The Incredible Shrinking Marvel $3.99 Comic (Bleeding Cool)

MobileHome · Post by **MobileHome** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:10 pm

Is this true? Has anyone been counting the pages? Did I pay $3.99 for 19 pages of Moon Knight #4??

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/16/ ... -99-comic/

BadDeacon · Post by **BadDeacon** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:32 pm

Apparently it's true, but at least the comics aren't as full of all those pesky words.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:43 pm

I didn't get either of the 2 worst "value for your $3.99" offenders, MK #4 & Ultimate Fallout #2.....

I think stuff like this is mostly irrelevant for the hard-core Marvel fans.

BadDeacon · Post by **BadDeacon** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 3:28 pm

BobBretall wrote:I think stuff like this is mostly irrelevant for the hard-core Marvel fans.

I can see how it is irrelevant for the hard core Marvel heads, but for me, it is fairly relevant. I'm not a huge fan of Marvel over all, but I have bought X-Men off and on over the years, and looking at the "value" from the books would play a part of me considering whether to ever pick up X-Men comics again.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:00 pm

BadDeacon wrote:
BobBretall wrote:I think stuff like this is mostly irrelevant for the hard-core Marvel fans.
I can see how it is irrelevant for the hard core Marvel heads, but for me, it is fairly relevant. I'm not a huge fan of Marvel over all, but I have bought X-Men off and on over the years, and looking at the "value" from the books would play a part of me considering whether to ever pick up X-Men comics again.

The problem for me with the X-books is that it is a fairly large family of books that does not seem to be able to go a year without trying to drag a reader of any 1 or 2 books into some crossover with lots of other books they don't read.

BadDeacon · Post by **BadDeacon** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:11 pm

BobBretall wrote:
BadDeacon wrote:
BobBretall wrote:I think stuff like this is mostly irrelevant for the hard-core Marvel fans.
I can see how it is irrelevant for the hard core Marvel heads, but for me, it is fairly relevant. I'm not a huge fan of Marvel over all, but I have bought X-Men off and on over the years, and looking at the "value" from the books would play a part of me considering whether to ever pick up X-Men comics again.
The problem for me with the X-books is that it is a fairly large family of books that does not seem to be able to go a year without trying to drag a reader of any 1 or 2 books into some crossover with lots of other books they don't read.

Yes, the X-books have issues.

(pun!)

jonah · Post by **jonah** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 5:43 pm

Main reason I dropped totally dropped marvel about a year ago now. They vary how many pages you get for your $3.99 on a random basis. Avengers was 32 pages as was Secret Avengers. and New avengers with 40 pages (no longer). May have been based on the art/writer team but didn't matter to me.

And why DC got all my money with their 2.99, 20 pages standard. I knew what I was paying for.

Marvel management == lame.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 7:08 pm

jonah wrote:Avengers was 32 pages as was Secret Avengers. and New avengers with 40 pages (no longer).

Those page counts are meaningless, always have been.

32 pages just means there are 32 physical pages between the covers INCLUDING ads, letter pages, etc. It's not story pages. Publishers solicit the total page count to obfuscate the actual amount of content they are actually providing for the cover price. That's why Marvel can put out books with 19, 20, & 22 pages that were all solicited as "32 page" books.

jonah · Post by **jonah** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 8:11 pm

BobBretall wrote:
jonah wrote:Avengers was 32 pages as was Secret Avengers. and New avengers with 40 pages (no longer).
Those page counts are meaningless, always have been.

32 pages just means there are 32 physical pages between the covers INCLUDING ads, letter pages, etc. It's not story pages. Publishers solicit the total page count to obfuscate the actual amount of content they are actually providing for the cover price. That's why Marvel can put out books with 19, 20, & 22 pages that were all solicited as "32 page" books.

True but the amount of content did vary. I believe Marvel felt Bendis & Brubakes, Romita Jr & Deodata warranted more money per page than Bendis + Innomen.

Again, why I went DC. They spelt it out. 20 pages of CONTENT.

Still befuddles me how marvel continues to outsell DC.

spid · Post by **spid** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:12 pm

jonah wrote:
BobBretall wrote:
jonah wrote:Avengers was 32 pages as was Secret Avengers. and New avengers with 40 pages (no longer).
Those page counts are meaningless, always have been.

32 pages just means there are 32 physical pages between the covers INCLUDING ads, letter pages, etc. It's not story pages. Publishers solicit the total page count to obfuscate the actual amount of content they are actually providing for the cover price. That's why Marvel can put out books with 19, 20, & 22 pages that were all solicited as "32 page" books.
True but the amount of content did vary. I believe Marvel felt Bendis & Brubakes, Romita Jr & Deodata warranted more money per page than Bendis + Innomen.

