Today, I'd like to discuss a service offered by most comic-book shops that is used by many customers: the "pull list." I'm going to discuss that service because of an argument I started having on a comic-based blog, and the irresponsible attitude taken by one or two of the folks there.
First, a little history. Originally, comic-books were printed on pulp paper, very cheaply, and sold for a few cents. When I was growing up, comics could be had for 30-40 cents, depending on the exact year. They were mass-marketed through news stands, much like regular newspapers, and the rules for selling and distributing were very similar. The distributor would bring the news stand its allotment, and the news stand put them out. The news stand owner could return all unsold copies, and was not financially responsible for them. Now, to be sure, the owner wanted to sell them -- he made a small profit on each one, so comics did make him some money. But if he didn't sell some, it was no skin off his nose -- ultimately, the cost of unsold comics was borne by DC, Marvel, and the distributors.
Then in the 1980s, comic-book specialty shops started springing up with more and more frequency (I remember when the first one opened in around 1981 in my local mall). These shops were not news stands. They would get comics directly from the companies (these were called "direct sales"), and sell them to the customers. Because of the differences in distribution, direct-sales shops could not return unsold quantities of comics. Therefore, they had to order the number they wanted, pay for each one they ordered, and then hope to sell each and every one. Unlike the news stand, comic-shop owners took a loss from every unsold copy.
Showing posts with label pull lists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pull lists. Show all posts
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Is waiting for the trade paperback dangerous?
Back when I started collecting comic-books in 1976(ish), comic-books were only produced in monthly or bi-monthly serialized form. If you missed an issue, your collection was going to have a gap in it. There were few, if any, direct-market comic-book shops back then, so you could only buy your issues on the news stand. And news stands did not hold back-issues -- unsold comics were returned to the publisher for credit (so that the news stand was not on the hook for items that didn't sell). Back then, in other words, reading every issue in a comic-book series required you to buy every issue as it came out. This was a significant challenge, and I don't think I had a single friend with a complete collection that lasted more than a handful of issues. For example, I got interested in Rom: Spaceknight on issue #24. I picked up #26 and #28 (but missed the odd issues for some reason), and then finally with #30 was devoted enough to the series that I picked up every single issue from #30 to #60 or so. But although I wanted to read the earlier stories, back then, there was no good way of obtaining them.
By the 1980s, direct-market shops had started to appear in more locations, and it became possible to obtain some older back-issues. I was able to buy a few of the Rom issues between #1 and #23 (though only about a third of them). Still at this time, if one wanted to read every story in a series, one had to buy the individual issues. Thus, the back-issues made this possible, as it had not been before the 1980s, but it was still extremely difficult.
Finally, by the 1990s, the comic-book companies started putting out bound, collected editions of older issues, either as paperbacks or (very rarely) hardcovers. The most common way for them to do this is with the "trade paperback," or "TPB", which is a softcover collection. The first trade paperback I ever remember buying was the Batman story, "A Death in the Family" (the original one, wherein Jason Todd was murdered by the Joker). I had not been wise enough to pull the trigger on the individual issues, believing that the whole thing was just hype, but when I heard that the story was excellent, I bought the TPB. This was typical of the trend in the 1990s, which was for the companies to collect significant or important storylines (such as the "Great Darkness Saga" from the Legion of Super-Heroes), or else storylines that had sold out in their regular print run, but which were still in demand by the readers ("A Death in the Family" being a good example).
Since the turn of the century, however, comic-book companies have started to put out far more TPBs. They discovered that TPBs are quite popular with many readers, because the TPB provides the reader with a number of advantages. First, TPBs usually collect a complete, self-contained storyline (aka. an "arc"), and can be read almost as a stand-alone. There is no need to track down every issue in the story. Second, TPBs often provide the reader with significant cost savings (a typical 6-issue arc at $3.99 a pop is $24, but most TPBs collecting six issues are priced at around $19.99). Third, TPBs because they have no value beyond the cover price (they are always reprints, and thus rarely worth anything to serious collectors), make it unnecessary to bother with the usual steps one must take to store and protect individual comics (mylar bags, backing boards, and the like). And finally, with their square, stiff spines, TPBs can be stored on a bookshelf with no risk of them bending or warping, which saves tons of space over the typical "long boxes" in which individual issues are stored.
For all these reasons, the TPB format has become increasingly popular, and I am certainly a fan of it. When a friend recommended the Sandman series, for example, it was already over, and each first-print back-issue was rare and valuable. Trying to buy the series as 75 individually priced comics would have cost a small fortune. The TPBs, however, were readily available, and probably cost a tenth of what the individual back-issues would have cost me. Thus, I quickly got on board the TPB bandwagon. Many readers feel the same way, and the comic companies have responded. Most writers now seem to "write for the trades" -- meaning that, since TPBs normally collect 4-8 issues, averaging around 6, most story arcs are written to that length (again, averaging around 6 issues), so that as soon as the arc is done, it can be bound as a collection and sold to those who prefer the TPB format.
