jkr@gitpyr.UUCP (John Kenneth Riviere) (11/25/85)
In article <2429@colossus.fluke.UUCP> moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) writes: >A very well-stated article by John Riviere about Shooter -- it brought up >some excellent points that I'd like to discuss. Thank you for your kind words. (Gee, a reasoned reply! This is almost as good as getting a letter published in a letters column :-) !) However, let me point out that I prefer Kenneth to John. Only the government, my personnel department, and this computer think of me as John (and I hope I've got the computer straight now). >2) ... I've found current plotlines interrupted while a story > is "edited into" an issue. Personally I prefer to see a fill-in story to an out-an-out reprint. Besides, sometimes the fill-in is better than the regular staff! > ...Shooter isn't *malignant* -- just self-indulgent, boorish and too > "Rah-rah Marvel!" for my tastes. I don't think I've seen any statement > from Marvel in the last two years complimenting another company on a > good piece of work, while I have seen DC, First, Eclipse and the late > Pacific compliment each other (and Marvel) on numerous occasions). I agree that Marvel's attitude towards their competitors is bad, but this has always been the case, even before Shooter. (Remember all the jokes about Brand X/Ecch, even before they published _Not_Brand_Ecchh!_?) The closest Marvel has ever come to being complementary about their competitors that I can remember was when they were working on the coordinated projects with DC, and even then it was easy to hear a lot of bitching and finger pointing if you talked to any of the people involved at Marvel. >3) ... the health of comics ... seems to be more a > function of the independents and direct outlet specialty stores that > have brought things to their current state. Since comics don't have to > be sold via newstands, smaller runs of comics can be done, thus allowing > more specialized audiences to take part. Let us examine this just a bit more closely. A few years ago I tried retailing comics and took advantage of this work to talk to other retailers, to wholesalers, and to comics personnel (both creators and those involved in marketing). From my own experience and the comments of others I have found that most of the direct outlet specialty stores make their living selling Marvels. They then can also afford to sell some of the better independant publications. Marvel gives better volume discounts, promotional help, and advice, whereas all some of the independents offer is a plea to carry their products. I remember a period of time then when DC was in trouble (it appeared that Warner Communications was getting ready to dump the marginal DC comics line) and someone brought out the point that if DC went under then it was very easy to imagine that several of the stores that carry comics, both direct and mass market, might stop carrying comics altogether since they are such marginal items. Such a situation might pinch Marvel a bit, but they could probably expect to make up the difference in new customers who had been buying DC's. However, the independent publishers could very well be wiped out without the direct sales shops. If there is any validity to this type of argument then it follows that the direct outlet specialty shops, and therefore the independent publishers, owe much of their existence to the financial success of Marvel as ushered in under Jim Shooter. >Leaving off, I again have to agree with John -- if you don't like a comic, >don't buy it. I'll at least get the first issue of X-Factor, but beyond >that, it'll depend on the quality. Anyone who hacks up my favorite >characters is not going to get my added support, critically or monetarilly. > > Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer As a long-time Marvel fan, I have to admit that I don't like some of the changes that have occurred over the last decade. But then, there are others I do like (would Power Pack have been attempted 10 years ago?). Marvel is working to stay on top in the market in which they have been dominant for many years, a market made up of mostly teenage boys. There are a lot of titles which I used to enjoy which I no longer read, but then, I don't read Hardy Boys or Freddy the Pig books anymore either. I am trying to learn to limit my purchases to those I read and enjoy. I find that I have bought over 1000 comics in the last few years which I have not been able to find the time to read. There is simply too much material available to be able to keep up with it all, or even all that is done by people whose work I admire and comics that feature characters in whom I am interested. As a former Marvel fanatic (I earned the titles KOF,RFO,QNS,TTB, and therefore PMM) I have been saddened by the way some of Marvel's characters have been handled, but I have tried to accept it without letting it ruin my enjoyment of comics as a whole. By ignoring more of Marvel's output I am able to find time to read other material such as the Popeye, Spirit, and Steve Canyon reprints that have been published in recent years. I watch Marvel to try and buy the gems that still come out of their offices, but it is undenyable that they are getting harder to find. -- J. Kenneth Riviere (JoKeR) Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 ...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!jkr