Again, why I went DC. They spelt it out. 20 pages of CONTENT.

Still befuddles me how marvel continues to outsell DC.

While you may be guaranteed 20 pages of content you are not guaranteed that the creative you signed up for when you ordered the comic. You can say what you will about page counts, but Marvel puts writers especially on books for the long haul. Bendis, Brubaker, Fraction, Pak, Slott, Abnett/Lanning, Hickman, Van Lente have all been given a long time to flex their develop and cultivate an audience.

That has certainly have not been the case of the books I have tried at DC.

jonah · Post by **jonah** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 3:43 pm

spid wrote:
While you may be guaranteed 20 pages of content you are not guaranteed that the creative you signed up for when you ordered the comic. You can say what you will about page counts, but Marvel puts writers especially on books for the long haul. Bendis, Brubaker, Fraction, Pak, Slott, Abnett/Lanning, Hickman, Van Lente have all been given a long time to flex their develop and cultivate an audience.

That has certainly have not been the case of the books I have tried at DC.

Won't argue that point. Of the writers you named, 6 of them I almost enjoy reading. However, I can't justify, financially, reading them @ 3.99 per issue. And I note you mention the writers, not necessarily the artists. Though, marvel has probably been more consistent than DC on this front as well.

However, I believe the DC writers and artists are one par with any that Marvel so 2.99 will always win the day.

And for reference, I was a hardcore Marvel Fan for the first 40 years of my comic reading so I don't have a 'pro DC' slant on this. Strictly a price/content view.

BobBretall · Post by **BobBretall** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:23 pm

spid wrote: While you may be guaranteed 20 pages of content you are not guaranteed that the creative you signed up for when you ordered the comic. You can say what you will about page counts, but Marvel puts writers especially on books for the long haul. Bendis, Brubaker, Fraction, Pak, Slott, Abnett/Lanning, Hickman, Van Lente have all been given a long time to flex their develop and cultivate an audience.

That has certainly have not been the case of the books I have tried at DC.

It really comes down to personal taste. I was a certified Marvel Zombie for the 1st 10 years or so that I read comics. After moving to be an "equal-opportunity reader, I've shifted my preference between Marvel & DC a number of times. I'm recently (in the last year) coming off a 5-6 year period of preferring Marvel. I'm not sure I'm in a "DC preference" mode though. I think I'm really in an Indie mode right now.

I'm really getting kind of sick of Bendis' story-telling style, Fraction is REALLY hit-or-Miss with me. I love his creator owned stuff, but his Fear Itself & recent Iron Man is leaving me totally cold. I'm hard-pressed to name a Marvel creator they have swayed away from creator owned work with the promise (that they deliver on) of a huge paycheck where I actually prefer their Marvel stuff to their creator owned work. Hickman is probably closest right now.

I'd say of the people you named, the ones I still really look forward to Marvel stuff from are Slott & Hickman.

spid · Post by **spid** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:30 am

I personally do not like Bendis's writing style, and have not enjoyed his Avengers run. However, my main point is not the quality of the work, but the consistency. If you sign up for the Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, etc you know what your going to get each month.

heroesmask · Post by **heroesmask** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:54 am

Axel Alonso came out and said that they plan on making things up to cover short issues. So if an issue came out with 19 pages next month or a couple months down the road it may have 24 pages or 26 pages. He made it sound as if they are doing this in an effort either to accomodate the story or make sure the books are out on time.

If this is true then it doesn't bother me that much. I would rather have 19 pages in one issue and 25 in the next if the story flowed better rather than force a 20/22 page format.

But we'll see if that plays out. Could be Marvel spin.

Gilgabob · Post by **Gilgabob** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:22 am

heroesmask wrote:Axel Alonso came out and said that they plan on making things up to cover short issues. So if an issue came out with 19 pages next month or a couple months down the road it may have 24 pages or 26 pages. He made it sound as if they are doing this in an effort either to accomodate the story or make sure the books are out on time.

If this is true then it doesn't bother me that much. I would rather have 19 pages in one issue and 25 in the next if the story flowed better rather than force a 20/22 page format.

But we'll see if that plays out. Could be Marvel spin.

Whenever I worked long hours as a salaried employee of a company I used to work for my boss would always tell me "It'll all come out in the wash", inferring that I would have some short weeks to make up for the long ones.

Funny, those short weeks never came. Reminds me of Alonso's reasoning here.