Hey there little girl, do you like comics?
Two posts on comic sales from two of my favorite male bloggers, who are not creepy-
Profits of doom Rab has a great analysis and historical summary that includes: The typical DC superhero book seems to be orbiting in the range of 20,000 to 40,000 in sales. In the early Seventies -- when I was a child and therefore everything about life was perfect -- Jack Kirby's "Fourth World" books (New Gods, Mister Miracle et al) sold in the neighborhood of 200,000 to 300,000 copies and were cancelled as failures.
Peripheral Vertigo from Mark Creators like Brian Wood weigh in. I only scanned the beginning, but one quote that stood out was "In 2007 having to trek to a comic book store and buy a comic every month is insane, ". My comic store can be insane, but that's due to personality not business model. I know people who have subscription services and get shiny bagged and boarded shipments to their homes. That could cost less, but then I don't support the local comic stores with my money. Because it usually takes me several weeks to get there, I'd probably read comics on a more timely schedule with delivery.
How do you get your comics? Comic Stores, Subscription, Wait for trades?
Labels: comic sales, comic stores
posted by RedheadFangirl @ 2:55 PM
13 Comments:
I get mine in the mail. I got tired of supporting the poor service of my local shop. Saving money is just a nice bonus.
Hey Redlib, I hope you aren't annoyed with this question, but when might you be putting out another podcast? *smiles ever so sweetly*
I get my comics with a couple of other friends through a website, it's cheaper and shipping isn't too bad. Right now though...I have slowly been switching to trades, less ads, cheaper, and easier to catalog.
You put out a podcast? When? Where?
Justin, how nice of you to ask! As one blogger said I have "pod-faded". Maybe post NYCC I can do a podcast. It's just wanting to do it well and not sloppy.
Nick, here's my only 2 podcasts, quite old now.
http://redlibcomic.podomatic.com/
I get mine in the mail, but it is more because of my crazy travel schedule. I don't want to miss good comics while I am on the road and ordering online lets me catch any last minute adds I hadn't heard of until the release week. That said, I try to spend in my local shops as much as I can. I appreciate them, I just use them the way they are set up for subs.
Gah, blogger needs an edit function. The above should be I just can't use them the way they are set up for subs
I go to the comic book store about once a month and spend way too much money. Fortunately, my comic book store is very well organized, otherwise I would most likely miss some issues. I also order some smaller indies in the mail.
Perhaps the reason that salesdon individual books is down is because there are so many titles out there? I could probably think of about a half dozen other reasons comic book sales are down on individual titles as well. I'm just curious if the reason is known? Are all sales down?
Growing up, I got them at a local card store/drugstore. Then I discovered comic shops in the late-'70s and have been buying them there ever since. I have a pull list at NY's Forbidden Planet and try to go once a week. The service there is excellent and the manager is a cool guy. Cute, too. ;)
ymhI'm not creepy! Hah! In your face, everyone who said I was!
Local store for me. I prefer frequenting local stores for everything, support local as you touched upon in the entry.
I get my comics monthly in the post, rather than weekly in a store, and as such I'd be totally on for some "iTunes of comics" arrangement. I'd happily pay a nominal fee for a PDF of a comic I'm thinking about buying, or just can't wait for. I first formulated this belief when I was getting very antsy waiting for ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #1, and I stand by it. Besides, there is currently a model where publishers squeeze money out of their outlay twice - first as single comics, then as collected trade paperbacks. This way, there'd be another, third, source of revenue. How's that not good business?
I don't buy new comics often; typically if I hear a run or series is good, I'll wait for the trade and pick it up anywhere.
For back issues to fill in my collection, sometimes I'll go to an LCS, but one often pays premium prices there, so it's kind of a last resort. Once in a while I buy from eBay, but mostly it's online message boards and local cons.
H, some great comic stores in Massachusetts:
Bedrock Comics (Framingham)
The Outer Limits (Waltham)
That's Entertainment (Worcester)
Webhead Enterprises (Wakefield)
Bedrock is the exception to the rule when it comes to expensive back issues - I have gotten awesome deals there. Of course that means you have to check back often as they price stuff to move.
(Are you the H that does the Comic Treadmill, BTW? Love that site, and loving your Brave & Bold indexing as that is a title I have a special attachment to. #151 was the comic that started my collection - so be kind when reviewing that one!)
Most of my crack, er...comics habit is satisfied by my LCS, where I've been going for almost a decade. Friendly and knowledgable, with a good mix of singles, trades and back issues. And no table of noisy kids playing Magic or whatever the new card game is. Plus, accomodating with the special orders. I recently gave the owner a list of 5-6 trades that I was after (The Thing, Morrison's Doom Patrol, Ex Machina). He had them the next week and was happy to hold them for me to buy 1 or 2 at a time.
Occasionally, I'll hit Amazon for a book if they've got a crazy discount (Absolute New Froniter for $47).
I steer clear of subscriptions for the most part since I buy creative teams, not titles, and tend to jump around.
There's maybe a half dozen monthlies I have to get right away (Astonishing) but I've been doing more trade waiting lately. Bookshelves scare fewer girls than longboxes.
I'm a comic addict, so I'm in the store every week 'cause I wanna’ look through the comics I'm not signed up for. I'm trying to buy more trades but if you don't support the comics you like, then they may never get a trade collection.
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