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25 Years of Rebellion

Started by sheridan, 04 December, 2017, 12:47:32 PM

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IndigoPrime

My understanding on talking to some people in digital comics a few years ago is that even then there were massive changes happening. Younglings have a diminishing interest in paper, and even permanence. One guy running a prominent comics app said his daughter – to his delight – loved comics, but she had no interest whatsoever in collecting them, and didn't even care about a digital catalogue. His point was with such an abundance of material available, why bother even keeping files around? The future, he assumed, wouldn't be wildly different from Netflix or Spotify, depending on the model various companies fancied pursuing.

But in 25 years, I can't see there being much of a market for paper comics. Paper books might still survive – they're still popular now, even among kids. But comics seem like something that's going to be entirely within the digital realm sooner or later.

Link Prime

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 December, 2017, 11:24:02 AM
Younglings have a diminishing interest in paper

And in paying for things I fear.

Regarding digital sales- never understood the secrecy about it.
Do any comic publishers release their digital sales figures?


Link Prime

Quote from: Richard on 05 December, 2017, 09:17:15 AM
My only gripe is that if Rebellion is still publishing 2000AD when I die, then my complete collection of progs will become incomplete almost immediately.

You will be outlived by;

2000AD
Star Wars movies
Proudhuff

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Link Prime on 05 December, 2017, 12:14:07 PMAnd in paying for things I fear.
To some extent, and in certain ways. But it's interesting talking to my brother in law about this. He lives in Iceland, and there, media is astonishingly expensive and relatively hard to come by. (DVDs would be priced at £30+ each, and CDs at around 20. Discounting happened, but not often, and nowhere to the level seen in the UK or USA.) Unsurprisingly, much of his generation acquired content by dodgy means. Today, everyone's armed with a Spotify and Netflix account. They're well aware they're not giving artists a great deal of cash through those, but it's something. And I see the same here. The question is how you monetise above that – gigs or direct sales (Bandcamp, say) for musicians; nice trades/hardbacks for comics; rentals for films; and who-knows-what? for newspapers and magazines.

The Adventurer

Quote from: Link Prime on 05 December, 2017, 12:14:07 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 December, 2017, 11:24:02 AM
Younglings have a diminishing interest in paper

And in paying for things I fear.


If comics were 4 American dollars a pop in the 90s I wouldn't have had much interest in paying for them either.

THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

TordelBack

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 December, 2017, 08:39:28 AM
Not so much a shambles as a result of that line just not selling well enough to justify a complete run. A synopsis wouldn't have gone amiss, mind.

Ir was a fairly complete reprint of that run of Sin Dex - just mistakenly omitted Downlode Tales 'cos it was a 'different'  series. That'll teach Abnett to try the clever stuff.

Tjm86

Quote from: The Adventurer on 05 December, 2017, 11:09:16 PM
If comics were 4 American dollars a pop in the 90s I wouldn't have had much interest in paying for them either.

TBH even today at $4 a pop it's hard to maintain the interest, particularly considering the quality.  Even at it's worst, Tooth always has something to justify the cover price and comparatively speaking there has been very little movement in price in recent years.  Arguably it's far better value for money.

Rebellion's growing move into the nostalgia market is also a great thing.  Granted, as has been said, there have been a few missteps but overall things have gone well.  I do wish they'd expand the niche bookplate range but then again I can understand their caution.  DC complete overdid the Absolute range and it lost it's kudos.  Sparingly moving makes sense, especially considering the size of the market.

jacob g

Quote from: Link Prime on 05 December, 2017, 12:14:07 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 December, 2017, 11:24:02 AM
Younglings have a diminishing interest in paper

And in paying for things I fear.

It's not that morbid. Even if "kids" (ech) pirate books they usualy go for other licensed merchindise. They still consider themselves as fans and as fans they are clients for mugs, shirts, pins and whatever useless crap we also collect. It's full circle.
margaritas ante porcos

IndigoPrime

Quote from: TordelBack on 06 December, 2017, 06:09:37 AMIr was a fairly complete reprint of that run of Sin Dex - just mistakenly omitted Downlode Tales 'cos it was a 'different'  series. That'll teach Abnett to try the clever stuff.
You make the assumption that it was a cock-up. Given that Sin/Dex sales were seemingly never stellar, to the point the series ended up mostly getting reprinted in Meg floppies, I suspect it was more down to "this book might actually be viable".

Richard

Even if they did it on purpose, it was still an error. To leave out such a big chunk of story so that what is left doesn't make any sense was a mad thing to do.

GrudgeJohnDeed

Amazing article!! Their story makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Really enjoyed hearing all the details about how 2000ad relates to their games output too, well done that interviewer. I look forward to more 2000ad games!

QuoteJK: Didn't they have it from Activision from Fox, or something like that? 'Cause they'd done the Lynx sideways-scrolling beat 'em-up... [It's unclear what is being referenced here, but it's likely to be Capcom's coin-op game Alien Vs. Predator – GC]

I think they must be talking about the 1993 belt-scroller AVP game on SNES developed by Jorudan and published by Activision. Maybe it was getting a Lynx port at some point? Despite being the same genre, franchise and contemporaneous it's formally unrelated to the much superior 1994 Capcom arcade hit, which was entirely developed and published by Capcom afaik and came out only a few months earlier than Rebellion's game.