So after a few days of being really miserable - mostly because I could only sleep in a seated position for short periods of time - I´m feeling better now. Which means that I´m ready to post again. Since I´m typing with only one finger now this post will be rather short with just some quick news. I was at the comic shop last week and got my first FREE COMICBOOK DAY comics but I will cover that in a seperate post.
I also thought of renaming the blog THE SOUND OF ONE HAND BLOGGING but then decided against it. Nevertheless if you want to use it you know where to send the royalty paycheck. On to the comic news :
A Comicbook Orange relaunches
Everyone´s favorite comic review show relaunches on their own. They have a spiffy new webiste that can be found under a comicbook orange where all the old episodes are......and hopefully some new ones. And of course you can also still find them on YouTube.
THEM OR US ! - the end
Yes, the first issue of DIE ODER WIR ! is also going to be the last. Additionally to the legal problems ( as detailed in older posts ) Karl Nagel is facing some health problems which make it impossible to continue publication of DIE ODER WIR ! That´s something I can totally understand because the health is most important.
And while it´s sad to see another fine comic publication - from which the german comic industry could have benefitted - go down the drain because of censorship the good part is that the creative team is going to work on some other projects. Who knows, we might even get to see the finished material for issue two in some other comic.
For those who missed the 0 issue and couldn´t get number 1 you can download them for 99 Cents here :
COMIXENE - the end ?
Speaking about german comic publications I wanted to mention the COMIXENE. For years the magazine has faced the same two problems of it´s own making : constant lateness and minimal shelf life. While proclaiming to strive for a high level of professionalism the people behind it are mostly making the magazine for themselves and not their customers - or their ad clients.
In most cases they wait for special articles and specials for certain comic movies or comic releases. Which would be okay if it didn´t cause the next edition to be delayed again and again. Because if the magazine is late it means the ad clients are not happy because they have a deadline and in some cases will cancel their ads. Which in turn means having to find new ad clients. Which becomes increasingly difficult if you´re known for being always late.
And it´s not much better for the readers. Because waiting for the special articles means a new release date which is in most cases after every other media source has already covered it. It is understandable that a comic publication wants to cover a movie like HELLBOY.
But businesswise it makes no sense to delay a whole issue for one article - especially if it comes out one month after the movie started.
On top of that you never know when the new issue will be out if you are not constantly on the internet. I mean why is there a thread on the comicforum about when the newsest issue of COMIXENE is out ? Isn´t that what websites were invented for ?
Okay, if you have a subscription you will get the newest issue no matter when it comes out. But shouldn´t they try to reach people through other outlets like newsstands ?
Which brings us to the second big problem : the COMIXENE has virtually no shelf life. It is an unwritten rule to predate your publication so it has a longer shelf life. If a magazine has printed the month of May on the cover it means that on the first of June it gets sorted out and sent back to the publisher. Which is the reason that magazines that come out on May have the month of June on the cover.
You may remember this from way back when there were newsstand editions of Marvel comics. I know how excited I was when I started to buy american comics and had the current month on the cover. Back then Marvel comic coming out in May had July on the cover. Anyway, back to the COMIXENE. It´s bad enough when the issue that was announced for the middle of April comes out at the end May.
But putting the month of May on the cover of a comic magazine that comes out on the 27th of May......that´s like shooting a horse before the race has begun. Many people beside me have tried to make this clear to the editorial staff but so far all attempts have failed. For me there were only two possible solutions to the dilemma :
a - do the specials seperately. If you insist on making special movie coverages or other special reports do it in a special issue. That way you can still express yourself artistically ( which seems one of the main reasons why the people involved write their stuff ) while bringing out your magazine in time. As an added bonus you keep your ad clients happy and have more money for another issue.
b - increase publication. If you want to include specials in your magazine that are not ready at the scheduled deadline you have to put it in the next issue. And if you don´t want to wait two or three months till the next issue you should think about changing the publication from from every two months to monthly. That way you can either keep the regular volume with a lot of work and much more articles.
Or you can cut the volume in half, concentrate a bit more on comic related stuff that has no expiration date and maybe lower the price. In any case this would also benefit your ad clients.
Well, it seems that the COMIXENE found another alternative. Because the magazine is constantly late ( and vanishes real fast from newsstands ) but they still want to bring their readers the latest news they are going to offer a newsletter. Which will be mailed to all subscribers who have the special COMIXENE card.
Now it may be just me but I always thought people buy comic magazines because they DON´T want to use the internet to get news about comics. For me that´s like giving up.
Anyway, maybe I´m just miffed because one comic magazine goes down even fighting tooth and claw while another one does it´s best to run itself out of business.
Like always we have run out of time since this post has become longer than planned. Next time we will come to more comic news or my account of my first free comic book day. We will see.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN :
2 comments:
Thanks for writing about A Comicbook Orange! I can't wait to launch season 3, the first episode should be up on June 3rd ;)
We're launching it independently of Pulp Secret, so your support is very much appreciated. Thanks again!
xox
Casey
Well, anonymous, you could try Google. And it´s easier to recommend some useful links if you could tell us what you are looking for.
Besides from that you could always try the link section on this blog.
Post a Comment