Sunday Conversations: For the Love of Comics

Skyhawke · Post by **Skyhawke** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:27 am

Newsarama article by Ian Brill about the panel called Sunday Conversations: For the Love of Comics. I found this paragraph to be interesting.

Another issue facing many comic books readers today discussed at the panel whether to stick with monthly comics or switch to trades. DiDio surveyed the crowd, asking which of the readers buy comic book every Wednesday and which wait for the trades. Most of the crowd seemed to still be buying single issues but many, especially some of the older fans, had switched to trades so they can get the complete story in one sitting.

Post by **JohnMayo** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:53 am

Trades have a lot of advantages. Getting the entire story in one sitting is one of the major ones. The fact that trades are often cheaper than the component issues is another.

The way things are going, sooner or later, trades will become the dominate format.

Skyhawke · Post by **Skyhawke** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:08 am

The thing I found interesting in that paragraph was the older crowd is trending toward trades while the younger ones are buying the single issues.

Now with all the talk about comic industry trying to go electronic with their media you have two different trends pulling at the industry. Now this could still work as you and I have talked int the past about the cost of trades and whether or not the price would go up if a company did just a trade and no single issues.

Instead now the companies can still cover their overhead with adds on their electronic issues and then based on downloads, then trade the issues for the older generations.

Of course this has its own inherent problems for the companies and readership. One the advertiser's can track the response their product a lot better than they can with adds in a comic book page. For the readership, the problem is if there isn't enough downloads of a story arc then where is the motivation for the company to reproduce the work for a printed format for the older generation?