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We recorded last night and tried to get to as many of the questions as we could. The Mayo Report episodes will go up on 12/30/16 (Trades) and 1/1/16 (Comics). That is a little later than usual but I wanted to get the Star Wars episodes up before the new movie.

In your trades episode you guys were talking about variant covers and what would happen to the comics industry if the variant Collectors stopped collecting them. This is just anecdotal but at the comic shop closest to me they used to sell variants at whatever the ratio they came in. For example, a 1:25 variant would sell for $25. The last two years though those prices have gone down by half or more just to move those books. I'm curious if anyone else has seen this trend and if you think this could mean variants aren't as powerful as they used to be?

Variant covers are certainly less poẃerful than they used to be. When Marvel first did the themed variants with the Marvel Zombie cover a number of years ago, the issues with those covers sold 5,000 to 7,000 units more than they would have otherwise. That sort of sales bump aren't happening with the current themed variants. Over use of the gimmick drained kt of the sales power.

The same sort of thing is happening with first issues. Too many first issues is draining the sales power out of them.

Rick and Morty started off as a late night animated comedy in the Adult Swim lineup at Cartoon Network. It wrapped up its second season in 2015. The first season ran for 11 episodes and and the second season ran for 10. The creators are Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, who created NBC's Community. It feels like it has a cult following and is just now beginning to get wider exposure.

I personally love the show. The comedy can get a bit dark at times, but I like my comedy black. I would recommend watching the entire first season to get a good feel for it. The first season fleshes out the universe, main characters, and their relationships. They are able to spend a bit of the second season fleshing out a lot of the other characters as well. I did feel the Back to the Future parallel at the beginning of the show, but they don't travel through time as much as space as well as parallel dimensions and timelines.

It is unique and fresh, and I am not surprised to see the numbers on the comic rising as the characters and show get wider exposure. I have bought the comics since issue one. I am a bit behind on my reading, but it seems to compliment the show well.

Thanks for the information on Rick and Morty.

listening to the latest comics edition, i have to disagree with sam's assertion the smaller publisher's are writing for the trade, in my reading experience it is the complete opposite and the big two are writing 6 issue chapters or volumes in many cases and the satisfying single issue experience is prevalent in most Image, Avatar, Black Mask, 451 Media and Dark Horse titles.

I don't read much from IDW, Dynamite, Valiant, Titan or Zenescope so maybe they are more guilty of writing for the trade

I'd have to listen to the episode again but I don't think Sam was saying that Marvel and DC aren't also writing for the trade. There are very, very few titles which I think a being written with the individual issue meant to stand solidly in and of itself. Most titles seems to be written for the trades and only giving us chapters of a story instead of complete stories which build on each other.

drew102e wrote:listening to the latest comics edition, i have to disagree with sam's assertion the smaller publisher's are writing for the trade, in my reading experience it is the complete opposite and the big two are writing 6 issue chapters or volumes in many cases and the satisfying single issue experience is prevalent in most Image, Avatar, Black Mask, 451 Media and Dark Horse titles.

I don't read much from IDW, Dynamite, Valiant, Titan or Zenescope so maybe they are more guilty of writing for the trade

Maybe I wasn't clear, sorry for the confusion.

Marvel and DC are clearly writing for the trade in most cases and not the single issues. However one could argue most of those titles will continue (in new volumes or with a slight variation of the title) forever and have been running for many years. My point being that they are very long to never ending stories that we are getting episodes of. We use to get an episode an issue now seemingly we are getting an episode a trade. I hate this because it devalues the single issue experience and is essentially turning the serialized story form into a series of novels (trades).

In my experience indy books (with a few exceptions) aren't even meant to be epic stories that need to be serialized. These are single 80-200 page stories with a single beginning middle and end. Many are miniseries and even listed as such from the beginning. That is fine but not really in the true spirt of serialized story telling. I would prefer if creators had a single story idea that will be told in less than 250 pages or so that they simply put out a graphic novel. 1)it is simply better way to read and tell that type of story. 2)It would avoid the sometimes stupid long delays and even more ridiculous putting out of trade instead of ever publishing the final issue or two of the story.

I read almost zero indy books other than a few licensed properties and a couple of long standing titles. This is not because of some hatred of indy books, a decade or more ago I read most indy books being published. Then came the trades, and I learned quickly that most indy books weren't really serialized stories anymore they were graphic novels broken into 4-6 parts for virtually no reason. I was also burned by the here is the trade, we aren't going to publish the final issue of the story you already bought the first 3-6 parts of. One of the things I personally really love about comics is good serialized story telling. Overall it has become a completely lost art, and in the indies most of those stories never needed to be serialized to begin with in my experience.

fudd71 wrote: In my experience indy books (with a few exceptions) aren't even meant to be epic stories that need to be serialized. These are single 80-200 page stories with a single beginning middle and end. Many are miniseries and even listed as such from the beginning. That is fine but not really in the true spirt of serialized story telling. I would prefer if creators had a single story idea that will be told in less than 250 pages or so that they simply put out a graphic novel. 1)it is simply better way to read and tell that type of story. 2)It would avoid the sometimes stupid long delays and even more ridiculous putting out of trade instead of ever publishing the final issue or two of the story.

