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COMICS! |OT| June 2016. The Manhattan Project

Messi

Member
Laura Bailey should be Catwoman going forward. Whatever Batman game Rocksteady makes next should star her (they are totally not leaving batman behind, just arkham, book it). She is so fucking good.
 

Messi

Member
Messi will pull everything, even the books he despises long past their due date.

I bailed on rebirth. Not interested anymore. My money is of more use elsewhere. Its supposed to be quality not quantity. For me it has been quantity over quality for too long. I don't enjoy reading books anymore. Less books = hopefully more enjoyment from books I want to read.

This has stemmed from that spoiler for Deadly Class that I came across last night. For some reason I was saving that book for a time when I am in a good mood and want to read a good book. That time never comes and I just find myself in a cycle of reading and keeping up with bad books and never reading the good books. I am now spoiled on Deadly Class, Saga and Low (I am one volume behind on all of these books) but I am up to date with Nova, Drax and Star Lord.....WHY? If I read the good books and not the bad ones I would not have been spoiled.
 

VanWinkle

Member
I bailed on rebirth. Not interested anymore. My money is of more use elsewhere. Its supposed to be quality not quantity. For me it has been quantity over quality for too long. I don't enjoy reading books anymore. Less books = hopefully more enjoyment from books I want to read.

This has stemmed from that spoiler for Deadly Class that I came across last night. For some reason I was saving that book for a time when I am in a good mood and want to read a good book. That time never comes and I just find myself in a cycle of reading and keeping up with bad books and never reading the good books. I am now spoiled on Deadly Class, Saga and Low (I am one volume behind on all of these books) but I am up to date with Nova, Drax and Star Lord.....WHY? If I read the good books and not the bad ones I would not have been spoiled.

So what books are you going to be pulling now? Bound to be pretty small if you're turned off by DC as a whole now because the one-shots didn't do anything for you.
 

Zombine

Banned
Messi you are totally going to keep pulling Wonder Woman. There's cute ones coming up soon like the Damian book that I know you'll try out.
 
Marvel deserves to be criticized. Their pricing is bad. That doesn't apply to MU, though, and that's great. It's fine that MU is the only part that you have to worry about (it's a startlingly good value from the company), but the fact is people are being ripped off by Marvel's pricing in pretty much all other areas. You can't just ignore all of their shortcomings because they have one aspect that's great. But, yeah, for people that are buying monthlies, DC is doing a very good thing.

I'm not ignoring anything. I said the monthly pricing models from both companies are hot garbage. The point is that one of the companies provides a VERY cheap way to read all their content on a six month delay, and the other doesn't. I don't see $6 a month for DC monthlies as an example of the company "doing a good thing" at all, but if it resonates with people then it's working.

You're changing the argument to fit your preferences. Might as well throw in CMX $1 sales and IST discounts on trade. MU is a 6 month delay. They're talking face value day one amounts.

I'm not changing any arguments. I find both companies monthly pricing models to be far too expensive for what we get. It's $4 for a monthly from Marvel, or $6 for two monthlies from DC. With Marvel, you're getting ripped off. With DC, you are paying 50% more per month for twice the content, i.e. also getting ripped off.

What I'm saying is that one company at least offers a subscription model that allows you to read all their content for dirt cheap. DC needs an Unlimited option for us cheapskates.
 

Messi

Member
So what books are you going to be pulling now? Bound to be pretty small if you're turned off by DC as a whole now because the one-shots didn't do anything for you.

i'd say 10-20 books, I'll still pull Harley but Marvel is in the same boat I just haven't gotten to those yet. I read too many books from them that I couldn't give less of a shit about.

Messi you are totally going to keep pulling Wonder Woman. There's cute ones coming up soon like the Damian book that I know you'll try out.

I will read Rucka's Wonder Woman in trade if it turns out well. Rebirth issue did nothing for me.
 

Vyer

Member
I'm not ignoring anything. I said the monthly pricing models from both companies are hot garbage. The point is that one of the companies provides a VERY cheap way to read all their content on a six month delay, and the other doesn't. I don't see $6 a month for DC monthlies as an example of the company "doing a good thing" at all, but if it resonates with people then it's working.



I'm not changing any arguments. I find both companies monthly pricing models to be far too expensive for what we get. It's $4 for a monthly from Marvel, or $6 for two monthlies from DC. With Marvel, you're getting ripped off. With DC, you are paying 50% more per month for twice the content, i.e. also getting ripped off.

What I'm saying is that one company at least offers a subscription model that allows you to read all their content for dirt cheap. DC needs an Unlimited option for us cheapskates.

