emcgillivray

August 3, 2011 5:10 pm Brian Michael Bendis greatly dislikes She-Hulk, so he would never write a series with her. (In fact, I'm pretty sure that's why she's not an Avenger since he took over, and he included her in the D-listers that Luke and Jessica interviewed for Danielle's babysitter.)

That said, I'd love another She-Hulk book with an author who can bring on the humor. 

August 9, 2010 1:17 pm

I'm not worried about recommending older stuff, unless of course, the person is looking to read newer stuff & be involved in current canon so they can pick up new books.

I do think there are characters who don't have a good definitive collections. When you're a D-list, X-character, you're probably not on a high list to get your own series. On top of that, we all see characters a little different. For example, I highly disagree with @KickAss about Ultimates being a definitive Captain America and I've loved at least two of his solo runs.

July 14, 2010 5:40 pm

Understanding that comic publishers don't publish a billion copies of something (insert '90s comic joke here), I'm perfectly okay with pre-ordering something I want to try or something I read on a regular basis. It only took me a long time to settle on a store, because I'm cautious of where my money goes and not all LCS are equal.

 

That said, I do wonder how much this rather no-growth business model is turning new readers away. If I love to read and am used to being able to go to say Amazon.com and order practically any book printed since 1480, this might even be as big of barrier for buying as being intimated by Superman #700 or Captain America #504. And it creates an incredible buying dilemma for LCS.

And once again, to grow audiences, the Big 2 really need to scale up their advertising departments.

May 27, 2010 8:00 pm Today, I was at Target. They had a promotion for True Blood that was buy the show on DVD & one of the books & get a $5 gift card. Seems like with better distribution, the big two could do something really similar to this with their movies & graphic novels.

April 30, 2010 7:27 pm I really love this book, and it'll be a trade I'll be recommending to friends. 

April 15, 2010 8:37 pm I feel the need to point out that in one of the very first issue of X-Men, Stan Lee had Cyclops do the same trick. Though I believe Jean was also floating it overhead. Inappropriate uses of superpowers, indeed.

April 5, 2010 2:12 pm

My issues with buying an iPad for digital comics are about DRM. No one has figured this out. How do I know that if I buy it one day, Marvel won't decide to take it away the next?

I assume you have an account with the app so it knows which comics you bought if your iPad died. (Yes, Apple products do die.)

As for what's going to save comics is widening the audience. And I don't know if an app for one of the major companies on a (so far) popular, but new technology is really a feasible "save." 

March 30, 2010 3:39 am

From a marketing standpoint, you're always going to put the bigger person's name in bigger text.

The egalitarian creative-type in me likes the idea of putting people's names depending on their contributions to creating the story. The writer and artist working in a true collaboation vs a writer having a fully actualzied script and "hiring" an artist are two different things.

My New Year's resolution has been to pay more attention to who's penciling it. Because I can think of a lot of writers I'd buy works just because they wrote it, but only three artists -- Amanda Conner, J.H. Williams, & Skottie Young -- I'd do the same for their interior penciling. 

March 8, 2010 1:23 pm

Great post.

I have a habit of dragging my friends to comic shops because I need to pick up my comics and since most of my friends are readers, they eventually start asking me what I'm buying and/or start browsing some graphic novels.

It's key to recommend something along their tastes & interests, especially if they're leery of reading comics. I've often recommended things I haven't read to others because I know enough about the themes/writers of the story to feel that while it's never attracted me, my friend would really like it. 

Plus, how annoying is it to get something you know you aren't going to like shoved in your face by an overly enthusiastic fan of it. (No, I'm never going to like Supernatural, fellow fangirls.) I'm sure we've all had that happen, and it's good to remember we didn't like that experience either.

January 26, 2010 4:27 pm

Thanks for the solving the mystery.

I agree that it would be a wasted opportunity for them not to save Kitty.