What comics did you buy today?

[felneymike]

Hmm, i wouldn't have expected it actually. Though the editor of Boys seems to be trying to spin it up into a "we'll go forwards together" sort of thing I should think it was more likely a hostile takeover of the publishers and immediate elimination of the rival that they had been producing up until then.

[Digifiend]

Looks like Al didn't know about Boys merging with Boy's Own Paper. Like the Beano, which has never merged with another comic (unless you count the merger of the Beano and Magic annuals) those two titles don't appear in the Comics UK Family Tree. No mention of it on the Boy's Own Paper Wikipedia page either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy's_Own_Paper

[Raven]

I found 'Beano and Dandy Heroes: Classic Comic Fun from the 80s' in Poundland. This was the first annual volume of the series in many years I'd decided not to buy at either full or discount price, as I thought the 80s are too recent for a nostalgic collection - and it wasn't a peak Beano/Dandy decade, really; mostly of interest if that's when you were getting the weeklies as a kid - and the desirable contents seemed rather paltry compared to previous volumes.

But worth getting for £1.

[Digifiend]

Poundland is advertising a whole bunch of £1 annuals on their website. I can remember when the best discount you could hope for on them was half price (we're talking a decade or so ago)... if they're going to end up sold in pound shops, where there's not a chance in hell that the publishers will get a profit, they should probably reduce the print runs. Case in point, Dennis and Gnasher. There must've been over 100 copies of the 2010 annual in my local Poundland this time last year. Not so many of this year's, but they do have some. They shouldn't end up there in the first place. Last year, I blamed Borders and Woolworths, which both went out of business since Xmas 08. No such excuses this time.

The Best of the Victor seems to have fared better... it seems my local WHSmith sold out, selling them no cheaper than buy one get one half price (that bodes well for those types of titles, I hope). Unlike Black Bob, which Waterstones marked down to half price with three copies on display on Wednesday.

[Raven]

The Best of the Victor seems to have fared better... it seems my local WHSmith sold out, selling them no cheaper than buy one get one half price (that bodes well for those types of titles, I hope).

Unless they returned them.

The Best of The Victor didn't interest me, anyway, as it focused on the type of the Victor stuff I always strongly disliked, but I thought it was way too expensive at £16.99. After all, they're not paying royalties on all the reprinted material, and it didn't appear to be full of new editorial stuff contextualising it - it was just a load of reprints, and quite slim, so I'm not sure why it had be such a steep price. I assumed it would do better from the online shops selling it at around £8.49 than in high street shops.

[stevezodiac]

I agree - I might have bought the Best of Victor book if it had had some facts and figures - I'm not very good at identifying the adventure strip artists so it would have been an incentive. I saw it as just a bunch of random reprints.

[Lew Stringer]

The Best of The Victor didn't interest me, anyway, as it focused on the type of the Victor stuff I always strongly disliked, but I thought it was way too expensive at £16.99. After all, they're not paying royalties on all the reprinted material, and it didn't appear to be full of new editorial stuff contextualising it - it was just a load of reprints, and quite slim, so I'm not sure why it had be such a steep price. I assumed it would do better from the online shops selling it at around £8.49 than in high street shops.

I bought it when it came out and it was only £8.50 from Amazon.

It's all down to the economics of publishing though. I assume the print run wasn't massive, so the unit cost would be higher than an annual for example. Every page was in full colour, on good quality paper, so that's another reason for the price. There was a free gift enclosed in a special pouch so that's another add-on to the print costs. There's also production costs. It's not as simple as slapping a comic into a scanner as you know.

Compared to other hardback books of comic reprints it was incredibly cheap. Look up the prices of Marvel Masterworks, Mighty Samson Archives, recent books on American horror comics etc. All over £20 each, some up to £40 each.

Books for a niche market are always expensive. The Best of Victor was a bargain. If UK fans aren't going to buy such books there's no incentive for publishers to bother. I'm hoping it sold well enough to warrant books on other comics but time will tell.

[Raven]

It's all down to the economics of publishing though. I assume the print run wasn't massive, so the unit cost would be higher than an annual for example. Every page was in full colour

Full colour? Weren't most of them one colour? (I may be wrong - it's quite a while since I flicked through.)

on good quality paper, so that's another reason for the price. There was a free gift enclosed in a special pouch so that's another add-on to the print costs. There's also production costs. It's not as simple as slapping a comic into a scanner as you know.

