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[shingi70]

Imagine a project where 6 artists get together and they each draw their own character. Not an issue or a page, their own character in each given panel. With a seventh artist doing the covers

They got 2 issues of 6 planned out

Logistically what were they expecting to happen.

 

[SiegfriedFM]

Personally, I don't read comics because I hate the way that they are released. A single comic is barely any content. You read it in a few mins and then wait a whole month or more for your next scrap of story.
Either release them more often or realease then 6 monthly with much more content so that each is a mini novel.

I basically only read Transformers and Sandman at the moment, and I'm waiting for the IDW Collection hardcovers for the former and picking up the trade paperbacks for the latter. I collected a bunch of loose comics, mainly early Dreamwave Transformers and Udon Street Fighter, but it was quickly ridiculous to keep up with it. Especially when I have to import them. They also take up a lot of space. Meanwhile, a neat TPB can be shelved like any pocket book.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Anyone complaining about the price of comic book trades should check out instocktrades.com. Almost everything there starts at 42% off. It makes the hobby a lot more affordable.

 

[Beer Monkey]

In the 80s and 90s we called somebody who bought every single Marvel comic book each month a 'Marvel Zombie'. The shop would pull aside every single Marvel comic for them each week and bag them for pickup. I always thought these people were Marvel's lifeblood.

How much more expensive would that habit be now compared to then, adjusted for inflation?

 

[ScatheZombie]

In the 80s and 90s we called somebody who bought every single Marvel comic book each month a 'Marvel Zombie'. The shop would pull aside every single Marvel comic for them each week and bag them for pickup. I always thought these people were Marvel's lifeblood.

How much more expensive would that habit be now compared to then, adjusted for inflation?

It's generally about $60-$90 a week to pick up everything, or close to it, with our store discount for Marvel. DC is only slightly cheaper.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I don't have any insider industry know-how, but all external evidence suggests its the art side of things thats the big bottleneck in getting a book done in a month.

I think that's because they "solved" the story problem by making them 6x longer in pages.

That's fine for something as complex as Watchmen, or huge in scope like a crossover. But "Spider-Man deals with the threat of the Green Goblin" doesn't need that long an arc.

For those of you who read comics, think of how many actual plots happen in a comic in a year. Granted, those are often more complicated plots than comics of old, but not *that* much more complicated.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

In the 80s and 90s we called somebody who bought every single Marvel comic book each month a 'Marvel Zombie'. The shop would pull aside every single Marvel comic for them each week and bag them for pickup. I always thought these people were Marvel's lifeblood.

How much more expensive would that habit be now compared to then, adjusted for inflation?

The cost of being a Marvel Zombie

Once upon a time a large proportion of fans would be "Marvel Zombies", buying the complete line of comics. This is what it cost each month:

Until 1968: 96c (Marvel's most successful period: around 8 titles at 12c each). Adjusted for inflation: $5.95
1969: $1.80 (after the Marvel Explosion)
1986: $24 (just before Shooter left)
1993: $150 (when the bubble burst)
2010: $250 (today: an estimate based on 72 titles, a mix of 2.99 and 3.99 each).
The number of Marvel Zombies is now almost zero

From this site

 

[MattKeil]

All that for 12 cents back then, though I'm not sure what that'd be today w/ inflation.

12 cents in 1964 works out to about $1 today.

Comics are insanely overpriced. They need to be impulse buys in accessible retail locations to attract new readers, not $3.99 in a specialty store nobody goes into unless they're already a comic fan. That gets into the whole Diamond Distribution fiasco from back in the day, though.

 

[br3wnor]

Marvel Zombie Stats


From this site

Did they do 'collections' back then like today where you can get them in 6-12 issue editions? Or was your only shot of reading everything based on purchasing the floppies?

 

[Vibranium]

$3.99 USD translates to $5.37 CAD with the current exchange rate. I can guarantee that most people in Canada pick up older books, trade wait, only check out single issues, sadly resort to piracy or use Marvel Unlimited.

I personally feel that MU should have a paid option to have a collection of brand-new monthly issues as they are released every week.

