The rantings of an angry baker's free time.

Modern day comics, why they're awful

[b]1. Variant Covers[/b] So I recently purchased some Spider-Man comics. Dating from about 1985-1998. The issues were released, sometimes numerous times, and they all had the same cover. This series is called "Peter Parker: Sensational Spider-Man" It ran from '76 to 1998. Now, I didn't get the whole set, just the final 162 issues (our of 262). I went to look at a website online, maybe asking for the first hundred for a Christmas present. I see that they have started a second run of the series, and it will begin in August. I haven't purchased a modern day comic in a couple years. My comics are all vintage. I went to look at this, and I saw literally ten variant covers for the first issue alone. "LIMITED 1 OF 25" "LIMITED 1 OF 50" "LIMITED ONE OF 30" What the actual hell? Just released one cover! Maybe if comic books were still cheap as they were back in the 80's, then yes, release variant covers, but that leads me to my second point...

[b]2. The cost of a single issue[/b] A single comic book nowadays is either $2.99 or $3.99, or god forbid you have a double sized issue, then it can go as high as $8.99. There's no reason for this. My June of 1985 Spiderman comic cost 65 cents at the time. The story is rich, the art wonderful, and it has held the test of time. And you know what, there weren't all that many ads in it, either, which leads me to my next point...

[b]3. Advertisements[/b] Good god, there are advertisements every other page, sometimes even a couple pages in a row. This goes hand and hand with the prices of the issues. In my Daredevil comics, they use advertisements to build suspense. Usually, if the hero has a frightened look on their face, or they say "Oh my god..." to themselves, generally, something bad is going to happen. you turn the page, and you can generally see the surprise before you can read it. In my Daredevil comics, specifically the Frank Miller ones, you'd turn the page on a suspense moment like that, and then the back of that page and the front of the next one are both advertisements. Advertisements like this are smart, and add value to the story. I'd be heavily anticipating what happens next, but they kept me on the edge of my seat for a page turn. This is wonderful. They don't do this anymore.

[b]4. Glossy, magazine paper[/b] The thing I like about vintage comic books was the fact that they were made with real, every day reading paper. The art looks like it was done with a pencil, the coloring with a color pencil, the letters with a pen, like it should be. Now, everything is done on computers. The drawing, the coloring, lettering, inks, all done on a tablet or on a desktop. This leads to glossy, fake, cheap magazine like paper. It just takes the charm away. It fees like a corporate project more than it does an artistic team project. Very rarely does a John Byrne or a Jim Lee come across where they write the story, do the penciling and the coloring. Even nowadays, Jim Lee hardly does any writing, and John Byrne doesn't really do super hero comics that much anymore.


Yes yes.