The Daily Rios 11.30.12: Feedback Friday

Amazing Spider-Man by Lee and Ditko! Professor X vs Magneto in First Class! Alan Moore’s Glory! And more! (29:57)

NOTES:

Kray Z Comics and Stories podcast:
www.krayzcomix.solitairerose.com

Slings and Arrows:
www.imdb.com/title/tt0387779

7 thoughts on “The Daily Rios 11.30.12: Feedback Friday

  1. On the topic If I think that comics should not be numbered to increase sales that sometimes erode due to climbing numbers on books my answer is NO.

    If a book is not identified as to where it fits within its continuity then I feel eventually you will have during current mini series issue that keeps me away from titles that I like. Take GI Joe for example. The current titles I would love to read but deciphering what books belong with what mini series and how they relate to the main title has turned me off. In the 80s there was no bigger fan of the GI Joe monthly book that I was. It lost some steam when Special Missions came out but I stayed faithful until its cancellation. Now the Joe books have been released in so many mini series I literally do not have the time to invest to back track and see what goes with what. Too time consuming and complicated in back issue hunts.

    Lack of numbering would be ten times more frustrating as the average fan let alone the hardcore’s would be turned off eventually if they had no way to decide what issues to buy and how they flowed continuity wise. A book must have some sort of identification attached to it whether its a number or a color or a symbol..something needs to separate the books and show a sense of order.

    What would we do if we were looking for a particular book go ask the dealer..”Do you have the Batman book with the purple cover and the one that has Batman fighting Clayface|? I say it would NEVER work. Back to the think tank junior!

    1. Chris! The books wouldn’t necessarily be unidentified. Having a month/year format still keeps the publishing chronology. To drag TV into this, we have been trained to watch “seasons” and often talk about a series based on that: such as how Lost Seasons 3 and 4 are often looked at favorably. Imagine if comics could do the same thing: that we start talking about them in larger runs rather than single issues. The numbering doesn’t really allow for a discussion on Batman’s first or second year. We usually do it by single issues or story arcs. But now we could go seasonal or yearly and have multiple stories throughout.

      Sure – it’s all What If? – and no real practical example will come of it – but if I won the lottery and could fund a comic book universe, I would def try it!

  2. “Junior” here 🙂 I should clarify what I meant a little. I just mean a single title – Batman, Superman, whatever – not an entire company’s line of comics unnumbered.

    I also realised that isn’t that what trades are? Unnumbered volumes? A eye-catching image, with big logo? If it isn’t collecting a mini-series, but just a run of stories (eg. Batman: Evolution, which collected Tec after No Mans Land, when they were doing that fantastic thing with the colouring), then it’s tricky already to figure out what order volumes should be read in unless you know to look at the small print inside telling you what the original issues were.

    I was meaning one title, floppy ol’ 20-something page thing. I like what you said Peter about seasons. That said, Batman: The Winter Season sounds a lot better than Batman: The Summer Season 😛

    Oh and it’s Australasian – NOT Australian, Peter. Watch it buddy! 😉

  3. Hey Peter, can I ask you a quick Teen Titans question? I’ve heard you and many others refer to a “Baxter” run on the Titans, that seems to take place after Perez left. I have always assumed that Baxter was the next artist to work on the book. But I have been reading through and looking up 1980’s Titans and I have yet to come across anyone named Baxter. So who is Baxter and why is it called the “Baxter” run when it seems Wolfman was still the driving force behind the book?

    Sorry to take up your time with this stuff but I just don’t know many old school Titan fans.

    1. Scott! Whenever “Baxter” comes up, it’s a description of the paper that was used for a particular comic/mini/series. At the time, DC was running two Titans titles simultaneously, so readers billed the second series (which eventually became the flagship Titans series) as the Baxter Run because it was on whiter, thicker paper stock (that still holds up to this day!). I loved the format, it held color better than newsprint but it did mean a price increase in those particular books. Most baxter books were almost always sold through comic shops over newsstands (at least initially).
      Along with New Teen Titans, another best seller at the time moved to Baxter: Legion of Super-Heroes. Others included Omega Men, Vigilante, the second Outsiders series, Camelot 3000 and many more. Here’s a great list of DC titles that utilized the Baxter paper: http://marvelmasterworksfansite.yuku.com/topic/8549#.ULvUeLvGbMk

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