Good article on saving the industry

[Phil]

Here's a thought. The consumers would have more money in their pockets if they weren't force-fed the yearly Marvel Event. Thus, if good comics with good character development and thougthful stories (a la Alpha Flight Volume 4) can be found out there, the consumer might spend that money on these comics.

But who's to say that an event comic isn't a good comic?
A lot of people clearly like event comics.

To me, its a gimmick.

As is toys with cereals, cd's with magazines, etc. etc.
Marvel aren't to blame for the invention of sales gimmicks.

They encourage you to buy an Event with its tie-ins to get your money

I'm not talking about the tie-ins though. I'm talking pure numbers for the main mini-series.

they should work harder at putting out good products in the titles they already produce, so that the consumer will WANT to purchase these comics.

If they had done that then the first comic ever produced would be the only comic ever produced and we'd never have had AF.
Why put out an AF comic when they can just keep Byrne on X-Men?
Why create the X-Men when you can write the best possible stories for FF?

As we have already seen with AF, marketing is everything. Why not market other titles the same way they do their events?

Small spikes in otherwise dull financial quarters.
The event sales will fianance an attempt at a smaller title in the following quarter.

And why not demand the very best from their writers, colourists, and artists?

That should be the basis of every decision, I agree.

I'm not saying everything they put out is crap...but I am saying that the vast majority of what they put out, doesn;t sell well, because it doesn't deserve to. People know an inferior product when they see it.

Hard to say... it's more a case of the change in the readership.
The majority of people who read buy comics now, picked them up as a kid.
Comics is a very very strange media in that it's legacy and nostalgia continues while it's characters stay constant/stagnant.
The majority of cartoon/tv shows I watched as a child no longer exist. They haven't carried on for 70 years. But would I still sit down cross-legged in front of my TV every saturday morning and watch them as a 30 year old if they did?
Comics are being written by and for the generation of adults that read them as kids.
That combined with the financial status of the world has hiked the prices up massively, from wages for the people creating them, to print costs, to distribution; all of which takes it's toll on the cover price for us the consumer. (Also, Event/Shock comics generate free advertising) Which we have to offset against our adult lives, and buy less.
Even if the greatest comic in the world existed for only $2.99 if it came down to paying my rent/feeding my family or getting the comic, I'd have to do the latter. And that rules out the inferior product.


I do agree with you, and pretty much everyone else within this thread, but it's not Marvel's sole fault. They're not evil or against the readers etc... (Not saying any of you have said that, either btw) We just need to think from their way occasionally.
It's a very tricky subject with no immediate solution.