I had to come around, because at least 60-70% of the PRs I get these days are about second-, third-, and fourth- printings, ad nauseam. And I'll freely admit, a lot of the later printing covers kick some serious ass. But, like some of creators have noted, this really is a fad and a pretty blatant and sleazy one.
With newspapers and magazines drying-up one after the next, I guess I can't blame them; the guys in the business itself have predicted the demise of comic books literally since they were invented! But with the Web here - and here in a big way, definitely to stay - it changes everything. Marvel knows this and has made the right moves, with their pay-to-read online comics, and DC is still working on their online game, so both of the Big Two are headed in the right directions, though Marvel clearly has a wide lead. But under-printing comics just so you can inflate the industry and numbers with countless reprints is as bad as all those tinfoil covers and crap back in the 90s.
That is one thing I have always hated about the comics industry, and is especially apt with their moving into Hollywood - an industry content to recycle instead of reinvent - and that is that once it finds a gimmick that works, it wears it out like a cat with a toy.
In the 80s, it was all about ninjas and Japanese culture; in the early 90s (and the 80s' obsession with ninjas and violence led directly to this), it was all about "dark" characters and "gritty" stories; then alternate covers, tinfoil holograms, and collector cards, etc.; now it's all about the reprints. This is a cheap, and basically unethical, ploy to get your money and the comics industry is guilty of this all the way around - and has been for at least 20 years now.
I wouldn't hold on to tightly to that treasured Dark Reign crossover that's worth $12310927490 right now; sell that sucker high, because they are going to reprint it so much that by the time you decide to part with it, it's literally going to be worth $10.
I told you that comics' popularity is cyclical and we're entering the downturn of this latest popularity surge. I truly believe sequential art will always be around in one form or another - it's the oldest art known to Man! - but I can't sit here and tell you that my beloved comic books will still be here in their current form 20 years from now. Heck, I don't even care for the newer, slicker comic books, by and large! Give me the old newsprint and toner issues! You could then drop the price to something reasonable, though I'd be willing to bet most of the current staff has no idea how to make them that way.
Regardless, comics' waning popularity, added to the Web's increasing prominence, and the economy means $2-3.99 comic books are going to be the very first thing one cuts back on to save money. And instead of realizing this and forming a new strategy, these morons are taking the exact same stance they always have: "Let's milk it for all it's worth! We'll stop making them when they stop buying them."
It's never worked before guys, and I really don't think it's going to work this time, either.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
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