JayT

I think the answer is fairly simple. They printed enough of these when they were made for everyone who wants them to have them and there isn't going to be a surge of new people who want them because comics, at least mainstream superhero comics (which is what we are mostly talking about), have not picked up a new generation of readers since the 90s. There ARE new comics readers (Dog Man's last book shipped 5 MILLION) but they don't care about the 80s in general, never mind the comics of the 80s, and when you combine that with simply living in the modern world, every kid knows how to get any comic for free IF they wanted to read it and they certainly don't want to collect anything. If you have the kind of money and space to collect things there are much more compelling things to do and if you don't have the space and money it's a non-starter. Marvel and DC made the choice (perhaps one they had to make) to age with its audience and that audience is a generally a bunch of 35+ year old dudes. We are all going to die sooner than later and meanwhile Raina Telgemeier is getting rich introducing comics to new readers and the much of the old man stuck in the 80s and before comic collector group doesn't engage with actual comics anymore. Now, in Japan, you constantly have new comics that come in and become the most popular thing of the moment to a new generation even if there is a giant (One Piece) hovering above everything. You can still be the biggest Astro Boy fan and know that it got toppled by Akira, that it got toppled byJoJo, that it got toppled by Dragonball, that it got toppled by Naruto, that it got toppled by Death Note, that it got toppled Attack on Titan, that it got toppled by My Hero Academia all while the others were still succeeding on a large level and One Piece being the most popular comic in the world over the last 2 decades or so and something like Doraemon being a giant world ambassador. Older readers evolve into manga for older people and more new young stuff came to gain new generations. Something will replace One Piece one day. We do't have that here. People still read Batman and Superman.Spider-Man and X-Men is what view as the refresh, pillars of the Marvel age,...that mess was 40 years ago . Also...man I love comics but even I could be compelled by the argument that in a world where Into the Spider-verse exists who needs old comics? So when we are talking about new money coming in, that new money can probably only come from a place that has no reason to be interested. People don't collect things in comics now, they read them or flip them and the latter is VERY different than collecting. Now, the idea of procuring a piece of something you love is very much alive. People will often buy a physical collection of say a webcomic they read for free (and these people are making GOOD money). They will buy merch, they will come see these people and stand in lines to get an autographed books, but these are new people making new things and the old things we love is available in a much more modern way in films where Marvel's run at the box office is unprecedented and has almost universal appeal to civilians. There is a big difference in being an active collector to make money (which a lot of people do, and look this is absolutely not judgement just a statement) and collecting because you actually LOVE it. You don't LOVE the latest hot rare variant cover by the artists who doesn't even draw comics anymore and in some cases haven't in decades. Nobody is that good and if they were they'd have a real career in art like a James Jean where they are the brand, they are the connection, and don't have to be associated with a character or brand, THEY are the brand. It's not about "stuff" anymore it's about connection.It's not about a kid in their room who had zero options to do anything during a rainy day reading and rereading the pile of comics they had. You have to connect to people who have not only many but many great options.

I'd suggest it's just one video on the internet that got a little bit of a social media push, and not much of one when you consider how big "asian twitter" can be about things they really care about. It's not a knock on it at but it is just one thing. Regarding preferring softer features (or more pretty or whatever), this is not surprising. I'm not trying to conflate all asians and China but if you just look at who the the big idols are in asia in general they don't look like Brad Pitt. That said, dude with similar features in the U.S. don't have a hard time pulling and this shift will probably continue as things like K-Pop and J-Pop continue to gain popularity with the youth. It seems like Anytime BTS is mentioned for any reason on social media it has 100s of thousands of reactions and I took my goddaughter to a recent Pasadena concert at the Rose Bowl and it was PACKED with kids. I think we see something similar in recent years in the west with like the ascension of a Timothee Chalamet and the like etc.

