Whither "Inventory" Stories?

[suedenim]

Today's "Urban Legend" about Alpha Flight (and Northstar's landmark "outing" coming from what was an inventory or "fill-in" issue) got me wondering....

Whatever happened to the "fill-in" story, anyhow? It seems like the industry has taken a 180 degree turn from a position of "Come hell or high water, Amazing Spider-Man is gonna come out on the 2nd week of every month, no matter what" to "Even if the issue is going to be weeks, or months, late, never, ever have a fill-in issue."

Obviously, it makes more sense for limited series and the like, but would it be so awful if, for example, some of the "Civil War" delayed series had a fill-in story in between?

[Cei-U!]

I'm thinking that, between the decline in newsstand distribution and the rise of the Diamond monopoly, the companies are no longer contractually required to produce *something* called Action Comics or Fantastic Four every month, even if it's 32 blank pages under the cover. With no financial penalty for missed deadlines, more deadlines are gonna be missed. This is just speculation on my part, though.

Cei-U!
I summon the half-assed theory!

[MartinRedmond]

I'd like it if they'd release a huge TPB of inventory stories that were never published.

[carabas]

JLA Confidential consists mostly of fill-in issues that have been collecting dust for some time.
And Batman is currently having a fill-in arc.

But the main reasons we don't see these so much anymore is probably an increased awareness of regarding the creators, and the near-death of single-issue stories.

Way back when, the creative team often didn't even get a credit.
Now, when Generic-Man #145, solicited as being by Mark Millar and John Casaday, and the actual issue is by Daniel Way and Some Dude, and not actually part of the arc that was going on, sales are going to be severely down.

[Ryan Day]

They're not such a great idea. No one's going to be keeping awesome stories by top creators in a drawer somewhere, so most inventory stories probably won't be so hot. (there are probably exceptions) And if DC says that Grant Morrison is going to write Batman #670, then i want Grant Morrison, not whoever they pulled out of the filing cabinet.

The answer is something like more adequately planned fill-ins. The best example is Milligan & Allred's X-force/X-statix: When Allred took an issue off, it was (apparently) well-planned enough that they got people like Darwyn Cooke, Duncan Fegredo, and Philip Bond to fill in - artists who are not only very good, but suited the artistic tone of the book.

There's something of a false strawman set up by the publishers sometimes: "We can have our A-artist take his time and turn in beautiful work, or you can have a crappy, rushed fill-in artist who's obviously not as good." But if you plan things out adequately, and have realistic (read: not insanely optimistic) expectations of how much work an artist can handle, there's no reason you can't have great art on a regular schedule.

N ot that a regular schedule is entirely necessary, or that it's always a good idea to break up a creative team; but this is an option that doesn't seem to be used enough these days. (mind you, the other option would be soliciting books on a bi-monthly or other reasonable schedule, but that might be just too crazy.)

[Nitz the Bloody]

Trades, trades, trades. In the trade paperback collection, fill-in stories can absolutely ruin the experience. A switch in artists when reading a story arc in one sitting is hard enough; a full-blown creative team switch mid-storyline is even worse.

Given how I read mostly trades these days, I'd much rather wait a bit for the established creative team to do their job, than have fill-in art ( or worse, an inventory story ) wedged in. Of the Big Two, Marvel understands this better, and their trades tend to read much more coherently than DC's.

[Alan2099]

What does a fill in actually hurt though? If let's say Grant Morrison was supposed to do 'Mazing Man Team-Up #47 and instead "mazing Man teamup #47 was done by Fungus McGee and #48 was done by Morrison, what harm does it really do as opposed to just not having a comic come out that month?

[Lorendiac]

Trades, trades, trades. In the trade paperback collection, fill-in stories can absolutely ruin the experience. A switch in artists when reading a story arc in one sitting is hard enough; a full-blown creative team switch mid-storyline is even worse.

