Been saying exactly this for TWENTY YEARS. Decompression is boring, the prices are too high per issue for young customers, and there's no "casual" traffic because they're hidden in niche hobby shops. And not ONE DAMN thing has changed. DC and Marvel did try digital sales... but that didn't work. Maybe because kids don't have credit cards...?
The big two should print two versions of each comic - one version on crappy newsprint like we had in the 70s and 80s with a cheaper cover price and available in grocery stores, gas stations, etc so that kids can find and afford them, and keep the other version the same as it is now and exclusive to comic-book stores for the collectors.
The type of paper has no bearing. We'd save maybe two cents, if that. And they won't be found at the locations you mention because there is no returnability anymore. The same nonsense spewed by the ignorant comic fandom, over and over. "Go back to newsprint..." Yadda yadda yadda. Why do people continue to listen to channels such as this one if they're not going to actually learn anything about the industry that they talk about? Go find a knitting channel or something.
That's not a bad idea. In fact, I would buy the newsprint copies if they did. I miss the way old school pencil art used to look on newsprint copy. I find the overly glossy and colorful pages just lack the artistic soul that the simple newsprint art used to represent. Just my personal take.
Marvel actually did this in 1995. You had the newsstand version on newsprint for $1.50 and the "Deluxe" version on glossy paper for $1.99. The catch was that the Deluxe version came out 2 weeks before the newsstand version. Since comic stores were more ubiquitous and kids are terrible at waiting, the Deluxe version sold better, and Marvel used that as their excuse to permanently go the higher cost route.
@@drewtheunspoken3988 - that's interesting! I do recall buying some newsprint versions here and there around that time period, but I obviously never realized that there were two versions of a comic; I just bought what was on the shelves at my LCS.
My daughter’s friend also thought current Marvel books were boring. That’s why she went to DC and not the current books but the older ones. She buys them as trades off Amazon.
20 years ago Shonen Jump was in every grocery store, convenience store, and Box Store. Now people are amazed those people grew up and want more manga. While the direct market provided more economic stability to publishers it turned out to not be a sustainable model.
The only recent thing I know about Captain Marvel in the comics is that she has a new costume and that's basically it. So it's good for cosplayers, since they just have to look at the covers, but not have to slog through 24 pages of slop. The last thing I recall hearing about Captain Marvel in the comics was when she turned evil or something, and everyone was excited since she was finally the villain she was meant to be, or whatever.
What I do at shop i Run is when books don't sell, I take them and make sets out of them for roughly $1 an issue. Kids can come in our downtown store and for a couple of bucks pick up a 4-5 issue mini and spend less than cover price of a new book. Or... I put together sets from past books storylines that are very good that may be older readers my age at the time didn't get but they can now.
I think this video articulates what I've been trying to say for a long time. A lot of the utility of comics was their availability and price. I'm honestly surprised this industry lasted so long after abandoning the news stand.
According to the Inflation by Year Calculator on the internet, a comic that cost $0.75 in 1988 should cost $1.99 today. That is the equivalent of 8 quarters or two dollar coins. Instead they cost $4.99. In terms of actual purchasing power, comics now cost 2.5 times as much as they used to.Worse, we live in a world in which buying a comic doesn't involve cash in the hands of a child- it involves credit cards in the hands of an adult. At a speciality store. I remember when Gamestop started trying to charge employees to use their specially-designated cash machines for the privilege of getting paid, and discovering that I just lost half my damned paycheck to not being able to withdraw the entire sum at once AND being forced to check my balance repeatedly to avoid an overdraft. I thought to myself "this is a company that deserves to die, and is going to." Nearly two decades later, I still believe this and nothing has happened to change my mind. But large companies and entire industries can take a remarkably long time to die. And unlike Gamestop I did not want Marvel or DC to go. But my God, is it painful to watch.
The suburban experiment has been a disaster for American society. Kids losing much of their independence due to living within car-dependent neighborhoods with no places to hang out, let alone ways to walk or bike there, is one of the biggest things.
@@JP-1990 This is the home of "Defund the Police." My car has already been shot down there, a few blocks from the baseball park. When I took it into the body shop for repairs the guy behind the desk just said, "Minneapolis?"
That kid hit the nail on the head and I’m going to piggyback on all of this. My kids shelf is filled with dog man, wings of fire, peanuts, and baby sitters club. They enjoy comics, but ultimately unless we’re going to a library or they’re digging through my collection they shy away from the big two. For the record I don’t force them to do this although I try and manage their screen time. They enjoy reading. My son does it everyday, so I support what he likes and he finds other things he likes, like my x-men books. Kids love comics they just have to have the big kids support the habit and not control everything they read. And for the record I’m not huge on dog man, but pilkey and scholastic know what’s good in the streets.
I feel that overall, comics are simply not the draw for kids that publishers wish they were. I think that most people who read comics regularly are people like me who grew up reading them. Kids today have many dynamic activities competing for their attention. With their phones or their laptops, they can go online anytime and play video games, watch videos, stream movies, etc. Reading comics is a sedentary activity that requires quite an attention span, and I don't know that many kids today have it. As to the comic book content itself, many ADULTS are bored with today's comics--those reading for actual story content as opposed to those who are just in it to buy & flip keys or graded slabs or whatever. Publishers are no longer marketing to people MY age, but they don't REALLY know how to market to their younger target audience either. Whenever I go to comic conventions, I mostly see ADULTS in attendance. Sure, some of them bring their kids, but I rarely ever see groups of KIDS there. My point is that I believe mostly adults of a certain age (40s-to-60) are the actual active comic book audience.
