Well said, Filip. Well said.

Agreed, sir.

But I don’t think it’s just about the consumers. We creators are a little lazy about bringing awareness to our new IP’s and progressive offerings. Not to bring politics into popular culture but you saw what happened in Mass. when people are taken for granted.

I remember being just a reader, before I was a writer, and wondering how in the hell you get over that wall. Quality? Persistence? Luck? A lovely singing voice? — it’s my good fortune that I tend to roll sevens, I work late and I have a pretty smooth baritone.

But I never forget what a tremendous gift it is to be able to create things for people and have real support behind them. Remembering isn’t enough, though. Money is tight these days. When someone goes to buy some good stories, and they pick up something new, they’re taking a risk.

With their money.

Just like when a company like Top Cow publishes something new, they’re taking a risk.

With their money.

We creators need to understand and respect that and frankly, we’re not working hard enough to bring people to the books. We expect the publisher to do everything and that’s simply not fair.

Part of my perspective is based on migrating first from Hollywood (a place much more cruel and bottom line than the most brutal comic company) and in comparison to that system, comics is damn-near a utopia, but even Camelot couldn’t stand without people working to protect and defend it.

We’re in a new marketplace. Media is converging on itself and the lines between one platform and another are getting blurred. That’s either a problem or an opportunity, depending on how you move forward.

Yes, Filip. Proactivity.
On both sides.

Nice article, Flip, and thank you for doing what you can in helping the people of Haiti. Neither you nor I can solve those kinds of problems alone. Hell, we can’t even agree on getting decent, affordable health care to people who desperately need it in this country. Too many of us would rather be swayed by specious arguments created to help the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, who continue to buy political favor at the expense of meaningful health care legislation.

As for the late night circus… Well, Conan’s case is a lot more complicated than saying “not enough people watched.” There’s truth in that, but Leno didn’t set the world on fire when he took over for Carson. He had an established base, but he still shed viewers from Carson, and then trailed Letterman for a good while after Dave went to CBS. It wasn’t until Hugh Grant’s arrest, and visit to Leno’s show a couple days later, that he overtook Dave. Even then, once Leno was #1, Dave had the younger, more lucrative demographics.

NBC never gave Conan a chance to build his audience. Conan was always going to shed the Geritol set that watched Leno, and NBC had to know that. He also had to go up against the younger-skewing Letterman. I used to watch Dave, and then switch over to Conan. Now viewers had to choose. Lots of people were now watching Conan later, on Hulu or the “Tonight” website. No one’s counting them… NBC put all its promotion into Leno’s primetime show, not Conan, which was still a dismal failure. He hurt the local newscasts, and that in turn also hurt Conan’s “Tonight.” Conan was a long-term investment for NBC. Leno’s audience is greying, even dying off, and Dave won’t stay forever. With time, Conan would’ve been the king of late night. Now that unfunny hack Leno, and The Tonight Show are damaged goods. Both with viewers AND potential guests. This is far less important than the people of Haiti or affordable health care for Americans, and Conan will be fine, but the same lack of foresight by TPTB seems to be happening.

Is it similar for comics? Perhaps… I’ve become a “wait for the trade” guy on almost everything now. I’d rather sample the book on the rack, or read the reviews/comments and see what’s honestly worth plunking down the cash on. I’ve been burned too many times in recent years by Dan Didio’s supposed “vision” for the DCU, which included taking some of my favorite characters off the table, and Joe Quesada’s lies about “years” of great stories featuring an unmasked Spider-Man, to buy too many DC or Marvel floppies anymore.

I’ve bought a few indie titles here and there. Some good, some not so good. Unfortunately, much of the indie stuff I see out there just isn’t appealing to me at face value, and given the cost of floppies these days (regardless of the company) I can’t be taking all that many fliers on books I know nothing about. So I wait for trades and look to sites like Newsarama and CBR to inform me about stuff I might have otherwise missed.

Take the recent mini The Life & Times of Savior 28 (Did I get the title right?). Looked like a fascinating series to me, which I learned about thanks to Newsarama, but when I got to my LCS I learned they only got about 3, maybe 5, copies and they were gone. So I trade waited. And waited. Never did find out if/when it was coming out, and it wasn’t until now that I forgot all about it, so perhaps I’ll check Amazon and see if it finally came out in trade. I traded a number of emails with one of the ‘Rama bloggers (Troy? I’m forgetting now), but depsite his best efforts even he couldn’t get a straight answer about if/when the trade would hit.

I don’t have any answers for a situation like that… The LCS not buying enough copies of a book (it’s a risk for them, after all), me deciding to trade wait since I missed out on issue #1, and then the publisher being less than forthcoming about the trade and me forgetting about it or losing interest in the meantime. I don’t have an answer for any of that.

Which reminds me… Madame Mirage? Any news?

With regards to Haiti, it is not simply a matter of them being poor which has contributed to corruption and poverty. One cannot look at that without looking at the role the Spanish, French and U.S. has played in that country’s history.

In my opinion, Up in the Air was a boring and totally overrated movie. I watch a lot of films, independant and big budget and Up In the Air starred ‘one of the ten’ most recognizable actors on the planet. Avatar, while not high cinema took Cameron YEARS to develop and basically developed new technology to do it and he created a whole new world, so I would consider AVATAR far more innovative than Up in the Air, so that was maybe not the best comparison…

As for comics, yes, I buy ASM regularly. I stopped buying into the big event books and will check out the trades at the library. If I like it, then I will buy them.