Reading through comments on the Google+ Comic-Book Community, I have noticed that many people now only buy TPBs. They have to wait a bit to get the story, but they are willing to do that for the convenience of all the advantages listed above.
Today, I ask whether "waiting for the TPB" is dangerous, from the standpoint of a character or a series that you like to read. How can it be dangerous? you ask. My answer is that, in general, the comic-book companies seem to respond primarily to the sales of individual issues on the stands. Although I'm sure they are gratified when people buy the TPB collection, the TPB is usually published 6 months after the storyline completes, and since most stories are 6 issues long, that means a TPB will be published a year after the first issue in the arc appeared. That's a long time in the comic publishing world.
To see why waiting for the trade is dangerous, let's use the example of a current disaster series for DC (in terms of sales): Katana. The series debuted in February, selling 27,000 print copies the first month. By April, sales had dropped to 16,000, and by June it was limping along at 13,000. We also know from recent history that +DC Comics tends to cancel comic-book series that sell less than 20,000 issues per month. Now, maybe nobody likes Katana and that's why her sales are dropping. But let's imagine for a moment that the 13,000+ people who stopped buying it between issues 1 and 5, decided they liked it, but wanted to "wait for the trade." The TPB of the first arc won't come out until January 2014 or so. Meantime, Katana is in the "cancellation red zone" for months. The risk here is that DC will see slumping sales and cancel the series in July or August, long before the TPB ever comes out. Even if they put out a TPB of the first story arc in January (which they might not bother to do for a comic that doesn't sell well), and even if the TPB sells like gangbusters, by then, the series may already be canceled and it may be too late to do anything about it.
Don't think it can happen? It already has. Threshold is being canceled as of issue 8. Hawk and Dove was as well. Justice League International lasted just 1 year. All of these books were canceled before the first story arc could be collected into a TPB, published, and the sales figures for the TPB could be tallied.
This is why I believe that, if you truly like a comic-book enough to buy it regularly and keep reading it, it's very dangerous to "wait for the trades." I do understand the convenience, and when buying back-issues, I definitely prefer TPBs to individual issues in most cases -- for the lower cost, the lower maintenance, and the convenience. But if you like a comic and you want it to keep being published, the sales that indicate your feelings won't be tallied until months after the issues are published, and you risk your favorite series being canceled. The only way to be sure the companies know you are on board with their title is to buy it every month, as it comes out -- and better yet, put it on your pull list, so the store knows to order another copy of it. Yes, it is less convenient than "waiting for the trade," but is the TPB worth risking the series being canceled? To me, the answer is "no."
I am not, of course, trying to tell anyone what to do. If you prefer trades, that's fine. But you should be aware of the risk you're taking with any series you truly enjoy... Because you may just be one person, but if everyone decides to "wait for the trade," not just you, then the sales may slump so badly the title gets canceled, even though thousands of people actually would buy it next year when the TPB comes out. So... as with all things... caveat emptor.
By the 1980s, direct-market shops had started to appear in more locations, and it became possible to obtain some older back-issues. I was able to buy a few of the Rom issues between #1 and #23 (though only about a third of them). Still at this time, if one wanted to read every story in a series, one had to buy the individual issues. Thus, the back-issues made this possible, as it had not been before the 1980s, but it was still extremely difficult.
Finally, by the 1990s, the comic-book companies started putting out bound, collected editions of older issues, either as paperbacks or (very rarely) hardcovers. The most common way for them to do this is with the "trade paperback," or "TPB", which is a softcover collection. The first trade paperback I ever remember buying was the Batman story, "A Death in the Family" (the original one, wherein Jason Todd was murdered by the Joker). I had not been wise enough to pull the trigger on the individual issues, believing that the whole thing was just hype, but when I heard that the story was excellent, I bought the TPB. This was typical of the trend in the 1990s, which was for the companies to collect significant or important storylines (such as the "Great Darkness Saga" from the Legion of Super-Heroes), or else storylines that had sold out in their regular print run, but which were still in demand by the readers ("A Death in the Family" being a good example).