7-11 and The Grocery Store made me a comic book fan back in the 80s. I always found it funny you can find everything Avengers but the comics in Target.
Ok, so I never understood why Betty and Veronica, two objectively good looking ladies, was always vying for the attention of an average looking boy who seems like he can’t commit. That’s why I would skip any Archie stories and read Sabrina the Teenage witch stories or any other stories in those digests.
Muppet Drew: "What are three things the industry needs to change?" Muppet Mumbles: "Perch and Perch." Muppet Drew: "That's two things." Muppet Mumbles: "The third thing is that I had to mention him twice." Both: "Doh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!" Kermit: "I don't get paid enough for this. But speaking of Twice, here they are with their hit song 'Me Likey'! Yaaaaaaaay!"
Perch, was I was ten I could take my .50 cents a week allowance (and all the change I got from redeeming soda bottles), walk a block to the candy store under the EL, and buy some comics that caught my eye. No transportation, nor credit card needed.
What sort of economy is that $5 isn't decent kid's money anymore? I didn't start buying books for myself until I was in my late 20s but that was a decision I made when I wanted to spend my surplus cash. Comics have not been the domain of kids since Watchmen made everyone want to be profound and navel-gazing instead of fun and action packed. I can't speak to the issue of distance, the shop in my neighborhood is about a mile away on foot and it doesn't bother me much to make the trek each week, although I'm not always there on Wednesdays.
I agree. I'm 14 (Young teen is probably not what people mean when they say 'kids' here but anyway.), and spend about $10 on comics regularly, 4.99 per issue (or 3.99 which is a bit more reasonable, but all the good stuff is 4.99!) is kinda expensive and I am a bit jealous of older people who could buy comics for $1.99 or 99 cents or a couple cents at my age I will admit, but I feel like I get my $5 worth of enjoyment. I have to take the public bus 30 minutes downtown minus walking, "Kids have to be driven to buy comics" everyone says, but public buses exist and are free for youth in a lot of places!
Heard the same from a friend who loves that game. … but for me as somebody who read part of the comics, I really had my fill of Carol Danvers. If I would have known, I would have stopped reading the book, when she became Captain.
I used to have my mom buy me all the Archie digest comics when we were at the checkout stand at rhe grocery stores. Then, when I started to read other comics, she would drive me half way across town once a week to buy other comics. It was very annoying at the time and eventually I just stopped going to that store or others. Now even as an adult I find it annoying to drive 20 mins away to my LCS
1:57 this channel is Switzerland Dang, I feel bad for Jed MacKay. 9:53 that is true. 10:17 Correction Perch, The Captain Marvel Limited Series is Ongoing. Well, “Was” the ongoing since it not in the August Solicitations. That is Alyssa Wong for ya. And at least their Captain marvel was solicits to be ongoing(as I have remind you about Alyssa’s claims bout their terrible iron fist comic was supposed to be ongoing but it solicits as a 5 issue mini series with a AXE tie in) . But all honesty, I pity Alyssa Wong, they cannot carry long solo run. Rainbow Rowell make longer runs than Alyssa Wong. And i am talking about Marvel comic only, the Star Wars doesn’t count. And Doctor Aphra is Kieron Gilleon’s creation, so Alyssa Wong had crutch. They only website I know that make theory and speculation is Newsarama and Aipt comic. I remember Newsarma’ made a speculation that Clownhunter is Damian Wayne because Damian left the Batman family, but James Tynion shot down the speculation by retweeting and said no, so Newsarma has to make a new article correcting their mistake. Newsarma was right about Lin Lie becoming Iron Fist(even though should never be) because that Iron fist version of Spider Man No-More poster have Danny Rand’s costume in the dumpster with Greens shards of Lin Lie’s sword at bottom of the Dumpster. 11:22 I Remember that there was an article where Young Beast was actually dabbling with Magic in Dennis Hopeless’ Run in All New X Men. There was even the last issue of Hopeless’ All New X Men where he tries to retcon X Men from past had never left the past. That where Cullen Bunn wants to pitch an idea to make young x men into the new Exiles. Honestly, it is a better idea compared than Saladin Ahmed’s Exiles. There more theories and speculation of what happens next is happening in mangas. Not just articles, RUclips as well. It sad too because current reading Ben Percy’s Ghost Rider Final Vengeance. I was speculating that Johnny is gonna permanently lose his Spirit of Vengeance again. We have to wait and see until the new Blood Hunt Midnight Sons. 12:10 Aipt made an article about Steve Orlando’s Annihilation 2099, they speculated it gonna be the End of 2099 comics continuity in general. But that is just obviously clickbait. 13:05 It kinda sketchy, you don’t know if their work places like The Mary Sue is toxic environment or not. So you show all these Archie comics but not talk about Tom King writing and make Archie decide who to choose. It is gonna 100% miserable isn’t it?
I still remember the day (MANY years ago) when I bought ten brand new comics at the drug store for $2! I'm pretty sure we can't return to those days, but someone in the industry has to try to make the books more affordable and better distributed.
