be far better service to the “I’ll get in trade” crowd and could be perceived as a better bargain by casual consumers, as they would think, “Hey, I’m getting multiple stories here, instead of just one!”.

Oh, I agree absolutely, but MacQ already knows that, this is something we’ve talked about for years. But I’ll put it on the record for everyone else too.

Although kids are reading all sorts of comics, my classes are full of them. They just don’t read MARVEL AND DC comics. They think Spider-Man and Superman are movie characters. Which is a pity, or it would be if Marvel and DC had any interest in actually publishing kids’ comics and I really don’t see they do.

I do think that economics pretty much have killed the 32-pager as a single-issue kids’ package. Too thin, too pricey. If kids are going to read comics we have to get them into at least the Tokyopop or Archie digest format. My surmise based on what I see in my kids’ classes. They want books.

After you’ve freed yourself from the 7 x 10 32-page monthly shackles and transformed comics into true graphic novels, can you give that format back to the kids and impulse buyers?

Let the comic shops and bookstores be packed floor-to-ceiling with comic books of every shape and size; and let the corner crugstore have 7 x 10 32-page done-in-one all-ages comics at an affordable price, made as new-reader- and casual-reader-friendly as possible.

It doesn’t have to be either/or. It can be both. Let the mature, sophisticated comics take on whatever format best fits the needs of the story, and let there be a cheap, accessible format to bring kids back into the fold.

Butttt I think its because we hate to wait..i get mad when a book is late a month or 2 so waiting 6-9 months for the next chapter to come out would be murder for me..i grew up on monthies..im use to that monthly fix of FF or avengers would I but it sure I would..but id be more willing to buy it if it had chapters..ultimate x-men for eaxmple..when I got no new books ill grab a trade..i like that..but for all my books id go mad with waiting.

Also wouldn’t shops lose money? If all things were trades..then why would we need comic shops?? Wouldn’t marvel lose money as well I mean some fans buy the monthly and the trade(I did for astonishing x-men) when I go back to re-read an old arc/story line I love to grab a trade instead of taking each issue out then ..having to open another and another to read a whole story.. I do agree trades are cool but ..replace monthlies?? That’s crazy talk!!

I would love minis as a trade only…that would be soo cool..like x-23..or anialation(sp??)…even house of m..if they did that id buy more especialy if they keep doing these “buy 50 issues to get the whole story events!!” well id buy the whole story if some parts were in trade….but then some would be angry that they had to buy a 12.00 book to get the missing part of the story…but its still cheaper than buy each issue monthly..( I do this now..like when frontline mcv comes out ill get it )but as bill reed stated…that smell ..that comic shop smell ..thats like a mom hug when your 3. it comforts you.

But I still bought x-men through out the 90s so what do I know?

So yeah my votes for digest

And as to why??

Because I don’t want to wait a year for the next chapter…thats like tv shows and their season finale(when is lost coming back??!!)

And the shape/size?? I don’t know im an 80s kid and I got a ton of those marvel collections (like wmomen of marvel) size really dosent matter unless its page length.. also when alex ross did those dc books..the format was diffreent and it didn’t fit in my comic boxes…sooo the comic box makers are in cohoots with marvel to enslave us all!!!

Dam that’s long/

Well, I have had six months of watching industry decisions that seem to get progressively stupider and stupider, and fans that seem to DEMAND the mainstream drop any idea of opening up to new readers or new formats if it means sacrificing their precious shared-universe continuity. I’m the surly one on the blog — I blame the current dangerously-inbred readership for things most pundits blame publishers for.

I’m basically optimistic about comics as a form. I’m even pretty optimistic about superhero/fantastic-adventure comics. But I’m not terribly optimistic about Marvel or DC doing anything soon that I’m really going to like a lot, given current trends, and the things that seem to sell in (comparatively) big numbers.