Part of the reason why people (or I) don’t invest in new characters/series which Filip does not address is that some people don’t invest in new characters/series is b/c either

A) This is my biggest pet peeve when and why I don’t try out new stuff as much as established properties. Creators start something and don’t ever bother to finish it (lots of examples of this) so people feel ask why they should invest in something when certain creators have shown they or a particular publishing company are not committed to the project and it hardly ever ships, which totally kills any momentum it may have had or flat out never comes out.

B) Publishers want everything to be ‘a hit’…Can’t their bigger selling titles support the ones that are good but don’t sell as well? It took decades for Batman, Spider-Man and co. to be hits. In today’s competitive market, with movies, video games, etc., new series need that much more of a push to get their traction. Eventually, comics are going to need new heroes. How long can companies keep going to the same trough?

C) Comics are written for the trade market. What could once be told in 3 issues, now takes 6. Or more. While I love good dialogue and art, sometimes I just wish they would progress more quickly. Paying $4 for a comic with an over-indulgence of dialogue and splash pages just isn’t cutting it. No wonder people wait for the trade. Plus they usually work out to be cheaper than those 6 or whatever issues.

D) Cost. Again, in today’s market, why not try selling new #1′s at say, $1 or $2 a pop for the first story-arc? That may entice new people to try something they normally would not. Chances are if you get them hooked for a whole story-arc, they will stick around than if they just buy #1.

Cap… You’re so right about how comics are being written for the trades now. Story arcs get padded out to be much longer than they need to be, because it’s all about the trade. I’m sure that’s not true for every book out there, but often enough that it’s added to my trade waiting. Take away the often obnoxious ads, throw in the greater durability of trades (not to mention how much easier – and cheaper – they are to store/display at home), and it’s really not a tough choice for me. Discounts, lack of sales tax and free shipping at Amazon just sweetens the deal.

Oh, and The Life & Times of Savior 28 just got released in trade about a week ago… Took long enough, but now I’ll finally get to check that story out. DeMatteis does good work, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

On the Leno/Conan issue, it would have been interesting if NBC had just given the Tonight Show to David Letterman years ago? It seems as though “higher ups” at NBC have more faith in Jay Leno running the Tonight Show. It makes me miss Johnny Carson even more.

Say “amen,” somebody!

@ Gordon: “Batman and Spider-Man were both very popular very quickly.”

Yes, that is very true. I should have clarified/expanded more though to say that ‘back then’ there was much less content out there vying for kids attention when Supes, Bats and Spidey first came out and their books were available EVERYWHERE. Plus, the companies that be did do a LOT to market those characters and while popular, it did take a long time for them to become the money making machines that they are. They also had the advantage of being relatively ‘new’ and ‘unique’. Now, superheroes are a dime a dozen.

Even with the hit movie Iron Man, have sales on Iron Man really gone up??? Now, more than ever, new series/characters need a bigger push and maybe more time to catch on with the reading audience, even if they are not instant hits. There just does not seem much opportunity for a ‘slow build’ anymore…

@ Shawn:

Some books also do read better as trades…For me, Walking Dead is a great example…But it KILLS me to wait so long for them to come out…It boils down to economics though in that I can’t get the singles AND collected editions. I usually buy trades of stuff I don’t normally collect in singles.

@ Filip:

Even though we may not all agree with what you post, very much enjoy the columns and the discussion.

I know you want us to take a chance on the ‘little guy’ so what is TOP COW doing/policy in ensuring that if we invest in something that the title will not ‘stall’ or suddenly ‘end’ mid-way through (and I am not saying your books do, just asking)…

I think that there are a number of reason why humans do not support the little man.

1) I mentality that if doesn’t affect me so I don’t give a s@#!#
This was a very prevalent attitude towards the drug epidemic in America that ran rampant in the black community. No one gave a frack until white kids in suburban areas started dying from overdoes of meth and ecstasy of bad batches in the streets then America wanted to do something But for a decade (1984-1994) before a campaign appeared to stamp it out.

2)People do not research new titles because I think it takes too much effort for most. When you look at Haiti it is the only slave colony successful in getting rid of its European enslavers, and America and France have been the biggest role in why this country has eked out an existence in unfathomable poverty (can you say racism?). So you have to do some real research to understand how Haiti has gotten to this point.

3)Last point for me is that maybe American readers are not as smart and and intelligent as they think they are. Too many times you see films, and books make to the top of their respective media raters (like the Village, Blair Witch Project, books tauted by Oprah), but when you do more than a cursory examination of the content they come up wanting in a major way.

So Filip you make very good points here and this is why I do not support the majors. One a lot of the titles for me aren’t that great, they are just event oriented. Always in the box not out the box. Two, the smaller presses for me just have have better art, stories, and cater more to people who more than a muscle bound hero (male or female) in a part of tights. (America is so sexual repressed its ridiculous. I often find myself laughing at the pathetic fanboys drooling over t-n-a titles and covers of both men an women. But want to regulate peoples access to porn and the internet.)

Man I love your comment and it is so good and I am definetly going to save it. I Have to say the Superb analysis this article has is trully remarkable.Who goes that extra mile these days? Well Done.. Just one more suggestion you shouldget a Translator Application for your Global Readers !