Comic Book Resources

For me, no.

I am fairly good at keeping a train of thought, so an ad won't disrupt my involvement in a story. If Marvel and DC want to make more cash be my guest. It's a sign that the industry is on the upswing.

On a sidenote, those D&D ads are hillarious, sad, and accurate.

it certainly can, yes. I see no reason they can't put a little more thought into where the ads are placed in an issue. But I suppose its a moot point, since no one other than us nerds will even read these comics in single issues anyways.

Oh yes, absolutely. In the case of something like Superman Confidential #1, the quantity and placement of the ads really, really disrupts the flow of the story and can often rob key moments of a lot of their impact. I don't mind ads at all if they're at a non-offensive quantity, but it's definitely possible to go overboard, and I think a lot of the Big 2 monthlies are doing that right now.

I find multi-page inserts, which have shown up a lot in DC's comics over the last few months, to be particularly annoying.

I was going to pick up the latest issue of Robin, until I found some crazy insert for some other comic featuring Robin (but in that stupid, super deformed style I hate) which confused me on my casual flickthrough...I thought there was some drastic change of style in the issue or something.

Then I saw this terrible fold out thing complete with 3D GLASSES.

FOR A STUPID ADVERT ABOUT SMALL MODEL TOYS.

gah.

Bring back the Count Dante adverts, that's what I say.

Yes.

I'm not directly bothered by them while reading -- I just flip past them, and rip out the big inserts and stuff -- but I'm annoyed by them after the fact for two reasons:

1) There's no direct consumer benefit from the increased ads. The comic's not any cheaper (we could argue that it's putting off future price increases, but who knows) and we don't get anything extra for it.

2) Retailers have to pay extra shipping for the extra weight, which is pretty ridiculous.

I've never had issues with ads ruining the flow of a story, in fact I think if ads are placed right, I think it can help increase tension in a book.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no...and ironically, it has a lot to do with how well the ads themselves are designed.

THose HeroClix inserts, for example, or the promos for DC's product-placement comic Rush City, really screw with my reading because, well, they're comics. I have to pause a moment and process that they're not story pages before moving on. But really, any genuinely eye-catching ad is going to do that, to one extent or another. Ads with a lot of colorful visual elements do stop me as I'm reading and pull me out of the story.

They also ensure that I avoid whatever product is being advertised in hopes that fewer or duller ads will turn up in my comics.

Honestly, I never noticed until people complain about it online. I don't care in the slightest.

No, excpet for those damn inserts that break up two page spreads.

And does anyone remember the American Virgin ad in that issue of Y: the Last Man? That was distracting as hell.

The worst culprit I've seen recently was Eternals #5. After a double page spread, a single page of story then another ad; if I'm not mistaken, the ratio of story to ad is 1:1. Very disruptive.

The ones that really bother me are the ads on thicker stock than the rest of the comic. It makes accurate page-turning a real chore. I despises them.

It doesn't affect my enjoyment, but it does affect whether or not I'll pick the book up in the first place: If I'm skimming something in the shop and get overwhelmed by ads, I might not bother. Superman Confidential was a good example - because of that godawful 3D insert, I barely could flip through it; that moved it down from "potential purchase" to "maybe check out the trade."

That said, I hate ads in general. I read plenty of books without ads, and switched to buying several series in trades. If I can get a book without ads, that's what I'll do most of the time.

They totally annoy me, and are one of the reasons I stick with TPBs.

In my perfect world, all of the ads come after the story, but we see them all anyway because mixed in among the ads are letter pages and previews and creator bios and Secret Files and design sketches and such.

I really miss letter pages.

Though in the last few years Marvel has been putting ads in the back of their trades. I wonder if there will ever be a time when they get brought forward. Probably not scattered throughout, but maybe at the issue breaks?

Normally no. However, the insert in the middle of the double-page spread in that recent issue of Ultimate Spider-Man was unbelievable. I really don't know how that got past anyone at Marvel and I can only hope that at least they are sincere when they apologize for that one.

Other than that, the amount of ads doesn't particularly bother me, as it hasn't messed up my reading of the comic in any way.

I never had a problem with the amount, but I have had issues with the placement of some ads. Marvel ruined a couple recent splash pages by putting an ad right smack in the middle of them. I've also read a couple books from both Marvel & DC lately where I've eagerly flipped the page to catch what was about to happen, only to run into about 3-5 pages worth of ads. That totally ruined the flow and momentum of the story.

Personally, I liked the way Alan Moore's ABC books did ads, just stick them all at the back of the book and don't interrupt the flow of the story itself.

Kind of. Just when they happen with such rapidity.

But there's much more important things to get het up about.

Like how stupid Moon Knight is.

Ads? You mean those non-story pages I flip past?

What about them?

I only get upset about ad placement in a comic if there's an ad slapped in the middle of a double-page spread, or a succession of right-or-left hand ads that start pretty obviously disrupting the comic's intended layout. Basically if I can't tune the ads out for my first read, I get pissed.

It never used to bother me until I first had it pointed out online (Damn you Internet! Damn you all to HELLLLL!). Now it bugs me so much that I've dropped nearly all Marvel titles (and Civil War made a pretty good jumping off point-- it's no real coincidence that the only one left is Ennis's Punisher). DC up to now haven't been as flagrant about it as Marvel. I find that I actually read more of the ads in title when they are all bunched together at the end, since when I'm reading i invariably am more interested in the story and flip them without reading.