I stopped reading “The X-Men” for similar reasons. What was the point of continuing if I couldn’t follow the storyline without buying “New Mutants,” “X-Factor” and whatever Wolverine miniseries was out that month?

These days, I buy TPBs exclusively, and even then, I generally avoid the new stuff. Story considerations aside, even a collected version of something like “Infinite Crisis” would be a less-than-fulfilling experience without the crossovers.

Lots of great stuff!

Despite how with you I am on the whole “completists ruin everything” sentiment, a lot of your argument doesn’t really apply to me one way or the other, because I “wait for the trade” on most of the comics that are serialized GNs, because, hey, they’re going to be a full GN or series of GNs at some point. Hell, I’m so spoiled with self contained GNs and the bulk of the Essentials that I barely even follow those kinds of books anymore (I haven’t bought a Y trade since the second one, although I sort of intend to at some point).

I only get in to single issue serialization if it’s a limited series or ongoing where there’s an end to the run in mind (like Morrison’s X-Men), and even then, it has to be for books that I absolutely cannot wait for the next issue of. Otherwise, I’ll just get it in a trade a few months down the line. But I can’t wait for something like 7 Soldiers or All-Star Superman (even though that will probably read really well as a complete package). Hell, it’s pretty much just Morrison whose single issue stuff I follow. Morrison Morrison Morrison! (I’m not sure if he’s been mentioned as often and fawningly around here as he was when he was more prolific, so I’m trying to correct that).

I forget where I was going with any of this, but good column as always, Greg. Gives me food for thought.

No worries, mate, I think I read totally the wrong tone into the comment anyway. Again, great article as always, even if I don’t totally agree with this one.
To me, the Crossgen thing is more evidence of what I’m talking about: even if you forced the publishers to release graphic novels exclusively, they wouldn’t be real graphic novels, because the publishers would find a way to stretch the story out and make you buy the next one.

Some comics are meant to be serialised. Sure, move Bendis to trades-only if you want (not that Marvel would ever do it, because of the money they’d be afraid of losing), but I think a lot of comics- particularly superhero comics- have evolved out of that great tradition of the cliffhanger from film serials or tv shows. Unfortunately, thanks to the price of single issues, this has come to be an expensive tradition, but it’s not going anywhere.

Now it can be told: here is where the impetus for this column came from. Three or four years ago, doing press coverage for Jonah at the San Diego Convention, I drew the short straw and got sent to Alessi’s roll-out panel publicizing his “comics on DVD” with trailers and demos and so on. To me the whole thing looked a lot like the old Marvel Superheroes cartoons-that-don’t-move shorts from the mid-60′s (available now at a convention bootlegger near you, for the morbidly curious.) I dutifully wrote it up and Jonah published it, you can probably find it in the CBR News archives somewhere.

Well, we all know what happened to CrossGen. But I quite liked Ruse and I remembered how excited Alessi and his minions were about this DVD project so when my local shop had a bunch of them marked down to a couple of bucks in the budget bin I picked up Meridian on a whim. (I had a vague memory of our friend Lorinda liking that title so I thought why not?) Seven issues on the DVD — more than the first trade, I think — and the story went NOWHERE. Glaciers move faster than this story. And at the end of some 70 minutes of cartoon (that didn’t move) it said, “To Be Continued…”

Now, I’m 44, I bought it mostly because it was cheap and one of the extras was a how-to on drawing comics I can use in my kids’ cartooning class… but I got to thinking how LIVID I would have been if I was a mother who’d bought this for her kid. Or if I’d been a fifteen-year-old who was really into fantasy stories and dragons and stuff and been hooked by the back cover synopsis. Remember the full price on it new was something like 14.99. For that kind of dough I’d think you have the right to expect your DVD to be COMPLETE.

And then it occurred to me that we NEVER expect that in comics, and that was what led Alessi to his distorted expectation. You can’t apply in-comics economic logic to the outside world, even in comparable entertainment media, because IT’S INSANE. There came the column.

