"2000 saw the worst sales figures. Since then sales have slowly improved (only slowly) because Marvel has had success with selling trade paperbacks. Trades typically collecting six issues of the monthly comics. Now comics are written in six issue blocks with the trade paperback in mind. Many commentators believe that monthly comics are effectively dead, except as source material for trade paperbacks. The trades and comics together only exist in order to provide source material for the far more profitable movies and merchandising."

Cruise, that's a depressing paragraph.

I've thought for a while they should rethink the format. $2.99 (or more) is just too much for a comic book. I'd say a magazine the equivalent of 3 comics, for $5.99 is the way to go. For lesser characters, that means being relegated to an anthology book, say Thor, Iron Man, and Black Panther are all in one monthly with their own separate stories. For Spidey and major players, you can have 3 stories, equivalent to Friendly, Amazing, and Spectacular. This magazine would come out quarterly or 6 times a year, whichever worked better. And yes, I'd expect ads in a book that size and price...but between the stories.

I feel strongly that the Shonen Jump format is the way to go. Black and white, full size magazines. Thick ones, with 6 or 8 stories carried in each one for 5 or 6 bucks. Then collect them in trades with color. There's some value added (first time in color) to buy the trades for the comics you collect, but you're not paying a fortune on a per-issue basis to follow the monthly storyline. Plus, it would make people try out other stories tossed in with the books they like. Plus, it would help with the distribution issue because you distribute them like a magazine.

This would probably be the death of the comic book store. But doing it at the right moment may save the industry. I think the answer is to pick some popular titles and try it -- see how it goes.

jay, that sounds like a great idea!

As you may know, I am 100% with you. I've been pushing for this for some time.
Heck, they might even make it work in color.

-Steve

Color would be better -- but the price point is essential. I buy Shonen Jump every month, but I would bail if it went up much more. (Then I would just buy the stories I like in the manga digests).

The major problem I forsee is in this hypothetical scenario:

Man, I love me some Iron Man. Story's great, art is spectacular (yes, I can dream)! But the Thor portion bores me and the Black Panther story has a terrible artist who kills any chance of me liking it.

Suddenly, I'm paying $5.99 for an Iron Man story. Nope. I'm out.

I don't disagree, Roger, it's just that I don't see another way to get fringe characters out there...and no matter how big a fan you are, you probably agree Iron Man or Thor just don't have what it takes to be big sellers consistently these days. Maybe an Avengers-based anthology book with 2 additional stories featuring a rotating cast of Avengers in solo stories. That way there's not a lockdown on character x making you not want the book.

How do the statistics work?

From my understanding....

The 1953-1987 figures compare the amount of comics Marvel/ DC sold in a given month.

The post 1996 figures list the combined comic books sold by all companiesin a given month.

Where do they get this information? Do they include TPBs sold to Bookstores? It seems TPBs are included because they're credited with the slow post-2000 increase. I that's true, here's the big question. For the purpose of the statistics, is one TPB equal to one single issue? That would be incredibly misleading since most TPBs cost more than most single issues (especially the Absolute Editions/ Omnibuses.).

I love "Hikaru no Go." I've been wanting to create a manga like that, but about poker, for a long long time.

I think having a combination Avengers/Solo Avengers book would work. Main story is about the entire team. The rest of the book would be stories about solo characters from the past or present team. That I could buy into. There's always still a risk that you won't like enough of the book to buy it, but that's going to be a part of the compromise.

I won't buy black and white.

It's one of my favorites, and it's actually the reason I'm buying Shonen Jump right now. The new story they have just added seems promising, though.

You could be a "trade guy." What seems wasteful is publishing the monthlies in a slick format for $3. When it becomes $4 and higher, something will have to give -- and something cheaper might be worth a try.