It's New Comic Book Day, and a couple Blackest Night tie-ins are hitting stands, but I'm staying home, and I'm not gonna buy them. No, as excited as I've been from the beginning to buy everything Blackest Night, as awesomely fun as I hoped it would be to experience the whole length and breadth of the event, and as hard as I've tried to accentuate the positive, DC has defeated me. They finally convinced me what a chump I was being. Well, who can blame them? The crappy tie-ins they cynically cranked out as soon as they knew they had a hit raked them in something like an extra HUNDRED DOLLARS of my money in the short term, and that's what matters, right? It's certainly a fair trade-off for squandering the goodwill and enthusiasm of someone who really wanted to get back into reading superhero comics, and who was actively trying to get hooked on their product.
Oh, I'll finish out the crossover in the main title, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps. And I'm not completely through with superhero comics, even those by DC. But once Blackest Night is over, I think I will be done with the whole Wednesday thing. No more following shit in floppies. And the comic shops in my area can all fuck off and die. I'll just snag the trades from Amazon (when they come out in single volume softcovers), or pop into B&N when a coupon hits my inbox.
12 comments:
I'm just reading the three titles you mention and am enjoying it for the most part. I'm glad I've been able to resist the other tie-ins. I was in a similar predicament to you back in 2006 (wanting to get into superhero comics) and although I've enjoyed a few Marvel and DC titles since then, I'll most likely drop the GL books after Blackest Night is over. It's been a good time (for the most part), but after 4 years of Green Lantern I think I'll have had my fill, at least in single-issue form. More than anything I'm trying to reduce the amount of monthly single issues I buy for financial reasons...it's just too damn expensive to stay on top of "what's going on" in the Marvel/DC universes.
I suppose you were sarcastic here, but you're absolutely right - from a business POV it really makes far more sense for DC to maximise short-term profits and count on the fans coming back anyway.
"Well I'm gonna to go then. And I don't need any of this. I don't need this stuff, and I don't need you. I don't need anything except this. And that's it and that's the only thing I need, is this. I don't need this or this. Just this ashtray. And this paddle game, the ashtray and the paddle game and that's all I need. And this remote control."
Marvel's new event book "Siege #1" has 22 pages of content (including 2 full-page splashes) for $3.99. I haven't even read the thing yet, just flipped through it, and I know it's a ripoff. Floppy pamphlets are D-E-A-D.
I recently subscribed to Adventure Comics, unfortunately just before the BN crossover hit it, because I wanted to read the backup Legion of Super Heroes stories. The crossover has put me off renewing the subscription and the LSH stories aren't that good anyway.
That said, I do like having some junk-snack reading around the house. DC is certainly leaving me feeling I've wasted my money while being left hungry when I'm done: a sure sign of junk food. I would like to feel a hint of satisfaction though. Like you, I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt...they can't be this big and disappoint every time out the gate can they? I'll tell you when it's time to renew my subscription, but I doubt very much I will miss these monthly misadventures.
Thanks for cheering me up. I just kvetch about how much I waste on one book over the course of a year. I'm thankful the BN bug didn't bite me.
Sadly, Big Events are almost never a good place to jump in if you're at all interested in supehero comics at all. They're patterned very purposefully after bit summer blockbusters - more about franchise-building and merch opportunities than about telling a story and respecting the audience.
You can actually, if you look, find a fair amount of creators and just about every critic on the planet railing against the Big Event system for a variety of reasons, but the long and short of it is, absolutely no one alive thinks they're a good idea from a creative standpoint. The ONLY defense of them I've seen comes from the sales-boosting effects, but the short trade shelf life and the readers that smaller books lose to follow the 'important' books team up to make the gain minimal on all but a few absolute blockbuster events.
But, yeah, tie-ins especially are NEVER worth it, unless you are extremely attached to the creators or characters involved. Or, unless it's Secret Invasion, in which case there actually is no story without the tie-ins.
Sorry you got so roped into things, though. As someone who very much wants to work in comics, it irritates me to see the industry doing its absolute best to drive away every potential fan it can.
Trades are the way Curt and you won't ever look back. But I still have a stack of Essential/Showcases on my shelf to be read. All old school and all fun: Sgt Rock 2, Super Villain Team Up, The Unknown Soldier, Sub Mariner, The War That Time Forgot and Tales of The Zombie. Fun fun fun.
The only major event I ever read when it came out of course was the original Secret Wars
I'm confused that lots of people seem to be taking this post as some kind of Howard Beale moment, given that your defiant, absolutist headline immediately transforms into a confession that you will in fact keep buying lots of DC comics.
"The crappy tie-ins they cynically cranked out as soon as they knew they had a hit"
I have to imagine the spin-offs were part of the plan as soon as they decided the story warranted its own mini-series, rather than being told in the regular GL books. Also, who couldn't have seen something like "Blackest Night: Titans" as a waste of money from 37 miles away?
Finally, I have no idea why this experience should turn you off of your comic shop. What did they do to you, other than stock the comics you now regret buying? Did they hold you down and kick you in the nuts until you went home with Blackest Night: Superman?
So: yes, DC publishes lots of bad comics; and yes, they are primarily interested in separating you from as much of your money as possible, to the extent of risking long-term fans for short term profit. But honestly, you should be madder at your own bizarre, hyper-inflated expectations for Blackest Night than you are at DC, the floppy format or your local retailer. All of these things disappoint in exactly the same way, every single time.
Follow the links, dude. His comic shop sounds beyond awful.
Yeah, I take that part completely back--those shops sound dreadful.
I admire your grit for sticking as long as you did to the bloated fest that is Blackest Night. Yeah, the core books aren't bad but even they creak under the weight of meaningless continuity, over-dramatic death scenes of minor characters that maybe half a dozen readers actually care about, and protracted drama that does nothing to advance the plot. That said, I succumbed to temptation and bought the Weird Western one-shot tie-in and now I feel like Charlie Brown with the football. I'm going back to the Silver Age and not looking back. Honest.
Yeah, softcover trades are the way to go.
Regarding your terrible comic store experiences, I appreciate you taking the high road in not namingthe stores, but I really think these awful shops need to be called out and embarrassed. Maybe it will motivate them to re-think customer service. Doubtful, but they don't care about your business, why should you care about protecting theirs?
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