Kenny Evil Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 I love my LCS. Happy to pay a little bit extra to get stuff from them rather than Amazon because they're nice guys and they go out of their way to treat all of the customers well. Since it is also their shop, they do make sure to treat it that way, which includes staying open later to accommodate people with office jobs like myself and helping out customers who are out of their element (eg mums looking for presents for their kids). That said, I think the attempts to make certain that the LCSes don't get crushed by cannibalised sales from the digital marketplace is badly ignoring the potential pool of customers who currently aren't going to those shops at all. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who would be willing to give digital comics a try but are being put off by the price tag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 I love my LCS. Happy to pay a little bit extra to get stuff from them rather than Amazon because they're nice guys and they go out of their way to treat all of the customers well. Since it is also their shop, they do make sure to treat it that way, which includes staying open later to accommodate people with office jobs like myself and helping out customers who are out of their element (eg mums looking for presents for their kids). That said, I think the attempts to make certain that the LCSes don't get crushed by cannibalised sales from the digital marketplace is badly ignoring the potential pool of customers who currently aren't going to those shops at all. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people who would be willing to give digital comics a try but are being put off by the price tag. Digital comics should be priced, as they historically have always been, as impulse purchases. There's no reason they can't be $0.99 when so many other things are. Hell, I can see a case being made for $1.99. But to be expected to plunk down $3.99 is insane. And if LCSes are going to survive, they need to be a lot easier to put up with and much more inviting for the "not-we"s to set foot in. The dusty, poorly-lit, smelly dungeon has to be a thing of the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 And if LCSes are going to survive, they need to be a lot easier to put up with and much more inviting for the "not-we"s to set foot in. The dusty, poorly-lit, smelly dungeon has to be a thing of the past. You have described my other LCS to a tee. Once I got all the old 2000AD annuals and specials they had, I never went back. Third LCS is a chain which is generally run by a mixture of people from the first two. Excelsior (my LCS of choice) was set up by former employees of LCS 3 who were frustrated by the manager. At the last comic convention they had a table at, he insisted on dedicating a large portion of their limited space to Watchmen GNs and merch, refusing to listen to the guys who rightly pointed out that the majority of the attendees would already have read it or own it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 There's a large LCS chain here in Massachusetts that manages to be both. The central store is large, well-lit, clean, and staffed by friendly, helpful people. Most of the satellite stores are cramped, go out of their way to cover the windows in posters, take up half the floorspace with uncataloged boxes covered in dust, and go out of their way to staff Comic Book Guy. One experience I had actually had the guy behind the counter roll his eyes at me and ask me when I thought I was going to pay for my shit and leave so he could finish his book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stavros Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 The third LCS Chris speaks of (Area 51) is very dungeony, they run highly insular D&D stuff and their stock of trades and issues seems to be completely random. They seem to get by on games alone, mostly sold to my old housemate and other schoolmates of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted November 26, 2012 Report Share Posted November 26, 2012 The LCS I love (That's Entertainment in Worcester) bills itself more as a pop culture store. It's an enormous warehouse, over half of which is dedicated purely to back issues. They also sell games (video, tabletop and RPG), toys, sports memorabilia, music, movies, virtually anything and everything under the sun that could be remotely tied to pop culture. it's clean, it's organized, it has a knowledgable and friendly staff, and they do have a gaming room which is off to the side and has a closed-door policy (according to the owner, this is because he wants to keep the stench and the loud vitriol that inevitably sets in later in the afternoon away from the rest of the store). Going there is a purely joyful experience for me and I try to head out there (it's an hour's drive) once a month. If more comic shops could follow this model, the ones that survive (I still believe there are too many of these stores) have a chance at becoming truly successful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 The Hawkeye Initiative Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 That is beautiful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Karen Berger's stepped down from DC. Sad but kind of inevitable given how much DC has bled Vertigo over the last few years. She really made Vertigo a line to be proud of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Fuckin hell. Marvel needs to hire her ASAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 So, what does this mean for Vertigo as a brand now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 SOMEONE needs to hire her. Berger is arguably the best editor working in comics in the past 30 years. Hannah: Vertigo is no longer a going concern for DC. All their titles that remained have been folded into the DCU proper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Seriously, a company that pushes Bob Harras to the top and pushes Karen Berger out of the door has problems. I can't imagine that she'll be out of work for long unless she chooses to be. Dark Horse or Top Shelf would probably make a decent home for her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missy Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 I'm calling it now. Within five years, Disney will own both Marvel and DC. And that will be the greatest day in comics. Ever. Fuck DC for this. She helped create the best thing in comics since