The kid basically knew 3 problems with comics. BRO, everyone's been saying kids are smarter than the comic book pros, that Perch's kid's are smarter than the pros, and we were NOT CAPPING! We were speaking facts!
Try living outside USA and like comics. You pay 12 bucks for a new 5.99 cover price and the Ona and only store is closing this year. You try UPS and it is 400$ for a shipping of 20 comics in a box to central America, Costa Rica. Panini Mangas are sold in Wal-Mart so comics are dead here.
we talked about this in our first chat. The Big Two abandoned the "general public" in favor of nostalgia junkies and speculators when they created the Direct Market. The DM recast LCSs as sharecroppers on the corporate plantation and led to the shrinking of the base "core" audience at the same time it began jacking up prices far beyond the result of general inflation. Marvel and DC made this bed and it isn't "wokeness" or "poor creative decisions" that have beat the American comics industry to its knees. It's pricing (ridiculously too high), the lack of general widespread access to the product plus the constant increase of other media that scratches the same basic itch BETTER and for a lower overall price. Commerce. Economics. Never emotionality. All that Culture War crap is just that: BS. Two corporations decided to create a domesticated audience and indentured retail force and this is the result of that choice. COVID and being eaten by vulture capitalists sped the cancer up but it was always going to kill the patient.
@@passerby5 "boring" is a personal value judgment and not measurable in an empirical or objective sense. therefore entirely meaningless to anyone but the person experiencing the boredom. therefore, meaningless in this context. if you're bored, find something to do that excites you. the end.
@@ThorneIdentity if you wish to go this route, then even price being "too expensive" is a person value judgement, and the stores being too far away or not easy to get to is entirely meaningless to anyone experiencing the difficulty. And you seem to be taking this more personally then you wish to let on by telling me to "find something to do that excites me" What makes you think I'm not already doing that?
I started collecting comics, mostly Marvel Comics, 50 years ago, stopped buying after the Mephisto / Peter Parker Mary Jane Marriage Erasure disaster story... Comics in the 70s & 80s were exciting, especially the Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. I bought up to 20 titles of new comics per month, and many back issues, including 70s DC and Charlton horror / fantasy books. I think the downfall for Marvel Comics started in the 90s. Marvel Comics started running out of ideas, repeatedly dumping the Clone Saga, Spider-Verse, and other nonsense our way in the past 30 years. And today, a big chunk of the stories are about who is coming out of the closet next, or which character's history do we retcon next, or let's slow down the stories about adding pointless discussions in each story, making the stories boring or out of touch with what the majority of collectors ever asked for. Instead Marvel caters to splinter segments in our population, many of who don't even read comic books, and to collectors who keep buying the "boring" number 1 issues because most series end after a handful of issues. It's not fun reading Marvel Comics anymore. If I was your son's age and was just now getting into comics, I wouldn't have a lot of interest in what Marvel Comics has to offer in 2024. Too bad for him. There were some great Avengers stories back in the 70 & 80s.
Didn't Jack Kirby say something like there should be a fight scene every three pages? I don't know if it needs to be a fight scene exactly, but there should definitely be a visual WOW moment every three pages. So much of modern Big Two comics are a big nothing. DC has the edge because a lot of their out-of-continuity mini-series are pretty interesting, but very little else measures up to the indies, which are also too expensive. Somebody else had a great idea, about printing cheap newsprint versions they could sell at big box and grocery stores, I think that's on the money.
For the past year, I've gone to the comic book store to buy some comics about once a month or once every couple of months. Every single time, I've come home with something OTHER than a comic book. I think my disinterest in them is permanent, because I used to watch this channel religiously every day and for the past two months I've only been watching about one out of every 3 or 4 videos. And your content isn't bad. It's the best there is on RUclips about the comic book industry IMO. But at the same time... your videos are about the comic book industry. Who cares?
I feel like this channel, and a lot of others, end up repeating themselves. The email could have been written at any time in the last few presidential administrations. The big 2 becoming small parts of giant corporations didn’t help. They don’t seem to have any initiative to improve their comic book business.
Perhaps kids are bored with modern comics because of the complexity that is built into them, to appeal to older readers. Look at the current Avengers story: hundreds of superheroes are involved, dozens of sub-plots involving individual characters are taking place The main plotline involving vampires, Dracula, Blade and the darkforce, is hard to figure out and you have to know the backstories of numerous characters just to know what is going on.
I’m not sure it’s the complexity per se. I would argue that it’s convoluted so kids have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know which universe or timeline any of these things takes place in. They are not invested in a character whose origin has been rebooted, retconned several million times over.
I got my first issue of Incredible Hulk when I was five. It opened with a continuation of the last month's story and introduced several characters I wasn't familiar with. And Banner's mind controlled the Hulk. Somehow I got through it just fine.
It’s really mainly just one: they have driven away most longtime fans, they have no interest in getting them back, they have no clue how to attract new ones, nor have they realized the reason they can’t solve that problem is that it has no solution. New fans won’t happen, no matter what, at least not in viable numbers. Comic books are a horrible value proposition in the modern world. You can buy a 30 page comic that you can read in 15 minutes or you can get a streaming service for a month. without the nostalgia factor of longtime fans, very very few people are going to ever choose the former. this is coming from someone with well over 50,000 comics that still spends over a grand a month on them: if I were 40 years younger, I don't see any path to me ever getting into comics. Anybody that picks up, say, an issue of tini Howard's Catwoman or anything written by Al Ewing as their first comic will never buy that second one.
