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Rebellion to publish Scream/Misty Halloween Special in 2017

Started by Professor Bear, 20 July, 2017, 12:08:16 PM

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JLC

Quote from: Woolly on 02 August, 2017, 05:51:41 PM
I'd be all over an Oink! special like a rash!
Especially if they could get the original creators back (Charlie Brooker, anyone?) and possibly even aim it at adults this time. I always look back on it as 'Viz for kids' anyway.
Making Oink! Viz for adults? Err, we already have Viz.

Professor Bear

A new Oink! could be like Viz, only funny.*
Adults have already formulated Opinions on whether or not they'll read a comic, it's kids that have to be persuaded to take up the habit.



* this joke ©Viz publications.

Woolly

Quote from: JLC on 11 August, 2017, 06:40:20 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 02 August, 2017, 05:51:41 PM
I'd be all over an Oink! special like a rash!
Especially if they could get the original creators back (Charlie Brooker, anyone?) and possibly even aim it at adults this time. I always look back on it as 'Viz for kids' anyway.
Making Oink! Viz for adults? Err, we already have Viz.

No. Making Oink! Oink! for adults!*


*Note: I never said it was a good idea...

AlexF

On the topic of how children get/consume/choose comics, I have a few bits of anecdotal evidence.

Based on a chat with one of the editors who works at Titan on their weekly comics for 7-10 (including Batman and the Simpsons):
the target audience, roughly 7-10 year-olds, consistently say they LIKE the puzzle pages as much if not more than the strip stuff. Given that a lot of these comics are reprints of US stuff, it's not even cheaper/quicker to produce them.

Based on a panel at this year's London Book Fair, which featured the editor of Phoenix, and the managing editor of Beano Studios (plus Rebellion's own Ben Smith!), there's a massive uptake of children reading those two comics digitally. A lot are finding Beano comic (apparently they dropped the 'the' a few years ago; it's a thing) via the TV cartoons, the App and even the theme parks. They then get into the comic through the App store version. There are plenty who get it delivered by their newsagent still, but MUCH of this is parents ordering it for their children because that's what they did. But since the App launched last year, numbers of subscribers (digitally and print) have gone up.

Phoenix is also doing better and better each year, and a lot of their sales/subs are digital too. But the honest truth seems to be that the weekly print/digital issues are making a loss, offset slowly by sales of their GN collections. Basically, if it didn't have buy-in from the owner (David Fickling), it wouldn't have got where it is today - but it sounds like it's on course to start making money now that there's enough material in the bank to do the GN collections. I recommend Corpse Talk, personally!

Phoenix is aimed at, and genuinely appeals to, children aged 8-12. It was kind of deliberately conceived as a bridge between Beano and 2000AD, the three of those being just about the only UK originated comics with anything like a mainstream presence. Children who have aged out of wanting all the puzzles, and want to read story comics. And it's working!

It's also worth saying that Phoenix is in Waitrose and not in Smiths (although that might be changing soon?) purely because the Waitrose magazines buyer liked it and wanted it, whereas all other supermarkets + Smiths of old felt it wouldn't sell enough to justify the shelf space. It's not a middle-class conspiracy, honest!

So maybe the best/most realistic hope for a new Scream or Misty would start out as digital only?

<hides behind sofa to duck items being hurled at him>

IndigoPrime

Digital-only could be a thing if accessibility and availability are strong enough. Having spoken to digital comics producers, one thing old gits on this board need to understand is kids are perfectly content with the transience of media. They mostly don't care about any permanence of a collection, in print OR digital. I suspect that's largely to do with the sheer availability of content – if you have access to 30 million tracks, more telly than you could feasibly watch in a lifetime, and more comics than you could ever read, what does it matter if some of those disappear?

There's also something to be said for a loss-leader set-up IF you can subsequently get into profit. I suspect a lot of comics are really in this position – only making decent sums of money when the trades appear. But then that also suggests the Atomic Robo model might be one for the future: digital-only for ongoing, but the option of print for collections, for those who want them. (And, from my experience, kids do still like some books, at least for favourites – it appears to be the one chunk of traditional media that has a hope of surviving into the future.) That all said, it's the creation of material that's really the expensive thing – paper is cheap.

Professor Bear

Quote from: AlexF on 16 August, 2017, 10:44:28 AM
the target audience, roughly 7-10 year-olds, consistently say they LIKE the puzzle pages as much if not more than the strip stuff.

