Just a guess - Marvel recognizes that the back issue market is weak, and is throwing retailers a bone. Easier to sell a single variant cover than it is to sell tons of books in quarter boxes.
OK I might have to try Unwritten now since the second trade is 7 issues for only 13 bucks retail which only means 11 at my LCS. Has Carey said how long he plans on writting the title, assuming DC doesn't cancel it? I get enough trades now and I don't like adding more stuff to the list no matter how good I hear it is.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Unwritten is streets ahead, He could probably wrap it up around #25 if he had to but I could see it running to #50.
If it wins the Eisners it's nominated for I would think it should stick around another year or two.
OK I'll give Unwritten a shot. I willingly gave up following Fables for monetary reasons, might as well not punish myself further by missing out on another great title.
David Finch, an artist with no previous writing experience whatsoever and who is notoriously slow, gets a new Batman title he'll write and draw. With both him and Daniel writing, it's like it's the 90's all over again and DC's trying to be the new Image Comics.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
He did write/draw Aphrodite IX for Top Cow I think, but it was so delayed it drove him from the industry.
I like how the second entry in the comments (which will no doubt be deleted) is this:
Attention DC: No one care about David Finch. Really, he’s not that big a deal.
The book will be delayed with issue #4.
Back in the day DC used to make a parity when it came to Superman/Batman titles. If Batman had 4 titles Superman had to have 4 titles (this is why Man of Steel came about, to offset Legends of the Dark Knight).
OK I'll give Unwritten a shot. I willingly gave up following Fables for monetary reasons, might as well not punish myself further by missing out on another great title.
I also gave up Fables awhile ago for money reasons / became uninteresting. I still plan on getting the trade that finishes off the war with the Adversary at some point. Both Unwritten trades are on my wishlist and I suppose I should pick them up to show my support while the title is still going.
OK I'll give Unwritten a shot. I willingly gave up following Fables for monetary reasons, might as well not punish myself further by missing out on another great title.
I also gave up Fables awhile ago for money reasons / became uninteresting. I still plan on getting the trade that finishes off the war with the Adversary at some point. Both Unwritten trades are on my wishlist and I suppose I should pick them up to show my support while the title is still going.
And to be completely honest after I read through the first two Fables trades I wasn't exactly chomping at the bits to read the rest. It wasn't bad but I didn't blow me away either.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
If you don't like it by the end of March of the Wooden Soldiers then it just might not be for you. I've noticed that's the make or break point.
David Finch, an artist with no previous writing experience whatsoever and who is notoriously slow, gets a new Batman title he'll write and draw. With both him and Daniel writing, it's like it's the 90's all over again and DC's trying to be the new Image Comics.
Hrm.
I actually like Finch's art, and delays aside I think he'll do well on Batman, but man, there are so many comic writers out there that I'd rather see helm a new Batman book.
Vertigo is cleaning house with titles these days. And just a year or so ago there was that big push with the dollar issues.
They best not even think of cancelling Madame Xanadu.
This, so very hard. Vertigo seems to be my go to publisher for trades right now. Madame Xanadu, Sweet Toot, Unwritten, Fables, Jack of Fables, Scalped, and Air all sit on my shelf right now. I intended to start on Unknown Soldier and House of Mystery at some point as well.
Vertigo is cleaning house with titles these days. And just a year or so ago there was that big push with the dollar issues.
They best not even think of cancelling Madame Xanadu.
This, so very hard. Vertigo seems to be my go to publisher for trades right now. Madame Xanadu, Sweet Toot, Unwritten, Fables, Jack of Fables, Scalped, and Air all sit on my shelf right now. I intended to start on Unknown Soldier and House of Mystery at some point as well.
At this point, Vertigo's my go to publisher when I just want to read a good story. I'm not sure why I still read superhero comics though, I guess for the handful of books that actually interest me. That reminds me that I really have to get around to buying Unwritten and Air. Oh and the first House of Mystery trade because for some bizarre reason I bought the second one thinking it was the first.
David Finch, an artist with no previous writing experience whatsoever and who is notoriously slow, gets a new Batman title he'll write and draw. With both him and Daniel writing, it's like it's the 90's all over again and DC's trying to be the new Image Comics.