>"Comic books are a horrible value proposition in the modern world. You can buy a 30 page comic that you can read in 15 minutes or you can get a streaming service for a month." I guess, but the medium is something special; TV isn't the same. A spider-man movie where Peter is older with kids and all this stuff is changed and then a new avengers team and x-men connected to that which started with some other thing isn't gonna happen because they have to appeal to the mainstream. Also I like spider-man. The movies aren't the same.
What’s an audio comic? He just reads all the dialogue from a comic? Like an audiobook? I’ve just started to buy audiobooks, I’m buying the Mushoku Tensei novels on audio, I can’t wait for the manga to find out what happens, it’s too far behind. I’ll still buy the manga but I need to know what happens now & I’m not reading the novel.
12:54 So you didn’t see my speculation who the new members of the Deniz Champ’s Ultimate, yesterday? I don’t blame you who wrote is long as you video, cause I listen. It basically having conversation. This was about free comic book that where there 3 silhouettes(1 man and 2 women) that gonna be new members of Deniz Champs ultimates. Who you think they are gonna be? Since the new august shows Ultimate issue 3 with She-Hulk. She may be a potential new member. Now for man people would obviously say the man is black Panther which way too easy to guess. I like to be experimental. So here my speculation. *Sabretooth* There possibly there no Logan in earth 6160 so what that leaves for Sabretooth if he’s around. Maybe Sabretooth has different life if he never killed own brother. It cool see a more heroic sabretooth. I was done before in Age of Apocalypse. *White Tiger* either *“Hector Ayala”* or *“Kevin Cole”* It interesting to see Hector Ayala are the lore of White Tiger totem. And Kevin Cole has a personal connection to Black Panther in the past. So why not him? Kevin can have the same arc of impersonating Black Panther and he grow into his own identity white Tiger. If Hector and his is not in earth 6160. There other feline Kaspar can take. Snow leopard. Eh? Now 2nd female Silhouette. People speculate it gonna be Carol Danvers. Which…. Sigh…. it is really necessary? I can see 6160 Carol might be better written that n Mainstream 616 Carol but Again I like to be more experimental to focus on obscure characters. I bet Perch gonna believe it is Monica Rambeau. He is an easy book to read. For me either Tigra. It fact that mainstream 616 continuity don’t know what do with her. That last time I saw Tigra was in Kelly Thompson’s West Coast Avengers. Tigra is still raising her Skrull son, yes? Or Avril Kincaid as 1st Quasar of earth 6160. Now hear me out. I know that is tall order. But 6160 continuity is best way to give Avril a great start to give her an actual character. Nick Spencer created Avril but he didn’t do anything with her. All there is that she a Shield Agent just like Wendell and she a lesbian. That all to it. She didn’t have an adventure on her own. She killed off during Secret Empire. Al Ewing brought her back in Guardians of The Galaxy Annual. But Al Ewing also didn’t do much with Avril and Al Ewing had disrespected Wendell’s Shield background. I remember an article actually acknowledge that Wendell was Shield agent. It believe it was ScreenRant. It most likely Al Ewing’s Guardians was ending soon. But in Deniz Champ’s Ultimates he could give Avril a personality, he give her flaws and challenges to overcome. Give her a dynamic with the other ultimates. Because Ultimate’s is a chance to give Avril an actual Journey, give her a definitive character and it is not making lame and gay. That would make Nick Spencer proud. We should talk to Nick Spencer.
Nonsense. This emailer's kid no way talked about pricing and everything else. He's bored with a title, and the next question wasn't, "You want to read something else?" Probably doesn't even have kids.
Been saying exactly this for TWENTY YEARS. Decompression is boring, the prices are too high per issue for young customers, and there's no "casual" traffic because they're hidden in niche hobby shops. And not ONE DAMN thing has changed.
DC and Marvel did try digital sales... but that didn't work. Maybe because kids don't have credit cards...?
The big two should print two versions of each comic - one version on crappy newsprint like we had in the 70s and 80s with a cheaper cover price and available in grocery stores, gas stations, etc so that kids can find and afford them, and keep the other version the same as it is now and exclusive to comic-book stores for the collectors.
Yea I’ve seen this idea before, it’s a good idea, have 1 cheaper copy for the readers & then a more expensive one for the collectors.
The type of paper has no bearing. We'd save maybe two cents, if that. And they won't be found at the locations you mention because there is no returnability anymore.
The same nonsense spewed by the ignorant comic fandom, over and over. "Go back to newsprint..." Yadda yadda yadda.
Why do people continue to listen to channels such as this one if they're not going to actually learn anything about the industry that they talk about?
Go find a knitting channel or something.
That's not a bad idea. In fact, I would buy the newsprint copies if they did. I miss the way old school pencil art used to look on newsprint copy. I find the overly glossy and colorful pages just lack the artistic soul that the simple newsprint art used to represent. Just my personal take.
Marvel actually did this in 1995. You had the newsstand version on newsprint for $1.50 and the "Deluxe" version on glossy paper for $1.99.
The catch was that the Deluxe version came out 2 weeks before the newsstand version. Since comic stores were more ubiquitous and kids are terrible at waiting, the Deluxe version sold better, and Marvel used that as their excuse to permanently go the higher cost route.