I'm not saying he's lying, and I don't doubt there are kids who like such things, but I honestly can't think of any circumstances in which an editor doing publicity for his magazine is going to say "our cheapest material is the least popular" in front of industry journalists and readers.

QuotePhoenix is also doing better and better each year, and a lot of their sales/subs are digital too.

I've been reading the Phoenix for years, but the cracks are starting to show: they recently jacked their price up, have started reprinting old strips, the number of filler pages has increased in conjunction with a decrease in creator-owned material, and the number of issues going missing in the post are increasing.  They missed two weeks in a row at one point, and when I emailed them about replacements, they tried to say I hadn't paid for the issues (I had), even though their PR department had already sent out a group email (so it wasn't just me) saying that the error was a migration glitch on their part and that replacement issues had been printed and would be sent shortly.   They already knew what was wrong, but were giving me the runaround trying to get me to go over my bank receipts to make sure that a digital transaction had been made, which seemed pointless at best, and at worst duplicitous.

sheridan

Quote from: AlexF on 16 August, 2017, 10:44:28 AM
It's also worth saying that Phoenix is in Waitrose and not in Smiths (although that might be changing soon?) purely because the Waitrose magazines buyer liked it and wanted it, whereas all other supermarkets + Smiths of old felt it wouldn't sell enough to justify the shelf space. It's not a middle-class conspiracy, honest!
I've never considered before that Waitrose has a magazine buyer.  I wonder what else they've signed up?

AlexF

#97
Quote from: Professor Bear on 16 August, 2017, 01:53:03 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 16 August, 2017, 10:44:28 AM
the target audience, roughly 7-10 year-olds, consistently say they LIKE the puzzle pages as much if not more than the strip stuff.

I'm not saying he's lying, and I don't doubt there are kids who like such things, but I honestly can't think of any circumstances in which an editor doing publicity for his magazine is going to say "our cheapest material is the least popular" in front of industry journalists and readers.

Ah, but this wasn't in a public forum, it was a private chat with the editor and I was asking out of interest. Not that you were to know this!

Also, although creating puzzle pages is theoretically easier/faster than producing comic strip, it still requires a writer, an editor, a designer and an artist (potentially one person can do all 4 jobs, but it's rare). So it's not necessarily cheaper! Of course, the quality of the puzzle pages in these magazines varies wildly, and I'm sure some are dashed off by an overworked editor at the last minute. The good ones can be super engaging.

Not to blow my own trumpet*, but this bad boy took 7 people (2 writers + 1 designer + 4 artists) 6 months to put together!...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pocket-Puzzle-Book-Usborne/dp/1409549798/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1503052294&sr=1-1&keywords=pocket+puzzle+book

*Yeah, clearly I'm blowing my own trumpet

Broken quote fixed — IP

Arkwright99

Glenn Fabry's Diamond Exclusive cover for the Scream & Misty Special (source: MultiversityComics.com):
'Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel ... with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.' - Alan Moore

Professor Bear

So the logo of the girls' comic is bigger than the logo from the boys' comic?  The castration of white male culture at the hands of the matriarchal conspiracy continues.

Steve Green


moly


dweezil2

Savalas Seed Bandcamp: https://savalasseed1.bandcamp.com/releases

"He's The Law 45th anniversary music video"
https://youtu.be/qllbagBOIAo

Tjm86

Quote from: Professor Bear on 27 September, 2017, 06:14:36 PM
So the logo of the girls' comic is bigger than the logo from the boys' comic?  The castration of white male culture at the hands of the matriarchal conspiracy continues.

Not sure I'd call it 'castration'.  Have you seen the size of that chopper?

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Regarding The Phoenix, it's been on regular sale in my WH Smith's for at least a year. I've bought it for my youngest a few times, but he really doesn't like it, he says.
He has recently asked me to stop getting him the Beano, which he's been reading since he was about seven, because "it's now full of fads and trendy stuff like fidget spinners" (his words, he's 12) and despite my offering to buy him any comic whatsoever, said he'd prefer a games magazine. His brother (14) has had 2000ad weekly for the past three years or so, and gets upset when I ask him if he still wants me to get it for him, because "duh, obviously". We are currently negotiating my buying him a subscription if he goes to uni in four years.
SBT