Since the turn of the century, however, comic-book companies have started to put out far more TPBs. They discovered that TPBs are quite popular with many readers, because the TPB provides the reader with a number of advantages. First, TPBs usually collect a complete, self-contained storyline (aka. an "arc"), and can be read almost as a stand-alone. There is no need to track down every issue in the story. Second, TPBs often provide the reader with significant cost savings (a typical 6-issue arc at $3.99 a pop is $24, but most TPBs collecting six issues are priced at around $19.99). Third, TPBs because they have no value beyond the cover price (they are always reprints, and thus rarely worth anything to serious collectors), make it unnecessary to bother with the usual steps one must take to store and protect individual comics (mylar bags, backing boards, and the like). And finally, with their square, stiff spines, TPBs can be stored on a bookshelf with no risk of them bending or warping, which saves tons of space over the typical "long boxes" in which individual issues are stored.
For all these reasons, the TPB format has become increasingly popular, and I am certainly a fan of it. When a friend recommended the Sandman series, for example, it was already over, and each first-print back-issue was rare and valuable. Trying to buy the series as 75 individually priced comics would have cost a small fortune. The TPBs, however, were readily available, and probably cost a tenth of what the individual back-issues would have cost me. Thus, I quickly got on board the TPB bandwagon. Many readers feel the same way, and the comic companies have responded. Most writers now seem to "write for the trades" -- meaning that, since TPBs normally collect 4-8 issues, averaging around 6, most story arcs are written to that length (again, averaging around 6 issues), so that as soon as the arc is done, it can be bound as a collection and sold to those who prefer the TPB format.
Reading through comments on the Google+ Comic-Book Community, I have noticed that many people now only buy TPBs. They have to wait a bit to get the story, but they are willing to do that for the convenience of all the advantages listed above.
Today, I ask whether "waiting for the TPB" is dangerous, from the standpoint of a character or a series that you like to read. How can it be dangerous? you ask. My answer is that, in general, the comic-book companies seem to respond primarily to the sales of individual issues on the stands. Although I'm sure they are gratified when people buy the TPB collection, the TPB is usually published 6 months after the storyline completes, and since most stories are 6 issues long, that means a TPB will be published a year after the first issue in the arc appeared. That's a long time in the comic publishing world.
To see why waiting for the trade is dangerous, let's use the example of a current disaster series for DC (in terms of sales): Katana. The series debuted in February, selling 27,000 print copies the first month. By April, sales had dropped to 16,000, and by June it was limping along at 13,000. We also know from recent history that +DC Comics tends to cancel comic-book series that sell less than 20,000 issues per month. Now, maybe nobody likes Katana and that's why her sales are dropping. But let's imagine for a moment that the 13,000+ people who stopped buying it between issues 1 and 5, decided they liked it, but wanted to "wait for the trade." The TPB of the first arc won't come out until January 2014 or so. Meantime, Katana is in the "cancellation red zone" for months. The risk here is that DC will see slumping sales and cancel the series in July or August, long before the TPB ever comes out. Even if they put out a TPB of the first story arc in January (which they might not bother to do for a comic that doesn't sell well), and even if the TPB sells like gangbusters, by then, the series may already be canceled and it may be too late to do anything about it.
Don't think it can happen? It already has. Threshold is being canceled as of issue 8. Hawk and Dove was as well. Justice League International lasted just 1 year. All of these books were canceled before the first story arc could be collected into a TPB, published, and the sales figures for the TPB could be tallied.
This is why I believe that, if you truly like a comic-book enough to buy it regularly and keep reading it, it's very dangerous to "wait for the trades." I do understand the convenience, and when buying back-issues, I definitely prefer TPBs to individual issues in most cases -- for the lower cost, the lower maintenance, and the convenience. But if you like a comic and you want it to keep being published, the sales that indicate your feelings won't be tallied until months after the issues are published, and you risk your favorite series being canceled. The only way to be sure the companies know you are on board with their title is to buy it every month, as it comes out -- and better yet, put it on your pull list, so the store knows to order another copy of it. Yes, it is less convenient than "waiting for the trade," but is the TPB worth risking the series being canceled? To me, the answer is "no."
I am not, of course, trying to tell anyone what to do. If you prefer trades, that's fine. But you should be aware of the risk you're taking with any series you truly enjoy... Because you may just be one person, but if everyone decides to "wait for the trade," not just you, then the sales may slump so badly the title gets canceled, even though thousands of people actually would buy it next year when the TPB comes out. So... as with all things... caveat emptor.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
New Comic-book Night - 6/19/13
Two items came out on my pull-list today, but only one that I collect in print - Supergirl 21. The other (Wonder Woman 21), I get via ComiXology and I won't be putting an order in there until the weekend. My camera and photography equipment are still buried in the pile of stuff that's heaped in my guest bedroom awaiting sorting and organization after my move, and it's only one comic, so once again I didn't take a picture. I will briefly review Supergirl 21 below.