@@drewtheunspoken3988 - that's interesting! I do recall buying some newsprint versions here and there around that time period, but I obviously never realized that there were two versions of a comic; I just bought what was on the shelves at my LCS.
My daughter’s friend also thought current Marvel books were boring. That’s why she went to DC and not the current books but the older ones. She buys them as trades off Amazon.
20 years ago Shonen Jump was in every grocery store, convenience store, and Box Store. Now people are amazed those people grew up and want more manga. While the direct market provided more economic stability to publishers it turned out to not be a sustainable model.
The only recent thing I know about Captain Marvel in the comics is that she has a new costume and that's basically it. So it's good for cosplayers, since they just have to look at the covers, but not have to slog through 24 pages of slop.
The last thing I recall hearing about Captain Marvel in the comics was when she turned evil or something, and everyone was excited since she was finally the villain she was meant to be, or whatever.
What I do at shop i Run is when books don't sell, I take them and make sets out of them for roughly $1 an issue. Kids can come in our downtown store and for a couple of bucks pick up a 4-5 issue mini and spend less than cover price of a new book. Or... I put together sets from past books storylines that are very good that may be older readers my age at the time didn't get but they can now.
I think this video articulates what I've been trying to say for a long time. A lot of the utility of comics was their availability and price. I'm honestly surprised this industry lasted so long after abandoning the news stand.
How come everyone knows what’s wrong with comics except the people who are running comics?
Look at the people writing these comics, do most of them look like they could admit that they aren’t doing things right?
To quote Batman, "They know... They just don't care "
According to the Inflation by Year Calculator on the internet, a comic that cost $0.75 in 1988 should cost $1.99 today. That is the equivalent of 8 quarters or two dollar coins. Instead they cost $4.99. In terms of actual purchasing power, comics now cost 2.5 times as much as they used to.Worse, we live in a world in which buying a comic doesn't involve cash in the hands of a child- it involves credit cards in the hands of an adult. At a speciality store.
I remember when Gamestop started trying to charge employees to use their specially-designated cash machines for the privilege of getting paid, and discovering that I just lost half my damned paycheck to not being able to withdraw the entire sum at once AND being forced to check my balance repeatedly to avoid an overdraft. I thought to myself "this is a company that deserves to die, and is going to."
Nearly two decades later, I still believe this and nothing has happened to change my mind. But large companies and entire industries can take a remarkably long time to die. And unlike Gamestop I did not want Marvel or DC to go. But my God, is it painful to watch.
The suburban experiment has been a disaster for American society.
Kids losing much of their independence due to living within car-dependent neighborhoods with no places to hang out, let alone ways to walk or bike there, is one of the biggest things.
I live in the suburbs of Minneapolis. If I moved downtown I'd have to buy a gun for protection. I sure wouldn't let my kids walk around there.
@@jimdetry9420 Why, are the buildings going to kill you? Are the parks going to kill you? Are the sidewalks and bike lanes gonna kill you?
@@JP-1990 This is the home of "Defund the Police." My car has already been shot down there, a few blocks from the baseball park. When I took it into the body shop for repairs the guy behind the desk just said, "Minneapolis?"
@@jimdetry9420 I feel like you're missing the point entirely of what I'm getting at.
@@JP-1990 Then, instead of ragging on me, explain your point.
Also side note, when I was at my lcs this Saturday I saw a girl teen buy an omnibus of Mighty Thor! So they do exist.
I got my daughter the three omnibi of the Perez/Wolfman Teen Titans. Hopefully she reads them at some point.
@@adamfrey4920Tell her my daughter’s friends loved it! She said it reminded her of why she liked those superhero movies.
That kid hit the nail on the head and I’m going to piggyback on all of this.
My kids shelf is filled with dog man, wings of fire, peanuts, and baby sitters club. They enjoy comics, but ultimately unless we’re going to a library or they’re digging through my collection they shy away from the big two.
For the record I don’t force them to do this although I try and manage their screen time. They enjoy reading. My son does it everyday, so I support what he likes and he finds other things he likes, like my x-men books. Kids love comics they just have to have the big kids support the habit and not control everything they read. And for the record I’m not huge on dog man, but pilkey and scholastic know what’s good in the streets.
I feel that overall, comics are simply not the draw for kids that publishers wish they were. I think that most people who read comics regularly are people like me who grew up reading them. Kids today have many dynamic activities competing for their attention. With their phones or their laptops, they can go online anytime and play video games, watch videos, stream movies, etc. Reading comics is a sedentary activity that requires quite an attention span, and I don't know that many kids today have it. As to the comic book content itself, many ADULTS are bored with today's comics--those reading for actual story content as opposed to those who are just in it to buy & flip keys or graded slabs or whatever. Publishers are no longer marketing to people MY age, but they don't REALLY know how to market to their younger target audience either. Whenever I go to comic conventions, I mostly see ADULTS in attendance. Sure, some of them bring their kids, but I rarely ever see groups of KIDS there. My point is that I believe mostly adults of a certain age (40s-to-60) are the actual active comic book audience.
7-11 and The Grocery Store made me a comic book fan back in the 80s. I always found it funny you can find everything Avengers but the comics in Target.
