http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28769

Ah the ability of youth to not have that “oops shouldn’t say that in public”….

Outside of Sandman, Vertigo hasn’t really had a franchise at all. Their success was talented creators doing a story, then getting off the stage. So there was no getting worn out by the same thing over and over again.

That approach is one I expect to see more of as time goes on. It could make for better stories with even the big franchises too. I mean All Star Superman has been heralded as one of the best Superman stories in decades. I think being its own beast, by one creative team in a short easy to get form, helped make a lot of that happen.

That’s something that was evident to me clearly by the death of Lian, Roy Harper’s daughter, recently. When I read about it, it got no reaction out of me at all as I didn’t care.(and I liked Lian back when I used to read their comics)

Add in that there is just something inherently in me that won’t pay $4 cover price for a regular comic and its hard seeing them get my money back. I know they’ve dropped prices, but still with the not caring. I liked some of Marvel’s recent stuff that I sampled, but figure I’ll get those in TPB down the road if I am so compelled to do so.

I honestly think that comics as they are now will completely disappear shortly and I don’t think even digital will prevent that now. I was down a little to think that soon all we’ll likely get are the occasional GNs of Superman, Batman and other other big name cash cows. Yet then, really, isn’t that basically all we get now anyways?

And knock off the variants. We did that nonsense and it helped the last major crash along.

Comics and hollywood need to focus on a good story well told.

The serialized comic (most notably the superhero comic) began cutting their throats in the late 80′s-early 90′s by jacking up the price to ridiculous amounts compared to the content it was offering.

The serialized and monthly/bimonthly comic (in America at least) was always designed as a “quick” read. A purchase that a parent could make for their children or kids/teens could make for themselves. They were priced so that several comics different could be bought and given to kids to read on long car trips, rainy days, etc… something that was reasonably priced and gave a decent amount of entertainment.

The industry (specifically the large companies) along with specialized comic shops, have only themselves to blame by turning the serialized/monthly comic from a easy, affordable entertaining format into some slick, overly illustrated, decompressed story telling, collectible.

IMO, this was never necessary. There’s been a lot of discussion about “Why aren’t there comics for kids” an the answer is usually about some lack of all ages books, but I’ve always found that was the wrong approach. There aren’t any AFFORDABLE comics for kids. There aren’t the easily purchased, easily to follow form of entertainment for kids to buy. To buy and hopefully enjoy and wish to return to again. And they would, if they could afford it.

The comic companies should have offered graphic novels/TPB of their characters that would be high end, high cost, that would entail the decompressed slick stories they’ve been offering in monthly dribs and drabs (with ridiculous high cost per issue) and a monthly/serialized comic, at a reasonable cost (¢75-$1.00) that would allow the Wednesday crowd to continue their habit and hopefully get the next generation hooked.

(sorry to rattle on so)

[...] as I was blogging about too-high prices comes this shocking news: Beginning January 2011, DC Comics will implement a line-wide pricing [...]