I read almost zero indy books other than a few licensed properties and a couple of long standing titles. This is not because of some hatred of indy books, a decade or more ago I read most indy books being published. Then came the trades, and I learned quickly that most indy books weren't really serialized stories anymore they were graphic novels broken into 4-6 parts for virtually no reason. I was also burned by the here is the trade, we aren't going to publish the final issue of the story you already bought the first 3-6 parts of. One of the things I personally really love about comics is good serialized story telling. Overall it has become a completely lost art, and in the indies most of those stories never needed to be serialized to begin with in my experience.

ohhhh, okay i didnt hear it that way,

i dont have the same experience with image and dark horse through the back half but if i did i could see the frustration,

My favorites are all longer running (compared to marvel) continuing stories with satisfying single issue experiences: title followed by latest issue #

Walking Dead 148
Saga 32
The Fuse 16
Outcast 13
Wicked Divine 16
Southern B@st@rds 12
Black Science 17
Lazarus 21
Velvet 12
Crossed 91
Nailbiter 18
Chew 52
Letter 44 22
Revival 34
Morning Glories 49
Manifest Destiny 19
Sex Criminals 14
Elephant Men 64

I'm obviously (almost) all in for image with this list - jeezus, am i a fan boy? ahhhhh

drew102e wrote: My favorites are all longer running (compared to marvel) continuing stories with satisfying single issue experiences: title followed by latest issue #

Walking Dead 148
Saga 32
The Fuse 16
Outcast 13
Wicked Divine 16
Southern B@st@rds 12
Black Science 17
Lazarus 21
Velvet 12
Crossed 91
Nailbiter 18
Chew 52
Letter 44 22
Revival 34
Morning Glories 49
Manifest Destiny 19
Sex Criminals 14
Elephant Men 64

I actually read or have tried most of these:

Walking Dead reading
Saga triednot my thing
The Fuse need to check out
Outcast tried not my thing
Wicked Divine need to check out
Southern B@st@rds tried not my thing
Black Science reading
Lazarus tried not my thing
Velvet tried my come back to in trade
Crossed read first 35 or so and it was just too much
Chew read the first few trades good, but not really my thing
Letter 44 reading thanks to you and John's reviews
Revival need to check out
Morning Glories read the first 15 or so then delays got me off it
Manifest Destiny need to check this out, I'm really intrigued just haven't gotten around to it
Sex Criminals reading
Elephant Men read about the first 40, I like this book not sure why I got off

Drew, I see you are reading Elephantmen.

Do you know if all of it has been collected or not? I read the first issue a long time ago and loved it, but I haven't continued with it.

Sam, I know it may be odd for a guy to read it. But, I'm thinking of reading Jem and the Holograms at some point. I keep hearing the book is good. Have you tried it?

Perseus wrote:Drew, I see you are reading Elephantmen.

Do you know if all of it has been collected or not? I read the first issue a long time ago and loved it, but I haven't continued with it.

tons of collected trades here http://www.instocktrades.com/search/elephantmen

i'm a few issues behind - issue 68 comes out tomorrow http://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/AUG150557

fudd71 wrote: Manifest Destiny need to check this out, I'm really intrigued just haven't gotten around to it

love it

fudd71 wrote: Crossed read first 35 or so and it was just too much

oh yeah, some issues are EXTREME

fudd71 wrote: The Fuse need to check out

same characters and setting throughout each story arc is one crime they are solving -really great

Perseus wrote: Sam, I know it may be odd for a guy to read it. But, I'm thinking of reading Jem and the Holograms at some point. I keep hearing the book is good. Have you tried it?

I read Jem #1 & #2 after John and I talked about it on the Mayo report with issue #1.

I'm a sucker for any '80s nostalgia and this book has some of that.

Unfortunately I'm not a huge fan of the art (not bad just I guess a manga inspired style that isn't to my tastes) or the fact that also nothing happened in those first two issues (they are clearly written for the trade and this first arc is going to be a putting the band together/Jem getting confidence to lead the band story that could have been done in an issue if not 8-10 pages) or the very current modern take on girl power message.

I just finished listening to your comics Mayo report episode and just wanted to congratulate you John on ten years of talking about numbers. That's a huge accomplishment.

You were also talking about DC and Marvel and the digital codes that they were and are putting in their issues. I don't think I'm a typical collector in this way but the digital codes in the Marvel comics are the only thing that are keeping me buying physical copies right now. About a year ago I went through all of my long boxes and sold the comics that I didn't care about anymore and decided that I didn't want to struggle with the storage issues that collecting comics causes, so I switched to almost exclusively digital (I still keep the physical copies of my 3 favorite series). Because of discounts on the physical issues it was cheaper to buy the physical Marvel copy and redeem the code and trade the issue in at a used book store I have nearby. So I get the digital copy I want and still get to look through the physical copy. Since DC stopped offering digital code editions when Convergence started I buy the digital copy only (and usually wait until the price drops to $1.99 or lower). DC said they dropped the digital copy because they polled comic shop owners and the feedback they got was that the owners didn't want comics with codes in them. My question is, am I an outlier when it comes to comic collecting or does DC not including a digital code affect their sales in a way that maybe they didn't consider (specifically the ones through Diamond that you guys talk about). It seems like the comic shop owners might have been a little shortsighted in their poll response, at least in my case.