fucking Watchmen and Batman: Year One, and they let her go. Okay. She left on her own accord, or whatever, but DC couldn't give two shits about Vertigo. None. So fuck them. What's left there? A bunch of miniseries and Fables. Yay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KnightWing Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 And American Vampire. (which is on hiatus...) I would be extremely cool with Disney buying DC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Would Warner really let them go? Look how much money Nolan's Dark Knight films made them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koete Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 I don't need Disney to own every IP that exists, so I'm fine with that not happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venneh Posted December 3, 2012 Report Share Posted December 3, 2012 Yeah, but how successful have their other DC ventures been (since acquisition)? Mild successes at best, bombs at worst. And the comics end of things is not exactly doing spectacularly. I would like to see DC pass into better hands than it's in currently, but I don't think Disney needs them. Not surprised she left, though. Basically, looking at things, she's been effectively made redundant (see: cancelling or transferring Vertigo titles), and demoted (see: Harras, Didio, and Johns' promotions). I'm surprised she stuck around this long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 In no time, I'm sure she's going to come up with a boutique publisher that creates digital books and hardcover collectable ones too. That's where the indie industry is headed. I expect her to spearhead something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 I'm calling it now. Within five years, Disney will own both Marvel and DC. And that will be the greatest day in comics. Ever. I don't know about that - the rights to these characters are potentially worth billions to Time Warner and I don't see them selling them to Disney any time soon - but I think we're closer than ever to monthly books being a thing of the past. I legitimately think that a few years from now, the Big Two will have a bigger online presence, and will publish huge, original, paperback anthology books once a year. Like, say, Action Comics 2019, which will have a couple of Superman stories, a JSA story, a Challengers of the Unknown story, so on and so forth, that will keep the character trademarks - which are the really valuable thing - up to date and owned by Time Warner. The amount of money that the hugest selling comic brings in is BARELY noticeable on Warner or Disney's spreadsheet. I'll look for the link, but a few years back DC did the research and discovered that right now, there are about 300,000 regular, month in and month out, going-to-their-LCS-every-Wednesday customers in the world. IN THE WORLD. There are loads more casual fans, but that's the hardcore fanbase. If every single last one of those fans buys Avengers #1 this week, the total amount of money coming in is about $1.2 million. Robert Iger wouldn't bend over to pick up $1.2 million. Fuck DC for this. She helped create the best thing in comics since fucking Watchmen and Batman: Year One, and they let her go. Okay. She left on her own accord, or whatever, but DC couldn't give two shits about Vertigo. None. So fuck them. What's left there? A bunch of miniseries and Fables. Yay. Fact is, she's the only reason DC had Watchmen at all. They never would have found Moore and Gibbons if Berger hadn't gone looking for them and tapped the incredibly huge pool of talent coming out of the UK. She was directly responsible for Moore's Swamp Thing and for Neil Gaiman having an American comics career. She walked him through the creation of The Sandman. Her editing abilities can never be overestimated, and this is proof positive, as if we needed it, that DC is entirely uninterested in producing anything interesting or off the beaten path. A company like Dark Horse would make FAR better use of her abilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dread Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 Didn't DC change the contracts for creators to have less control over the rights of their books (which is why so little of the Vertigo stuff got adapted) before Ellis and Ennis and others left? They had no interest in producing works that resulted in so little money for them. Really though, what's the last great thing Vertigo's done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 In no time, I'm sure she's going to come up with a boutique publisher that creates digital books and hardcover collectable ones too. That's where the indie industry is headed. I expect her to spearhead something like that. Absolutely. She can make a few calls and have a couple dozen of comics' biggest names working on projects for her tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuaveStar Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 I agree with nearly everything Dan said. Though I think monthly comics will still be available, I just think it'll be more and more of a shift to the download side of things, rather than anthology books. TW will never get rid of DC, this isn't a WCW situation, where they acquire something that doesn't fit in their catalogue, doesn't make much, and the higher ups never liked, this an actual property with wide appeal, not in comics, but in other media. Absolutely. She can make a few calls and have a couple dozen of comics' biggest names working on projects for her tomorrow. According to several creators on twitter, they would work with her again in a heartbeat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 4, 2012 Report Share Posted December 4, 2012 Yeah, DC might not make Warner a lot of money in and of itself but the films, toys, animated series and so on have to make it more than worth keeping a hold of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenny Evil Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Shako! The only Polar Bear on the CIA Death List! Rebellion's releasing a collection of this series from the earliest days of 2000AD. It's kind of like Jaws but with a Polar Bear. Oh, also, the Polar Bear is the hero of the piece. The first collection of Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos is also getting released soon as well. Definitely getting that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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