When people say they the asian market they usually mean the Chinese market because it is so huge and had been untapped/restricted for years (and in some ways still is). While obviously not preferred a movie can tank in Japan and Korea and still do well, these studios want to see that big debut in China. Japan is kind of its own market. End Game, the biggest movie ever, made around $60 million there, meanwhile Weathering With You (an anime) has more than doubled that this year and Aladdin has done the same. I do understand what you are saying (I'm half asian and don't particularly care about Chinese people in cinema in the sense it is some sort of anomaly, I've seen that forever etc) but as it pertains to the united states and asian americans I can see almost any representation going over well. We are in a place where that still has value and currency just because we've seen so little representation. It's why I can watch a show on netflix about korean american teenagers and relate to it because many americans in parts of country tend to view all asian-Americans the same (well, at least east asians), so I recognized all of same things being half-japanese and spending time in the states etc. But sure none of this matters unless the film is good or at least feels like an MCU film and what Ryan Coogler did with Back Panther isn't an easy task. I've never really thought about it but I'd guess Japan is fairly neutral on Bruce Lee and they may appreciate an action film starring a chinese character that isn't grossly anti-japanese (or they may not).

This is 100%. The ascension of the Fast franchise I think illustrates this. Black Panther was definitely a thing when it came out beyond just another Marvel release. I know if they made film based on someone who looked liked me or came from a similar background I'd be extra amped to go see it. I think Spider-Verse hit a chord with a lot of people for similar reasons. I know when taking young kids in my family to Force Awakens and them seeing Rey was a HUGE emotional thing to them (same with Wonder Woman and this is why when I see people with all the negative opinions I sometimes wonder how a movie can truly bother 45 year old men and yet they don't pay attention to the room). When you are historically not represented in things you support/love, when you are it def means things to people

Yes, I can't really litigate what many other people believe but just from being there, collecting comics, and being around many kids who also collected comics, trading them in school, on the bus etc, and seeing the older people (who would be young men who were in the military mostly at the small conventions) the supply of comics was constant and was certainly thriving more than what I see when I go to an LCS or comic section of a book store now (at least in the U.S.). CERTAINLY it was well more stocked because even at a young age I was just a freak about conditioning and I'd spend most of (I usual ended the day in the laundromat where the arcade games were) the couple hours my parents spent on base shopping to pick out the best copies (and reading all the issues I couldn't afford to grab that trip), and I recall many many specific issues where I was going through dozens of copies to pick the best one out. From what I saw I would describe the state of comics supply and interest in europe on bases to be closer to massive than midling, though obviously I was only ever at one place at one time. There's that I think Shooter released document of how popular G.I. Joe was especially in subscriptions during the 80s. While that was a book that was very popular with kids due to unprecedented advertising I'd guess there was a HUGE readership among the armed forces overseas and their kids. I vividly remember when Special Missions debuted and it was the only time I had to ask about a comic (like I said they has a large stock on shelves of everything - even like Spitfire) and they went back and opened more boxes to keep the shelves full. Now, more recently (like the 21st century etc) it def is more small as interest in american comics is more small and is not as competitive in getting shelf/store space.It mirrors stateside in that regard. There's so many diverse and interesting comics in europe (with a significantly higher level of quality) there is no real reason to check our Marvel/DC stuff but like I said previously even the smallest of bases on an island off of an island with a 7-11 sized exchange still had 2 spinner racks of them that I'd sometimes pick up just out of curiosity.

I don't have skin in this game (I have one and I'm not selling it) but I would not underestimate how well a good Shang Chi movie can do. For the same reason I think we will see Jimmy Woo in some form sooner rather than later, Marvel would love to get a couple of chinese led franchises. I think we saw how well Crazy Rich Asians did relative to its genre and reportedly how well To All The Boys I've Loved before did for Netflix and one can see stateside there is a base for asian american films and China is a giant market. I could see tremendous goodwill behind a project like this if we get a trailer that looks good. I'd also expect some sort of Black Panther-like previous appearance before his own film that will get people excited. Wu Assassins is fine but I'm not sure how its existence tells us anything, there's also a lot of comic related shows on TV and it hasn't stopped people going to see the MCU films. I understand that we are in a period of tv renaissance but MCU and Disney seem to have navigated opening films fairly well in this environment. I don't think it has to make a billion dollars (a lot of the Marvel films do not but are still very profitable), I think it could do half of that and still be a boon for Marvel if it does that and is well regarded. There is a lot of opportunity here if it does well, maybe even drawing out some of these chinese and maybe later korean auteur directors to come do a Marvel film which would be pretty badass as they have a visual style that we just don't see here. What is more well known isn't always a shoe-in for China. Star Wars for instance tends to underperform expectations in China. If they make a great martial arts film in the MCU I would not be shocked at all if it did well. I also think with Marvel looking to a lot of space based projects this could be a nice foothold for more street level characters,

Martial arts was def a thing people got interested in for awhile.