 

[Shaanyboi]

What's all this shit about Nick Spencer? I thought he was considered pretty progressive in his politics?

 

[ScatheZombie]

From this site

It's even worse. Marvel has almost no $2.99 comics anymore. It's now mostly $3.99 and $4.99 with some annuals and oversized releases running $5.99. I would not be surprised if it's now $300-$400 a month to pick up one of everything.

 

[Chmpocalypse]

I think it's a safer way of saying SJW.

Oh, so MRA redpill douchespeak. Gotcha.

Fuck gamergaters and all their ilk.

 

[fredrancour]

What's all this shit about Nick Spencer? I thought he was considered pretty progressive in his politics?

A lot of theoretically-progressive dudes get triggered and melt down over any issue that comes within a hundred miles of discussing the notion of privilege. If he seemed progressive but lost his mind online, that's probably what happened. The human ego is fucked up. Petty narcissism turns people awful.

 

[Cymbal Head]

1) There are currently 7 or 8 different versions of Spider-man running concurrently together. We have people come in and ask for Spider-man and we literally have to say "Which one?" Non-readers are completely put off by that. They expect one or two different Spider-mans, at most - not 7 alternate versions, most of which have absolutely no crossover between them and are often at direct odds with each other. And this happens with nearly all of the major characters. There's like 15 different Bat-Family comics running right now. A dozen Supermans. Hell, there's three different GotG teams, FFS. And whatever the hell X-Men is doing, aside from the antisemitism of course. So... they go to the trades section and pick out a completed series instead of getting the latest issue.

I'm a Marvel Unlimited reader, and I decided to start catching up (as much as is possible) with the post-Secret Wars status quo recently, and this shit is infuriating even to me.

That and the fact that issue numbering is basically meaningless because they have a line-wide relaunch every 8 months makes it really challenging to be a casual fan.

 

[Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku!]

Did they do 'collections' back then like today where you can get them in 6-12 issue editions? Or was your only shot of reading everything based on purchasing the floppies?

They didn't need to do collections, every issue was a self contained story

 

[LordRaptor]

I think that's because they "solved" the story problem by making them 6x longer in pages.

That's fine for something as complex as Watchmen, or huge in scope like a crossover. But "Spider-Man deals with the threat of the Green Goblin" doesn't need that long an arc.

For those of you who read comics, think of how many actual plots happen in a comic in a year. Granted, those are often more complicated plots than comics of old, but not *that* much more complicated.

I mean... if you want to argue that modern comic book writers are literally the worst ever in the history of the industry, okay, I disagree, but "its really hard to write a single comic in a month" is somewhat undermined by the fact the majority of writers write multiple books per month, and anyone moving to an established property they want to work on already has at least a few ideas for what they want to do with a character before touching the keyboard of their debut issue.

 

[Ogodei]

Aren't all of these the exact same points that were brought up in that Marvel Twine essay?

With much less cursing and fewer cool charts, but yeah.

The Twine essay was particular about the fact that the only sales that "count" as far as the publisher is concerned are preorders of books made months in advance at a brick-and-mortar comic book store. But comic books aren't like video games or movies in that you get those first looks months out to know whether you want to put money down, it'd be like saying "hey, Hideki Kamiya is making a Starfox game," and basing the *only* sales metrics around how many people preorder at Gamestop based on that sentence alone.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this.

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

 

[randomengine]

I used to be an avid Marvel/DC reader for years. I bought all the major titles for both Marvel and DC. I lost my job and had to drop them all, but once I got another job, I transitioned to manga. The largest criticisms against American comics (Marvel/DC) are solved with manga.

1. Consistent story (one writer)
2. Consistent art (one artist - sometimes same person as writer)
3. Consistent medium

Each series should be its own silo - X-Men, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, etc. Crossovers are cool, but leave that to video games and fan-fiction.

Marvel should establish a style or look that any artists should adhere to. Moreover, the writer should be a committee instead of a single person and fit a pre-determined style established for each book. This also eliminates copyright claims since we know Liefeld created Deadpool, but if Liefeld was part of a committee, he couldn't claim ownership as easily.

