In which I say I’m not going to respond to the comments, but I do so anyway. (Also, I usually compose these titles after I write my posts, in case you were wondering.)
The temptation to follow up to the comments on my Robot 6 interview is strong, but I think I’ll try to resist…mostly. A few folks there noted an actual, physical aversion to the very texture of DC’s 3D covers, which is a reaction I hadn’t heard at the shop. I did have a few people reject the 3D covers because they didn’t care for them visually, and others who expressed an aversion at paying $3.99 a pop, but people just plain not liking how they feel is a phenomenon I didn’t expect. Personally, I liked rubbing them together and listening to the zzzzzzip zzzzzzip sound, but perhaps I’ve said too much.
Interesting also is the gap between one commenter’s statement that “the idea any of these titles are going to be worth money in the future is laughable” and another’s statement that “these are going to be worth money.” The truth is somewhere between, as it often is, unless the eventual answer turns out to be “these will be worth exactly one visit to the King of the Moon!” which is waaaay outside the range established by the initial responses, admittedly. Right now, yeah, some of them are commanding Big EBay Bucks, but they’ll settle down to Slightly More Reasonable EBay Bucks in a few months, and I suspect future price guides, assuming a future industry to support publication of future price guides, will reflect slightly higher prices for these 3D issues over the issues that surround them. If the vast majority of them are going for any more than about $5 to $10 a year from now, I will be shocked, and thankfully the comments on this post will be closed by then in case I’m wrong. Anyway, in a year someone remind me to go look at the aftermarket pricing on these books and maybe I’ll write up a follow-up post, unless by then I’ve ejector-seated myself out of this crazy business and finally started doing something sensible, like deep-sea fishing.
The negative response to the comics themselves, not just in those comments but elsewhere on the Internet, are a bit of a surprise, too. Well, not much of a surprise since it’s currently DC’s turn to get kicked around by the online comic-gnoscenti, but in general my customers seemed to enjoy reading the comics, when they weren’t being frustrated by availability issues. Most of the ones I read I enjoyed, but, as I noted in an earlier post, I was generally just picking up the Villains Month issues for comics I was already reading (or featuring concepts I enjoyed, but shoved under the Justice League banner for the month), so I was predisposed to like the Villains Months issues I was buying. I liked most of the one-shots that tied into the main Batman book, for instance, but I passed on the Bane one-shot because, well, aside from the animated versions, and the amazing live-action version from the third Nolan Bat-film, I don’t much care for the character. I enjoyed the Doomsday issue of Superman/Batman, with its crazy-pants Krypton story and implications for how the Death of Superman now fits into New 52 continuity. We also got a new Mongul story in one of those Green Lantern one-shots, written by Mongul’s creator, Jim Starlin! That was pretty fantastic. And I enjoyed Swamp Thing‘s Arcane one-shot, as I’d discussed previously, and my issues with that particular comic were more related to the general Swampy-reboot as a whole than any specific Villains Month hoohar, but then, I’m Swamp Thing-obsessed so that should be expected. …And I’m sure some of you folks out there liked reading some of these villains comics as well.
In a more general sense (and I’ll stop using the word “general,” I promise) I don’t object to the idea of DC doing a big special event like this. If it gets people in stores and looking for comics, well, beggars can’t really be choosers, especially as the marketplace continues its ever-ongoing and seemingly-eternal upward scrabble out of the pit of the ’90s crash. I wish the event had been handled differently — let me insert right here the “NO DUH” you’re thinking right now. I wish it didn’t effectively make a bunch of titles weekly books for the month…I mean, if you were already getting all the Green Lantern books, you were basically buying a weekly GL comic anyway, but if you were only getting the main Green Lantern title, you may have felt compelled to get all four Villains Month issues, quadrupling your GL input, and that hardly seems fair. (Much in the same way Superior Spider-Man fans got about twenty issues of their title in nine months, Lucy-and-Ethyl-working-the-chocolate-conveyor-belt style). At the same time, just doing a Villains Month special for each of their regular titles would not have generated the same sales levels, probably; an All-Star Western 3D Villains Month special issue wouldn’t have generated the numbers of a fourth Superman special, hence that marketing decision.
In conclusion, I wish things were different and better and that everyone would be happy, and also I want more Swamp Thing titles, so long as I’m wishing for stuff. I also hope the next Big Event is not quite as headache-inducing, as long as I’m really wishing. And hopefully, that’s enough discussion of 3D covers on this site (until the aforementioned year-later post I may or may not do).
Next up: DIE-CUT COVERS – why these are a huge pain in the ass.
Ehtyl. Heh.
Er, Ethyl.
I did spell “heh” right.
Mike, you know of my cerebral palsy, and I’ve likely mentioned before that I cannot see 3D. I agree with those that say that the cover stock DC used was odd. I think perhaps because it ran over the entire cover, not like, say, the Alex Ross cover for Superman many years ago. Take a stack of regular comics and slip a 3D one in between. I think that’s what people might be saying.
If Robert Overstreet had gone ahead with his Indian arrowhead price guide in the 60s, would the comics speculation boom in the 90s still have happened?
Take a stack of regular comics and slip a 3D one in between. I think that’s what people might be saying.
Well, I meant that touching that lenticular plastic makes my skin crawl. And that ‘zzzip zzip’ sound they make rubbing together is teeth-grittingly unpleasant.
I would totally buy one if I could swap it for a visit to the King of the Moon.
Twenty years later, are those Continuity Comics indestructible covers still indestructible?
” I did have a few people reject the 3D covers because they didn’t care for them visually”
ME! ME!! ME!!!
“Personally, I liked rubbing them together and listening to the zzzzzzip zzzzzzip sound”
it’s a fetish for SOMEONE…
” since it’s currently DC’s turn to get kicked around by the online comic-gnoscenti”
it’s DCs OWN FAULT. “Watchmen 2”, the NEW 52, and 3-D covers- it just REEKS of desperation. DC Comics: they work hard to stay Number Two!
“I don’t object to the idea of DC doing a big special event like this”
I object to anything too gimmicky or crappy. AND THIS WAS BOTH.
“DIE-CUT COVERS – why these are a huge pain in the ass.”
but not as much as that STUPID Eclipso #1!
“If Robert Overstreet had gone ahead with his Indian arrowhead price guide in the 60s”
WHAT!!!
I need to know more on this!!!
“are those Continuity Comics indestructible covers still indestructible”
oh, they were NEVER indestructible. I destroyed a few of them myself!
good gawd, were those AWFUL comics. they made early Image look less crappy by comparison.
“these will be worth exactly one visit to the King of the Moon!”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHH
What!? Now you want to come visit?
You never call, you never write.
Would it kill you to send one of those twerts you’re always sending out?
To visit me just takes a bus token.