What Were They Thinking? Worst Comic Ideas.

[Mog Elffoe]

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[Mog Elffoe]

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[Mog Elffoe]

D'oh! Stupid slow browser!

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I like seeing that there are SOME other people out there who like Angel. He is definatly my favorite of the X-Men, and I love the old stuff. Though its funny to tell people Angel's my favorite because then it becomes a "Nooo...NOT Archangel." and "What? He had real wings?" over and over again.

...pfft. Kids these days.

 

[Silver Moon]

as an industry, five more years, tops.

Have to disagree with you there Steve. While the recent string of hit Marvel movies have not yet translated into a corresponding success in comic book sales what it is doing is exposing these heroes to a new audience. The familiarity will probably lead to future sales at some point.

I'd agree that right now the major companies seem to be shooting themselves in the foot more often than not, but I think there will continue to be an audience for the product in the long run. What I do predict is that the number of titles will probably be reduced over time. An optimal format, size and price will also have to be determined to assure profitability of the market but affordability of the audience.

 

[WizarDru]

Have to disagree with you there Steve. While the recent string of hit Marvel movies have not yet translated into a corresponding success in comic book sales what it is doing is exposing these heroes to a new audience. The familiarity will probably lead to future sales at some point.

I'd agree that right now the major companies seem to be shooting themselves in the foot more often than not, but I think there will continue to be an audience for the product in the long run. What I do predict is that the number of titles will probably be reduced over time. An optimal format, size and price will also have to be determined to assure profitability of the market but affordability of the audience.

Well, that theory has been put forward before, and it's never panned out. I think stevelabny's wrong that the industry only has five years left in it...but I do think that they're on the way towards a major shrinkage if something doesn't change. Movies have never translated into increased sales, even when Marvel or DC makes some weak overtures to capitalize on it. Usually, they only benefit the industry as a property, fueling merchandising sales and character usage. Spiderman was a phenomenally popular movie, but it didn't register in a change in Spiderman sales. Most of the audience had some idea of who Spiderman was before they walked in the door. That doesn't equate to a sudden influx of readers. The same is true of the X-men and Spiderman cartoons. Comics are still being made for current comic readers. Many are difficult to get in to, and not written for a new audience.

Kids today are not going to drop $50 a month on comics. Or if they are, they won't be doing it until they're in their mid-teens. Consider this: Shonen Jump costs $4.95 for 288 pages or so. A 32-page comic, with supporting advertisements, costs $2.25 to $4.95 or more. Where do you see a kid with a limited budget putting his money? I know that I never would have been reading the new X-men in their golden days if they had been as relatively expensive.

The comics industry has been in a crisis for years, by it's own admission. I used to get Comic Buyer's Guide Weekly, and it was no secret that readership had been steadily declining for years. The move in the industry in the past five years has been to collections and graphic novels, and its pretty clear how many titles are now being written and edited with the expectation of a collection occuring. Comic book distribution has maimed the industry, and new readers have to extend considerable effort to become new readers. When I was young, you could get comics almost everywhere. Drug Stores had spinners, newstands carried them, supermarkets, bookstores and departments stores all sold them. Now, with some rare exceptions, it's only at comic retailers. In a large city like Philadelphia, there are maybe five or six large shops, and a single spinner at Borders. The industry needs to find some solutions, or an implosion is due.

Consider this:

 

[Vahktang]

X-Factor. let me count the ways that this peice of tripe was wrong.

Ditto on that one.

NOT ADVERTISING.

The comic book industry is the only industry on the planet that doesnt advertise outside of itself. Nothing. Not television ads, print ads, radio ads, NOTHING!
the ridiculousness of this one speaks for itself, so I'm gonna go play D&D.

Never thought of that.
Good point.

And then Stormshadow ended up being a good guy because, as it turned out, he had only joined Cobra to find out who killed his uncle (who headed their family ninja clan). The killer turned out to be Zartan, employed by Cobra Commander to kill Snake-Eyes, whose family was involved with CC's brother in a no-survivors car crash as Snake-Eye's family was going to pick him up at the airport upon his return from service in Vietnam. Zartan ID'ed Snake-Eye's through a mystic ninja hearing technique, but the man he shot was actually Stormshadow's uncle, who was teaching Snake-Eyes a mystic ninja technique of altering one's heartbeat and breathing to sound like another person!

So, um, yeah, that's the story behind that.

You're making that up.
It didn't happen that way.



My own $.02:

Phoenix saga.
After she died and they bring her back.
But not her, someone else.
And the clone
Or something.

So bad.

More later,

Vahktang

 

[Silver Moon]

Lots of good points Wizardru, and thank you also for the picture. I had a lot of fun trying to guess what year it taken was based on the titles displayed. (I've now checked an Overstreet Guide to confirm). Any guesses?

 

[garyh]

You're making that up.
It didn't happen that way.

Swear to god. I have the first 120 issues of the original Joe comic.

 

[Taren Seeker]

Swear to god. I have the first 120 issues of the original Joe comic.

You were MOSTLY right.

You made 1 mistake tho.