“You want it to be one way….But it’s the other way “ – Marlo Stanfield
That is my favorite quote from HBO’s The Wire, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. It takes place in a scene where Marlo, a Baltimore drug dealer, brazenly shoplifts a lollipop right in front of grocery store security. The security man tries to stop Marlo and demands some sort of sign of respect from the drug dealer. Marlo refuses to acknowledge the guard having any sort of authority and shoots him down with the phrase above.
At least three times a week I think about the quote above. Almost every single time it is because of comics. It is either an article about comics (my own included), a thread on a forum that I read, or a tweet. I look at the remark and I think about how the writer wants things to be one way, but they are most definitely another.
I want comics to have better distribution, but they don’t. Creators want better balance between capes and non-capes, but there isn’t. It isn’t because of any specific decision, it is the end result of a lot of smaller decisions. It isn’t a case where I can just click “yes”, and comic books will be everywhere. You look around and wonder, “This isn’t my distribution method…this isn’t my format.” We can all find content to love but all the mechanics are off.
I have come around to the “other way” on one topic. The monthly comic is a dinosaur waiting for the comet. I love my single issues and I will always have fondness for them, but they aren’t the future. I will keep getting them but I know my kids aren't goign to. Most of my comic book buying life has been structured around going to a shop once a week to pick up my books. That weekly cycle of monthly books has a unique rhythm of it’s own. You can get swept up into a pattern where you barely finish your books before you go to buy new ones. There is always an influx of new items and pretty soon your pull list is growing and you are barely thinking about what you are buying.
Why the obsession with the new when it comes to superheroes?
It seemed so important to get my Flash issues as soon as they came out. It also seemed really important that I get 12 issues of the comic a year. None of that matters in the long run. A year from now will any of us remember a book being a month late, or a fill in artist having to step in? That all gets washed away. I will just remember if I liked the story or not.
The "now" factor of comics has a tenuous grip on on us. If you like Spider-man, there is more available Spider-man material than you could reasonably read. You have reprints from different eras in cheap black and white and in more expensive color. There are trades of more contemporary items. There are tons of different Spider-man stories by different writers and artists. In many different styles and tones. You don’t like what is going on right now in superhero comics? Pick up one of these “new to you” books. Never has the history of comics been so accessible to the curious. The creators of today aren't just competing with other current creators, they have to sell to a market that is already filled with their predecssors.
It is easy to get locked into the idea that those weekly floppies are the barometer of success for comics.
It is a trap to think that going to the shop weekly is the only experience that counts as being a comics fan. The future of comic isn’t getting people to buy floppies on Wednesday. Hopefully the next couple years will see an explosion in formats, both digital and paper. There will still be shops, but they will evolve. It won’t just be a place to get your weekly fix, but a place to explore the medium. If someone tells you about a new comic, you can just go to your computer, buy it, and download it. Regardless of what day of the week it is. If you dig it maybe you end buying the trade. That weekly rhythm will be gone but we can pick up a style that is more frantic. Everyday will be Wednesday. I don't think I truly saw this potential until I got out of the weekly rat race and fell in love with comics again. (I fall in love with comics just about every week)
When I think of Marlo’s quote I tend to think of comic fans. The easy approach when thinking about the future is to think the fans are the one’s who want it to be one way, while reality is the other way. In talking to fans and meeting a lot of you at conventions I am pretty convinced it is the opposite. The business end (publishers, distributors) are the ones who want it one way (the old), while more and more of us are going the other way (the future). The sooner the business side figure that out, the better off everyone will be.
Tom Katers is happy with being #4. Aquaman is not.
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The Wire is the greatest show ever.
Yep. I’ve got 2 little kids and super-busy at work. I’ve had to accept the conclusion that I don’t have the time or energy to devote to picking up and following books every week or 2.
Time to work up the nerve to head into my shop and cancel all subscriptions.
Awesome column Tom.
I’ve been going through the same thing thanks to DCBS. I’ve completely rethought what I buy and how. It’s really quite liberating. I’ve cut my comics by 2/3rds and I’m starting to enjoy my books again (not to mention freeing up money for other things and the wife not frowning at my box of books each month :P)
Tom is wise.