 

[Einchy]

I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind getting invested into another series that only lasts 9 goddamn issues.

It's pretty shitty when you need to find forums that makes lists because the actual comics are so fucking confusing to get into.

 

[MoxManiac]

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this.

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

wtf is this shit

 

[MugiwaraCole]

Excellent read.

 

[Toxi]

Oddly enough as well, a stink of desperation has fouled even the few bright stars of their lineup. I enjoyed Ms Marvel when she was allowed her low key origin story, but then was immediately turned off as soon as she was schooling Wolverine, Spider-Man, becoming an Avenger and more. There's no room for developing these characters over the decades anymore organically.

The Wolverine crossover was the funniest issue of the original run though. And she was hardly schooling him (if anything, she was going fangirl over him).

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this.

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

That Ghost Rider looks atrocious.

 

[Chezzymann]

Superhero comics should be structured like manga, instead of constant reboots with revolving artists and writers, let a single team work on one captain america story for 5 years that has a clear beginning and end. Also, get rid of the canon. Let writers be able to do whatever they want with their story without having to worry about years of universe building.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I mean... if you want to argue that modern comic book writers are literally the worst ever in the history of the industry, okay, I disagree, but "its really hard to write a single comic in a month" is somewhat undermined by the fact the majority of writers write multiple books per month, and anyone moving to an established property they want to work on already has at least a few ideas for what they want to do with a character before touching the keyboard of their debut issue.

I think you don't get my point.

I said it's hard to write a *story* every month. Modern writers are better than Golden/Silver/Bronze age writers in a lot of ways, but they tell far fewer stories with a lot less density to them. When I started reading comics, I'd guess that the average comic story was a two-parter. 4 and 6 part stories felt epic, and even in those there was often a single-issue plot that was part of the larger story. I don't know what that average is now, but I know from sampling that many issues don't even give you the closure you'd expect from a chapter in one of those old 4-parters.

There are some benefits. Characterization is deeper, and by god modern dialogue is worlds better (usually). But there's not a lot of story for your buck.

A writer can have a two-year tenure on a book with literally 3 story ideas. That might have been 3 months a few decades ago.

My underlying point is that while you get premium execution-- better prose, deeper comics, better paper, (arguably) better art-- you get less story. And that's presumably the core thing you are buying.

It's a major reason I don't buy comics monthly anymore. It feels like I'm spending money on tidbits. And this is coming from a guy with tens of thousands of comics in his attic and a lot of disposable income. I spend it on other things now.

 

[Buntabox]

I gave up on Marvel and DC about 7 years ago (for the 3rd and final time). Their practices were already bad then. You couldn't settle in with a character or series. Which is what I want. I can't imagine trying to read now.

The one book I still read is cited in that article as a positive example of how Marvel could do it: Saga. Marvel/DC could use some longer running, more contained books. I'd probably come back then. I'd still be worried they would stick with it.

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

Seriously looks like a free web comic. I've seen better actually.

 

[Sapiens]

Superhero comics should be structured like manga, instead of constant reboots with revolving artists and writers, let a single team work on one captain america story for 5 years that has a clear beginning and end. Also, get rid of the canon. Let writers be able to do whatever they want with their story without having to worry about years of universe building.

Never going to happen.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this.

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

This is like using Squirel Girl art and pretending it's representative of the entire Marvel art style... it's bloody Gwen Pool.

 

[ScatheZombie]

With much less cursing and fewer cool charts, but yeah.

The Twine essay was particular about the fact that the only sales that "count" as far as the publisher is concerned are preorders of books made months in advance at a brick-and-mortar comic book store. But comic books aren't like video games or movies in that you get those first looks months out to know whether you want to put money down, it'd be like saying "hey, Hideki Kamiya is making a Starfox game," and basing the *only* sales metrics around how many people preorder at Gamestop based on that sentence alone.