In the mean time, I got an e-mail from my comic-book shop regarding +DC Comics' "Villain Month" - a month-long interregnum in DC's entire line that will see the villains starring in the various super-books. The general idea is that each arch-enemy or major villain who fights a given hero will be the star of that hero's book for one month So, for example, instead of Superman starring in Action Comics, we get Bizzarro or Cyborg Superman or Lex Luthor.
However, this won't be a one-to-one correspondence. DC is still going to put out 52 titles in September during "Villain Month," but not every title will be published. To my knowledge, DC has not publicly admitted the reason for this, which is quite simple -- most of their "B-list" characters don't have an established arch-enemy or rogues' gallery in the New 52 (examples include Batgirl and Supergirl). The A-listers, however, have many, many arch-foes (examples include Superman and Batman). Therefore, DC is giving the A-listers' series more issues in September in exchange for halting publication of many B-list titles for the month. As a simple example, there will be four issues of Justice League in September, but none of Supergirl or Batgirl. Because these are not stories about the starring characters (at least, not directly), DC is copying Marvel's asinine "decimal point" numbering system -- JL 23 comes out in August, and 24 in October. So in September? We get JL 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, and 23.4.
Now that we understand what is going on during "Villain Month," I can return to the e-mail my comic shop sent me. Basically, their e-mail says that for the month of September, all DC comics on the pull list are suspended. They are not, by default, pulling anything for anyone. Presumably the reasons for this are two-fold. First, if you "subscribe" (as they call the pull list) to get Justice League, you are technically subscribing to an issue per month. They can't force you to take four issues in September just because DC decided to change the publication schedule. And second, there's no guarantee that people who signed up to read a monthly comic about Superman, by the Superman creative team, are going to want to buy an issue about Bizzarro, but a totally different creative team.
I was glad to receive this e-mail, because I had already been planning to go down there and ask them to not pull any of the "Villain Month" stuff for me. But those guys know what they are doing, and they must realize a lot of people won't want to just buy their regular titles as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. So I have no pull list in September for DC. I will still, of course, be getting Thor, God of Thunder and Red Sonja, which are not DC titles and therefore are not affected by the pull list changes.
I'll have a lot more to say about "Villain Month" and DC's other events in an upcoming post later this month, but now, on to my mini-review of this month's Supergirl.
Supergirl 21 - Last month, we saw Kara attacked by her own Sanctuary. Supergirl teamed up with her Earth-2 alter-ego Power Girl (also confusingly named Kara) to destroy it. Now we see her flying through space on a galactic bike, which she has apparently stolen from Dr. Veritas. Apparently, Kara is still "sick" from Kryptonite poisoning, although other than the statement that this is true, there is no evidence of it in this issue. Kara finds a planetoid of some sort (from the double-page spread I would guess it is asteroid-sized) that is being attacked by a giant robot. She defends the city and the people thank her. Meanwhile she is being observed by a mysterious guy named "Delacore" who is able to shape-shift. Ultimately Delacore tells her that the whole world is made of a special clay-like material that can change into many other things. To demonstrate, he shape-shifts into a hero of Kryptonian legend. Kara asks if the whole place could re-create Krypton, and Delacore says it's not really possible. But then the creature behind all this appears -- Cyborg Superman -- and asks Kara if she is really willing to do "anything" to make her wish come true.
Overall, I thought this was an interesting issue. The art style is rather different, since it is done by Diogenese Neves instead of Mahmud Asrar. Although I'm not a huge fan of Asrar (his sloppy-looking style has never been one I care for), Neves isn't necessarily an improvement. The art was OK, but I think Asrar is better with facial expressions. The storyline of the actual issue was interesting. However, certain elements of the Kara story are starting to wear thin. For example, the Kryptonite poisoning has been going on since issue 18 now, and it's really enough already. Superman's been exposed to Kryptonite before, and usually gets better fairly quickly. I don't understand why this "poisoning"being drawn out so much -- Supergirl was not exposed to the green K for all that long. Additionally, the whole "Kara trying to restore Krypton" thing is wearing even thinner. Every time it seems like she has finally accepted the fate of her home-world, the writers change their minds hand have her engaged in a hair-brained scheme to bring it back. I had hoped that at least one good thing to come out of the awful H'el story-line was that Kara would finally accept reality, but here she is again 3 issues later, trying to get a world of shapeshifters to pretend to be Kryptonians. At some point, she needs to get some closure and start moving forward.
Because the overall story was good and the art was decent, I give this issue an 8/10. I deducted 2 points for the 2 tired plot elements -- the writers really need to wrap these up and start moving Supergirl forward.