I'm not too big on Finch's art but I'll still try it out.
I would like more information on JH Williams' Batwoman series, though
Well, we know Williams is at least smartenough to get people to co-plot his first major endeavour into the writing game. W. Haden Blackman is helping write the first two arcs (maybe more, not sure). Amy Reeder Hadley is helping with art on the second arc, too. This pretty much tells you a lot about whatsgoing on with that project.
JP: Our orders for ATLAS 1 started off in the low 20ks, which isn't surprising because a lot of things are coming in low right now, and we've always been on the fringe. Atlas has actually always sold better than a lot of books that get to go on much longer- a good bit of DC's line. But the Marvel danger zone is 20k more or less, and since books tend to trend downward, that always sets off alarms. I know some people think I try to cram them in everywhere, but that's really more editors suggesting it, and me usually agreeing. I brought up at least four different characters for "Deadpool Team Up" that were shot down before I finally said "uh... Gorilla Man?" and got greenlit. And that issue has ordered really well, so that makes me think Gorilla Man is probably a character who will have some legs after Atlas. Namora too.
CA: So this is the end?
JP: Yeah. I could have kept it going, but the options offered were to tie the book into another crossover mini-event, I just wasn't feeling it. I did it a couple of times already and feel we got some good stuff out of it, but I'm just not interested in doing it again, introducing the team again, all that. This 3-D Man story really turned out to be pretty great, it's going to be a definite highwater mark. And I don't want to follow it with something that would probably be less inspired. Because the whole reason for doing the book is to do the kinds of stories I set the book up for, and if we're not going to do that, there's not much point.
I wish Marvel had a way to do some online publishing for the titles that don't sell as much. I'd willingly pay a $1 or $2 to read an issue of Atlas online.
TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Ouch.
I get tired of saying it but there really would have been nothing wrong with making it a $3 book just to give it an extra chance. Maybe it could have gotten to #11 like the last series.
Gorilla Man will show up on Thunderbolts probably, he runs into them on a mission and Cage thinks he's cool.
Christ, Agents of Atlas can't get a fucking break. Comic book readers don't deserve nice things, not when shit books like JLA and Hulk pull 50k and good books like Atlas fail before they even release a single issue.
I'm not really, I'm just pissed that readers aren't giving it a chance (I say that as I sit and trade wait...). Still, the big 2 need to figure out a venue for building up their new and fringe characters so that they can support an ongoing title. Continuing to put out failed ongoing titles isn't working. If you're going to throw money at a losing venture, at least do it in a way that actually gets eyeballs on the product. Do backup features, or $1 introductory issues, or half-price issues, or do an online-only title that gets collected into trades.
I'm not really, I'm just pissed that readers aren't giving it a chance (I say that as I sit and trade wait...). Still, the big 2 need to figure out a venue for building up their new and fringe characters so that they can support an ongoing title. Continuing to put out failed ongoing titles isn't working. If you're going to throw money at a losing venture, at least do it in a way that actually gets eyeballs on the product. Do backup features, or $1 introductory issues, or half-price issues, or do an online-only title that gets collected into trades.
Well, you know you didn't buy it yourself. Maybe others are trade waiting or maybe, like me, they recognised that the book might have been well-written but were just not interested. Honestly I can't think of a good way for Marvel to get readers who are pretty clearly not into Atlas to pick the book, even if it was cheap or had back-up features it would still probably bomb. I did once think that they should put longer back-ups in more popular comics and then use the higher sales of books like Captain America to springboard the lesser known titles from, though I don't know how successful that would be.
I'm not really, I'm just pissed that readers aren't giving it a chance (I say that as I sit and trade wait...). Still, the big 2 need to figure out a venue for building up their new and fringe characters so that they can support an ongoing title. Continuing to put out failed ongoing titles isn't working. If you're going to throw money at a losing venture, at least do it in a way that actually gets eyeballs on the product. Do backup features, or $1 introductory issues, or half-price issues, or do an online-only title that gets collected into trades.
Well, you know you didn't buy it yourself. Maybe others are trade waiting or maybe, like me, they recognised that the book might have been well-written but were just not interested. Honestly I can't think of a good way for Marvel to get readers who are pretty clearly not into Atlas to pick the book, even if it was cheap or had back-up features it would still probably bomb. I did once think that they should put longer back-ups in more popular comics and then use the higher sales of books like Captain America to springboard the lesser known titles from, though I don't know how successful that would be.