Ok, so I never understood why Betty and Veronica, two objectively good looking ladies, was always vying for the attention of an average looking boy who seems like he can’t commit. That’s why I would skip any Archie stories and read Sabrina the Teenage witch stories or any other stories in those digests.
I never understood it either, but I appreciated the out of context tandem showering 😂
So average boys get the ego boost of thinking they can get two beautiful girls fighting for him
Muppet Drew: "What are three things the industry needs to change?"
Muppet Mumbles: "Perch and Perch."
Muppet Drew: "That's two things."
Muppet Mumbles: "The third thing is that I had to mention him twice."
Both: "Doh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!"
Kermit: "I don't get paid enough for this. But speaking of Twice, here they are with their hit song 'Me Likey'! Yaaaaaaaay!"
It's been long enough that some people have no idea what you're talking about.
But I thought it was funny.
Me Likey is my daughter’s most played song for the past 5 years.
Come for the problems , stay for the Arby's love.
Perch, was I was ten I could take my .50 cents a week allowance (and all the change I got from redeeming soda bottles), walk a block to the candy store under the EL, and buy some comics that caught my eye. No transportation, nor credit card needed.
What sort of economy is that $5 isn't decent kid's money anymore? I didn't start buying books for myself until I was in my late 20s but that was a decision I made when I wanted to spend my surplus cash.
Comics have not been the domain of kids since Watchmen made everyone want to be profound and navel-gazing instead of fun and action packed.
I can't speak to the issue of distance, the shop in my neighborhood is about a mile away on foot and it doesn't bother me much to make the trek each week, although I'm not always there on Wednesdays.
I agree. I'm 14 (Young teen is probably not what people mean when they say 'kids' here but anyway.), and spend about $10 on comics regularly, 4.99 per issue (or 3.99 which is a bit more reasonable, but all the good stuff is 4.99!) is kinda expensive and I am a bit jealous of older people who could buy comics for $1.99 or 99 cents or a couple cents at my age I will admit, but I feel like I get my $5 worth of enjoyment. I have to take the public bus 30 minutes downtown minus walking, "Kids have to be driven to buy comics" everyone says, but public buses exist and are free for youth in a lot of places!
Captain marvel in the midnight suns game was actually fun because she didn’t have the baggage of the comics weighting her down
Heard the same from a friend who loves that game. … but for me as somebody who read part of the comics, I really had my fill of Carol Danvers. If I would have known, I would have stopped reading the book, when she became Captain.
I used to have my mom buy me all the Archie digest comics when we were at the checkout stand at rhe grocery stores. Then, when I started to read other comics, she would drive me half way across town once a week to buy other comics. It was very annoying at the time and eventually I just stopped going to that store or others. Now even as an adult I find it annoying to drive 20 mins away to my LCS
1:57 this channel is Switzerland
Dang, I feel bad for Jed MacKay.
9:53 that is true.
10:17 Correction Perch, The Captain Marvel Limited Series is Ongoing. Well, “Was” the ongoing since it not in the August Solicitations. That is Alyssa Wong for ya. And at least their Captain marvel was solicits to be ongoing(as I have remind you about Alyssa’s claims bout their terrible iron fist comic was supposed to be ongoing but it solicits as a 5 issue mini series with a AXE tie in) . But all honesty, I pity Alyssa Wong, they cannot carry long solo run. Rainbow Rowell make longer runs than Alyssa Wong. And i am talking about Marvel comic only, the Star Wars doesn’t count. And Doctor Aphra is Kieron Gilleon’s creation, so Alyssa Wong had crutch.
They only website I know that make theory and speculation is Newsarama and Aipt comic.
I remember Newsarma’ made a speculation that Clownhunter is Damian Wayne because Damian left the Batman family, but James Tynion shot down the speculation by retweeting and said no, so Newsarma has to make a new article correcting their mistake.
Newsarma was right about Lin Lie becoming Iron Fist(even though should never be) because that Iron fist version of Spider Man No-More poster have Danny Rand’s costume in the dumpster with Greens shards of Lin Lie’s sword at bottom of the Dumpster.
11:22 I Remember that there was an article where Young Beast was actually dabbling with Magic in Dennis Hopeless’ Run in All New X Men.
There was even the last issue of Hopeless’ All New X Men where he tries to retcon X Men from past had never left the past. That where Cullen Bunn wants to pitch an idea to make young x men into the new Exiles. Honestly, it is a better idea compared than Saladin Ahmed’s Exiles.
There more theories and speculation of what happens next is happening in mangas. Not just articles, RUclips as well.
It sad too because current reading Ben Percy’s Ghost Rider Final Vengeance. I was speculating that Johnny is gonna permanently lose his Spirit of Vengeance again. We have to wait and see until the new Blood Hunt Midnight Sons.
12:10 Aipt made an article about Steve Orlando’s Annihilation 2099, they speculated it gonna be the End of 2099 comics continuity in general. But that is just obviously clickbait.
13:05 It kinda sketchy, you don’t know if their work places like The Mary Sue is toxic environment or not.
So you show all these Archie comics but not talk about Tom King writing and make Archie decide who to choose.
It is gonna 100% miserable isn’t it?
Stop playing the they/them game with Alyssa Wong
I still remember the day (MANY years ago) when I bought ten brand new comics at the drug store for $2! I'm pretty sure we can't return to those days, but someone in the industry has to try to make the books more affordable and better distributed.