They are talking about new monthlies. MU is a great value, but has nothing to do with that conversation
 

VanWinkle

Member
I'm not ignoring anything. I said the monthly pricing models from both companies are hot garbage. The point is that one of the companies provides a VERY cheap way to read all their content on a six month delay, and the other doesn't. I don't see $6 a month for DC monthlies as an example of the company "doing a good thing" at all, but if it resonates with people then it's working.

DC's is not hot garbage at all unless you're saying that pricing on single issues has always been hot garbage. No other company sells big-name comics for as cheap as DC is.

And why do you keep bringing up the monthly price? That doesn't make any sense at all. They're pushing out more issues. Two issues a month is different than one issue a month.
 
They are talking about new monthlies. MU is a great value, but has nothing to do with that conversation

I addressed that. DC costs 50% more for twice the content. That's your value trade off. I've completely dumped all Marvel monthlies because I agree they are ripping you off.

For me, it's not about what I can afford. It's about bang for my dollar.

DC's is not hot garbage at all unless you're saying that pricing on single issues has always been hot garbage. No other company sells big-name comics for as cheap as DC is.

And why do you keep bringing up the monthly price? That doesn't make any sense at all. They're pushing out more issues. Two issues a month is different than one issue a month.

Are you just ignoring what I'm writing? It's 50% more expensive for twice the content.

And yes, I do think all monthlies are too expensive, especially when compared to other forms of media I consume. The cheapest comics are 15 cents per page. That's...not cheap.
 

Messi

Member
I wonder what Telltales Marvel game will be about. It would be amazing if it was Black Widow based but that is a pipe dream.
 

Owzers

Member
i'd say 10-20 books, I'll still pull Harley but Marvel is in the same boat I just haven't gotten to those yet. I read too many books from them that I couldn't give less of a shit about.



I will read Rucka's Wonder Woman in trade if it turns out well. Rebirth issue did nothing for me.

Are you buying Suicide Squad?
 
And why do you keep bringing up the monthly price? That doesn't make any sense at all. They're pushing out more issues. Two issues a month is different than one issue a month.

True, but I am sure some comic fans work with monthly budgets. You might be getting more pages but you have to commit to $6 per month to stay up to date on Batman, Wonder Woman or whatever. Some other series somewhere will get dropped by the price conscious readers.
 
I thought the Marvel Telltale game would be an Avengers thing? I just figured they would go with the movie roster or something.

I tried one of their games and couldn't get into it. I'd be down for trying the Batman and Marvel stuff though.
 
True, but I am sure some comic fans work with monthly budgets. You might be getting more pages but you have to commit to $6 per month to stay up to date on Batman, Wonder Woman or whatever. Some other series somewhere will get dropped by the price conscious readers.

That's exactly what I'm saying. You can't ignore that it costs 50% more per series you want to follow. Unless you expect people to only pick up half the issues, it's now more expensive per series. I thought the $2.99 marketing push was pretty transparent when they announced all the main books were dropping twice a month.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Are you just ignoring what I'm writing? It's 50% more expensive for twice the content.

And yes, I do think all monthlies are too expensive, especially when compared to other forms of media I consume. The cheapest comics are 15 cents per page. That's...not cheap.

What did I not address from what you had said?

15 cents per page isn't cheap, but considering that a comic page is far more complex and time-consuming than a prose novel page, it makes sense. I think monthlies are too expensive for me, too, which why ever since I have started reading comics, I've bought almost exclusively collected editions.

And, yeah, 50% more expensive for 200% of the content is a pretty great deal WITHIN that industry. Sure, if you look at it from the perspective of collected editions, it's not that great. You have to determine value relative to the industry you're examining, and the single issue industry is different from the collected edition industry.
 

Messi

Member
Some people just don't want/need more pages. I got burnout from the Harley series when it was twice a month every 2nd or 3rd month. Now its every month for most of their titles. People will burn out as the flow is almost constant. If someone like me stops reading Harley you have problems.
 

Hellers

Member
I'm too scared to post in the manga thread so I'll post it here

A Silent Voice is currently on sale on Comixology and is just lovely. About a boy who bullied a deaf girl in elementary school so much she moves to another school. He gets bullied in return and years later meets her again and dedicates his life to making it up to her.

It's sweet, nice, sad and probably the most lovely thing I've read in ages and I'm sad I've finished.

