As our reading habits change, will we buy single issues, trades or both?
19th February 2020
Recently you may have heard that Image Comics is taking a close look at how they release comics. Image has standardised a 4-6 issues/break/trade paperback/break/next 4-6 issues releasing schedule up until this year. As I understand it, this was largely driven by Bryan K. Vaughn's decision to release Saga this way and because this was the biggest-selling indie comic on the market, the strategy made sense to Image. Rightly so. This format meant the writer and artist would be free to take on other work during the downtime or just take a much-needed rest, especially if the sales had been good enough to allow them to take the financial hit of not working for a few weeks. Now Image wants to remove the single comics from the comics market – at least for some titles.
This has been on the cards for a while. Publishers like TKO have had great success in releasing TPBs on a print-to-order basis and are now switching to 6-issue arcs for their second wave. And whilst singles continue to drive the market, the format sometimes makes it difficult to get new customers to jump on. If #2 of a book drops, retailers can't always persuade customers to buy it if #1 has been a sell-out book. Unless there are reprints which, whilst common, aren't always the case. And then there's the price range. The average book is around $3.99 (around £3.60 here in the U.K.), per issue. Five issues per arc mean that a full storyline will set you back $20 (around £18.00). The average trade paperback – and I'm not talking about the inflated cost of Marvel books here – runs about $16.99 (£15.00). So instantly, if the straight-to-trade model keeps that pricing structure, the reader is already making savings. And of course, the TPB will contain a full story for that price.
That itself has its downsides for the reader, though. Let's say you pick up #1 of a hot new series. You like it enough to put it on your pull list and get #2 and onward. But around #4, it takes a quality dip. Suddenly, you're not into this book anymore, but you still have yourself down to get the next 2-4 issues, you can remedy the problem by stopping that book on your pull list. But if you buy a trade, that's it. You've bought it. Sure you can stop reading. But you've made the financial outlay. It's not fair to go back to your LCS and ask them to give you your money back because you don't like it - something that, as a comics retailer I can promise you, happens a lot! And since I've been a retailer and a customer, I can see both sides of the argument. But it's kind of on us to do the due diligence here. Look at the team on the book. Do we know their work? Do we like it? Does it look interesting enough for us to experiment with? Is the publisher someone who usually puts out interesting and entertaining work? And most importantly of all, does it look good?
Of course, there are ways in which publishers can help us here. Publishing half the opening 22 pages of an OGN (out of a 132-page book) for free would probably be enough to give you a taste of the story, helping you make that decision to buy. Making that preview available free in print and digital, especially if the print version is black and white and therefore cheaper to make, would go a long way since from a retail perspective, a customer is more likely to buy something if you put it in their hands. And yeah, this is a financial outlay for the publisher, but it helps them too. If they were to add pre-order links to the digital version and encouragement to pre-order through your LCS for the print copy, I can see a lot more people willing to experiment on a full OGN. And don't forget, this helps your LCS by giving them a near guarantee of custom for that book. And I have to say something that may get me lynched by publishers here, but it's got to be said. There are too many single issues being put out every month by the big two. Especially Marvel. It's choking the industry a little. And ultimately, we're all going to suffer for it if we go through another '90s-style crash.
But the question is, do we want more OGNs or serialised Graphic Novels? Or do we love our floppies so much that we're not willing to try this approach? When I started in comics retail a few years back, I saw the breadth of what was available in trade and promptly set about getting rid of most of my collection and half-completed series as quickly as possible. It just didn't make sense to me anymore. All these singles, all that space is taken up. I switched to trades and didn't look back. But something happened along the way, probably about a year and a half ago, that made me sentimental about the single life. Trade-waiting means you're not going to be part of the conversation on Wednesday about what you're picking up and why you like it. And honestly, seeing the excitement on customers’ faces when Wednesday rolled around was infectious. So I started buying singles again, reading straight away. Traded in what I didn't want to keep reading or wanted to get in book form and kept what I wanted in singles. It was great!
But of course, life always gets you and I soon fell behind. I currently have around three and a half short boxes of unread comics here at home and finding the time to put a dent in it is, well, let's just say that running a comics website solo doesn't mean you're necessarily going to have time to read all those comics. Who knew? Also, just buying trades or OGNs will strip you of one of the great meditative joys of comic reading and collecting. Because trades do not need bagging and boarding my friend. Many a pleasurable hour has been spent by this writer, putting my treasured comics in pristine bags and new boards whilst a sci-fi or comic-book movie plays in the background. It was great to do this every few months, reminding yourself of just what you owned and of course, guilt-tripping over the ones you hadn't read yet. You can't do that with OGNs, really. That's not to say there aren't problems with singles too. The space for one thing. I personally have around 25 short boxes of comics under the bed. That number isn't going down any time soon. And as we become less about possessions and start Marie Kondo-ing the crap out of our lives, the space argument won't really hold water with loved ones and spouses. Eventually, you may get rid of your comics because your wife or husband tells you to!
But trades take up space on the shelf, too. So the switch to more TPBs and OGNs may not help you there. But it will give you a certainty that is sometimes lacking in singles: An ending. See, sometimes, that series you love may not be loved enough to keep the sales going at the rate needed to justify its continued existence on the market. And since most singles are solicited before the first arc is completed, the ending may never see the light of day. Since it's unlikely that OGNs will be solicited without having most of the book in place and in fact, wouldn't make it to print if the interest isn't there, that's something that wouldn't occur with this model.
Personally, I'll happily buy both. I like singles, I like OGNs. Some things are made for trades and read far better in one long burst than month to month. It's largely going to depend on the story approach by the creators. There are some things I've only ever known in one form or another. Most of my Batman collection, for example, is made up of single issues (the bulk of those 25 boxes) and I just wouldn't know what to do if I had to switch to trades if I'm being honest. On the flip side to that, I've really only ever read V for Vendetta in collected form. I got my hands on a complete set of the singles once and truth be told, it killed the experience for me. I couldn't get through it! Also, if a book is only ever going to come out as an OGN, you don't really have a choice but to read it that way. And indie publishers excel at bringing out fascinating, challenging, and diverse stories in OGN form. It may also provide the best way forward for the larger publishers, too. They could be more experimental with their tent-pole characters whilst breaking new ground with others. I think the more I reflect on this, the more I realise I just want good stories in any form. With a spine, without... doesn't matter. What's going to matter is that we can disappear into a world we didn't make for a while and see things that don't exist. At least 'till my missus tells me it's time the comics have to go!