Buzzetta Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 What is a Major X... and What is a Batman that Laughs... Anything I should be reading or is the flavor of the week? Being serious.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeksAreMyPeeps Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 19 minutes ago, ComicConnoisseur said: yes and created by Steve Ditko! The best thing about my slabbed OO copy is that I never need to look at that god-awful art again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 1 minute ago, Buzzetta said: What is a Major X... and What is a Batman that Laughs... Anything I should be reading or is the flavor of the week? Being serious.. Major X is a lefield character that is to come if your interested Bwl has been ongoing for almost a year, Idk if that is "fotw" But they are current..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeeksAreMyPeeps Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 3 minutes ago, Buzzetta said: What is a Major X... and What is a Batman that Laughs... Anything I should be reading or is the flavor of the week? Being serious.. I don't read Marvel or DC any more, but my take: Major X is some garbage that Liefeld is doing on a mutant title. Batman Who Laughs is a new Batman villain (from an alternate universe?) that is mashup of Batman and the Joker and could have staying power unless there is a planned end to the character. But then even if there is a planned end, as has been mentioned, corporate doesn't like to let a popular IP die. mysterymachine and ADAMANTIUM 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 36 minutes ago, GeeksAreMyPeeps said: Here's my approach to answering the question. I'd say a "true key" has the following properties: • A book that isn't artificially scarce, so no incentive variants • A book that would have been available for pretty much anyone to order in advance at cover price (or a discount to cover price, with services that offer them) or been able to pick up for cover price in a store that ordered them • Has staying power past the run of whatever creative team made the book/character popular. (This is why I would discount many Image books, even The Walking Dead. I think once Kirkman is done with the book, that book will start to drop in value. It's never going in the dollar bin, but there will be a steady decline. Availability won't be significant, because too many people will be hesitant to part with the book if it's decreasing.) • Demand exceeds supply by a significant margin. With that in mind, I think the best bet (and this will probably come as no surprise, considering my avatar) is Valiant books. They're selling a fraction of the numbers that Marvel and DC are, they're publishing a shared universe, and they have movies on the horizon. The problem with books featuring Marvel and DC characters that will be appearing in movies/on TV, is that there's not a ton of room for growth, unless either company decides to push an obscure character (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy). Everyone who is already collecting comics already knows who the major players from those companies are, and either are or aren't buying the comics. Comic-based movies/television doesn't do a lot to convert viewers into readers. With good movies, Valiant stands to gain readers *amongst people that are already collecting comics* but don't know enough about the characters. Since the 2012 relaunch, there have been a number of new characters introduced, and a number of characters that have been significantly redesigned to essentially be new characters. Many of these books have reported Comichron numbers below 10K, some around 5K. If good movies spurs enough interest in Valiant to raise their readership to even 2% of the market, then that's basically doubling their readership. Back issues are tough to find in many cases (even the non-variants). Add in a new fan base, and any key issue will pretty much disappear, if you can even find one out there now. I would say that none of that is relevant and a "true key" is just a key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tv horror Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 34 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said: Major X is a lefield character Did you notice that the advanced cover features Cable Wolverine and Deadpool, if looks like Marvel wants a new ongoing popular character as well. ComicConnoisseur 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Just now, tv horror said: Did you notice that the advanced cover features Cable Wolverine and Deadpool, if looks like Marvel wants a new ongoing popular character as well. Ya there was a thread in modern about it, wolverines teeth if you count them are lopsided....on the cover... I'd say it has legs ..... but it is lefield so no feet haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tv horror Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 11 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said: I'd say it has legs ..... but it is lefield so no feet haha So what you're saying is it doesn't have the legs to stand on it's own merits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercury Man Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 I mean it can happen (Walking Dead #1), but the odds seems to be decreasing with every passing year, & the pile of crud that gets released. Does Mile Morales really warrant any excitement?! He's basically Spider-Man. Sorry, but that is true. Peter Parker has been kicking it since the 1960's. Is Miles going to be a factor in the year 2064? Peter Parker might not even be around, what makes anybody think Miles is going to stick? Skylath and tv horror 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tv horror Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 46 minutes ago, Mercury Man said: what makes anybody think Miles is going to stick? Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 One day first Fatal Five will be key. Some of the most interesting villains ever written. Great movie material for sure. A legion movie, done right, would blow all superhero films out of the water. Hollywood: let me review -script I guarantee a winner. Legion HQ and ComicConnoisseur 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NelsonAI Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 With Disney closing the Fox assets and regaining the movie rights to certain titles, wait until Marvel comes out with the Dazzler movie. They can set the movie in the 1970's when roller disco was at it's peak and show Sam Jackson with a full blown afro getting recruited by SHIELD. Uncanny X-Men # 130 and Dazzler # 1 anyone? Who doesn't love X-Men cross-over as a bonus? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unstoppablejayd Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 29 minutes ago, NelsonAI said: With Disney closing the Fox assets and regaining the movie rights to certain titles, wait until Marvel comes out with the Dazzler movie. They can set the movie in the 1970's when roller disco was at it's peak and show Sam Jackson with a full blown afro getting recruited by SHIELD. Uncanny X-Men # 130 and Dazzler # 1 anyone? Who doesn't love X-Men cross-over as a bonus? Not sure if you are joking or not but I really think Dazzler could be a huge character if done correctly. With the push for female lead characters, attractive actress and music these would be a lot of key ingredients to success. Add on top her powers are unique and can be visually appealing in movie format. I think it just takes time and someone to get behind it. ComicConnoisseur 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 9 hours ago, thespiderman said: I'd think the Walking Dead #1 is a true key comic. It launched in incredibly successful tv show, and had a limited print run. Whoa, slow down there, big fella! 9 posts in 10 years...? You chatty devil you! tv horror 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 For those interested... Neither Action Comics #1 nor Detective Comics #27 were "keys" for decades after they came out. Why? Because there was virtually no one to collect them. It took nearly 20 years for New Mutants #98 to become a "key." Same with Batman Adventures #12. It took 3-4 years for GSXM #1 and X-Men #94 to become "keys." In fact, in all of comics history, there are only a tiny handful of books that became keys very shortly after publication, and have remained keys since, and most of them were published by Marvel between 1961 and 1964. Other than that...it has taken a long time for books to emerge as "keys." There may be books that were published in the 80s that are on no one's radar, but which could contain the first appearances of characters who will be the biggest characters of the 2030s and 2040s. ComicConnoisseur and paul747 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercury Man Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 I am still waiting for Captain Carrot to hit the mainstream. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr bla bla Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 1st app. of Ditko's "Mr. A." is a serious sleeper. Could pop anyday imho ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drotto Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 5 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said: For those interested... Neither Action Comics #1 nor Detective Comics #27 were "keys" for decades after they came out. Why? Because there was virtually no one to collect them. It took nearly 20 years for New Mutants #98 to become a "key." Same with Batman Adventures #12. It took 3-4 years for GSXM #1 and X-Men #94 to become "keys." In fact, in all of comics history, there are only a tiny handful of books that became keys very shortly after publication, and have remained keys since, and most of them were published by Marvel between 1961 and 1964. Other than that...it has taken a long time for books to emerge as "keys." There may be books that were published in the 80s that are on no one's radar, but which could contain the first appearances of characters who will be the biggest characters of the 2030s and 2040s. All true, but they also became keys when top levels books were selling sever hundred thousand copies. So even if they did not catch on people had at least seen the characters. Now a new character is likely in a book that sells, if the publisher is lucky, 20k copies. So with the books sitting in so few people's hands does it really leave room for them to catch on? Sure some people low prints runs are good for value, but only if there is demand. Plus when new characters catch is because the publisher sees a bump in sales or publicity. That causes them to put that character in as a guess star, and again would see a sales bump. Then they would say we may have something here. It even has worked that way more recently with Harely, Deadpool, and even Spider Gwen. So the publisher grew the character based on response and data. Now with sales so low data is very limited, so they have no idea which characters to pursue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bb8 Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 13 hours ago, Aweandlorder said: We will see many many more keys We wont see another Marvel or DC though See, this is the intrinsic problem as I see it. Why create for company if you can own your IP outright? Why save your best creations for something other than you? Now, I think creator-owned comics are the best things on the market currently and have been for a while due to this. The artists and writers are doing their best work for themselves, and rightfully so. However, this limits the IP substantially. Even Walking Dead has a built-in limitation due to its creator-owned status. It won't continue in perpetuity. The mega-keys from each age are generally owned by a company. TMNT is the main exception. There are others. But I think, in general, this is why we don't see these break-out characters as much any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drotto Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, bb8 said: See, this is the intrinsic problem as I see it. Why create for company if you can own your IP outright? Why save your best creations for something other than you? Now, I think creator-owned comics are the best things on the market currently and have been for a while due to this. The artists and writers are doing their best work for themselves, and rightfully so. However, this limits the IP substantially. Even Walking Dead has a built-in limitation due to its creator-owned status. It won't continue in perpetuity. The mega-keys from each age are generally owned by a company. TMNT is the main exception. There are others. But I think, in general, this is why we don't see these break-out characters as much any more. Great point. I think this also limits the ability of creator owned properties of becoming mega keys. The reason the legacy characters are so known, important, and valuable is they are perpetual. With the creator owned stuff, if the creator decides to stop and the property is not a movie IP or the like, do those eventually fade away. I think that is already happening to a degree with Walking Dead. I doubt it will ever reach the highs it was at 5 or 6 yes ago again. Edited March 21, 2019 by drotto bb8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
