“I just didn’t want to sound too selfish, making someone else buy something I wouldn’t. :)”

Yeah, but

(a) it’s ultimately up to the librarians to decide which suggested titles to add to their collections and which ones to not add (for reasons like redundancy, too-narrowly focused, OOP with high used-copy price tags, etc. – that’s why online library catalogs call this function “Suggest a Purchase” instead of “Order a Purchase” ;) ) so you wouldn’t be making someone else buy something you wouldn’t

(b) don’t you chip in for the local and/or state taxes that fund your library that would buy your suggestion?

(c) wouldn’t you be sharing the copy with anyone and everyone else who uses that library and wants to check it out?

:)

Thanks! :)

Johanna Says:

“…I’ve had the pleasure as well of having my library buy comics I wasn’t sure I wanted to own. (They were books with wide potential appeal.)…”

Don’t be afraid to recommend titles with narrow potential appeal as well, and leave it up to the librarians to decide whether the potential appeal is too narrow for their borrowing public. For example, when my local library buys a book anyone with a library card for any library in its regional network and/or its nearly-statewide network can request it online and borrow it too. That’s over a million people, so “narrow potential appeal” could still add up to a whole bunch of borrowers. ;)

Jer, I think in the case of DC, we’re perhaps seeing fallout from the Entertainment transition and greater oversight. I know under Paul Levitz, the company was focused on comics first, but times have changed.

“As a publishing company it has been a rule of thumb policy by Checker that; when the owner of your distribution company has his house repo’d(sic) by the bank it is time to move on.”

Which makes me wonder how many of the company’s previous distributors’ owners have had their houses foreclosed upon. I’d imagine quite a few for this to be one of Checker’s rules of thumb…

Or, as I’ve been pointing out for a few years now, they’ve given up on comics as a business model. They’ll keep publishing them as long as they are making more money than they’re losing, but they “know” that the real money is in animation, movies, toys, and video games and other licensing and that “kids” don’t want to read comics. Archie comics is an example of a company that sees periodical comics as a revenue stream. They clearly still think the magazine market is important. Compare what they do with what Marvel and DC do and you can see exactly what both of those companies (but especially DC) really think about the long-term future of monthly comics as entertainment.

After decades of telling everyone “comics aren’t just for kids” apparently the message has sunk in everywhere.

“…and unless you’re a trust-fund comics patron…”

I have a library card for a regional library network that welcomes books in all formats and welcomes purchase recommendations from patrons. Does having all that count as me being a trust-fund comics patron?

Johanna Says:

“…My graphic novel library is pretty well stocked, and I’d like to find time to reread some of those I own. There’s a high bar to get over for a new title to become part of my ‘permanent collection’…”

Likewise, my apartment library is stuffed and I’d like to want to reread something if I’m going to own a copy. Sometimes a new title doesn’t become part of my permanent collection until after I’ve borrowed and reread it several times. That’s a high bar to get over. OTOH, I have a much lower bar for asking my local library to buy a new title for me to try that I can’t already find in its catalogs. ;)

That is a ridiculous cover price to page count ratio for Sturm’s book. Yet I’m glad you answered the question that popped to mind. (wonder how much it is on Amazon?)

I found it funny recently that in a panel where Didio and co. were touting the importance of the periodicals. When he was asked if there would be more Wednesday Comics, Didio answered that it would depend on how the collection did.

I haven’t been to a con in a LONG time. One thing that struck me when looking at recent pictures from DC con panels was how OLD everyone in the audience is.

Honestly with the way DC structures their stories, I’m not sure that collections are good bets for them anyway. Everything is so tied together that I wonder what you could collect.

DC ignoring the digital market is more the killer to me.