I miss him.
Single tear.
I hate Marlo. And the scene you describe is exactly why.
The more purchasing options a consumer has the better that product will sell. Comics have very few options and ways to get them which is a bad thing
For me i really love the idea of walking into a shop, browsing and buying. Its what reminds me of being a kid and its fun. With work and stuff that gets harder and harder to do that the day or week things come out. I get floppies to be part of the conversation, but all too often i can’t even get em let alone read em that week. Either way i’m out of the loop still. It might make more sense to go a DCBS route or just go back to trades entirely.
I’ve never seen The Wire, but everything else in this article made too much sense.
The only reason I want new issues NOW is because of this community. I want to take part in the discussions. Read the user reviews. Listen to the podcast. I want to have read the book they are talking about so that I can participate. If it weren’t for this wonderful community I’d be trade waiting for EVERYTHING.
@stuclach – Go watch THE WIRE. Now!
@Aalbatr0ss – I’m pretty much in the exact same boat as you. Since my twins were born in October I only have time to get to my LCS once a month, and even that’s a chore sometimes. Although I’m not reading as many comics these days, I’m enjoying the limited number of ones that I do have time to read that much more, which is arguably more rewarding than when I visited the shop every Wednesday and was picking up 15-20 books a month (now it’s more like 6-8!). Neither of the shops in my town ever had much of a social aspect for me when I picked up my books every week so I don’t really have the social part to miss.
Tom, great article. I totally agree, it seems much of the industry wants one thing, with readers wanting something else. But change is happening, whether some people like it or not. I just hope the best books survive.
I think the junky analogy works well, and is what keeps the system in process now and will for sometime to some. Buying from a warehouse store is fine, but it lacks charm, style, and keeping with the quotes and addiction theme, weekly purchasing from a brick and mortar has personality. “Personality, I mean that’s what counts, right? That’s what keeps a relationship going through the years. Like heroin, I mean heroin’s got a great f——g personality.” -Sick Boy Trainspotting
was just saying the same thing on a recent podcast. the phrase I hate hearing the most out of fans is “Why doesn’t (insert publisher-writer-artist) just do …?”
The answer is, because this is a one way delivered form of communication.
You either like what’s created or not, you can’t demand they do things your way.
@NaveenM Yes, sir.
So are you predicting the death of the floppie altogether, or just the weekly distribution method itself? There are a number of reasons I still like the weekly format, and I say that as one who grew up on the books appearing in newsagents once a month, rather than having a direct market selling store. It was only in my mid teens that we got an actual comic book store locally. For me there’s a social aspect as my shop is a very chatty place, and it’s also a method of spreading the cost through the month. And as far as digital goes, the internet speed in these parts is erratic to say the least. Still, as always Tom you make valid ineteresting points worth talking about.
(Great quote too, although my quote to live by is, “That’s your problem, giving a f*** when it ain’t you’re turn to give a f***…but that’s completely and utterly beside the point.)
Great article with a positive message.
I don’t have a good comics shop near me but the one I go to every couple of months is an hour away. It’s an amazing store and they carry just about anything. I hope places like this never go away but I do see myself buying like 80 percent of comics content digitally and the printed editions for the stuff that’s really special.
I know our beloved medium will never die. It will just transform into something else. Its an amazing medium and I wish more people were as outspoken as you Tom, about the good possibilities in the future of comics.
Read what you love and always try new things.
You have given me some things to think about Tom. Thanks for the great article!
My fav Wire Quotes “you come at the king you best not miss” and “Thin line between Heaven and here”
Omar coming, y’all!
I would really like it to go your way.
I went through a period recently when the “importance” of the weekly ritual became downright joyless. It becomes like a duty. I was going to the store every Wednesday, dropping $40 on books, and then dropping them unread into a bag until I couldn’t lift the bag anymore. I start to feel like I’m on a treadmill: can’t slow down, have to keep up.
When I did sit down and read the books a few chunks at a time, it was rejuvenating. Breaking the cycle of Keeping Up made all the difference.