While it's a really bad metric to use, it's also embarrassingly pretty accurate. As a shop, probably +95% of all our comic sales come from subscriptions and regulars. We known pretty accurately exactly how many of any given comic we are going to sell. But we do order 2-3 more than that number, because nearly every publisher has a buy-back option for brick-n-mortar stores to send back all of their extra copies after a couple months. We don't actually do that because our owner likes to have a decent sized back-stock we use for promotions, conventions, etc. But we could easily end up sending back literally everything but subscriptions for the vast majority of comics we get in.

It's an issue of sell-through and buy-back. We don't really tell the publishers how much we're actually selling (outside of subscriptions) until we send them back all the excess copies - which is, honestly, nearly all of the non-subscription copies we get for shelf space.

Random comic sales and new customers are extremely rare, at least locally. Sometimes we might get in a parent or grandparent looking to buy something for a family member - but... it's usually not single issues. Our trades section is now larger than the rest of the comics because those are much easier to sell, easier to restock, higher margin, and way less complicated.

 

[IrishNinja]

gonna finish reading this piece later, good stuff so far

By the Breitbart of comics, Bleedingcool

so glad you're pointing this out, i see them linked elsewhere like no one's aware of this...didn't they have a "diversity" tab or something like that just to slag on it or am i remembering it wrong

I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind getting invested into another series that only lasts 9 goddamn issues.

damn, this has been a problem forever but i don't follow those books in particular (until Ultimates) so i didn't know it'd gotten that bad

The comics are too expensive, all the different events are annoying to keep up with, and the story and dialogs are terrible to cringeworthy especially when personal politics are forced in.

comics are/have been "personal politics", marvel especially, since jump

2 reasons people are mad

1 MCU blew up Cap's stock

2 Hydra Cap hits too close to reality.

usually for people not reading the story

so much this - i still remember people hearing "bucky's back? that's dumb" during bru's run too

After Secret Wars it is still baffling to me they didn't just take that hard and easy reboot. Instead it feels like its more of a mess than ever.

...you're coming for hickman now? wow

Comics literally started from personal poltics. New York jews wanting a powerful figure against nazism, and a guy that invented the lie detactor wanting a sybol of feminsim, etc

preach

The problem is hardcore comics collectors are the "whales" and are really vocally against doing most of the things that comics really should be doing to not be entirely dependent upon those self-same "whales" (who are a shrinking audience anyway).

Warren Ellis wrote a really good section of columns about this with "Come in Alone" on CBR years ago, but it's a huge industry-wide problem, yeah

Probably has more to do with his response to Spencer being punched, where he complained that one shouldn't punch Nazis.

In addition, he appears to have run for City Council as a Republican, focused on "broken window" policing, which is often seen as racially focused.

There's some other stuff if you want to go digging, but it's largely focused on his 2003-2005 period when he was railing about "thugs" in his Cleveland town.

Oh man, the stories I could tell you about Spencer. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

...damn, for real? i was here defending his Sam-Cap book, cause it was great & ive no idea what others were on about here with his handling of racial stuff, specifically in that book...but that's crazy. i'd love to hear more.

PS writing hydra-cap and arguing against punching nazis literally has to be a stage act, i can't accept it otherwise

"Appease the tumblr crowd"? What the hell does that even mean?

i think we all know what that horseshit means

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Superhero comics should be structured like manga, instead of constant reboots with revolving artists and writers, let a single team work on one captain america story for 5 years that has a clear beginning and end. Also, get rid of the canon. Let writers be able to do whatever they want with their story without having to worry about years of universe building.

I honestly think there can be a middle ground, with a shared universe (for team books and such) that doesn't have to impede the solo books all that much. Marvel and DC did that for a couple decades before things got out of hand.

 

[Byakuya769]

Probably has more to do with his response to Spencer being punched, where he complained that one shouldn't punch Nazis.

In addition, he appears to have run for City Council as a Republican, focused on "broken window" policing, which is often seen as racially focused.

There's some other stuff if you want to go digging, but it's largely focused on his 2003-2005 period when he was railing about "thugs" in his Cleveland town.