In the mean time, I got an e-mail from my comic-book shop regarding +DC Comics' "Villain Month" - a month-long interregnum in DC's entire line that will see the villains starring in the various super-books. The general idea is that each arch-enemy or major villain who fights a given hero will be the star of that hero's book for one month So, for example, instead of Superman starring in Action Comics, we get Bizzarro or Cyborg Superman or Lex Luthor.
However, this won't be a one-to-one correspondence. DC is still going to put out 52 titles in September during "Villain Month," but not every title will be published. To my knowledge, DC has not publicly admitted the reason for this, which is quite simple -- most of their "B-list" characters don't have an established arch-enemy or rogues' gallery in the New 52 (examples include Batgirl and Supergirl). The A-listers, however, have many, many arch-foes (examples include Superman and Batman). Therefore, DC is giving the A-listers' series more issues in September in exchange for halting publication of many B-list titles for the month. As a simple example, there will be four issues of Justice League in September, but none of Supergirl or Batgirl. Because these are not stories about the starring characters (at least, not directly), DC is copying Marvel's asinine "decimal point" numbering system -- JL 23 comes out in August, and 24 in October. So in September? We get JL 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, and 23.4.
Now that we understand what is going on during "Villain Month," I can return to the e-mail my comic shop sent me. Basically, their e-mail says that for the month of September, all DC comics on the pull list are suspended. They are not, by default, pulling anything for anyone. Presumably the reasons for this are two-fold. First, if you "subscribe" (as they call the pull list) to get Justice League, you are technically subscribing to an issue per month. They can't force you to take four issues in September just because DC decided to change the publication schedule. And second, there's no guarantee that people who signed up to read a monthly comic about Superman, by the Superman creative team, are going to want to buy an issue about Bizzarro, but a totally different creative team.
I was glad to receive this e-mail, because I had already been planning to go down there and ask them to not pull any of the "Villain Month" stuff for me. But those guys know what they are doing, and they must realize a lot of people won't want to just buy their regular titles as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. So I have no pull list in September for DC. I will still, of course, be getting Thor, God of Thunder and Red Sonja, which are not DC titles and therefore are not affected by the pull list changes.
I'll have a lot more to say about "Villain Month" and DC's other events in an upcoming post later this month, but now, on to my mini-review of this month's Supergirl.
Supergirl 21 - Last month, we saw Kara attacked by her own Sanctuary. Supergirl teamed up with her Earth-2 alter-ego Power Girl (also confusingly named Kara) to destroy it. Now we see her flying through space on a galactic bike, which she has apparently stolen from Dr. Veritas. Apparently, Kara is still "sick" from Kryptonite poisoning, although other than the statement that this is true, there is no evidence of it in this issue. Kara finds a planetoid of some sort (from the double-page spread I would guess it is asteroid-sized) that is being attacked by a giant robot. She defends the city and the people thank her. Meanwhile she is being observed by a mysterious guy named "Delacore" who is able to shape-shift. Ultimately Delacore tells her that the whole world is made of a special clay-like material that can change into many other things. To demonstrate, he shape-shifts into a hero of Kryptonian legend. Kara asks if the whole place could re-create Krypton, and Delacore says it's not really possible. But then the creature behind all this appears -- Cyborg Superman -- and asks Kara if she is really willing to do "anything" to make her wish come true.
Overall, I thought this was an interesting issue. The art style is rather different, since it is done by Diogenese Neves instead of Mahmud Asrar. Although I'm not a huge fan of Asrar (his sloppy-looking style has never been one I care for), Neves isn't necessarily an improvement. The art was OK, but I think Asrar is better with facial expressions. The storyline of the actual issue was interesting. However, certain elements of the Kara story are starting to wear thin. For example, the Kryptonite poisoning has been going on since issue 18 now, and it's really enough already. Superman's been exposed to Kryptonite before, and usually gets better fairly quickly. I don't understand why this "poisoning"being drawn out so much -- Supergirl was not exposed to the green K for all that long. Additionally, the whole "Kara trying to restore Krypton" thing is wearing even thinner. Every time it seems like she has finally accepted the fate of her home-world, the writers change their minds hand have her engaged in a hair-brained scheme to bring it back. I had hoped that at least one good thing to come out of the awful H'el story-line was that Kara would finally accept reality, but here she is again 3 issues later, trying to get a world of shapeshifters to pretend to be Kryptonians. At some point, she needs to get some closure and start moving forward.
Because the overall story was good and the art was decent, I give this issue an 8/10. I deducted 2 points for the 2 tired plot elements -- the writers really need to wrap these up and start moving Supergirl forward.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
From the ashes, like a phoenix - Part 1
Greetings!