My trade-waiting is more to do with storage, price, and my buying habits changing after a couple months of unemployment. I don't buy ANY singles any more. Still, it's a valid point, since a book's viability is dependent on orders for singles. I just wish it wasn't so, because rising prices means people aren't going to take a chance on unknown quantities, and possible trade sales in the future can't be predicted very well.
I'm not really, I'm just pissed that readers aren't giving it a chance (I say that as I sit and trade wait...). Still, the big 2 need to figure out a venue for building up their new and fringe characters so that they can support an ongoing title. Continuing to put out failed ongoing titles isn't working. If you're going to throw money at a losing venture, at least do it in a way that actually gets eyeballs on the product. Do backup features, or $1 introductory issues, or half-price issues, or do an online-only title that gets collected into trades.
Well, you know you didn't buy it yourself. Maybe others are trade waiting or maybe, like me, they recognised that the book might have been well-written but were just not interested. Honestly I can't think of a good way for Marvel to get readers who are pretty clearly not into Atlas to pick the book, even if it was cheap or had back-up features it would still probably bomb. I did once think that they should put longer back-ups in more popular comics and then use the higher sales of books like Captain America to springboard the lesser known titles from, though I don't know how successful that would be.
My trade-waiting is more to do with storage, price, and my buying habits changing after a couple months of unemployment. I don't buy ANY singles any more. Still, it's a valid point, since a book's viability is dependent on orders for singles. I just wish it wasn't so, because rising prices means people aren't going to take a chance on unknown quantities, and possible trade sales in the future can't be predicted very well.
I understand mate, I rarely buy singles these days, usually only with books I really want to support like the Cosmic stuff and Vengeance of the Moon Knight, the rest I just get trades for. And it is a shame that a books success is only measured in it's singles because I'm sure a lot of people go for the cheaper and more resilient option of trades like we do. Maybe that will change soon, after all there are more trades now than there used to be and I think that some things are actually being written for a graphic novel format, Earth-One Superman (I think) is being done for that and I'm actually looking forward to it.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
See, that's the problem. $4 singles may give you better initial return, but if a book can't even get a good amount of trades out to really give Marvel greater profit because the sales of the singles are so low, it's kind of self defeating.
Agents of Atlas v.2 was $3 for 11 issues, giving Marvel two trades to sell, 90% of that is pure profit since all the production costs were offset with single issue sales. Atlas will only have 1 trade now, 5 issues at that. And let's say Parker and the artist only got maybe a 10% raise (if that) to do this series as opposed to their paychecks for the last one, that would still be covered by a $3 book.
Look at Ultimate Spider-Man too, the book has been the same quality, if not better since the relaunch, but $4 a pop is making it lose readers consistently. Either Marvel is just accepting they have enough USM trades now so anything else is just a bonus, or they really don't see price increases being a problem.
They at least made it $3 an issue, that was nice of them (look at this mentality, we have to thank publishers for doing common sense things: why do they stay, Steve, why do they stay?)
Yeah me too, and if they were cancelled that would be a shame because I picked up the first issue and it was pretty cool. Got my boy Gravity in there too, that's always good.
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CorporateLogoThe toilet knowshow I feelRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I feel confident in saying Young Allies will be canned within a year's time
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
If Atlas #1 only sold 22k ish, then Young Allies probably sold 28k, I mean the only big name was Firestar.
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If it wins the Eisners it's nominated for I would think it should stick around another year or two.
They best not even think of cancelling Madame Xanadu.
I like how the second entry in the comments (which will no doubt be deleted) is this:
The book will be delayed with issue #4.
Back in the day DC used to make a parity when it came to Superman/Batman titles. If Batman had 4 titles Superman had to have 4 titles (this is why Man of Steel came about, to offset Legends of the Dark Knight).
I also gave up Fables awhile ago for money reasons / became uninteresting. I still plan on getting the trade that finishes off the war with the Adversary at some point. Both Unwritten trades are on my wishlist and I suppose I should pick them up to show my support while the title is still going.