20 cents, huh? I got in at the tail end of the 75 cent period.
The kid basically knew 3 problems with comics. BRO, everyone's been saying kids are smarter than the comic book pros, that Perch's kid's are smarter than the pros, and we were NOT CAPPING! We were speaking facts!
Try living outside USA and like comics. You pay 12 bucks for a new 5.99 cover price and the Ona and only store is closing this year. You try UPS and it is 400$ for a shipping of 20 comics in a box to central America, Costa Rica. Panini Mangas are sold in Wal-Mart so comics are dead here.
If you pay 12 dollar for each 5.99 books, I suggest you to change your hobby.
I wonder, why it's so expensive to ship books to Central America?
we talked about this in our first chat. The Big Two abandoned the "general public" in favor of nostalgia junkies and speculators when they created the Direct Market. The DM recast LCSs as sharecroppers on the corporate plantation and led to the shrinking of the base "core" audience at the same time it began jacking up prices far beyond the result of general inflation. Marvel and DC made this bed and it isn't "wokeness" or "poor creative decisions" that have beat the American comics industry to its knees. It's pricing (ridiculously too high), the lack of general widespread access to the product plus the constant increase of other media that scratches the same basic itch BETTER and for a lower overall price.
Commerce. Economics. Never emotionality. All that Culture War crap is just that: BS. Two corporations decided to create a domesticated audience and indentured retail force and this is the result of that choice. COVID and being eaten by vulture capitalists sped the cancer up but it was always going to kill the patient.
The direct market created the problems of price and accessibility. The wokeness makes the comics boring.
@@passerby5 "boring" is a personal value judgment and not measurable in an empirical or objective sense. therefore entirely meaningless to anyone but the person experiencing the boredom. therefore, meaningless in this context. if you're bored, find something to do that excites you. the end.
@@ThorneIdentity if you wish to go this route, then even price being "too expensive" is a person value judgement, and the stores being too far away or not easy to get to is entirely meaningless to anyone experiencing the difficulty. And you seem to be taking this more personally then you wish to let on by telling me to "find something to do that excites me" What makes you think I'm not already doing that?
@@passerby5 sit down. You’re out of your depth.
@@ThorneIdentity Ah, nothing useful to add, I see, hence the personal insult. Got it.
I started collecting comics, mostly Marvel Comics, 50 years ago, stopped buying after the Mephisto / Peter Parker Mary Jane Marriage Erasure disaster story... Comics in the 70s & 80s were exciting, especially the Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. I bought up to 20 titles of new comics per month, and many back issues, including 70s DC and Charlton horror / fantasy books. I think the downfall for Marvel Comics started in the 90s. Marvel Comics started running out of ideas, repeatedly dumping the Clone Saga, Spider-Verse, and other nonsense our way in the past 30 years. And today, a big chunk of the stories are about who is coming out of the closet next, or which character's history do we retcon next, or let's slow down the stories about adding pointless discussions in each story, making the stories boring or out of touch with what the majority of collectors ever asked for. Instead Marvel caters to splinter segments in our population, many of who don't even read comic books, and to collectors who keep buying the "boring" number 1 issues because most series end after a handful of issues. It's not fun reading Marvel Comics anymore. If I was your son's age and was just now getting into comics, I wouldn't have a lot of interest in what Marvel Comics has to offer in 2024. Too bad for him. There were some great Avengers stories back in the 70 & 80s.
Didn't Jack Kirby say something like there should be a fight scene every three pages? I don't know if it needs to be a fight scene exactly, but there should definitely be a visual WOW moment every three pages. So much of modern Big Two comics are a big nothing. DC has the edge because a lot of their out-of-continuity mini-series are pretty interesting, but very little else measures up to the indies, which are also too expensive.
Somebody else had a great idea, about printing cheap newsprint versions they could sell at big box and grocery stores, I think that's on the money.
For the past year, I've gone to the comic book store to buy some comics about once a month or once every couple of months. Every single time, I've come home with something OTHER than a comic book. I think my disinterest in them is permanent, because I used to watch this channel religiously every day and for the past two months I've only been watching about one out of every 3 or 4 videos. And your content isn't bad. It's the best there is on RUclips about the comic book industry IMO. But at the same time... your videos are about the comic book industry. Who cares?
In the other side we have sites and youtube channels talking about chapters of mangas and Dave Pikey books.
This was a great video. I agree heartily with all points
I feel like this channel, and a lot of others, end up repeating themselves. The email could have been written at any time in the last few presidential administrations. The big 2 becoming small parts of giant corporations didn’t help. They don’t seem to have any initiative to improve their comic book business.
Perhaps kids are bored with modern comics because of the complexity that is built into them, to appeal to older readers.
Look at the current Avengers story: hundreds of superheroes are involved, dozens of sub-plots involving individual characters are taking place The main plotline involving vampires, Dracula, Blade and the darkforce, is hard to figure out and you have to know the backstories of numerous characters just to know what is going on.
I’m not sure it’s the complexity per se. I would argue that it’s convoluted so kids have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know which universe or timeline any of these things takes place in. They are not invested in a character whose origin has been rebooted, retconned several million times over.
I got my first issue of Incredible Hulk when I was five. It opened with a continuation of the last month's story and introduced several characters I wasn't familiar with. And Banner's mind controlled the Hulk. Somehow I got through it just fine.