Welcome to this new blog, which I call "Statues and Superheroes" (S&S for short). I am an old-time comic collector (my first comic-books were dated 1975 or so) who ceased collecting comic-books almost fourteen years ago, and has just gotten back into the hobby in the last month or so. This blog will chronicle my journey back into the world of collecting both comic-books, and associated collectible materials, such as superhero busts, action figures, statuettes, and the like. I love to write, so over the coming months, I will hold forth on a variety of topics such as what I think of today's comic-books, which comic creators I like (or dislike) the most, and which action figures or statues I think are worth buying (or are best avoided). But today, I am going to start by explaining why I quit reading comic-books in early 1999, and what caused me to return to the world of comic-book collecting about a month ago, in 2012.
I began reading comic-books in around 1975, although you really couldn't call what I did "collecting" back then. I was barely old enough to read, and I had no concept of serialization. The idea that comic-books were numbered sequentially, and that it might be desirable to have a long "run" of comics in numerical sequence (say, ten issues in a row), never occurred to me at that age. Then, in late 1976, by sheer luck, I ran into Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, which was published by Marvel Comics. I loved monsters, and Godzilla was my all-time favorite, so the idea of a comic-book about Godzilla was like manna from heaven.
However, at that point, I did not yet understand that comic-books, like magazines, were published monthly. Buying comics was a random event -- I would happen to be with my father at the news stand, and he would say, "Steve, would you like to buy yourself a comic?" Then I would go to the rack and spin it, looking for a cover that interested me. One month it might be Action Comics starring Superman and Supergirl. The next it might be Brave and the Bold starring Batman and the Metal Men. And this time, it was Godzilla #1. And so, although I enjoyed the comic and read and re-read it until I wore out the spine, it never occurred to me to go looking for #2, #3, and so on.
My father, however, knew I liked Godzilla, and so occasionally he would see one in the news stand and pick it up for me. He got me #5, then #8, and finally #10. At this point, I started to realize what was going on. I was nearly a year older. I noticed that some of the events in issue #5 had follow-ups in issue #8, and so forth. At that point, which I believe was late 1977 or early 1978, the idea of collecting "every issue in a row" finally hit me, and I got every Godzilla comic from that point until the series ended (on #24). From that point on, I was not just a reader of comics; I was a comic-book collector.
As the years passed, I expanded my horizons from comics about monsters and toys, to superheroes. I collected Thor and X-men, Avengers and Captain America. Until 1981 or so I was a loyal Marvel fan, refusing to even look at a DC comic. But then a friend introduced me to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and those books happened to guest-star Supergirl, a character I had always liked, and who really grew on me during that series, probably due to the excellent writing of Paul Levitz. I then began to collect Supergirl's series, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which even though it wasn't very good, turned me into a die-hard fan of Kara Zor-El (the original Supergirl).
As time went by, my tastes slowly evolved. I began to dislike the expansion of the mutant storylines in Marvel, from X-men into nearly every book they published by the late 1980s. I stopped collecting Marvel Comics except for Captain America (since I had an unbroken run of over 100 issues in a row), and switched entirely over to DC. I followed DC comics until 1999, at which point I stopped collecting them.
Why, though, did I stop collecting comic-books? There were several events in the late 1990s that killed my interest in comics. First, many of the series I was collecting had gone downhill. By 1996, I was collecting only a handful of comics (Legion of Super-Heroes, Catwoman, Power of Shazam, and the new Supergirl series). I tried a number of other series but none of them caught my eye. And so I was already starting to become a little frustrated with comics.
The mortal wound, however, came in 1996. I was in graduate school, in a small one-bedroom apartment with very little room, so I had left my collection of nearly 2,000 comic books in my old room in my mother's house. In early 1996, however, mom retired and moved to a smaller place, and no longer had room for the comic boxes. My sister had just moved into a large house, and had room in her basement, so she took them for me temporarily, with the understanding that the next Christmas, when I came home in my car, I would pick up the boxes and haul them off to my own apartment (and where I would have put them, I have no idea). Unfortunately, before this could happen, there was a terrible rainstorm, and my sister's basement flooded. Although she was able to salvage a box or two (perhaps 200 comics total) the vast majority of my nearly 2,000-comic collection was destroyed.
Needless to say, this was a devastating blow to a collector. After spending more than two decades and thousands of dollars collecting new issues as well as back-issues, and buying protective bags and boards to store and defend my comics, nearly everything was wiped out, and I was back to square one. The comics I was currently collecting were not immune... LSH was up to issue 80 or 90 at the time, but 1-50 had been in my sister's basement, destroying my nearly 100-issue run of that title. Catwoman met a similar fate. I almost gave up on comic-books completely at that point. But not quite.