Compared to other hardback books of comic reprints it was incredibly cheap. Look up the prices of Marvel Masterworks, Mighty Samson Archives, recent books on American horror comics etc. All over £20 each, some up to £40 each.

But the Marvel Masterworks (now around £45 in the shops) and a lot of American comic reprint collections are ridiculously overpriced*, and it's hard not to suspect fans are being fleeced.

(* as are many of the monthly floppies.)

One recent book on horror comics, 'The Horror! The Horror!' was very good value (I bought it for £12.99) at 306 pages, each one thick and full colour, with thicker covers and flaps, lots of essay-like text throughout, all really well researched and informative with many cover reproductions, full stories and a free DVD of an obscure 50s TV documentary on the horror comics.

I agree with Mr Zodiac. The Victor book seemed like a thin, hastily compiled collection of random reprints, and was way overpriced.

If UK fans aren't going to buy such books there's no incentive for publishers to bother.

If publishers are going to overprice and make little effort compiling their books, there's little incentive for UK fans to buy them.

I do think they need to look at their pricing - some of the Titan collections: Steel Claw etc., for example, clearly weren't going to sell well at £14.99 for slim volumes. It may be better to look at the DC Showcase and Marvel Essential collections for a lead; I don't think hard covers and high quality paper are necessarily even a big attraction for this kind of thing.

[Lew Stringer]

Full colour? Weren't most of them one colour? (I may be wrong - it's quite a while since I flicked through.)

The process was still full colour, even though they were shot from spot colour or b&w pages. I know some fans disliked that but the reproduction wouldn't have been as good in black and white. (Compare it to Classics from the Comics for example.)

If publishers are going to overprice and make little effort compiling their books, there's little incentive for UK fans to buy them.

If Americans can shell out $60 for Masterworks volumes on a regular basis for years I don't see why UK fans can't spend £10 or £20 on similar books. Admittedly the market for, say, The Steel Claw, is much smaller than the one for Golden Age Human Torch Masterworks, but if the evidence of this forum is anything to go by there does seem to be a habit of UK fans waiting to see if the books turn up in Poundland etc. That's not going to fuel a nostalgia industry, so I can't see publishers bothering for much longer. (Titan have already canceled or delayed some of their books. Don't hold out hopes for a Fifties Roy of the Rovers archive for example.)

I do think they need to look at their pricing - some of the Titan collections: Steel Claw etc., for example, clearly weren't going to sell well at £14.99 for slim volumes. It may be better to look at the DC Showcase and Marvel Essential collections for a lead; I don't think hard covers and high quality paper are necessarily even a big attraction for this kind of thing.

I agree with you on that. I'd have preferred to see those books in the chunky format that Rebellion have used for their 2000AD reprints, but perhaps Titan felt that hardbacks on good paper would appeal to fans more. It worked for their Dan Dare and Charley's War books. Sadly not for Steel Claw or Spider, although further volumes of those might be delayed due to IPC's new owners at Warners?

[Phoenix]

I bought it when it came out and it was only £8.50 from Amazon. It's all down to the economics of publishing though. The Best of Victor was a bargain. If UK fans aren't going to buy such books there's no incentive for publishers to bother. I'm hoping it sold well enough to warrant books on other comics but time will tell.

Far be it from me, Lew, to be in any way critical of your stated decision to buy The Best Of Victor on line for half its RRP of £16.99, because that, to all intents and purposes, is what I did when I bought this year's Bunty For Girls, The History Of Girls' Comics and the Black Bob compilation, to name only the most recent purchases. I do, however, feel rather uneasy when you express your hope that the title sold well enough for the publishers to have sufficient incentive to go ahead with similar future projects, when they expected to get for The Best Of Victor as close as possible to what you consider to be a bargain price of £16.99 per copy, allowing obviously for bulk purchases, including presumably to Amazon, because you bought the book at half price. You do seem to be presenting a contradiction or mixed message.

