I think the floppies vs. trades thing is actually very, very prevalent. I've never been a Wednesday comics guy, but I do buy floppies for a sampling of a series to see if I'll want to buy the trade. This means I have a lot of #1 and little else. I've been reading that this is going to be an issue for the future of the entire industry.
One neat suggestion I've read is killing off floppies all together. The single chapters are released digitally on a monthly status just like floppies have been so people who have the Wednesday habit can still get their fix and people like me can still try out books before committing to a trade. Once enough single digital chapters are released, then a trade is released for people who want a hard copy for the bookshelf.
Coincidentally, since I'm pretty much a trade buyer and not a comic collector, I've become a Marvel guy more than DC. Growing up my two comic subscriptions were to Uncanny X-Men and JLA - you could say I loved both publishers equally because they both produced quality team books. At this point, as was mentioned above, since DC takes so freaking long to release a trade, I pick up Marvel trades. The stuff I'm really excited to read is the stuff that's more recent, and even if I'm not reading weekly, I do follow weekly discussion. It's another way for me to audition what I want to buy for trades. DC is dropping the ball so hard, and Marvel, Image, and Darkhorse do a great job of picking it up.
The problem with trades...well you generally dont get the whole story. I use to be really irritated with DC, and i still am to a degree because they would generally have these huge crossover stories where major events dealing specifically with the character you are interested in would occur in other peoples books. Even when a major event is not occuring, trades tend to skip issues that may not be important enough to trade, but are decent enough to give me a fix for the month.
When i buy a trade I want something thats going to give me the whole story.
I'm buying a lot of singles, I feel like as a kid I really missed out by just borrowing from my friend. I'm not really limited by space or cost... yet. I just like the idea that I can hold on to these and give them to my younger brother or even my kids down line. To be honest though, my dream is to have a fully digital collection. I used to be this very way with cds and proud of my collection, I now have literally over a thousand cds on my hard drive. I don't even know where the physical discs are now and don't even care.
I think that once we have digital reading mediums that are cost efficient (aside from the ipad, because the cost of entry into the market). The only issue with this is that graphic novels in general I can't imagine sell as much as regular books or even close to music. The comic book industry could really increase their readership by decreasing prices. I'm sure more goes into the actual business model, but the more available the material is the more likely they'll have people getting it. Hell, if I could get 11 singles for $2 a piece online vs the 6 I got today for the same $22 you've just guaranteed that 5 more titles are coming off the shelf just out of curiosity. Not saying this will hold true for everyone, but there have been countless marketing studies that have shown people consume based on the idea they think they are saving.
The problem with trades...well you generally dont get the whole story. I use to be really irritated with DC, and i still am to a degree because they would generally have these huge crossover stories where major events dealing specifically with the character you are interested in would occur in other peoples books. Even when a major event is not occuring, trades tend to skip issues that may not be important enough to trade, but are decent enough to give me a fix for the month.
When i buy a trade I want something thats going to give me the whole story.
I can't say I've found this to be the case that often. Maybe it's more of a DC thing, but I can't think of more than a couple of examples of trades skipping issues in the Marvel books I read. It's usually when they've had to throw a filler issue into the middle of an ongoing arc, which would be a total disconnect if read chronologically in trade form.
About crossover events featuring characters you like... how is this any less of a problem in floppies than it is in trades? Either way you're having to buy extra content to read about those characters, so why do you consider that to be a trade-specific issue?
Posts
One neat suggestion I've read is killing off floppies all together. The single chapters are released digitally on a monthly status just like floppies have been so people who have the Wednesday habit can still get their fix and people like me can still try out books before committing to a trade. Once enough single digital chapters are released, then a trade is released for people who want a hard copy for the bookshelf.
Coincidentally, since I'm pretty much a trade buyer and not a comic collector, I've become a Marvel guy more than DC. Growing up my two comic subscriptions were to Uncanny X-Men and JLA - you could say I loved both publishers equally because they both produced quality team books. At this point, as was mentioned above, since DC takes so freaking long to release a trade, I pick up Marvel trades. The stuff I'm really excited to read is the stuff that's more recent, and even if I'm not reading weekly, I do follow weekly discussion. It's another way for me to audition what I want to buy for trades. DC is dropping the ball so hard, and Marvel, Image, and Darkhorse do a great job of picking it up.
Hopeless Gamer
When i buy a trade I want something thats going to give me the whole story.
I think that once we have digital reading mediums that are cost efficient (aside from the ipad, because the cost of entry into the market). The only issue with this is that graphic novels in general I can't imagine sell as much as regular books or even close to music. The comic book industry could really increase their readership by decreasing prices. I'm sure more goes into the actual business model, but the more available the material is the more likely they'll have people getting it. Hell, if I could get 11 singles for $2 a piece online vs the 6 I got today for the same $22 you've just guaranteed that 5 more titles are coming off the shelf just out of curiosity. Not saying this will hold true for everyone, but there have been countless marketing studies that have shown people consume based on the idea they think they are saving.
I can't say I've found this to be the case that often. Maybe it's more of a DC thing, but I can't think of more than a couple of examples of trades skipping issues in the Marvel books I read. It's usually when they've had to throw a filler issue into the middle of an ongoing arc, which would be a total disconnect if read chronologically in trade form.
About crossover events featuring characters you like... how is this any less of a problem in floppies than it is in trades? Either way you're having to buy extra content to read about those characters, so why do you consider that to be a trade-specific issue?