The NZA Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 sorry, joel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) If the new DC universe starts in the current time, but Superman's been publicly known there for over 50 years, that opens the door for alternate secret identities, yeah? Can't be Clark Kent for that long. Or maybe just the concept of trying to live as a human is a recent idea of his. From what I've read, they're playing up his alien-ness and detachment a lot. Either way, I'm interested. I plan on getting the DC digital and keeping up to date with this, since I don't have decades of neglected continuity to deal with (likely their entire reasoning behind the change). The idea of a fresh start is appealing to me. This is all assuming they're still doing the same day digital availability, and they have a subscription plan like Marvel. If they sell individual issues itunes style, I'll have to just pick a few titles. Edited July 22, 2011 by Thelogan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Also, in regards to Lois Lane's new boyfriend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 Does he technically count though? I guess if Batman can be considered a superhero then The Phantom can. Huuurrrrrrrm. My search continues. I've spent some time looking into this, and it appears that Superman WAS the first comic book superhero. And by that I mean the first guy in a costume with super powers. You have to stretch and compromise to come up with any before him. I guess his DC 52 status makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted July 25, 2011 Share Posted July 25, 2011 DC has announced its official pricing strategy for the August 31 rollout of its relaunched comics. The bottom line (that DC is holding)? Single issue digital comics are going to cost the same as print for their first month of availability. After that, the digital titles will drop to $1.99. In the case of Justice League (and future oversized issues), they'll start at a $3.99 price point and drop to $2.99 after the first four weeks of release. Oh, FUCK you DC. You don't have to pay publishing, printing, binding or distribution and you're gonna charge me the same amount for a digital download as the book I could just buy on my way home from work? You can't even come up with a reasonable middle ground? What a bag of dicks. I was prepared to pay a monthly fee, you short sighted cunts. Now you...get...NOTHING. Good day, sirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 *sigh* one step forward, two steps back, gentlemen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopcruz Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Uh, you do know that Marvel's digital service, while awesome, is also like 6 months behind right? No comic company is going to provide unlimited comics access online for brand new stuff at $9.99 a month. No way in hell. Could that model work? Maybe, I'm not sure how much Marvel pulls in on its site, or how much more they might if they had day and date digital releases, but Marvel does the same shit for their new stuff. I think the pricing models need to improve, and will over time, but yeah new stuff via subscription isn't happening. As far as costs, yeah, the comics should be cheaper online, but it comes down to the fact that DC (or any publisher) can't afford to piss off their retailers, and trust me, if they went day and date with these things at $1.99 the retailers would pretty much tell them to fuck themselves. Plus considering how bad DC's sales have been, they need retailers buying as much of their physical stuff as possible, and they are also hoping that enough new digital buyers will show up as well. And the sad truth in the digital era is that lack of a physical object does not equal a lower cost especially for new releases. Where it shines is allowing access to older works at often ridiculously low prices, see steam. At least they will be dropping prices on these after a month, so hopefully they will get smart and do a subscription service once they have enough back issues. This being DC, I'm not holding my breath. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maldron Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Marvel Digital is way more than six months behind. That's not your point, but I'll be damned if I don't talk about it anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Yeah, Marvel's service is basically a giant back issue bin. I get my money's worth out of it with little problems for the most part (they don't digitize some series chronologically, leaving holes in the middle, which is incredibly annoying), but I'm always at least 6 months behind anyway. Good point about pissing off the retailers. They make their bank off that, and they don't have to worry if anyone actually buys them; they already sold them. Putting that aside for a moment, they should at least be reasonable about this. I would give them $20 a month for a sub, and that's a lot more than they're getting from me now (and I suspect about $20 more than most of the people around here that actually read a lot of DC books ) I also wouldn't cry about something like a 99 cent per issue price point. I think that's the sweet spot, and from what I've seen they'd still turn a profit. Marvel Digital is way more than six months behind. That's not your point, but I'll be damned if I don't talk about it anyway. Highly dependent on the title. Some stuff is relatively current. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maldron Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 (edited) Ultimate Spidey was behind by a year when I was previewing the service. They've now updated it with the next issue, and are still behind by a year. And that's one of their popular titles. It'd be more forgivable if it wasn't a 2-3 month break between updates of a backed-up series. I mean, these comics are released monthly everywhere else. I was reading a Thor reboot that had the first five issues uploaded on the same day, and then no further issues. Still no further issues. There's no consistency. Edited August 10, 2011 by Maldron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopcruz Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 Well for 1 month behind it looks like $1.99 is going to be the usual price from what I have read and what it looks like on comixology, their reseller for these books. I think that having them cheaper is smart too, don't get me wrong, but again, I think that until more than 5% of their business comes from digital sales, it's unlikely. Hell look at the clusterfuck that the agency model did to the ebook world. Still, day and date digital releases is at least a good first step. But again, DC needs to get off its ass about a Marvel like back issue bin service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted August 10, 2011 Author Share Posted August 10, 2011 Uh, you do know uh, hey new guy, you know we were talking about this in the digital comics thread, right? just figured you'd need the help. i realize $10 for day 1 is a pipe dream right now, but marvel's up to $4 a book on some titles, and sales still aren't great for anyone. Warren Ellis called it years ago, we're basically letting retail slowly kill off any chance at new clientele until one of the major publishers steps up and offers something competitive. I'm trying to see what Dark Horse is doing with their plan these days. i really did think DC was gonna be more aggressive from the way this presser originally sounded. and yeah, i still blame apple for digital books being in the state they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 newsarama's advice... 10. TAKE WILDSTORM SERIOUSLY09. STRETCH BEYOND SPANDEX 08. GIVE THE LOWER-RUNG A HIGHER CALLING 07. "DIVERSTY" ... IN ART 06. DIGITAL EXCLUSIVES 05. INTERCONNECTED, NOT INTERDEPENDENT 04. YOU KNOW, FOR KIDS 03. CRAFT SINGLES 02. INCREASE THE ESTROGEN let's see if they do any of this, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 10.) If you take out the creator owned stuff (Ex Machina, ABC line, etc) and The Authority, Wildstorm is pretty goddamn stupid. 09.) Yes please. Except they already do this, they call it Vertigo. 08.) Sounds good. I've always been attracted to the idea of taking a stupid, shit character and writing them awesome (have I ever mentioned Miracle Man here? You guys should read that) Animal Man is one of the titles I'm picking up. 07.) This is one of the reasons I dug practically everything Bill Sienkiewicz (no, I didn't have to look up how to spell that. Yes, it makes me a total nerd) did for his first couple of decades. 06.) Yes. Let me write a digital exclusive DC book and sell it for a pittance. Taking aside the sheer horror that would be my Gorilla Grodd vs. Ambush Bug , this is a solid idea with relatively minimal risk. They could even take the successful ones and publish physical trades. 05.) I don't think any stories should require you to pick up another title to complete. It's a cheap ploy to trick people into buying Nova, and I'm too old to fall for that shit now. 04.) You know what's appealing to young people? Not being patronized. My kids favorite comic books are Ultimate X-Men and Invincible, not fucking Archie, and he's pretty much the only kid I know these days that even gives a shit about comic books. They're taking for granted that kids today have had xbox360's for half their lives and they have never experienced a time without the internet. Some wacky kids books aren't going to appeal to kids, they're going to appeal to parents who think that's what their kids want, and if they sell it's because kids aren't the ones with money. 03.) Eh. Sometimes. It turns the title into a short story anthology, and that format doesn't work with everything. Some things are much better if they aren't forced to end in 23 pages. I appreciate a good epic yarn now and again. 02.) Forced change to fit some sort of politically correct mold seldom ends up readable (i.e.: the 80's mainstream). If there's a story to tell, and it's about a woman, go for it. It would be nice if more than 3 female writers gave two shits about superhero comics, but that ain't classically the case, so you end up with a bunch of sweaty palmed forever-alone dipshits that only know how to write women based on the other superhero comics they've read. If you're just going to shoehorn a bunch of chicks in to be more "diverse" then fucking spare me. I wouldn't be opposed to making some female characters actually not want to wear swim suits and bustiers and shit (not you Barbara. You're classy), y'know...like most women. I imagine it's hard to relate to someone who's clearly "that whore" at the club. 01.) May as well go all or nothing. I doubt the staying power of this though. I suspect this will become the Ultimate universe and people will get their continuity back at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 heh, yeah, there does feel like this total safety net where if most of this goes about as well as JMS on supes & WW, they can say "oh my god, i was wrong; it was earth 2, all along". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 As long as Resurrection Man keeps hanging around and Barbara Gordon gets to keep the ability to walk then they can take all this back and I won't even say anything. As for the "Kids books" thing there's plenty of all-ages books that rock (I won't even mention Bone here) but I (and I assume most of the comic-book reading public) would probably just settle for "stop using rape as a plot device" I blame Brad Meltzer and Identity Crisis for this since that was the book that opened the rape floodgates but it's an overused piece of bad writing that's even worse than women in refrigerators especially when you use it as an exscuse to make a female character a whore (I'm looking at you Kevin Smith, you fucking hack) And on the subject of non-superhero books we at least have a period Etrigan the Demon book which is pretty awesome. Though I would kill for someone to do a new Kamandi the Last Boy series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 There are a lot of great all ages books out there, no doubt. I'm fine with people choosing to avoid rape if they feel it's become cliche or an example of lazy writing or it serves no purpose, I'm not okay with doing it to avoid offending people or attract a younger audience. The day you decide to change any thought or art you've made to accommodate those two things is the day you become significantly less of an artist and one step closer to making commercials. If the story demands it, yeah, gimme rape. Don't bland it up and compromise the vision under any circumstances, that's a step backwards. Fuck the comics code and the stifling mediocrity it forced on a significant portion of the industry for decades. Fuck it. Give me brutal rape, and whatever else needs to happen. I can take it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Oh don't get me wrong, there are few valid examples of using rape in a storyline however I can't think of a single one I've read in a comic pretty much ever. It's mostly just something that man-children like Millar and Liefeld throw out there to make their writing seem more "edgy." Which is really what I think everyone wants excised from their DC/Marvel books. But if we don't stop using graphic violence/rape/profanity way too much in our books (and by we, I mean they) we are in grave danger of having a repeat of the 90s. I don't think anybody wants that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 That Gorilla Grodd vs. Ambush Bug story I alluded to? 90% rape. Every lushly detailed panel, every moan, every primal scream, every emerald tear absolutely essential to the plot. Also: the extreme 90's I remember was almost entirely profanity free, and the only sexuality was cleavage and Savage Dragon getting laid 30 seconds before his new girlfriend gets shot in the head. Violence, yes, but if you go back you'll find practically no blood from the big two publishers, unless it was gently trickling from the corner of someone's mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I know, it's going to be worse. Read Nemesis and that's a great example of what every single book will be if this current trend continues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelogan Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I saw the Nemesis hardcover the other day but didn't pick it up. You, sir, just sold me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Ew, don't pay money for it, that just encourages him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopcruz Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I dunno older comics were often surprisingly good at hinting at shit without making it over the top absurd. I mean I've been reading the Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans run and it has everything from implied rape to the devil fucking someone and it gets most of it across in a way that wasn't particularly over the top. Hell that run did shit that comics nowadays won't do and I don't recall parents going insane over it. It was considered a fine book for kids to read, but it worked for adults too. Then again, I think most comics are still fine for kids as is, and hell most stuff is still nowhere near as hardcore as a lot of shonen manga. As for the top 10, I agree with most of it, and DC seems to be following these things pretty well so far. So we'll see how it goes. As far as rolling everythign back? Nah, not everything. I figure the more unpopular changes will get thwomped quickly ala, Crisis on Infinite Earths' worst changes (Jonah Hex, IN THE FUTURE) but the bulk of it will be around for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iambaytor Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Ha ha, Hex wasn't that bad, but he is much better in his natural environment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The NZA Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 nice. also, for arch: James Robinson & Nicola Scott named for JSA creative team. Batgirl preview Stormwach preview Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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