[Lew Stringer]

I bought it when it came out and it was only £8.50 from Amazon. It's all down to the economics of publishing though. The Best of Victor was a bargain. If UK fans aren't going to buy such books there's no incentive for publishers to bother. I'm hoping it sold well enough to warrant books on other comics but time will tell.

Far be it from me, Lew, to be in any way critical of your stated decision to buy The Best Of Victor on line for half its RRP of £16.99, because that, to all intents and purposes, is what I did when I bought this year's Bunty For Girls, The History Of Girls' Comics and the Black Bob compilation, to name only the most recent purchases. I do, however, feel rather uneasy when you express your hope that the title sold well enough for the publishers to have sufficient incentive to go ahead with similar future projects, when they expected to get for The Best Of Victor as close as possible to what you consider to be a bargain price of £16.99 per copy, allowing obviously for bulk purchases, including presumably to Amazon, because you bought the book at half price. You do seem to be presenting a contradiction or mixed message.

Not at all.
When I said £16.99 was a bargain price I was comparing it to similar books priced at £20 to £40. You've edited my comments in the quote to make it seem otherwise.

[STARBOY]

I think a bargain is only a bargain if the material is of interest and of a high quality when you are expected to pay £15 plus for a reprint. I have to personally say, that even as a fan of UK comics, a reprint of the Victor meant nothing to me at all , it was always one of my least favourite comics and I think few comic fans (general fans) let alone non fans remember it at all, so it was never going to be a winner really. The US has an added advantage in that many of their reprint books/characters are still going so folk have brand recognition even they are not interested in it (but someone will be). Added to that US comics have another added advantage (apart from the comic stores) in that their artists are better known so a volume featuring Arthur Adams or Alex Toth etc will sell as will a book such as the Eerrie & Creepy reprints (again some average but some amazing) which may not have instant brand recognition (as they stopped printing about 20 plus years ago barring attempts at re establIshing the titles by Dark Horse , Harris etc) but put in a few strips by Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson etc and you'll move a few to their fans. It's no surprise that Oor Wullie and The Broons sell well enough they are still beoing printed people know what it is etc.

[Raven]

If Americans can shell out $60 for Masterworks volumes on a regular basis for years I don't see why UK fans can't spend £10 or £20 on similar books.

America is so massive that even a niche/cult following can be relatively big, and the companies have obviously found a sizeable enough number of middle aged fans with lots of disposable income that they're prepared to spend on these books - but when I see collection after collection of just a handful of old, often pulpy tat comic books strung together (all no royalty deal stuff) and selling around £42 I think it's ridiculous pricing that'll ultimately shrink the market even more.

Are five reprinted issues of Creepy really worth spending £40 on? Or a handful of old Boris Karloff licensed comics you'd probably have had trouble giving away at a mart?

Admittedly the market for, say, The Steel Claw, is much smaller than the one for Golden Age Human Torch Masterworks, but if the evidence of this forum is anything to go by there does seem to be a habit of UK fans waiting to see if the books turn up in Poundland etc.

I do normally buy the Beano/Dandy compilations each year and thought the previous couple had been particularly good; it's just this year's I found underwhelming. And my feelings are similar to Starboy's for Victor, anyway; Victor sports and war stories - all that Tough of the Track stuff - isn't for me (even if it does crop up in Poundland).

[STARBOY]

The creepy books are not quite £40 (well not in my local comic shop) there still pricey but are £26 - £30. I agree 5/6 issues of a comic is not a lot (although they do run to over 230 pages a book) but then the individual comics (if you're after them) are around £10 - £20 plus each now (depending on the issue & condition - older issues are £50 plus) if you can find them that is. To be fair the Dark Horse editions are very nice, they are over 230 pages long, and are beautifully presented oversized hardcovers with dust jackets and feature some great work by artists such as Adams, Colan, Frazetta, Ditko, Wood, Morrow, Severin etc. Personally I have only bought 1 book (in a sale for £11) if I had the money I would get more especially ones with Ditko's work in it - stunning stuff.

[philcom55]

I think it depends on the care that goes into the package. From what I've seen of the superb restoration job Peter Richardson has done for the upcoming Complete Ron Embleton Wulf the Briton it should more than justify the hefty £95 price tag (though I can't imagine how anyone could afford the even pricier Deluxe edition! ).

- Phil R.