This is an older topic but last year I went through my little kid original collection (which would almost all be MJ copies). I've posted on this topic before, I don't know if on this specific thread, but I wanted to piggy back on this, even if only anecdotally. First, a large percentage of people who serve in the military are the target audience of comic books. You're talking about a lot of young men concentrated in one location that have spending income because they don't have to pay for or are are catching a huge break for housing/food. We could break this down more in terms of where these people come from and how comics would be a legit a major form of entertainment to them considering where they grew up but that might be overkill. When I used to go pick up my X-Men, Spidey, and G.I. Joe (which were probably the 3 most popular comics out at the time) comics from the Star and Stripes shop I was picking there were multiple dozens of copies of each issue and this was at a small naval support base. The place was CROWDED everytime I went, as families would all converge on base on the weekends to get groceries, catch a movie etc etc. We aren't talking spinner racks, we are talking shelves that line the wall, and that doesn't include racks that would be situated in other places like the convenience store or the exchange or aforementioned commissary. Nevermind the huge stores/stock that places like Ramstein AFB (if you spend time around the military or bases you know that the stereotype/reality is that Air Force bases are pretty plush) would have with active duty, civilian employees, families and retirees - you're talking about over 100k americans, mostly young men, concentrated in a small area, many of whom had few options for entertainment from home etc. There was enough interest to have a monthly small comic convention where I lived just based on american comics. The big bases operate like small cities and in this case populated by comic's target demographic. Also, while MJ's ended comics are certainly still at american bases overseas to this day. Until the base folded a few years ago I could walk to and buy american comics in a small town in Sardinia off the rack. I'm not debating the over or less than 5% number but I would hesitate if there was a suggestion these books were not abundant overseas. If I could describe the size of the holiday season Toy World they would make with an entire aisle that was some 40 yards long and had two sides full of G.I. Joe toys you could probably guess how popular G.I. Joe comics were at the same location. Now, whether they survived or not I touched on that topic in previous posts, but comics were widely available overseas and I never had a problem finding them all the time in the doubledigit bases I've been to regularly in my life.

I don't have any particular stakes in how WB does but they won't have to wait that long, the next Conjuring Universe movie is coming out this month and those have been dirt cheap cash cows. Pokemon did well enough if you are Pokemon and neither a win or loss if your the studio though you would have liked to see another 100 million out of it (I do think it will be STRONG in the DVD/stream market). If I were WB I'd rather have the distribution rights then not, it's the most profitable franchise in the world and I'd rather takes some more cracks at it than let it fall somewhere else who may crack the code, especially when they have very little in their lost Harry Potter demo.

I wouldn't call myself a fan of the character and from that perspective it feels likes this series is the statement needed for a character that's been around 80 years and moreover the only one I probably need until a couple more decades pass and somebody has another worthwhile take. Grant and Frank are fantastic and I just tend to appreciate the hell out of instance when all time unique creators are able to put their stamp on a classic. Characters like that merit having some space on a modern top shelf and it isn't altogether promised.

A few to come to mind are Daytripper, I Kill Giants, All Star Superman and Black Hole. One piece has cover stories that become their own stories and of those I REALLY dig Enel's Great Space Operations, I think my favorite is probably Solanin though.

I came to mention the Jaime Hernandez contribution in Love and Rockets #4 - 100 Room but immediately was reminded of a handful of other stories by him that are more recent that are just as good. A true master. Others that come to mind are Animal Man #15, Sandman 18 (which is up there with a handful of others in the run), Hitman #34 is one of the great Superman comics imho. Some really great single issue stories in Top 10 as well.

Rick & Morty #1

This has been happening a lot over the last few years on large sites (like Vanity Fair, Popular Science, Recode,Reuters, NPR, The Guardian etc) and there' a couple of elements at play. One, discussion has moved to social media - they would like you to have it out on facebook, twitter, or a place like Reddit etc where in a lot of cases you are more identifiable and causes easier moderation on their end if applicable. The other side is that these are ad based companies, and people coming back to comment in discussion directly help their bottom line but people are despicable that they just got tired of having to moderate content on their property. It's babysitting adults and it's annoying. The comic book angle is definitely a relevant one and probably at least in some way crisscrosses with politics and religion which tend to get people to go crazy and say really dumb mess to other people. It goes into abuse because more than a few of them studied the extensive data they have about their own sites and found that a lot of idiocracy was being directed at certain types of employees, and that definitely was a factor - as Idk. getting death threats from masses of people everytime you write something doesn't seem like something that anyone is compensated enough for in this field. And if you just have twitter you see insane and sad a lot of comic book fans are, especially to women. If you don't know and you just want to see how consistently mess people are, go read a popular channel's Youtube comments.