Given how I read mostly trades these days, I'd much rather wait a bit for the established creative team to do their job, than have fill-in art ( or worse, an inventory story ) wedged in. Of the Big Two, Marvel understands this better, and their trades tend to read much more coherently than DC's.

It's a point. I too very rarely read the monthly issues as they come out, so how much do I really care if a six-part story arc took eight or nine months to be completed? I wasn't biting my nails waiting for "Part 4 of 6" to land on the shelves in the store! What I want is one complete storytelling experience, preferably self-consistent in the art and the writing style, when I buy it as a package deal in TPB!

On the other hand, there's no law that says a single-issue "inventory story" has to be reprinted in the middle of the TPB that collects the surrounding story arc, is there?

[suedenim]

On the other hand, there's no law that says a single-issue "inventory story" has to be reprinted in the middle of the TPB that collects the surrounding story arc, is there?

Right, and at least in my limited experience, they often aren't.

[Ryan Day]

What does a fill in actually hurt though? If let's say Grant Morrison was supposed to do 'Mazing Man Team-Up #47 and instead "mazing Man teamup #47 was done by Fungus McGee and #48 was done by Morrison, what harm does it really do as opposed to just not having a comic come out that month?

False advertising? If I was ordering my books in advance and chose 'Mazing Man because I love Morrison, I'd be pretty annoyed if I didn't get Morrison.

[Alan2099]

False advertising? If I was ordering my books in advance and chose 'Mazing Man because I love Morrison, I'd be pretty annoyed if I didn't get Morrison.

On the flipside, what about the people that don't care as much about the creative team as they do the characters. Don't you think the people that do to the store on Febuary the whatever-ith to pick up their comicbook of choice are annoyed when it's not there and probably isn't going tobe there for another month or two?

I know when I started reading comics I could care less about who wrote what. I just wanted a monthly dose of my favorite characters.

Basically say that you want Morrison this month. Regardless, you're not going to get him because he's late or his artist is late, or whatever.

I could care less about Morrison, I just want a issue of my comic series. That I can have.

And if you want to cal false advertising, it's equally as false to say a book is scheduled to come out on a certain time and it doesn't.

[Loren]

On the flipside, what about the people that don't care as much about the creative team as they do the characters. Don't you think the people that do to the store on Febuary the whatever-ith to pick up their comicbook of choice are annoyed when it's not there and probably isn't going tobe there for another month or two?

I suspect the difference in attitude today has to do with the rise of the comic shop "pull list." Back when you went to the store and bought whatever looked interesting, it didn't matter much if there was a fill-in issue by another creative team. If you wanted it, you bought it. If you didn't, you left it on the shelf.

But when you have a pull list at a shop, you've made an agreement in advance with the store owner. They'll order this title for you every month, and you'll buy it. If you pick up an issue one month and it's by somebody unexpected, it's too late to make the decision not to buy. Unless you want to renege on your agreement, that is. Either way, somebody loses. You end up with an issue you didn't want, or the store gets stuck with it.

[Sean Walsh]

DC seems to still like the fill-in issues/arcs, and even release titles of nothing but rotating storyarcs featuring old stories (JLA Confidential is the home of several arcs that were meant to be in JLA Proper before Identity/Infinite Crisis altered its schedule - and thus ended the book)

But Marvel basically releases one-shots of old inventory stories, since they don't seem to like fill-in artists/stories anymore in their regular books.

Fun example - they just released a Spider-Man one (Red, Black and Blue or something) which was done way before Spidey revealed his ID, and the resolution revolved around him revealing his ID - albeit in a completely different (think Spartacus) manner.

[Strannik]

Also, X-Men Unlimited and Spider-Man Unlimited were, for all intents and purposes, repositories for inventory stories.

[suedenim]

One thing I suspect is dead and gone forever is the "reprint" fill-in, which was once fairly common. The last one I can remember was during the end of the Flash's original series, the long "Trial of the Flash" sequence. Once or twice, they had a reprint story with some relevance to the current plot, like Professor Zoom's attempt to disrupt Barry's first wedding.

