CLiNT RIP

[Montynero]

How can a new comic succeed with WHS n the like taking at least 50% of the cover price?

Dude, all comic shops take at least 50% of the comic price It's 60% in the US.

Sorry to see Clint go. I like buying my comics in the newsagent. Doesn't effect my work plans personally (thanks for the concern) as they were simply serialising Death Sentence before it's release (a little like Snapshot in the Meg): http://forbiddenplanet.com/?q=death+sentence

This stuff is obviously harder than it looks. Warrior. Strip. Toxic. Daredevils, Overkill, Revolver, Crisis. That's the cream of comics talent, some very intelligent guys. And they all had, or have, some fantastic strips. Proves what a great job Tharg does.

[Bat King]

Really... I thought the likes of Forbidden Planet, Travelling Man, etc took a bit less.  OK guess I've been mean to WHS (though their placement of comics still sucks)

[Montynero]

Dude, all comic shops take at least 50% of the comic price It's 60% in the US.

Sorry, BatKing, I'm talking through my hole. The distributor takes 50%, etc.

(I knew someone was taking 50% of something.)

[Jim_Campbell]

I think that's pretty much standard if you want to get distributed in ANY newsagents. I may be corrected, but I think the like of Tesco can then demand more to be displaid prominently.

Oh, yeah -- 45-60% of your cover price is the basic cost of doing business. That's what determines your cover price to start with. When I wrote my (oft-mentioned) business plan for a high street comic about ten years ago, I was advised by a well-respected distributor to allow a rock-solid minimum of £25K p/a just to ensure that Smiths, Tescos, Asda, et al, didn't display you in a disused toilet behind a door with a sign that said "beware of the leopard." You want a GOOD spot, or your own stand, or anything that might get your marketing dept excited, then you'd better be prepared to dig deep!

Cheers

Jim

[Mabs]

My girlfriend went to the Doctor with CLINT RIP. He told her to find a less generously endowed lover.*







*Not all the elements in this story are strictly true.

How charming.

I felt like a real twat about 5 minutes after posting that. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and punch myself.

Anyway, I think it's a shame that Clint has folded. I bought a few issues and enjoyed them but I think it was a bit style over content at times - and Mark Millars style can be pretty devisive.



Again, apologies for that shitty joke.

It's a shitty joke alright, James, but don't go beating yourself about it or else you'll break something and really regret it! 

[Bat King]

OK... Well I'd rather a proper comic shop got my 50+% instead of WHS...

But Tharg gets more of mine through subscription.

I impulse buy on most comics I get so the three shops in Leeds get lots of random sales to me.

[Montynero]

I had a lot of time for Smiths till they put those bloody automated tills in and got rid of staff. So I told my local newsagent to order tooth and I buy it there instead. I'm ain't talking to no machine, man.

I'm not sure why I don't subscribe. I think I find it too easy, too predictable. After long hours at the keyboard I like the excitement of going to the shops. Racks of magazines are cool. I like looking at the all the covers, evaluating them all, checking they're worthy of purchase - searching for patterns like a cut price Ozymandias in a world without TV. I am, I can't deny, a sad lonely bastard with a semi for print media.

[maryanddavid]

Newsagents for me too, the local Easons, (equivalent of WHS) to be fair stocks lots of comics, but I still like to see comics on the stands of the smaller shops.

[Montynero]

Also, you don't get a can of Dr Pepper and a packet of Cadbury's Revels when you subscribe. That's the nub of it!

In the future all newsagents will be sophisticated boudoirs of print seduction, where you get a back rub and a comfy chair to browse the weeks offerings, before your chair glides to a check out counter staffed by helpful fellow enthusiasts proffering tea. 2000ad will sell at least 100,000 a week, and a number of intriguing anthologies of sequential sophistication will hover enticingly around the 20,000 mark as the masses eschew Heat magazine and Nuts for more thought provoking literature.

Or they'll be empty husks - rotting monuments to The Golden Age of Print. Time will tell.

[M.I.K.]

Haven't bought CLiNT since that early issue with the booby-trapped-incest-rape-baby-womb in one story and the quadriplegic Superman analogue in another. Put me off a bit.

However, I did buy the latest 2000ad from RS McColl's earlier today, and also, from WH Smiths, impulse-bought a copy of the Dennis The Menace and Gnasher Megazine, which has a free gun that lights up and shoots out *space-spinners.

*Not actually called 'space-spinners', but the comic is called a 'Megazine'.

[Bat King]

I like the comic shops... They have lots of comics...

My problem is I am bad at choosing & can't afford lots... so I end up with fewer purchases than I'd like.

Attempting to target mini series at the moment rather than ongoing...

But if a new anthology did pop up with the right mix I would consider it. Like I considered CLiNT & Strip but didn't settle on either. But I'd probably subscribe if I stuck with it a year...

[low down dirty drokker]

yup,totally agree with all thoughts and comments presented here. so sorry to see clint bite the big one!! only been buying it for death sentance lately anyway. comic buying through specialist sites these days,as my local stores dont have a great selection of titles. buy on the strenght of covers and word of mouth.

[JamesC]

I think there's something to be said for 'done in one' comics.
When I was younger I couldn't afford to buy a comic every week (well not if I wanted to get my hands on an Action Force figure every fortnight) but I would always buy a comic if I was going on a car or train journey or to visit a relative that didn't like noisy children! As such it would usually be a Commando book or a summer special (I have very fond memories of a Marvel UK Spider Man Holiday Special).
I wonder if there's room for a comic that prints a full story each issue. The thing is this doesn't require any commitment on the part of the customer and makes things like scheduling less important. I suppose I'm thinking of something along the lines of the Extreme Edition but with new material.

[Jim_Campbell]

Given that CLiNT was --what?-- 75% reprint, it's its failure to hit a monthly schedule was baffling.

I'd like to apologise for that errant apostrophe, which was the result of autocorrect on the part of my phone and a lack of attention on mine.

Cheers

Jim

[Montynero]

Dude, no-one cares! I  mostly read and write these on the web browser of an I-phone. I can't even SEE the apostrophe.