BRINGING TEH CHEAP

[athelind]

pyat and I were discussing the ignonimous demise of the wargaming market this morning, and its relevance to the current tabletop RPG market.

Frankly, I see a brighter future for RPGs than I do for comic books.

Despite the remarkable success of comic book properties in the mainstream media, the sales of actual monthly comics continue to decline. The only segment of the market that seems to be latching onto new readers are the imported manga. Despite a brief flirtation with "Marvel Manga" a couple of years ago, the Big Two have missed the REAL appeal of manga over comics: BIG THICK BOOKS FOR CHEAP.

As Pyat pointed out, "They still prefer to charge 7 bucks for a glossy colour piece of fluff."

That's Canadian money, of course, as you can tell by the way he spells "color". Down here in the Untidy States, they charge me between $2.50 and $3 for Marvel and DC, and $4 or so for an indie title. That's for 40 pages of comic, 10 of which are ads.

But Shonen Jump is $4.95 for over 300 pages.

Of fluff.

In black and white, on cheap newsprint.

What killed comics? The direct sales market, and improved quality standards.

Return with us now to 1980: Teen Titans is the first Direct Sales Only title, shipped to comic book specialty stores and subscribers, but not newstands. It's printed on Baxter paper, a low-acid paper that's whiter and holds ink better than newsprint.

And comics die.

Sorry, I skipped a few steps there.

Comic specialty stores only cater to comic fans -- they don't do a lot to bring in new readers. Some of them actively scare new readers OFF -- Comic Book Guy is an unfortunately accurate depiction.

And, you know, the way they're publishing comics now -- with a trade paperback collection hitting the stands every time a story arc wraps -- high-quality monthly issues aren't NECCESSARY anymore. The people who like the book will buy the TPB -- and, as it stands, MORE people will buy the TPB.

They need cheap monthly newstand books again. They need a Gateway Drug, inexpensive, readily accessible, something to pry the allowance money out of a kid's pocket. Maybe do big anthologies like Shonen Jump, bundling half a dozen traditional monthly titles into a digest. They did it in the '70s, when they wrapped Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl and Superboy into the big, thick SUPERMAN FAMILY. Archie's main presence in the market these days is in digest-sized books you find in the grocery store.

They need Teh CHeap.

I THINK they could probably swing maybe a hundred, a hundred twenty pages into something about the same price as Shonen Jump -- but in color. If -- if -- they'd just use cheaper paper.

The Big Companies have such a WEALTH of material to draw on -- and what do they do? Parcel it out in big, expensive, hardbound 'Masterworks' collections. I mean, I love my Masterworks of those early Fantastic Four comics, but I think they're missing a bet by not flooding the newsstands with cheapo newsprint reprint books. Both companies used reprints as filler and back-up material in the '70s, and Marvel had several titles dedicated to reruns of "classic" stories throughout the '70s and '80s.

That's FREE MONEY there. Right now, Ultimate This and Marvel Age That are re-telling those early stories with "new" scripts and new art. Pfaugh! Don't "reinvent" the heroes three or four different ways, and then just thrash through the same ol' same ol' -- reprint the originals, and let people see discover them all over again. "Any book you haven't read is a new book."

Again, bundle them in digest-sized books. Or monthly reprint books. Or "Giant-Sized" quarterlies -- though they've got the material to keep big, thick monthlies rolling for ages. Or go back to the '70s model of Super-Sized Books with new material in the front and "classic" material in the back. Value added! Personally, I loved the reprints in the back of '70s comics. When you have a setting as big and expansive and intricate as a superhero universe, with decades of material, getting to see stories printed before you were born is a treat.

Newstands, Newsprint, Reprints. Capture the old market, bring prices down, and use the huge stacks of archives to pull people into the medium and the genre. Make comics an impulse purchase again -- and people will purchase them, impulsively.

Update [12:26]: Well, this is a start, isn't it?

Comments

[araquan.livejournal.com]

While we're at it, let's get Disney to reprint the Disney Afternoon comics...

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, that was always the value of Disney's TV series. Sure, some of the classicists pissed, moaned, and wailed, but the fact is they were some of the best 'toons on TV, and the price of admission was a the push of a button on the remote. No need to wait for the Next Animated Feature and beg the parents to take you to the theatre. I can honestly say that I would not have gotten into matters mousey were it not for those early series- the original four Disney Afternoon shows, and the next few that came after.

Too bad the TV Animation division is in such horrible shape nowadays. Then again, so is what's left of Feature.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I LIKE Kim Possible.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

And I like Fillmore!, but as a general rule, things ain't what they used to be.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Not to mention those classic Carl Barks tales that inspired them.

And all the Don Rosa and William Van Horn tales that have only been published overseas because Disney went like a DECADE without any US comics presence.

And, heck, the stories written IN those foreign markets could be translated...

Actually, Disney has started publishing the Thick $5 Comic Books lately, but they still aren't quite Shonen Jump thick. Still, they ARE in color, so I should take that into account.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

I should look into some of those, shouldn't I...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I wonder how Archie sells in comparison to other comics.

I mean, heck, it's everywhere.

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

I read an article about that not long ago, can't find the URL, but those Archie digests at the supermarket sell about 300-500k issues a month in total which makes them the most popular comics in north america. Superman's assorted DC titles are the runners up with about 200,000 copies per month collectively. The rest of the comics business tapers off real fast.

Athelind's idea is very good, I think costs are getting too high and that's a big reason for comics' decline.. only so many times can speculators be wooed with foil covers, etc. And there are efforts in the direction he describes.

Maybe paper RPGs could have rules on collectible cards, and what cards you had would give your character abilities and magic items. A RPG/CCG hybrid. Online RPGs are enormously popular and involve killing things, getting experience and money and leveling up. A non-computer RPG that just focused on that might do OK.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

DRAGONSTORM is exactly that kind of CGG/RPG.

As for the other... I'd have to disagree. All the things you mentioned about computer RPGs are the kind of fiddly bits that computers can do very well and very quickly. It could be argued that D&D 3.5 is EXACTLY that -- focused on killing things, taking their stuff, and leveling up, with a little bit of crafting on the side. If it's not, Hackmaster certainly is. Computers let you throw in all those insanely detailed tables that grognards loved and everyone else fled from, and make them completely transparent.

Tabletop RPGs simply can't do that stuff as well as the computer.

The Tabletop RPG medium needs to let the players explore aspects of role-playing that computer games can't do as well.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I think it would. It would also give teachers an opportunity to introduce role-playing to kids who weren't up to reading huge manuals just to get started. The games aren't accessible to a lot of kids these days - too costly, and too much stuff to read in order to get started.

I like this idea. Who wants to push it with normanrafferty?

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

Got a sore point with comix. Trying to get Hopkin's JACK#1 published (hahaha) through Furnation. 5 months and STILL no copies in the UK distributors. Furnation seem to be a bunch of right ... you know the word.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Independents are an ENTIRELY different matter.

Though I wouldn't blame the publishers -- blame the distributors. They screw with small publishers all the time. They do in the RPG industry, anyway, and I wouldn't be surprised if that extended to the comics industry as well.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

I've seen a Runaways Trade Paperback, which is pretty much what's in the link. It's about the size of a manga book (the ones containing ten 'issues', perhaps a bit smaller. Runaways is pretty much the only one of those I read, and it's pretty good. Other than that, I agree on the cost for keeping up with comcis. I try to just read them as they come out, not buy them. If I do buy something, it's of a small series, or a trade paperback.