[NickThompson]

What does a fill in actually hurt though? If let's say Grant Morrison was supposed to do 'Mazing Man Team-Up #47 and instead "mazing Man teamup #47 was done by Fungus McGee and #48 was done by Morrison, what harm does it really do as opposed to just not having a comic come out that month?

I buy 99% of my books because of the creators. If I pick up a book thinking it's Morrison and get McGee, it affects me.


I'd rather 9 issues a year over 12 issues a year, 3 by a random person they got to write a fill-in.

[Reptisaurus!]

One thing I suspect is dead and gone forever is the "reprint" fill-in, which was once fairly common. The last one I can remember was during the end of the Flash's original series, the long "Trial of the Flash" sequence. Once or twice, they had a reprint story with some relevance to the current plot, like Professor Zoom's attempt to disrupt Barry's first wedding.

And good riddance. *Shakes fist.*

[stealthwise]

And good riddance. *Shakes fist.*

To be fair, if they hadn't done that with X-Men in the 70s, the title probably wouldn't exist today.

Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing now...

[Reptisaurus!]

To be fair, if they hadn't done that with X-Men in the 70s, the title probably wouldn't exist today.

Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing now...

I classify that as a "reprint book" in my mind, since EVERY issue was a reprint. Kid Colt: Outlaw did the same thing.

I may have complained about this (a couple dozen times) before, but what made me mad was stuff like Fantastic Four 180. (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=30852&zoom=4)

It's a reprint of Fantastic Four number one, but with three pages edited out. But the COVER is for an all new story that had nothing to do with the reprint inside, and was never published. And I STILL wanna read the Thing/Thundra/Tigra/Impossible Man team-up.

[stealthwise]

I classify that as a "reprint book" in my mind, since EVERY issue was a reprint. Kid Colt: Outlaw did the same thing.

I may have complained about this (a couple dozen times) before, but what made me mad was stuff like Fantastic Four 180. (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=30852&zoom=4)

It's a reprint of Fantastic Four number one, but with three pages edited out. But the COVER is for an all new story that had nothing to do with the reprint inside, and was never published. And I STILL wanna read the Thing/Thundra/Tigra/Impossible Man team-up.

Let's make Quesada fix this! We can egg his house mercilessly until he gives in to our demands!

[dancj]

One thing I suspect is dead and gone forever is the "reprint" fill-in, which was once fairly common. The last one I can remember was during the end of the Flash's original series, the long "Trial of the Flash" sequence. Once or twice, they had a reprint story with some relevance to the current plot, like Professor Zoom's attempt to disrupt Barry's first wedding.
There was a reprint issue of Miracleman which would have boon more recent than that

[Stressfactor]

What about the opposite -- the complete dreck of a fill-in? I remember reading somewhere (maybe even in a CSBG blog) that some editors used to keep at least one god awful inventory story in a drawer and would threaten to put it out if the writer or artist was falling behind.

Of course, that was really in the days before creators got their names on the front covers on a regular basis and even the credits on the inside were none too prominent. The idea being to put something horrible out that a lot of people would probably think was done by the regular creative team. This would spur the regular guys to finish on time so that their names would not be mistakenly linked to dreck.

Sometimes I do wish editors had more swords to hang over the heads of their creators. If you think about it -- the whole thing is a shift from editorial holding most of the power in the past to creative teams now holding most of the power.

[StrikeForce Albert]

I buy 99% of my books because of the creators. If I pick up a book thinking it's Morrison and get McGee, it affects me.


I'd rather 9 issues a year over 12 issues a year, 3 by a random person they got to write a fill-in.


OK, then don't pick it up. If it's a fill-in, such as BATMAN and ACTION is having due to slow creators then it doesn't hurt anything.

Now if it's a mini-series that's a different beast, and I personally don't think most minis should even be solicited unless they are 90% done.