I for one am glad someone is saying this. It’s a chore for me to go to the shop with my schedule. I mostly go because I’m friends with the owner. I’m ready to do what I need to do to get things my way, which means getting my books digital one way or another.
Consumers at large want convenience and the current model is not convenient.
It’s all in the game, yo.
@wordballoon –The consumer has the power in all forms of commerce, but with comics, the publishers just don’t seem to care what the consumer wants which is really foolish.
Sales decline every year and they think the current model that they’ve been using is still working? Hmmmmm
I have a sudden urge to bust out my Wire box set.
Oh, and well said, Tom. I agree that the whole monthly format is antiquated and really just a dumb way of the publishers capitalizing off the compulsion and habit of their readership. From a creative and even a business standpoint, I don’t see why it needs to be the case. But we all know the business, and that it’s highly unlikely to change.
I think that I would prefer to trade wait. To read full arcs as opposed to mixing everything up on a week by week basis. I feel that I’d get more from what I read. But here’s the thing. There’s this podcast that I enjoy that makes me feel the need to keep up. Bastards.
Having not read comics since the mid-90’s (and, really, who could blame me for dropping out) I got back into them about 3 years ago solely through trades and fancy collected editions. This meant that everything collected for over a decade was ‘new to me’ and put me into the habit of buying whatever books I wanted whenever I wanted. This has been my new routine, and I don’t for one second miss going out a buying single issues immediately mainly because they get collected into trades pretty damn quickly if I do want to read them and I can pick and choose based on others’ reactions if something was worth reading in the first place. Is my method killing the LCS? I didn’t really ever consider that my responsibility in the first place, but I understand the contribution it makes. I am simply buying things I want to buy when I want them, and how I like them packaged. How the publishers decide to interpret that data is out of my hands, but I will continue to simply enjoy reading good stories in a medium I have always enjoyed.
I think you have correctly identified the way the consumers are trending and it is inevitable that the marketplace will eventually catch up. However, I have to say that I don’t like it.
I may be an anachronism but I truly think comics are best read in single issues. For me a sequential art form lends itself to storytelling by serialization. The comic itself is as much a work of art as the actual art in the book. The design of a single issue, its subtleties – the cover, the last page cliffhanger, the back-up material, letters pages – seem to be lost or less than in digital or trade form. I have many complete runs, and there is something I find deeply satisfying flipping through all my Claremont Uncanny’s or Gaiman Sandmans and watching the story evolve just by looking at the covers. When you read an issue, there is a rhythm to the story-telling, unique in our medium, contingent on the 20-22 page monthly format. I suppose I can understand how some people over-buy on floppies but I don’t think it is so hard to just read what you really like. I limit myself to between 12-14 issues a month and I very much like everything I purchase. If I don’t, it gets dropped.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the market will change and it has to change, but I very much hope there is still a place for the single issue. This is where the comic book came from and I just don’t feel right having it disappear entirely.
Nice article to read amongst all the bad news. “all will be well”.
Some contrarian thoughts: I was forced to be a monthly guy for a few years, I hated it. The thing I missed the most, and you will too, is being able to browse. Casually pick up an issue that Ron, Conor, or Josh talk about on the podcast. Try a new artist or writer. It is a lot harder and more of a crapshoot to do that from Previews 3 months ahead.
Your theme is “You want it to be one way, but its the other way”?? Well, maybe you want comics to be these great graphic novels that everyone buys at the mega-bookstore as they explore the golden age or something. But the truth is that the “floppy” super here comic book has been around 3/4 of a century. Do Avengers or Spider-man really read better as trade? Or are they best in their goofy monthly shot? Who enjoyed Watchmen more, the fan who bought the 12 issues as they came out or the guy who got it in one big pack?
Another problem is the artists. It is a lot of work to make 22 pages…it takes about a month for a fast artist. That is another fundamental reason that the floppies will always be there.
Will digital eat comic books? We’ll see. People make the analogy to music but I’m not sure it is the same thing as music which has flipped medias multiple times in my lifetime…comics really haven’t.
Anyway, you’re probably right…but maybe you aren’t.
