An Appeal to Comics Companies

I am a comic book nerd. They do say the first step of dealing with a problem is admitting that you have one. So, here I am. Openly admitting my *problems*. I enjoy reading them. I browse comics news sites like Newsarama on a daily basis — mainly to procrastinate and to pass the time, but also to “keep up”. I find myself glued to these sites when San Diego Comic-con rolls around eagerly waiting for the announcements and teases.

Like I said, I’m admitting my problems.

Of course, for comic book shops and companies, people with my kinds of problems are the target audience. We’re the people who can’t stop buying them and can’t stop frequenting those stores, those movies, and buying their merchandise (thankfully, my Asian stinginess kicks in and reigns in my spendthrift tendencies). So, it would behoove them to listen to our needs and demands.

The most annoying thing I see about the current form isn’t really how much they cost per se (although that can be a bit prohibitive), but how drawn out they are. No, I”m not really complaining about the story arcs that last 20 bajillion issues (although it’d be nice to do away with some of those too), I’m talking about how a simple 3-part story takes 3 months to get through. If a 3-part story is good, then I still have to wait every month to get my next installment, no matter how much I may want the next part NOW. But if a 3-part story sucks, then I have to wait 3 months until I get to something that I might like, making me very frustrated and (*hint hint*) making me much more likely to stop going to the comic store and stop buying the series altogether. On the other hand, bringing me into the comic shop week after week is also more likely for me to buy other things as I inevitably “shop around”

On the artistic side, I think this may add some stress to the editorial department and the artists who will have to churn the stuff out a little faster, but given that most comic book storylines are worked out WAY in advance (so far in advance that writers oftentimes have to change their story so that other stories mesh well) and given that there already are a bajillion Batman books and a bajillion Superman books, I don’t think this is such an issue. Why sell multiple versions of the same thing (especially when in cross-over events they all tie back together anyways), when you can just publish one book more often. I think that this can also make continuity consistency and overall story planning easier by allowing editors to plan in blocks of stories which begin and end quickly rather than in terms of months and trying to figure out which story ends when and where, etc etc.

Several retailers, for instance, report that DC’s launch of the weekly series “52″ (gee, I wonder where that title came from) has been great for business. And a quick glance at sales reports shows that Ultimate Spiderman (which comes out every other week as opposed to every month) sells pretty well.

So, DC? Marvel? Come on… make me happy