Swine flu. Is there anything it can’t do? Leave it to us to combine reality TV satire with societal event commentary. Or something like that. Incidentally, this is also a great way to ensure you get a seat on a crowded bus or subway.
So we’re going to get to this on next episode of The Watchtower, but it’s fresh in my mind as I just got the press release today, so I thought I’d muse about it here as well.
As a long-time comic fan, I can say with some level of accuracy that the 1990’s were the lowest point in comics history. Many of the stories were “extreme” and contrived, a lot of the art was sloppy, and the biggest weights on the industry were variant/collector covers. Some issues were given 5-10 variants, from foil embossed covers, to holograms, to even pop-up covers. It was gimmicky and tacky, and it led to an over saturation of the market that nearly collapsed the entire industry, and actually bankrupted Marvel.
Fortunately, some shrewd business moves and a return to a focus on good story telling and art caused an upswing, and now comics are back to being a thriving industry.
Then the shades of the past started creeping in. Once again, we now have tons variants and multiple printings from both of the big companies, along with “event covers” such as the Spider-Man/Obama cover.
Today I got this release from Marvel: “Marvel is pleased to unveil the special variant covers to Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, Ultimate Comics Avengers #1 and Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #1 utilizing the brand-new Foilogram cover treatment! Part foil, part hologram, these reflective covers will jump at you from shelves!”
Are you F%$king kidding me?! Have you learned NOTHING from the past, Marvel?
Pandering to the collector market like this (who are already buying your books anyway, I might add) is a bad idea. It leads to over-production and does nothing to get people into the stores who aren’t there already. Comics are doing slightly better than other sections of the print-publishing industry because of successful movies and video games, but if it’s going to survive, they need to do everything they can to get new people reading, not create niche markets with covers that do nothing except provide sleazy retailers a chance to jack up prices (some as much as 500-1000% of the cover price).
Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I buy variants and special covers too. But if you make everything “special” by giving it a “special” cover, then nothing is really special, and it certainly doesn’t do anything to entice new readers.
That said, I need to get back to laying out the hyperfoil-hologram-embossed-jewel-encrusted variant cover of No Reason #1.
PS - PHILLIP!?!? Seriously? Wow, I did not see that coming!