LEARNING TO LISTEN Shoya is a bully. When Shoko, a girl who can't hear, enters his elementary school class, she becomes their favorite target, and Shoya and his friends goad each other into devising new tortures for her. But the children's cruelty goes too far. Shoko is forced to leave the school, and Shoya ends up shouldering all the blame. Six years later, the two meet again. Can Shoya make up for his past mistakes, or is it too late? Read the manga industry insiders voted their favorite of 2014!
"A very powerful story about being different and the consequences of childhood bullying... Read it." -Anime News Network
"The word heartwarming was made for manga like this." -Manga Bookshelf

So I've moved onto My Wife is Wagatsuma-San over on Crunchyroll manga.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/comics/manga/my-wife-is-wagatsuma-san/volumes

One day, a super-average 2nd-year high school student who wants a girlfriend, Aoshima, suddenly awakens to the ability to time slip. Ten years in the future, he is *gasp* married to the cutest girl in school, Wagatsuma-san! In the present, they are only classmates, so how in the world does he end up with the unobtainable Wagatsuma-san?

Loads of humor in this one. Especially from the ultra otaku friends he has. Aoshima figures out he can change parts of the future to help people (And keep his life with Wagtsuma-San on track) with his future knowledge.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Some people just don't want/need more pages.

Oh, I agree. But if you'e talking about value, then page count would be an obvious factor in that. I just don't understand saying "I'm paying $6 a month for Batman but only $4 a month for Hawkeye, so DC isn't any better than Marvel", when you're buying two issues of Batman and only one issue of Hawkeye. I mean, the fact that the issues are twice-monthly doesn't make their price for single issues worse. Like Tragicomedy said, for most of us it's not about what we can afford but bang for our buck. The Rebirth stuff is the best bang for your buck in the single-issue arena.

Now, if it was an issue of how much you can afford, and paying $6 per series a month is too much for you, then that's another thing.
 
I've just been using Amazon. I'll keep that site in mind, but most of the trades I've seen on Amazon have had pretty big discounts and I have free 2 day Prime shipping, so Amazon is probably the better overall deal for me.

IST seems to have even bigger discounts than Amazon. For instance, I'm planning on buying Justice League (New 52) Vol. 2-7 and here are the price differences (Amazon on left).

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On Amazon, for me, that's even before I pay tax. Now sure, shipping is going to take longer on IST, but if you're in no hurry to get the book(s), then IST reigns supreme.

Also, it's $4 shipping if the order is under $50 on IST, but still that's too bad, though if you're just buying one or two books, than Amazon is going to come out on top.
 
What did I not address from what you had said?

15 cents per page isn't cheap, but considering that a comic page is far more complex and time-consuming than a prose novel page, it makes sense. I think monthlies are too expensive for me, too, which why ever since I have started reading comics, I've bought almost exclusively collected editions.

And, yeah, 50% more expensive for 200% of the content is a pretty great deal WITHIN that industry. Sure, if you look at it from the perspective of collected editions, it's not that great. You have to determine value relative to the industry you're examining, and the single issue industry is different from the collected edition industry.

Those are all fair observations. I'm agreeing with you that the monthly publishing prices are insane. For both companies. Marvel's are worse, but they provide an insanely valuable alternative. DC costs $6 per series you want to follow. Yes, you get twice the content. But if you are in a tight budget, it still costs more.

I'm not hurting financially. But I'm also very thrifty by nature, so I end up reading less offerings at higher price entry points.
 
Finished reading Cerebus v1 (#1 - #25): Got reasonably interesting towards the end and rather funny at times too with the various parodies of fantasy and comic characters. I don't really know if I want to read more though. Maybe I'll pick up the next volume next year sometime.
 

VanWinkle

Member
Those are all fair observations. I'm agreeing with you that the monthly publishing prices are insane. For both companies. Marvel's are worse, but they provide an insanely valuable alternative. DC costs $6 per series you want to follow. Yes, you get twice the content. But if you are in a tight budget, it still costs more.

I'm not hurting financially. But I'm also very thrifty by nature, so I end up reading less offerings at higher price entry points.

Trust me, I would ADORE if DC brought out a DC Unlimited service. I hate that they don't have it. And all I was trying to say that DC is doing a good thing with their prices on single issues. I was wasn't trying to imply they were doing great with price-per-month or any of their shortcomings. To me $6 a month isn't too hard for me to do, since I am getting two issues. I care more about price-per-issue. I am now more likely to buy a comic based on its $2.99 price point, so DC succeeded in that respect. But, since I'm thrifty like you, I definitely won't get the single issue route on many of them, even a lot I'm interested in (like Green Arrow, Green Lanterns, Superman, Action Comics, etc), just because it's a better deal for me to wait on the trade.
 