That's really surprising (solely speaking as a reader for Cap America: Sam Wilson).

 

[kinoki]

I love comic book movies and I really liked reading comics when I was 10-12 but the more I read the more convoluted it became and I got tired. I see no way to return to the medium. Marvel as a comics company isn't making anything that interests me.

 

[Valtýr]

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

Yep, this one book and these specific examples of bad art in a comic book is the exact reason why Marvel is in peril. You nailed it. Their entire corporation is going to crumble because a few issues of Gwen Pool were kinda shitty.

 

[timetokill]

Maybe it's just me but there are way too many fucking comics

 

[mreddie]

-Saga Saga Saga
-Read Indies
-Read Manga
-I don't read comics because I'm so cool
-Stop putting politics in my books
-Stop putting diversity in my books, I want the same shit.

Like clockwork.

Man, it feels like post 2015, Marvel has no idea what to do, the editors got bumped to animation or gaming, the creative minds went indie and those who stayed have no direction, leading to anarchy like Secret Empire and Civil War 2.

The more these takedowns come out, I feel one will get to someone with backbone and walk to Marvel Comics and tell them to shape up or get out.

 

[yanipheonu]

Superhero comics should be structured like manga, instead of constant reboots with revolving artists and writers, let a single team work on one captain america story for 5 years that has a clear beginning and end. Also, get rid of the canon. Let writers be able to do whatever they want with their story without having to worry about years of universe building.

Thank you, was about to post this.
It's why manga was so appealing to me. Not necessarily the art style, but the fact it's so much easier to follow. Bonus points that the covers, yknow, actually portray the events in the book you're about the read.

Even when they do lots of spinoffs (Fairy Tail has a lot now) they still don't interfere with the main story.

 

[LordRaptor]

I think you don't get my point.

I said it's hard to write a *story* every month. Modern writers are better than Golden/Silver/Bronze age writers in a lot of ways, but they tell far fewer stories with a lot less density to them.

...

My underlying point is that while you get premium execution-- better prose, deeper comics, better paper, (arguably) better art-- you get less story. And that's presumably the core thing you are buying.

It's a major reason I don't buy comics monthly anymore. It feels like I'm spending money on tidbits. And this is coming from a guy with tens of thousands of comics in his attic and a lot of disposable income. I spend it on other things now.

Well, yeah, I'd agree with the premise that books are now 'decompressed' and written for trades not as serials, but I disagree that its mostly because its too hard for professional writers (or to be more accurate I guess, professional storytellers) especially the names who've been in the biz long enough and are solid workhorses - the Waids, Giffens, DeMatteises, Kirkmans, Busieks and Bendises - to be able to write a book a month in whatever format is currently asked of them.

 

[jett]

Superhero comic books are frankly impossible to follow, which is why I never bothered. I've only read some graphic novels here and there, with a clear beginning and ending.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

I think it's a safer way of saying SJW.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa WHOA that is NOT what I meant by that.

I was thinking along the lines of the "Carol Corps", a group of diehard fans of the character that doesn't translate into sales.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

The largest criticisms against American comics (Marvel/DC) are solved with manga.

1. Consistent story (one writer)
2. Consistent art (one artist - sometimes same person as writer)

I got into comics around the time of DC's New 52, but after a couple of years I had mostly lost interest. More than anything else, the lack of consistency is what drove me away. Characters getting shuffled around between different books, crossovers that interrupted ongoing storylines, books with an established artistic identity that suddenly changed the creative team and became completely different. After a while it becomes difficult to get invested in something, knowing that artists, characters, and storylines were liable to get shaken up at any time. The analogy in the article of a TV show that gets a new cast every several episodes struck a chord with me. Maybe that's just the reality of comics though.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Twenty pages of story, with artwork that looks like this.

Someone in charge at Marvel thought this was worth $3.99 and published it. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Let that sink in for a minute or two.

And before someone cites extreme example, please. It carries their name, they're going to own that sh*t.

what the fuck is this

 

[voodoopanda]

One of my absolute favorite comics as a kid was Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men. Dude wrote that series for like 17 years, #94-#279. Crazy to think that was ever a thing, seems unimaginable at Marvel today.