Is it complexity to appeal to older readers or just a bloated mess to sell more issues though?
I'm waiting for the crossover of perch with Benny the Pooh
It’s really mainly just one: they have driven away most longtime fans, they have no interest in getting them back, they have no clue how to attract new ones, nor have they realized the reason they can’t solve that problem is that it has no solution. New fans won’t happen, no matter what, at least not in viable numbers. Comic books are a horrible value proposition in the modern world. You can buy a 30 page comic that you can read in 15 minutes or you can get a streaming service for a month. without the nostalgia factor of longtime fans, very very few people are going to ever choose the former. this is coming from someone with well over 50,000 comics that still spends over a grand a month on them: if I were 40 years younger, I don't see any path to me ever getting into comics. Anybody that picks up, say, an issue of tini Howard's Catwoman or anything written by Al Ewing as their first comic will never buy that second one.
>"Comic books are a horrible value proposition in the modern world. You can buy a 30 page comic that you can read in 15 minutes or you can get a streaming service for a month."
I guess, but the medium is something special; TV isn't the same. A spider-man movie where Peter is older with kids and all this stuff is changed and then a new avengers team and x-men connected to that which started with some other thing isn't gonna happen because they have to appeal to the mainstream. Also I like spider-man. The movies aren't the same.
Not enough people are talking about G.Willow Wilson's current POISON IVY. It's great. Don't Sleep On It. Cheers!
I'm sure Perch that this video was very informative and insighful... but I was too busy reading the comics in your video
What’s an audio comic? He just reads all the dialogue from a comic? Like an audiobook?
I’ve just started to buy audiobooks, I’m buying the Mushoku Tensei novels on audio, I can’t wait for the manga to find out what happens, it’s too far behind. I’ll still buy the manga but I need to know what happens now & I’m not reading the novel.
Maybe it's like those 60s cartoons that just copied Kirby art and added sound.
I remember there being the same rhing for the jojo manga. Dio's voice actors was really good but only Japanese
I'm pretty sure it's a video where they pan over the comic page and yeah, voice-act the dialogue and add sound effects.
I get marel and d but boom and aliant etc are just eing weird
12:54 So you didn’t see my speculation who the new members of the Deniz Champ’s Ultimate, yesterday?
I don’t blame you who wrote is long as you video, cause I listen. It basically having conversation.
This was about free comic book that where there 3 silhouettes(1 man and 2 women) that gonna be new members of Deniz Champs ultimates.
Who you think they are gonna be?
Since the new august shows Ultimate issue 3 with She-Hulk. She may be a potential new member.
Now for man people would obviously say the man is black Panther which way too easy to guess. I like to be experimental.
So here my speculation.
*Sabretooth* There possibly there no Logan in earth 6160 so what that leaves for Sabretooth if he’s around. Maybe Sabretooth has different life if he never killed own brother. It cool see a more heroic sabretooth. I was done before in Age of Apocalypse.
*White Tiger* either *“Hector Ayala”* or *“Kevin Cole”*
It interesting to see Hector Ayala are the lore of White Tiger totem.
And Kevin Cole has a personal connection to Black Panther in the past. So why not him? Kevin can have the same arc of impersonating Black Panther and he grow into his own identity white Tiger. If Hector and his is not in earth 6160. There other feline Kaspar can take. Snow leopard. Eh?
Now 2nd female Silhouette. People speculate it gonna be Carol Danvers. Which…. Sigh…. it is really necessary? I can see 6160 Carol might be better written that n Mainstream 616 Carol but Again I like to be more experimental to focus on obscure characters.
I bet Perch gonna believe it is Monica Rambeau. He is an easy book to read.
For me either Tigra. It fact that mainstream 616 continuity don’t know what do with her. That last time I saw Tigra was in Kelly Thompson’s West Coast Avengers. Tigra is still raising her Skrull son, yes?
Or Avril Kincaid as 1st Quasar of earth 6160. Now hear me out.
I know that is tall order. But 6160 continuity is best way to give Avril a great start to give her an actual character. Nick Spencer created Avril but he didn’t do anything with her. All there is that she a Shield Agent just like Wendell and she a lesbian. That all to it. She didn’t have an adventure on her own. She killed off during Secret Empire. Al Ewing brought her back in Guardians of The Galaxy Annual.
But Al Ewing also didn’t do much with Avril and Al Ewing had disrespected Wendell’s Shield background. I remember an article actually acknowledge that Wendell was Shield agent. It believe it was ScreenRant.
It most likely Al Ewing’s Guardians was ending soon.
But in Deniz Champ’s Ultimates he could give Avril a personality, he give her flaws and challenges to overcome. Give her a dynamic with the other ultimates. Because Ultimate’s is a chance to give Avril an actual Journey, give her a definitive character and it is not making lame and gay.
That would make Nick Spencer proud. We should talk to Nick Spencer.
No, I think it's likely we are going to get a version of the 50's Marvel Boy on the team. Which was hinted at in Ultimate Invasion
Nonsense. This emailer's kid no way talked about pricing and everything else. He's bored with a title, and the next question wasn't, "You want to read something else?"
Probably doesn't even have kids.
Do you actually own a bunch of old Archie comics or do you just grab the panels off the internet?
That second one
First