I've decide I like the switch to larger, $3.99 comics.
I don't mind paying more, if I'm getting more.
Now, if "more" meant just drawing out stories longer in the modern 'tradition' of decompression, I would mind very much. More happens in one episode of Batman: Brave & the Bold than in a year's worth of some comic book series.
But more is actually going to mean more, and different stories. Certain comics will have the regular 22 page main story plus a "co-feature" (what I would call a back-up story) or 8 to 10 pages. Score! I've long said we need the return of anthology comics and back-up features. Not all characters can sustain their own title, and these forms of comic books accept that fact.
There are supposed to be seven cofeatured books, with five of them being:
Teen Titans/Ravager
Booster Gold/Blue Beetle
Doom Patrol/Metal Men
Detective Comics/The Question
Streets of Gotham/Manhunter
Now, I could surely do without Ravager the One-Eyed Stabby Precog. I can't think of anything the world needs less than an X-23 for "Deathstroke the Terminator". But the others are exactly the kind of characters who thrive as back-up features. In my dreams, one of the other books is Aquaman with a Sea Devils co-feature, because that would be my Deep Blue Sea Heaven.
What comics do I remember unflaggingly from my childhood? Why, the 100 page giants, of course!
Bigger is better.
It's actually difficult to think of any character that would be LESS interesting as a back-up (or anything else!) than Ravager! Eight pages with Duela Dent's corpse would be more compelling.
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I am SO there with Booster Gold/Blue Beetle and Doom Patrol/Metal Men. Heck, I'm even going to read a Bat book so that I can get some Manhunter.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a good way to justify the price increase, at least you are getting more bang for your buck. Unlike Marvel.
Scip, I think you're a few years older than I; but yeah, I have very fond memories of the 100-Page Super-Specs too! (Especially the ones with a wide variety of features in them, like the Detective Comics 100-pagers!)
ReplyDeleteShell and clam nation, an Aquaman/Sea Devils combo book, with the right creative team(s), might just get me buying new comics again! Or maybe a JSA/Tales of the Golden Age book?
As A huge Duela Dent fan I would be on board for even the corpse idea. Still want to see the planned backup for her that the DC Implosion scuttled.
ReplyDeleteNow, me, what I remember is the last time they did this.
ReplyDeleteI want "Whatever Happened to" in The Brave and the Bold. And "Dial H for Hero" in Supergirl. And, once he's finished rebirthing and all, Firestorm in the Flash, just like old times.
I am looking forward to Strange Adventures. It looks like it will run like Mystery in Space which featured Comet and Weird.
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong but Mystery in Space was rather the test for the back-up features we see now.
I collected Tales of the Unexpected just for the back up featuring Dr. Thirteen.
Now, with Strange Adventures, it looks like a Adam Strange and Comet buddie team and a Bizzaro Superman back-up. Wow.
Well, even if I'm wrong, it still looks like alot of content for dollar.
ReplyDeleteLike the Superfriends showcase for $10 in May. That is forty-four pages for a dollar. Hmmmmm
I think I am missing out on the 80 pagers like you all are talking about. My fond memories of youth were of watching 24 pages for 75cents raise to $1. My backup features might happen in an Annual, more likely in a Quarterly. Remember DC's Ms.Tree Quarterly?
Actually, I did collect the first five Justice Leaque Quarterly's.
There's a long history of Marvel just raising prices, while DC tries to add content to go along with the price increase. It goes back at LEAST to the days of "52 BIG Pages! Don't Take Less! Only 25¢" of the early '70s, leapfrogging Marvel's jump to 20¢ by adding a BUNCH of pages.
ReplyDeleteUsing Golden Age stories as filler may have been cheap, but any story you haven't read yet is a new story.
As you might recall, that 25-cent-with-back-up-features strategy failed miserably. DC soon retreated to Marvel's 20-cent price point. Of course, Marvel won't be undercutting DC on price this time around
ReplyDeleteI like this idea. Aquaman/Sea Devils sounds great too. And while we're at it how about a GL/Pie Face combo and something with the Elongated Man(is he still around?) and maybe an Atom/Ghost of Jean Loring(Is she still dead?)
ReplyDeleteI just read JLA: That Was Now This Is Then for the first time (thank you, NCC public library system) and was very impressed with the writing. Aquaman didn't get too much "screen time" but Roger Stern handled him very well, I thought; no mistaking him for a "third-rate hero" here! I'd love to see what Mr. Stern could do with an Aquaman series!
ReplyDeleteLet's face cold reality, though; if Aquaman finds his way into this new format, it won't be as the headliner.
Eclipso and Prince Ra-Man, please.
ReplyDeleteSurely Adventure will be a back-ups book? That's a traditional Aquaman home.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like a Superman family feature in one of the Superman comics, alternating Lois, Jimmy, Perry and anyone Editorial finds interesting. Is copy girl Alice still in the cupboard?
And don't forget Superman's Bully, Steve Lombard!
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