Pipeline #542 - 30 October 2007

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

This week:

* "One More Delay"
* DC's sales figures are sad (and I sneak in a WALKING DEAD review there, despite myself)
* Blogging about - where are the review bloggers?

Kinda short, but I didn't have any reviews in me this week. The commentary is kinda negative, overall, and no comic overwhelmed me positively this week to merit a review. So I skipped out on them.

-Augie

[goman]

Looks like you and Rich Johnson may have a fight on your hands to the rights of "One More Delay".

From today's LITG

So what's Joe Quesada been saying about "One More Delay?"

CBR Thunderdome for the bragging rights?

:D

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Figures. I knew my column would be a day late. LITERALLY ONE DAY.

ARGH!

-Augie

[Jonah Weiland]

Any my apologies to Augie and his readers. I should have had the column up at 10:00 AM Pacific but then -- well, the whole world fell apart. Seriously, it's just a matter of the phone rang, then something else came up, etc -- it basically got lost in the noise of the day and I'm sorry about that. Augie always hands in his column early -- earlier than any other columnists -- and I don't want these delays to reflect on him. I'm going to get back to posting Augie's column on Monday evenings.

Sorry, Augie!

[De Carabas]

"Do comic sales follow an asymptote?"

Augie, this is why I will never stop reading your column. Of course, I expect to see a proof for this next week.

EM

[goman]

Not to tute my own, (who am I kidding, I love to tute my own horn) but I guess I fall under the banner of the weekly reviewer. I won't testify to my skill, because I'm a self loather who hates everything he does, but I've been doing most every week for the last 5-6 months. In fact I should be finishing last weeks right now, but I'm easily distracted.

Anyway, that is all, but I do share your enjoyment of Savage Critics, although the 'rama does a decent job with their best shots reviews, and aint it cool has a half way decent weekly column, although I don't really like most of their reviewers (too many haters). Thos eare the only ones I really read much, maybe I'm just not looking for it as much as I should.

Okay, ramble over back to work.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

This week:

* DC's sales figures are sad (and I sneak in a WALKING DEAD review there, despite myself)

It's lucky you did, because the irony of your point about blogs not having reviews, whilst your own column didn't was killing me.
I found the Walking Dead comics interesting as I'm reading it in the HC's, so I get year long waits between reading, and am used to it not having chapter breaks - it's funny how due to the different formats, reading the same material gives a different experience for people.
(Mind you, I haven't brought a floppy in years, and the last one I did, an issue of Solo, the middle pages fell out from the staples on first read. Didn't exactly inspire me to switch back).

[dancj]

"Do comic sales follow an asymptote?"

Augie, this is why I will never stop reading your column. Of course, I expect to see a proof for this next week.

EM
No comic produced by a big company would ever reach zero readers. There are always going to be fans of a particular character or people who buy absolutely everything a company produces.

For proof I present Doug Wheeler's run on Swamp Thing (which I myself bought every issue of - why?)

[Dave Hudson]

The Walking Dead is a true anomaly in the direct market defying all accepted sales wisdom:

A non-capes horror indie still increasing orders as it approaches the big 50 selling more than practically all Vertigo books and some mainstream superhero titles without resorting to 'events', crossovers, variant covers or gimmicks of any kind.

[gwor]

I kind of like the brutal honesty of IGN reviews....

I find it a bit ironic that you mention the cancelled Spidey books as equalling lost sales.

The point is, the market is flooded with way too many books as it is, IMHO. Less crappy books per month would probably lead to stronger sales on 'fringe' books.

[yoda510]

I would love to review books, even in a blog. But how do you find a place where people will actually read your work?

[Hoss]

Event books and monthlies...

With all of the big events going on in DC and Marvel, I find no reason to support most monthlies. Every time that an event mini-series comes out, the status quo and energy of the individual books goes out the window. And if you read trades, then by the time the compilation comes out the storyline you are reading is irrelevant.

I find myself spending my money on books that have fairly independent linear storylines that aren't affected by universe shaking events. Unfortunately for DC and Marvel, many of their books aren't in that category anymore.

I recently tried the first 2 trades of Ms Marvel and they left me completely flat. The flow from volume 1 with Ms. Marvel hiring a publicist and working to become the world's #1 hero gets completely wrecked in volume 2 as she becomes one of Iron Man's cops. A total mess made even worse when all of the issues are read back-to-back-to-back.

[Nimbus]

This week:
* Blogging about - where are the review bloggers?


Well, there's Chris Sims and his "Week In Ink" feature over at the ISB (http://www.the-isb.com/) for starters.

And Don MacPherson is still reviewing stuff over at the Eye On Comics (http://www.eyeoncomics.com/)

The crowd at Comic Pants (http://comicpants.com/) also review the weekly comics sometimes, don't they?

I'm sure there must be others...