Messi

Member
Trust me, I would ADORE if DC brought out a DC Unlimited service. I hate that they don't have it. And all I was trying to say that DC is doing a good thing with their prices on single issues. I was wasn't trying to imply they were doing great with price-per-month or any of their shortcomings. To me $6 a month isn't too hard for me to do, since I am getting two issues. I care more about price-per-issue. I am now more likely to buy a comic based on its $2.99 price point, so DC succeeded in that respect. But, since I'm thrifty like you, I definitely won't get the single issue route on many of them, even a lot I'm interested in (like Green Arrow, Green Lanterns, Superman, Action Comics, etc), just because it's a better deal for me to wait on the trade.

But if you are picking up more than one title lets say ... Batman, Detective, Superman , Wonder Woman and Harley thats $30 per month. Before any other comics and most people pick up more than 5 titles per month from DC in here.
 

VanWinkle

Member
But if you are picking up more than one title lets say ... Batman, Detective, Superman , Wonder Woman and Harley thats $30 per month. Before any other comics and most people pick up more than 5 titles per month from DC in here.

Yeah, there's an argument to made that you could have picked up more SERIES per month before with a certain budget, but on the plus side, you are picking up more ISSUES now. So there's kind of two ways to look at it.
 
But if you are picking up more than one title lets say ... Batman, Detective, Superman , Wonder Woman and Harley thats $30 per month. Before any other comics and most people pick up more than 5 titles per month from DC in here.

That's my deal. Price per issue is relevant, but so is price per month. If we were talking about DC doing $2.99 books once per month, I'd be singing their praise. I'd probably pull 5-6 different books.

Instead, I have to face the reality that these books will cost $6 per month to follow. That's not cheap. I'm not very likely to spend $30-36 dollars a month on DC books, especially if the first volley of Rebirth books are an indication of their quality going forward.

I'm more likely to pull 2-3 series tops, unless the quality is super high.

Yeah, there's an argument to made that you could have picked up more SERIES per month before with a certain budget, but on the plus side, you are picking up more ISSUES now. So there's kind of two ways to look at it.

I think the area we aren't seeing eye to eye is you don't have the choice to only read half the issues and follow the storyline. Any mainline DC series costs $6 per month, hard stop. If you want to read Batman, that's $6. There isn't a $3 option there. Toss in a handful of series and it gets expensive.

Discussions centered around getting twice as many issues get lost on me when they are presented as an optional choice. They aren't in following DC books any more.
 

VanWinkle

Member
As DC has said, though, it's possible that some of the twice-monthly series could switch to monthlies depending on sales and reception. So who knows what will happen moving forward. I would rather get them once a month personally, but we'll see.
 

Messi

Member
As DC has said, though, it's possible that some of the twice-monthly series could switch to monthlies depending on sales and reception. So who knows what will happen moving forward. I would rather get them once a month personally, but we'll see.

They absolutely will. Cyborg is twice a month. A book most people didn't want once a month pre Rebirth.
 

Vyer

Member
I addressed that. DC costs 50% more for twice the content. That's your value trade off. I've completely dumped all Marvel monthlies because I agree they are ripping you off.

right, and that's all they are saying. the MU option, while great, doesn't help at all with new monthlies if that's the way you want to go. and certainly there's a consideration if you're talking monthly cost vs. value. But as it stands, per month, DC is giving you a much better value for your money, which I think is the general point everyone is making.

honestly though, i'd be surprised if the schedule/pricing lasts very long.
 
right, and that's all they are saying. the MU option, while great, doesn't help at all with new monthlies if that's the way you want to go. and certainly there's a consideration if you're talking monthly cost vs. value. But as it stands, per month, DC is giving you a much better value for your money, which I think is the general point everyone is making.

honestly though, i'd be surprised if the schedule/pricing lasts very long.

I don't think they're giving me a much better value, that's my point. You pay more for more content. Value is completely dependent on how many DC books one is willing to follow for $6 per month.

And yes, once sales force them to drop down to one issue per month in several of these titles, then the much better value argument will make more sense.
 

Vyer

Member
I don't think they're giving me a much better value, that's my point. You pay more for more content. Value is completely dependent on how many DC books one is willing to follow for $6 per month.

And yes, once sales force them to drop down to one issue per month in several of these titles, then the much better value argument will make more sense.

I don't think how many books you will decide to follow really matters. Even if it's just one. Monthly it's a better value per book.
 

Messi

Member
I don't think how many books you will decide to follow really matters. Even if it's just one. Monthly it's a better value per book.

It does when you are buying a significant amount. I would buy one batman book a month or superman ect, I don't want two regardless of price. Its just kind of overkill imo. I bet the numbers for these books bar Batman/Harley will sink quite quickly.
 
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