The collector in me had been mortally wounded but was not yet dead. I still had a few series I was enjoying, particularly Supergirl and Shazam. But I began to struggle to keep the series going without gaps, in a way I never had before. In fact, I only succeeded in doing so with Supergirl. What happened was difficult to understand at first. You see, I knew what day was "new comic day" (back then, I believe it was Thursday). I would go to the shop each week (though I could not always make it "on the day"). I knew on which weeks the series I collected were published. For example, I'm fairly sure Power of Shazam came out on the 3rd week of every month. I would make every effort to drop by the comic shop each week and pick up my titles, but sometimes I missed them even so. This became very frustrating to someone who likes to collect unbroken runs of issues.
I eventually discovered that the reason behind this was a new ordering practice that was rapidly becoming common. Comic shops, barely able to make a profit, could not afford to order extra copies of issues that did not sell. And so they would only order enough to fill their in-store subscriptions (the so-called "pull lists"), and perhaps one or two extra. Thus, the issues would sell out almost immediately -- which was great for the comic shop (no waste) but terrible for a browser like me. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to maintain unbroken runs, I would have no choice but to subscribe to the in-store pull list. And so I did.
However, although that worked for a few months, eventually even that failed me. For a few weeks in a row, when I walked into the shop and asked for my comics, I was told my folder was empty. Then one week, I was told I had no pull folder. I asked what had happened, and they claimed I had not picked up my comics in over a month, which had led them to canceling my pull list subscriptions. After arguing with them, and explaining that I had been in every week and they had screwed up, they offered to re-institute the pull list, but the damage had been done. I had missed every one of the most recent issues for the last few series I was collecting, and I was so angry at the shop that I no longer wanted to do business with them. I walked out of the store and gave up on comic-books.
Over the years since, I occasionally would see comic-books in a book store or at a news stand and flip through them, but I always felt so confused and lost that it was overwhelming to think about going back. I also didn't like what they were doing to some of my favorite superheroes ("Matrix" Supergirl being a prime example). And so I stayed away, until a month ago, December of 2012. For almost 14 years, I continued to enjoy superhero movies, like Spider-Man and Batman Begins, and even to play superhero video games, like City of Heroes and Champions Online. But I never bought any comics until last month.
What happened to change my mind, to cause me to rise from the ashes, like Jean Grey/Phoenix? I will explain that in the next article... stay tuned!
Welcome to this new blog, which I call "Statues and Superheroes" (S&S for short). I am an old-time comic collector (my first comic-books were dated 1975 or so) who ceased collecting comic-books almost fourteen years ago, and has just gotten back into the hobby in the last month or so. This blog will chronicle my journey back into the world of collecting both comic-books, and associated collectible materials, such as superhero busts, action figures, statuettes, and the like. I love to write, so over the coming months, I will hold forth on a variety of topics such as what I think of today's comic-books, which comic creators I like (or dislike) the most, and which action figures or statues I think are worth buying (or are best avoided). But today, I am going to start by explaining why I quit reading comic-books in early 1999, and what caused me to return to the world of comic-book collecting about a month ago, in 2012.
I began reading comic-books in around 1975, although you really couldn't call what I did "collecting" back then. I was barely old enough to read, and I had no concept of serialization. The idea that comic-books were numbered sequentially, and that it might be desirable to have a long "run" of comics in numerical sequence (say, ten issues in a row), never occurred to me at that age. Then, in late 1976, by sheer luck, I ran into Godzilla, King of the Monsters #1, which was published by Marvel Comics. I loved monsters, and Godzilla was my all-time favorite, so the idea of a comic-book about Godzilla was like manna from heaven.
However, at that point, I did not yet understand that comic-books, like magazines, were published monthly. Buying comics was a random event -- I would happen to be with my father at the news stand, and he would say, "Steve, would you like to buy yourself a comic?" Then I would go to the rack and spin it, looking for a cover that interested me. One month it might be Action Comics starring Superman and Supergirl. The next it might be Brave and the Bold starring Batman and the Metal Men. And this time, it was Godzilla #1. And so, although I enjoyed the comic and read and re-read it until I wore out the spine, it never occurred to me to go looking for #2, #3, and so on.
My father, however, knew I liked Godzilla, and so occasionally he would see one in the news stand and pick it up for me. He got me #5, then #8, and finally #10. At this point, I started to realize what was going on. I was nearly a year older. I noticed that some of the events in issue #5 had follow-ups in issue #8, and so forth. At that point, which I believe was late 1977 or early 1978, the idea of collecting "every issue in a row" finally hit me, and I got every Godzilla comic from that point until the series ended (on #24). From that point on, I was not just a reader of comics; I was a comic-book collector.