You are smart to cull your books. It’s hard because most of us have a completist or collector mentality.
I too moved to an area that doesn’t have a solid store option, so I switched to an online service; however, I get my books on a weekly basis. I use heavyink.com and I love them! I can make changes to my subscriptions right up to Wednesday when they pull and ship me my books. I usually get my books when I get home from work on Friday or on Saturday. Then I have the weekend to read them and listen to the podcast on Monday. 🙂 I’m a happy camper.
I will say it has helped me cut down on the superfluous books I was buying buy not really enjoying.
@omegalife2002 Don’t want to derail this thread, but just an FYI. The owner of Heavy Ink was happy that Gabrielle Giffords was shot and also had guns seized. Just want to make sure everyone who shops there knows what a scumbag he is.
In my experience, my LCS is more to blame for declining sales of comics than the retailers. Just this week I failed to buy Vol. 1 of Morning Glories and the clerk had no idea what I was talking about. Sorry, tangentially related to this article, but I needed to vent about that.
Funny thing … I don’t even think about how lucky Denverites are to have at least three comic book shops within an hour’s driving distance … until I read some of the comments above by folks who have none. I like to wander into one every once in awhile to see what jumps off the shelf at me. Sometimes I get chatty , sometimes not. The really good shops make an effort to cultivate a sense of community in the local fan base.
Still, I’m so glad to have found online retailers like DCBS, TFAW, etc who make setting up pull lists and ordering comics so fracking easy (and reasonably inexpensive to boot). Many of the points you made, Tom, are also why I enjoy getting books monthly online … I get to read books now that I truly enjoy.
@WordBalloon: You’re right to an extent I think. But clearly consumers, via slipping sales, have been communicating something to publishers in recent months, don’t you think? It seems to me they have definitely gotten the attention of the Big Two.
As much as I like the technological possibilities of instant retrieval of new comics (monthlies, bi-monthlies, whathaveyou), I think it’s considerably harder to replicate the physical experience in digital form. Yes, the books are printed from a digital file, but the end product is more expansive on paper. You see things in two-page spreads and unique text placement that a digital aid like Comixology’s zoom/skip feature and Graphic.ly’s own variation on that (which is also troubling because that means the experience for readers is different across those platform despite the content being identical) often have trouble mimicking. Imagine The Return of the Dapper Men on an iPad or a NookColor. I can’t. I just can’t.
So, either 1) digital comics are produced and formatting differently to account for a change in reading style, depending on screen shape restrictions, i.e., one-page-at-a-time story telling, or 2) digital comics are to be disseminated in a bundled flat cost rental arrangement that simulatenously lets casual readers not care about collecting and collectors being able to experiment more before collecting.
Anyway, if there’s one thing digital will do is it will get quite a lot of people who wouldn’t read comics before simply out of fear of showing what they’re reading to their fellow mass transit riders to get back in the habit. Kind of like how the stigmatized romance novel genre has been experiencing a big jump in readership because of the anonymity of a tablet or e-ink reader. And if people think that that will inhibit the promotion of titles (based on covers seen by people sitting opposite you on the train, or wherever), I’m sure the internet and facebook and twitter are taking up the slack pretty well – and then some.
@whatifwhatisisnt I read DAPPER MEN on my iPad. It looks wonderful.
A problem with digital comics, from Mark Millar, is that it seems like creators get much less money from digital comics, due to more people having to be paid, and that there doens’t seem to be a way for creators to find out how many issues have been sold/downloaded.
http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?/topic/96422-more-on-digital-comics/
@Suicidalkangarooz I don’t know how ComiXology works but at Graphicly we send out a sales report to each publisher every month. Not knowing how many books you sell isn’t a DIGITAL COMICS problem. It’s a COMPANY/CLIENT RELATIONSHIP problem
i feel the same way about lollipops–sometimes you just have to have one; don’t let anybody stop you.
You are my hero, Tom……
This quote “You want it to be one way….But it’s the other way “ applies to SO many things, and I keep on referring people to this article in forum threads all over the place when it’s clear people want things to be a certain way and they are just not……