 

[KOMANI]

Comic book stores are a factor.
Ideally, floppies (I'll be referring to the 22 page comic as a floppy) should be $.99 digitally, but this would hurt store sales.

If it can get figured out, by making floppies inexpensive digitally, no one would have a problem dishing out the cash for 5-6 books a week. At the same time, it would bring worth back to the hard copy floppies because there aren't many in production. Stop with the 2nd printing and third printing and 4 variants of each issue.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Well, yeah, I'd agree with the premise that books are now 'decompressed' and written for trades not as serials, but I disagree that its mostly because its too hard for professional writers (or to be more accurate I guess, professional storytellers) especially the names who've been in the biz long enough and are solid workhorses - the Waids, Giffens, DeMatteises, Kirkmans, Busieks and Bendises - to be able to write a book a month in whatever format is currently asked of them.

Those are some examples of guys who are good at it, but "writing for the trade" didn't become a thing all by itself. More and more writers and editors decided to stretch things out even before the trade scene was as big as it is now.

This also corresponds to the number of titles overall on the shelves, I am sure.

If you really prefer long-form comics, more power to you. But they are easier to write, no doubt and less satisfying to read month-to-month.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

This is like using Squirel Girl art and pretending it's representative of the entire Marvel art style... it's bloody Gwen Pool.

Yep, this one book and these specific examples of bad art in a comic book is the exact reason why Marvel is in peril. You nailed it. Their entire corporation is going to crumble because a few issues of Gwen Pool were kinda shitty.

Nope. You don't get to do that.

Marvel published it. They needed a fill-in artist for a couple of issues, because the main artist can't produce twenty pages of artwork these days without taking a couple of months off, so someone hired this artist to produce the necessary artwork for those fill-in issues. That artist then turned in horrible, rushed, poorly-drawn CRAP that should have been firmly and resoundingly rejected by anyone with a barely critical eye. Artwork that'd get you laughed out of the business for having in your portfolio.

Instead, these pages got a pass from the editor. They were colored and lettered and stamped with the Marvel seal of approval. They were sent off to the printers, and committed to paper and bound with staples. They went to the distributor, who shipped them to retailers nationwide, who displayed them on shelves next to offerings from other publishers. They stared at me from behind deceptive Guruhiru cover and $3.99 price tag, these piss-poor excuses for comic art, and begged "but you bought this comic last month, please buy me too."

And I said no.

Not once. Not twice. Three times this sequence of events occurred. Three times this artist got work. Three times the editor gave this artwork a pass. Three times Marvel did this. And saying "oh well, it's just a filler issue" or "who cares, it's only Gwenpool one of their lowest selling comics" tells Marvel that it's okay to keep doing it because you let them.

 

[LordRaptor]

One of my absolute favorite comics as a kid was Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men. Dude wrote that series for like 17 years, #94-#279. Crazy to think that was ever a thing, seems unimaginable at Marvel today.

Bendis' run on Ultimate Spiderman wasn't that long ago...

Those are some examples of guys who are good at it, but "writing for the trade" didn't become a thing all by itself. More and more writers and editors decided to stretch things out even before the trade scene was as big as it is now.

This also corresponds to the number of titles overall on the shelves, I am sure.

If you really prefer long-form comics, more power to you. But they are easier to write, no doubt and less satisfying to read month-to-month.

I don't, I think writing for trades is inherently problematic (see my earlier posts).
I just disagree that it is the writers that are the bottleneck in getting a monthly book out on time, or that if there were sufficient changes made to encourage new readership by, say, asking for a 13 issue run of standalone issues with an overall arc in advance (12 'core' arc issues and one 'filler' 'bottle episode' that can be dropped into a run in case of publication hold ups) any of those writers would be more than capable of handling that workload over a year

 

[Billy_Pilgrim]

Seems to me like the things that internet people want comic books to be are not the things that people that don't buy comic books want to read.