CBR: Cup O' Joe - Jun 24, 2011

[CBR News]

Tom Brevoort gives twice the info on this week's shocking "Ultimate Spider-Man" #160 including the history of the story and of specialty variants while addressing fan questions on Marvel pricing and "Astonishing Captain America."


Full article here.

[rogerio]

My question was answered!

[Jack J Napier]

My question was answered!

I'm glad you asked this and that it was answered. I think I would purchase any book with Adi Granov. Hope this gets fast tracked when its all said and done.

[Sighphi]

So Brevoort said that one of the big reasons for the 90s comic crash was because the quality of the writers wasn't that good.......... what? All the different covers did play a part but the bad writing played a bigger part.................................really?

I think this is the first time i've heard this and it's a real doozy. Anyone heard something like this before?

The page count has now with Marvel become something "arbitrary." But if you are the competition, of course, dont mess with it or else Marvel will question it.

And get this!!!

as recently as when we were starting work on the final "Fear Itself" scripts, I was weighing the notion that we might need to go to eight issues. Despite the fact that it's solicited as seven issues and we've been planning it all along as seven issues, as tends to happen on big event books there was a little bit of drift.

FI was almost going to 8 issues?
Because events books tend to drift?
We are 3 issues in and the story has barely moved an inch!
The biggest talking point about it is the random death of Buck.
How was this book ALMOST going to get another full issue!!!!

[Will.S]

I'm glad that the page count stuff was addressed and brought to Tom's attention even though it's probably better reserved for say David Gabriel.

I certainly understand the whole "we're not selling pages we're selling content" rationale that both Tom and Stephen have both said, I buy comics for that very same reason. Thankfully Avengers and Uncanny in the following month were 22 pages again but I just hope the 21 pages for $3.99 doesn't happen again. While I do buy comics for the story and I don't typically count the pages of every comic that I buy, when stuff like this is brought to my attention I can't help but feel, for the lack of better term, suckered into buying book that had it's price raised and yet was quietly being given less content.

[Will.S]

FI was almost going to 8 issues?
Because events books tend to drift?
We are 3 issues in and the story has barely moved an inch!
The biggest talking point about it is the random death of Buck.
How was this book ALMOST going to get another full issue!!!!

I'm wondering if FI #7 is going to be $4.99 due to the upped page count.

Would be pretty lame but I wouldn't put it past them.

[EXCELSIOR 2.0]

Adi Granov makes my heart flutter.

[Lou7]

I have yet to hear why there can only be the $2.99 & $3.99 price point.
I don't care what company, but couldn't they sell books at $3.39 , $3.49 etc....
Couldn't DC for example just give us 2 or 3 more pages and charge $3.25 or something like that ??? The same goes for Marvel ....

[deathcry]

I have yet to hear why there can only be the $2.99 & $3.99 price point.
I don't care what company, but couldn't they sell books at $3.39 , $3.49 etc....
Couldn't DC for example just give us 2 or 3 more pages and charge $3.25 or something like that ??? The same goes for Marvel ....

It's not a bad point. DC, for example, could have 'held the line' at $3.25, made more money, and still 'looked' better than $3.99. I'm sure there must be some reasoning behind the page count.

[Nova2814.1]

I'm glad that the page count stuff was addressed and brought to Tom's attention even though it's probably better reserved for say David Gabriel.

I certainly understand the whole "we're not selling pages we're selling content" rationale that both Tom and Stephen have both said, I buy comics for that very same reason. Thankfully Avengers and Uncanny in the following month were 22 pages again but I just hope the 21 pages for $3.99 doesn't happen again. While I do buy comics for the story and I don't typically count the pages of every comic that I buy, when stuff like this is brought to my attention I can't help but feel, for the lack of better term, suckered into buying book that had it's price raised and yet was quietly being given less content.

It was good to see it asked, but I'd like to have seen a more definitive answer as to what will or won't be running at a lower page count. My "tracking" thread is showing that there is a pattern, it's not as arbitrary as some might think from Tom's reply. Hell, just say that all $2.99 books will be 20 pagers and then we can be surprised when we get more. Some of us just want to know a little bit more about what we're paying for before we pay for it, and I know a few retailers feel the same way as well.

I'm wondering if FI #7 is going to be $4.99 due to the upped page count.

Would be pretty lame but I wouldn't put it past them.

Well, Marvel did release FI #1 as a 40 pager or something like that for only $3.99, so hopefully #7 will be in the same boat.

See, I do recognise when Marvel does good as well as bad .

[XPac]

I have yet to hear why there can only be the $2.99 & $3.99 price point.
I don't care what company, but couldn't they sell books at $3.39 , $3.49 etc....
Couldn't DC for example just give us 2 or 3 more pages and charge $3.25 or something like that ??? The same goes for Marvel ....

It's a classic marketing ploy that you see in pretty much EVERYTHING. Go to the supermarket and you'll see pretty much everything being $X.99.

It's a psychological thing. A book (or whatever) that costs 3.99 is the store basically charging you 4 dollars, with your brain initially registering that it's 3 instead of 4 because of the first number.

[Hulk_Is]

It's funny that Tom should mention the fold-out/pull-out Force Works #1 cover because I attempted to do just that, like, a week and a half ago and it was an absolute disastrophe! I had to trash the whole book because of that. Word to wise: Don't attempt it. lol

My question was answered!

Yeah, thanks for asking that. I'm keen on this book as well, but some of these Astonishing books take awhile to come out over time. And, with Adi Granov on the art I can tolerate the delays I guess.

I love what Cap did to that tank.

[Jack J Napier]

Yeah, thanks for asking that. I'm keen on this book as well, but some of these Astonishing books take awhile to come out over time. And, with Adi Granov on the art I can tolerate the delays I guess.

I love what Cap did to that tank.

Yeah, I can't wait for this book to come out, but atleast they are waiting for the perfect time and not starting it and then not finishing because of some reason. I'll be happy if it doesn't turn into Viva Las Vegas. lol

[Harold of the Rocks]

Where is half of this guy's head? Did she punch his face off?

[ghostplanet]

So Brevoort said that one of the big reasons for the 90s comic crash was because the quality of the writers wasn't that good.......... what? All the different covers did play a part but the bad writing played a bigger part.................................really?

I think this is the first time i've heard this and it's a real doozy. Anyone heard something like this before?

I actually agree with this whole heartedly. I was actively collecting comics in the late 80s through mid-90s. I stopped.

Part of it was money, part of it was time. But mostly, it was because books I was reading weren't good stories anymore.

AND I had lost my willingness to try NEW books, because after buying the first issue of almost every new Image series - only about 3 out of 40 were in any way compelling, original, or well-written (IMO). Art was a little bit more consistent, though some was still awful.

Boom and bust of covers didn't drive me away (I totally fell for those, and in the case of Silver Surfer, stuck with it.)

The rapid expansion didn't drive me away (I loved having more choices - it just turned out few were any good).

It really was bad product that made me give up.