PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #94
22 March 1999
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
COMIC BOOKS AS WE KNOW THEM
Things sure have gotten complicated when it comes to credits, haven't they?
You used to have a writer, a penciller, and an inker. These days, you can
have any combination of: Writer, scripter, plotter, inspiration, idea,
pencils, breakdowns, layouts, finishers, inkers, embellishers. Of course,
you can also add "co-" in front of any of those to make it even more
confusing. (Forget about coloring. You have separators, guides,
colorists, and more there.)
And the order has even changed back and forth. Back in the early 90s, John
Byrne was working with John Romita Jr. on IRON MAN. He decided to put
Romita's name first as artist, since that's what was selling the book.
Sign of the times. Today, Marvel often puts the writer and penciller
together as "storytellers" in their credits, although I suspect much of
that is Comicraft's idea, since they do a lot of the design work on Marvel
books these days. I suppose this is the most honest of the accountings,
really, although it does lead to the question over how much plot or script
input an artist has in the book. A writer will often write to an artist's
strengths or desires, to keep things fresh for him.
Speaking of the early 90s: Remember when books starting opening up with
two-page splash pages? It seemed to start that year when John Byrne
started up NAMOR and Todd McFarlane started up SPIDER-MAN. Looking back on
it, a lot of people today would probably cry foul that it is the artist
trying to control the pace and tempo of the book at the expense of the
writer and his work. It's a chance for the artist to show-off. Quite
honestly, I like the format and think it works on more than just that
basis. Any writer will tell you that what every story needs is a strong
and/or exciting opening. You want something to draw the reader into the
story. No short story author will ever sell a story to a magazine, for
example, unless the opening grabs the submissions editor. A 2-page splash
across pages 2 and 3 forces the writer to come up with something quickly
that has a big pay-off. Todd McFarlane got away with it in the first issue
of SPIDER-MAN, really. His art was enough to excite you, so a two-page
splash of Spidey above the city worked well. The second issue started with
the Lizard attacking two unknown characters. That worked well and drew the
reader's interest.
So it serves a dual purpose and works on both accounts. Of course, if the
artist really sucks it could very well backfire on you. But what the
heck...
Also, Marvel seems to have ditched the gatefold story summaries they were
doing on the inside of the front covers. Apparently, like Vertigo, they
needed those two pages of ad revenue to exist every month. But something
else strikes me as being terribly wrong about this. When they added the
gatefold, they also added 4 cents to the price of a comic, so that they
could bring us these extra two editorial pages. Now they've removed the
editorial pages, replaced them with adds, and still charge us the 4 cents.
It's the principal of the matter, but I still feel gypped. (Wait, it turns
out they've ditched the gatefold completely now. The cover price remains
the same, though.)
While I'm at it -- remember when a change in cover price elicited an
apology for it in the letters column of the book? I don't think Marvel or
DC did that with their last price changes. DC has abandoned the shiny
pages often in favor of the plain whiter paper, too. Of course, this was
done during the great paper shortages a few years ago to help bring down
the cost of the book. So I assume the paper isn't in shortage anymore. =)
Quite honestly, I like the plainer paper better, anyway. There is no
reflection from the light blocking my view of the page.
One need look no further than eBay to see what a sham comic book price
guides are. WIZARD prices its rare Visa card giveaway comic, WITCHBLADE
VS. THE DARKNESS 1/2 at $180. A quick search of complete auctions in the
past 30 days show that two copies of this book have come close to selling
at $140, while the average selling price across the other dozen copies
comes closer to $100. (Some went for as low as $75. Mine went for $91. =)
Checking out the rest of the auctions shows much the same pattern. I just
won an auction for 5 McFarlane AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues for $5. Most
other auctions of just comic books end up going at about cover price, or at
least far under the guide price. ANY guide. As always, Silver Age books
are probably the exception, but my knowledge in that area is too limited to
give you an exact figure.
Uncle $crooge artist Don Rosa is fond of saying that back issues should
cost less than cover price. He may have a point. After all, they didn't
sell through the first time. They're old. If they're at all interesting,
most comic book companies will repackage them in a reprinted edition
eventually. . . When I go to a convention these days, I pick through the
50 cent bins and often find most of what I'm looking for. Books that are
at one table for $3 can be found at another dealer's table for 50 cents.
Such a thing happened to me just last month with a key issue of EXCALIBUR I
was looking for. Remember those hologram covers? I think it was EXCALIBUR
#70 or #71. Nice looking gimmick, but a gimmick nonetheless.
Pricing back issues at cover price or less is a radical idea, but I kind of
like it. I didn't buy those McFarlane Spideys because I thought I could
turn around and make a profit on them. I bought them because they were
worth that price to me and because I was interested in them. I wouldn't
have paid any price near "book" value. So I get the books I want; the
seller gets the price he was asking for. Everyone's happy. And Wizard
will ignore this. Why? Maybe it's because they're price guide only values
the prices paid by customers who buy from people who have to pay for their
storefronts and employees. That's automatically going to raise prices. My
local shop bags and boards the comics, raises the price by a quarter, and
lets them sit in the back issue bin for all of eternity. Is this insane?
Or am I just being too radical this week?
In the meantime, you can bid on the stuff I'm trying to get rid of -
usually at cover price or less - on eBay at this URL:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=augiedb
-Augie, getting more and more commercial these days
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