Yes. They are a contributing factor to my waiting for collections of story arcs.

Only when the break up double-page spreads. Otherwise, no. Not one bit. You finish the page on the left, there is an ad on the right, you just flip the page.

The only thing that bothers me is when I find the ad more interesting than the comic I'm reading.

Ads are a little annoying, and every once in a while there's so much crap stapled into the middle that I find myself trying to remove it before I even settle down to read... but really, it only started to bother me when the story pacing itself changed. If I felt like there was more going on in the 22 story pages between the ads, the ads themselves wouldn't loom so large. Being annoyed by ads is a much larger percentage of a 5-minute reading expereince than of a twenty-five minute or half-hour one.

Less and less since I increasingly switched to trades!

Somewhat. I definitely notice it more on the first pass-through- later they're easier to skip.

What gets to me is the degree to which advertising just keeps growing in all media. TV shows are shorter than they used to be and have squeezed credits to fit in more promos. Theaters have solid blocks of the things. Normal magazines have about 12 pages of advertising before the table of contents. When the Hell is enough going to be enough?

"When the Hell is enough going to be enough?"

...as someone who spends every day battling Adware makers, I can answer that with a:

NEVER.

The number of ads doesn't really bother me as long as the page count of the story isn't reduced. What I don't like are the gloss inserts in the middle of double-lage spreads, the punchout 3-D glasses, and the gatefold inserts and other stuff like that, which actually interfere with reading the darn book. If they're in the middle of the book, I usually rip them out carefully before I read the comic.

They don't bother me as much as the increased crossovers and events in Marvel and DC comics.

2 page spread advertisements take me out of the story

It never used to bug me until recently when:

- You'd have five pages of ads breaking up what the creators clearly intended to be a double page spread, and

- The sheer number of ad pages is either equal to or greater than the story pages and this somehow justifies raising the price of the book itself.

Marvel's the worst of the two, since both of the above have led me to drop one of their titles, even though I enjoy the bits on those increasingly rare story pages. It's made it easier for me to understand the 'wait for the trade' mentality at last.

Nope.

On a related story, what reason is there not to get a story in trade format instead of floppies, anymore? Especially from Marvel, which collects everything.

I didn't really noticed them.
I am tearing out every page with ads on both sides, though.

Not at all. But then I read trades and the ads (if any) get stuck at the back

I also find myself "editing" the centerspread ads out of my comics if no story pages are lost. Especially the 8 or 12 page inserts with different paper stock than the rest of the book. They serve no purpose, and there's no way I'll ever miss them down the road.

They only bother me when it disrupts my comic by breaking up a 2-page scene, when it's a multi-page pamphlet of a totally different type of paper, or worst of all.. CARDSTOCK!

"On a related story, what reason is there not to get a story in trade format instead of floppies, anymore? Especially from Marvel, which collects everything. "

I like the magazines. I like collecting them and I like getting a new story every month. I'd hate to only get Spider-man twice a year.

I find trades preferable for self-contained works like prestige mini-series. For individual monthly issues of a comic, I don't enjoy trade format very much. Something about it seems to enhance and preserve whatever crappiness was inherent in the story.

Then there's stuff like NextWave and All-Star Superman that's clearly meant to be read in single issues. I like having the floppies around for those, and it's doubtful I'd seek out either title in trade format.

When the ads were printed on single pages (ad on right-hand page, turn it over there's another ond), it seemed somehow less intrusive. Now that four out of every five right hand pages are commercials, overlooking them out isn't so simple.

That's no accident -- in the west (because of how we're taught to read) the human eye is naturally drawn to the right, so those right-hand pages are prime advertising real-estate. It's not the number of plugs that's gotten out of hand, it's the way they're PLACED that grates. It's become content, ad, content, ad, content ad, ad, etc.

Superman Confidential is a great example. I like Cooke, I like Sale, I like Supes... it was a no brainer. Until I flipped through the issue and was completely put off by the volume of non-story clutter. Comics are expensive enough, I won't pay $2.99 for 20+ pages of material I'd rather throw away.

Worst of all, it's soured me on on the whole SC enterprise and completely killed my excitement for the project. All-Star Superman will fill my Supes needs and there are plenty of other good comics on which to spend that three bucks.

Anyone else find it ironic that there's an ad at the bottom of the original post?

I don't mind them, as long as they are clearly not content. If I have to spend time discerning whether it's content or not, then it's no longer automatic.

However, as someone who likes to put away my comics and save them, it's disconcerting for me to read about people tearing out pages in comics.

Re: #28- I think there has to be some theoretical maximum. It's like the Laffer Curve for taxation- with 0% advertising the companies don't benefit, with 100% advertising they don't benefit because nobody watches or reads, it just becomes junk mail. So I'm thinking they have to put on the brakes before it actually becomes impossible to get content from media.

But maybe that's too idealistic.

Absolutely YES. The increase has become quite noticeable, and it gets annoying.

But the when you're reading a highly-decompressed storyline as well...!

It's like a slap in the face. Nothing sucks so much as thinking you've got another four or five pages of comic, only to discover after a bit of page-turning that what you just read was the damn cliffhanger...

Ads had never bothered me until last week, when on two separate occasions I accidentally skipped over a page of story because the page was sandwiched between two clusters of advertisments. That bothered me.