Steven Grant - He wants to kill:
It’s time to kill the 22 page story. Seriously.
Got into a couple conversations about this over the past few weeks - there seems to be something in the water - and it turns out writers hate the 22 page story. Artists aren’t that crazy about it. Readers generally find it frustrating, particularly as prices creep upward. Retailers mostly seem fine with it, since it semi-guarantees a steady flow of product. Publishers? It’s the familiar format for most of them, but most, particularly small publishers, probably aren’t seeing much in the way of profit from them anymore. I doubt many editors would care one way or the other.
Bear in mind I’m not calling for the death of the 32 page comics package, though that’s been a wobbly format for years now, and some accommodation of value and price is likely to obliterate it before too long. The 22 page story is a different beast, and a clumsy one. About all it has going for it, after all this time, is familiarity.
A return to the 17-pagers from the ’70s! Who’s with me?
February 9th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I like a well executed 22 pager… while alot of that goes to familiarity. From a reading perspective there is nothing like getting a great comic and just drooling to read next month. Granted there are alot out there that I think, What did I just read, it took two minutes, and I paid how much?
I would hate to see the format go though. At least with 22 pages, I can read through, and if it is crap, I can be thankful I know before reading (and paying for) the rest of the series. And if it is good, I don’t notice the price or the wait.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:32 am
A return to the 17-pagers from the ’70s! Who’s with me?
Well, at least it would mean that monthly books would come out on schedule.
(The room was silent. He coughed nervously.)
February 9th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
If the 22-page format was to go away, ordering comics would get a whole lot tougher. The direct market and the book market are two entirely different beasts. Unless they change the direct market (i.e., allow more returns) then the traditional monthly floppy is here to stay. Or there’s going to be a direct market crash. One of the two.
February 9th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
What was meant by the 32 page comment. A 32 page comic is a 22 page. Count them sometime. 10 pages are ads or used by the publisher. Well in terms of Marvel and DC this was the way it worked when I was still reviewing.
February 11th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I think part of the problem is the “have your cake and eat it too” attitude that comes from printing six 22-parts AND collecting every damn POS arc in trade paperback form the month after. TPBs are the new periodical, floppies are just there to offset the cost - they are essential to the Big Two because of the advertising revenue they generate. This is not a sustainable model because a) more people are switching to TPB-only and b) you cannot maintain an infinitely large back-catalogue of TPBs-in-print.
Also because six-part arcs are virtually a mandatory minimum now, stories (e.g. Gail Simone’s (hi Gail, love your work!) recent JLA: CLASSIFIED piece) seem to get padded out to fit this mold. One of the rules of good writing is to use the minimum neccesary number of words, right?
Solution? Not sure, but as a reader I like my 38-story page indy comics with all the ads at the back such as CORPORATE NINJA. I also like the trend towards more Original Graphic Novels that could have been cast as mini-series, such as FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE and the upcoming LEOG vol 3. However in both of these cases we are probably looking at a price hike. But most price hikes to date have not corresponded with an increase in value (i.e. page count) so maybe this will not be such a sales killer after all. Personally I suspect I’d prefer to read a decent story in one hit than have to wait for my next monthly spoonfeeding of just a little bit more of the long, drawn out plot. Maybe more people should look at John Rogers’ BLUE BEETLE with it’s “episodic” format where an indeterminate period of time usually passes between the last page of each issue and the first page of the next, while still carrying the same story forward.
Something else I have noticed is that Paul Dini’s attempt to ressurect the Done In One Detective story seems to be hamstrung by the 22-page format. Generally issues start well, build an interesting story and then cut to an abrupt resolution that feels forced and leaves me vaguely unsatisfied.