And Bill, that Thor story rocked WAY hard. It was during Len Wein and John Buscema’s tenure on the title and Wein wrote some very fun stories there; I am counting the days till the Essentials catch up to it. That run also spun out the “Warriors Three” one-shot of Marvel Spotlight which may be one of my favorite comics ever.

End footnote.

I know that I, personally, get a mix of TPB and single comics right now. Pretty much, anything by my favorite authors, I’m getting every month – Peter David, Warren Ellis, and a few others. Other stuff that I like, I’m going to get in TPB form. One example of that is Ultimate Spider-Man, which I’m slowly picking up in those beautiful hardcovers.

I don’t think the “sampling” issue is a particularly relevant one. People don’t get an opportunity to “sample” regular novels – I’m not aware of the DaVinci Code publishing individual chapters anywhere, for instance. People buy it, or get it from the library, based on what they read in reviews or hear from friends. A novel that doesn’t get good reviews like that simply doesn’t sell, whether it’s in Borders or Amazon or not. A great novel is going to sell as word-of-mouth spreads.

And, novelists also publish novels, not necessarily knowing if they’re going to make money or not. How many people try to make it in the novel-writing business every year, only to fail? The guys that people like, that sell comics – the Brian Bendises of the world, for instance – are going to sell graphic novels and TPBs as well. If the format ever switched to a novelization form permanently, you’d have a similar function as happens in contemporary fiction – the Dan Browns, the John Grishams, the Stephen Kings of the world sell a LOT of novels on their name alone. The Harry Turtledoves get through to their niche market, and so on.

Pretty much, though, this might not necessarily drive the local comic book store out of business. Besides being a gathering place for local comics geeks, it does give a place for local gamers to gather – I know that my local store packs the place for their weekly Magic, Yu-Gi-Oh & other tournaments. This would require local comic book stores to come up with an alternative way to run their business, because they would NOT be able to compete with their local Borders, Wal-Marts and Amazons.

That may be the case for some humans, but not all. Many, like myself, have made the change to trade only, and they come out irreguarly.
As I said before, personally I’d like a big volume a year.
A lot of fantasty Authors with series do that, and they sell in the truck loads.
Take Raymond E. Feist for instance – he has me hooked even though I haven’t enjoyed his last several books as much as the originals, and he releases like clockwork one a year.
Why can’t comics do that?

Cheeseburger: “However, most people, myself included (most recently the first 4 weeks of 52), end up sticking with a book for 6 issues or more for the sole purpose of making the decision of whether we want to KEEP buying it. Rarely, I think, does a comic reader get one issue and judge whether or not they will continue with it based on it. Granted the $$$ is spread out over several months, but it still works out the same.”

When I brought singles, and with trades, you only get one shot to impress me.
If I wasn’t satisified, but saw potential, I’ll flick through the next volume before picking it up.
I’d alsolike to quibble with “most people”.
Maybhe that’s what you and your friends do, but sales figures show that people will pick up a first issue, but not nessecarily a second.
If a writer doesn’t have the skills to grab me with their first issue, then they just don’t have enough skill for my taste.
Which is another arguement for bigger books – I’ve read many books where I didn’t like the first chapter, but pushed on, as I already have the whole book, and quite enjoyed it.
With singles I don’t do that, because it would cost me more money to see what happens next.

You really don’t need to read a whole four-to-six issue arc to know if it’s worth getting; a writer’s grasp of plot, pacing, and characterization are pretty apparent by the end of 22 pages. Storytelling quality doesn’t usually vary that wildly over the course of the average arc; as a general rule, if you don’t like the first issue of a given creative team on a given book, you’re probably not going to like the rest of the story they tell.

This is yet another instance where comic book readers really do seem less rational than most consumers. Who says, “I really didn’t like that episode, but I think I’ll watch the show for the next several weeks just to see if it starts getting good”?