And to be completely honest after I read through the first two Fables trades I wasn't exactly chomping at the bits to read the rest. It wasn't bad but I didn't blow me away either.
I even enjoy the spin-off, Jack of Fables.
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
I actually like Finch's art, and delays aside I think he'll do well on Batman, but man, there are so many comic writers out there that I'd rather see helm a new Batman book.
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This, so very hard. Vertigo seems to be my go to publisher for trades right now. Madame Xanadu, Sweet Toot, Unwritten, Fables, Jack of Fables, Scalped, and Air all sit on my shelf right now. I intended to start on Unknown Soldier and House of Mystery at some point as well.
At this point, Vertigo's my go to publisher when I just want to read a good story. I'm not sure why I still read superhero comics though, I guess for the handful of books that actually interest me. That reminds me that I really have to get around to buying Unwritten and Air. Oh and the first House of Mystery trade because for some bizarre reason I bought the second one thinking it was the first.
Finch's new Batman villain: The Foot Cutter.
I'm not too big on Finch's art but I'll still try it out.
I would like more information on JH Williams' Batwoman series, though
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Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
I get tired of saying it but there really would have been nothing wrong with making it a $3 book just to give it an extra chance. Maybe it could have gotten to #11 like the last series.
Gorilla Man will show up on Thunderbolts probably, he runs into them on a mission and Cage thinks he's cool.
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
No one should be surprised by this
I'm not. How many times have they re-started it lately? It's a shame but I never expected it to sell well.
I'm not really, I'm just pissed that readers aren't giving it a chance (I say that as I sit and trade wait...). Still, the big 2 need to figure out a venue for building up their new and fringe characters so that they can support an ongoing title. Continuing to put out failed ongoing titles isn't working. If you're going to throw money at a losing venture, at least do it in a way that actually gets eyeballs on the product. Do backup features, or $1 introductory issues, or half-price issues, or do an online-only title that gets collected into trades.
Well, you know you didn't buy it yourself. Maybe others are trade waiting or maybe, like me, they recognised that the book might have been well-written but were just not interested. Honestly I can't think of a good way for Marvel to get readers who are pretty clearly not into Atlas to pick the book, even if it was cheap or had back-up features it would still probably bomb. I did once think that they should put longer back-ups in more popular comics and then use the higher sales of books like Captain America to springboard the lesser known titles from, though I don't know how successful that would be.
My trade-waiting is more to do with storage, price, and my buying habits changing after a couple months of unemployment. I don't buy ANY singles any more. Still, it's a valid point, since a book's viability is dependent on orders for singles. I just wish it wasn't so, because rising prices means people aren't going to take a chance on unknown quantities, and possible trade sales in the future can't be predicted very well.
Diablo 3 - ArtfulDodger#1572
Minecraft - ArtfulDodger42
I understand mate, I rarely buy singles these days, usually only with books I really want to support like the Cosmic stuff and Vengeance of the Moon Knight, the rest I just get trades for. And it is a shame that a books success is only measured in it's singles because I'm sure a lot of people go for the cheaper and more resilient option of trades like we do. Maybe that will change soon, after all there are more trades now than there used to be and I think that some things are actually being written for a graphic novel format, Earth-One Superman (I think) is being done for that and I'm actually looking forward to it.
Agents of Atlas v.2 was $3 for 11 issues, giving Marvel two trades to sell, 90% of that is pure profit since all the production costs were offset with single issue sales. Atlas will only have 1 trade now, 5 issues at that. And let's say Parker and the artist only got maybe a 10% raise (if that) to do this series as opposed to their paychecks for the last one, that would still be covered by a $3 book.
Look at Ultimate Spider-Man too, the book has been the same quality, if not better since the relaunch, but $4 a pop is making it lose readers consistently. Either Marvel is just accepting they have enough USM trades now so anything else is just a bonus, or they really don't see price increases being a problem.
They at least made it $3 an issue, that was nice of them (look at this mentality, we have to thank publishers for doing common sense things: why do they stay, Steve, why do they stay?)
Yeah me too, and if they were cancelled that would be a shame because I picked up the first issue and it was pretty cool. Got my boy Gravity in there too, that's always good.
SHUT UP I HATE YOU
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