Honestly I think you are entering the prime stuff now, rare show that progressively gets better, especially when it comes to a cartoon.

I game I really enjoyed that I don't hear often brought up is Rygar.

You should be good with 858 boards + 900 bags to be safe. But you should double check because if the comic is smaller than 8 1/2 X 11 you could get a little better of a fit combo with the 875 bags but generally you want a 1/4" between bag and board combo. In this case it is going to be less than that if you got with the 875 bag. But a little more than that with the 900 bag. okay, slightly confused. Ashcans (the ones I'm talking about, think like colored Maxx ashcans etc, not like the large 90s era DC Preview books) are smaller than standard comics and 858s are what I use for magazines. I use the standard size combo for ashcans - with a fullback, they don't move around: Standard: 700(HB/FB) board; 725M2 bag That's what I use now idk why but I've just been envisioning small bags/boards with mini short boxes for my ashcans . Oh well.

You should be good with 858 boards + 900 bags to be safe. But you should double check because if the comic is smaller than 8 1/2 X 11 you could get a little better of a fit combo with the 875 bags but generally you want a 1/4" between bag and board combo. In this case it is going to be less than that if you got with the 875 bag. But a little more than that with the 900 bag. okay, slightly confused. Ashcans (the ones I'm talking about, think like colored Maxx ashcans etc, not like the large 90s era DC Preview books) are smaller than standard comics and 858s are what I use for magazines.

First, this from the very beginning is one of the most useful threads on this board, so thanks. I point it to anyone anytime someone asks me about mylars. I do have a question though and if it was answered before I must have missed it. Does anyone have a non-custom recommendation for mylar/boards sizes for ashcans?

I have hope but this is a director who knows how to make things look good and not much else. He's good at being able to present appealing images. It isn't to say this couldn't be where we see an evolution of him as a director but I'd feel much more confident if it were in the hands of someone like Villeneuve or Garland, both of whom early in the careers have shown they have a grasp on things like story. Still, I will see it.

It's showrunner is a guy steeped in Star Wars lore and he delivered the goods on this show when I really wasn't expecting much after the debut animation movie. The points above I agree with and there definitely is great minutia and lore in the cartoon but in a broader sense it makes Anakin the character he needed to be for the prequel films to work imho. You understand that he's not just some annoying spoiled powerful kid, he's a full blown war hero (as is Ben Kenobi) by the time Revenge of the Sith rolls around - these are the DUDES.. Because of this his fall means even more and makes more sense. In many ways it reminds me of how the novelization of the Revenge of the Sith by Stover (and it's lead up Labyrinth of Evil by Luceno) were the stories told in a way that were truly epic. The novelization of RotS delivered so well there the movie was, and I know people try to defend it as the best of the prequels, was still pretty helluva lame just because the acting and dialogue were so awful.

So I guess the idea is to find great artists that's aren't TOO unique in style (Sam Kieth or people with "cartoony" style, or Mckeans, or painters like James Jean or Ross etc etc) that they'd create a group that just don't vibe with but are still clearly not run of of the mill "just guy". So no Moebius, who no artist has a negative word to say about, because even tho he is a legend his style won't vibe with a lot of people who have more standard tastes. For this reason I do like the Zeck mention and I'd throw in Michael Golden maybe. Perhaps Joe Kubert? I'd like to throw in Mark Schultz too. Mazzucchelli?

It's an opinion shared by others. I enjoyed Rogue One more then Force Awakens, which I have not rewatched after seeing it in the theatres. It was a decent popcorn movie, but not worth the wait and hype we all had to endure. Which is a shame, because Star Wars Clone Wars/Rebels has taken a more interesting tack on fleshing out parts of the SW universe that were largely unexplored, or touched upon only in novels. It just seems to me the sooner they are done with the Skywalker saga, the better we as Star Wars fans will actually be served. Agreed... BTW... I JUST started watching the animated Clone Wars and I must say I am quite impressed. I am up to Season 1 Episode 17. It gets better if you already like it.