As the years passed, I expanded my horizons from comics about monsters and toys, to superheroes. I collected Thor and X-men, Avengers and Captain America. Until 1981 or so I was a loyal Marvel fan, refusing to even look at a DC comic. But then a friend introduced me to the Legion of Super-Heroes, and those books happened to guest-star Supergirl, a character I had always liked, and who really grew on me during that series, probably due to the excellent writing of Paul Levitz. I then began to collect Supergirl's series, The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, which even though it wasn't very good, turned me into a die-hard fan of Kara Zor-El (the original Supergirl).
As time went by, my tastes slowly evolved. I began to dislike the expansion of the mutant storylines in Marvel, from X-men into nearly every book they published by the late 1980s. I stopped collecting Marvel Comics except for Captain America (since I had an unbroken run of over 100 issues in a row), and switched entirely over to DC. I followed DC comics until 1999, at which point I stopped collecting them.
Why, though, did I stop collecting comic-books? There were several events in the late 1990s that killed my interest in comics. First, many of the series I was collecting had gone downhill. By 1996, I was collecting only a handful of comics (Legion of Super-Heroes, Catwoman, Power of Shazam, and the new Supergirl series). I tried a number of other series but none of them caught my eye. And so I was already starting to become a little frustrated with comics.
The mortal wound, however, came in 1996. I was in graduate school, in a small one-bedroom apartment with very little room, so I had left my collection of nearly 2,000 comic books in my old room in my mother's house. In early 1996, however, mom retired and moved to a smaller place, and no longer had room for the comic boxes. My sister had just moved into a large house, and had room in her basement, so she took them for me temporarily, with the understanding that the next Christmas, when I came home in my car, I would pick up the boxes and haul them off to my own apartment (and where I would have put them, I have no idea). Unfortunately, before this could happen, there was a terrible rainstorm, and my sister's basement flooded. Although she was able to salvage a box or two (perhaps 200 comics total) the vast majority of my nearly 2,000-comic collection was destroyed.
Needless to say, this was a devastating blow to a collector. After spending more than two decades and thousands of dollars collecting new issues as well as back-issues, and buying protective bags and boards to store and defend my comics, nearly everything was wiped out, and I was back to square one. The comics I was currently collecting were not immune... LSH was up to issue 80 or 90 at the time, but 1-50 had been in my sister's basement, destroying my nearly 100-issue run of that title. Catwoman met a similar fate. I almost gave up on comic-books completely at that point. But not quite.
The collector in me had been mortally wounded but was not yet dead. I still had a few series I was enjoying, particularly Supergirl and Shazam. But I began to struggle to keep the series going without gaps, in a way I never had before. In fact, I only succeeded in doing so with Supergirl. What happened was difficult to understand at first. You see, I knew what day was "new comic day" (back then, I believe it was Thursday). I would go to the shop each week (though I could not always make it "on the day"). I knew on which weeks the series I collected were published. For example, I'm fairly sure Power of Shazam came out on the 3rd week of every month. I would make every effort to drop by the comic shop each week and pick up my titles, but sometimes I missed them even so. This became very frustrating to someone who likes to collect unbroken runs of issues.
I eventually discovered that the reason behind this was a new ordering practice that was rapidly becoming common. Comic shops, barely able to make a profit, could not afford to order extra copies of issues that did not sell. And so they would only order enough to fill their in-store subscriptions (the so-called "pull lists"), and perhaps one or two extra. Thus, the issues would sell out almost immediately -- which was great for the comic shop (no waste) but terrible for a browser like me. Finally, I realized that if I wanted to maintain unbroken runs, I would have no choice but to subscribe to the in-store pull list. And so I did.
However, although that worked for a few months, eventually even that failed me. For a few weeks in a row, when I walked into the shop and asked for my comics, I was told my folder was empty. Then one week, I was told I had no pull folder. I asked what had happened, and they claimed I had not picked up my comics in over a month, which had led them to canceling my pull list subscriptions. After arguing with them, and explaining that I had been in every week and they had screwed up, they offered to re-institute the pull list, but the damage had been done. I had missed every one of the most recent issues for the last few series I was collecting, and I was so angry at the shop that I no longer wanted to do business with them. I walked out of the store and gave up on comic-books.
Over the years since, I occasionally would see comic-books in a book store or at a news stand and flip through them, but I always felt so confused and lost that it was overwhelming to think about going back. I also didn't like what they were doing to some of my favorite superheroes ("Matrix" Supergirl being a prime example). And so I stayed away, until a month ago, December of 2012. For almost 14 years, I continued to enjoy superhero movies, like Spider-Man and Batman Begins, and even to play superhero video games, like City of Heroes and Champions Online. But I never bought any comics until last month.
What happened to change my mind, to cause me to rise from the ashes, like Jean Grey/Phoenix? I will explain that in the next article... stay tuned!
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