The defining quality of American comics is also the most exasperating – the monthly serial format. Not only is the average 32-page comic over-priced ( at prices between 2.50$ and 7$, the exchange rate brings the price of a comic to 110 INR and above. This is one of the reasons why you only find outdated pre-1999 issues in Indian bookstores at low prices), but the way it makes you wait ONE WHOLE MONTH between the story is terrible. I have no idea how people who were reading, say, The Invisibles or Preacher or Transmet when these comics were coming out monthly managed to keep themselves in control between stories. Both these comics ( and countless other good ones) have the juiciest cliffhangers ever, at least during the story arcs.
Is there some kind of a commercial drawback to producing comicbooks in self-contained story-arcs released as “books”, instead of the monthly 22-page thingie? I can think of the following –
- More advertising revenue, because 22 pages of comics includes about 10 pages of ads.
- User feedback remains consistent throughout a monthly comicbook. Though it does not impact the structure of the story, the creator is gratified by the fact that people are reacting to the story, through the now-almost-extinct letter column, and internet Message Boards of today.
- Increased revenue by issuing the same storylines in a variety of formats. The monthly comics, followed by a hardcover release, followed by trade paperbacks.
- Last, but not the least, pandering to the speculator market. That is, the people who buy comics in the hope that they can later be sold for 10 times the cover price, and consequently define good comics as the “hot” ones, and make it a point to buy variant covers of the SAME comicbook for the aforementioned reason.
Let me not be hypocritical – I got into serious comic-collecting because of the speculator thing – it’s always a good feeling imagining that something you buy for 10 rupees can someday be sold for 500 Rs. But hey, I was a kid then, alright? I still insist on buying the original comics in most cases, but that is because of the sheer novelty of reading the story in exactly the same way it was written, following the crests and troughs as they come. But cliff-hangers can get tedious after sometime – almost as if the writer knows that he has to try extra hard to get his audience to react to his story, and therefore is under a compulsion to introduce a shock moment after every 22 pages. And, boy oh boy, it can be a bitch too, like when you are at part 4, the penultimate episode of the storyline and part 5 is nowhere to be found. Of course, digital comics have done away with this for now, but I still cannot wait until a complete series gets over before beginning to read it, can I?
I am quite taken with the idea of Season-based comics, as opposed to the monthly format. Seasonal Comics, much like TV Show seasons, are story arcs that are published as monthly issues for about a year by the same writer/artist combo. And then there is a gap, followed by the next season with either the same or a different team of creators. Was Ultimates the first in this genre? So far, I have read Sleeper seasons 1 and 2, an excellent superheroes-meet-crime-noir saga of a double agent trapped in a criminal organization made up of super-powered bad guys, each with a quirky tale of his own, and motivations much distanced from the usual Rule-the-world mish-mash. I have a strong feeling that people who loved Infernal Affairs would love this series and identify with Agent Carver a lot, it has brilliant moments, strong characterization, and a very engagingly narrated storyline that jumps timelines and gives you the complete picture slowly, leisurely. I would have gone berserk if I had to read it an issue a month, let me tell you. And the ending to season One was clever. Clever without being smug.
Hard Time Season One is another good series that weds superheroes with another genre, in this case – the prison novel. The prime accused in a school shooting incident that goes wrong, a 15-year old boy named Ethan Harrow, is sentenced to a maximum-security prison for fifty years. Steve Gerber, the writer knows just what buttons to push to keep the story from degenerating into either of the two genres it forms part of. Characters like Cindy, the boy who wants to be a girl; a maniacal preacher whose idea of baptism gives me the creeps, the power cliques in the prison – Nazis against the Minority groups; and even Ethan Harrow himself, a socially-maladjusted guy who cannot get along with anybody because of his smart mouth – are etched out beautifully – the subplots that move parallel to the main storyline are in themselves a social commentary – for instance, one of the first people Ethan’s uncanny power saves – hold on, did I forget to mention that? Ethan Harrow has a supernatural force within him, a being that manifests itself only when he is asleep, or unconscious, and he has no conscious control over the being – now this being goes and saves a guy who raped and killed a black girl, from being murdered by one of the only people in the prison who has any sympathy for Ethan. The only person who writes to him in prison, at least initially, is a survivor of the Shooting, a girl who has been remanded to a sanatorium because of the trauma, and she wants to know why he did it. The storyline progresses most unexpectedly, and part of the enthu I have is because there seems to be no clearly etched line on who is good and who is bad in the series. Hurrah for moral ambiguity!
I read the three Vertigo titles that you mentioned on a month by month basis, and I would have to that Preacher had the juiciest cliffhangers of the three. However, The Invisibles was the hardest series to read due to its complexity. Grant Morrison likes to throw a lot of things at his reader, which made it somewhat difficult to read the series one issue at a time. The thing is that after a month has passed, it’s hard to remember everything that happened in the previous issue. I could remember the basic plot, but I would forget some of the little details, which are important to remember, in order to fully appreciate Morrison’s stories. It then became a habit of mine to do one of two things. I would either wait for every issue of the story arc to come out and then read them, or read the series month to month, and then re-read the whole story arc again when every issue was out. I preferred to do the latter of the two, since buying good comics just to have them sitting around for months is like buying a bottle of liquor that one doesn’t plan to open for months. :p
So my biggest gripe with monthly comics is having to follow a complex storyline, while having to wait four weeks between issues. This of course is worsened by the fact that a lot of good comics are constantly late. For example, Alan Moore’s Wildstorm books were infamous for missing datelines. I personally think that cliffhangers can be a good thing, and they give the reader something to look forward to next month. However, there are times when a cliffhanger makes one dread having to wait four weeks for the next issue.
I believe that comics are still being published monthly because it’s part of their tradition. While reading a storyline one issue at a time might not be the ideal situation, many people prefer having something to read each month, rather than having to wait for the storyline to be finished and released as a ‘book.’ I also agree that releasing comics on a monthly basis increases profits for the reasons you mentioned.
Either way, I think that comic book readers have it good nowadays, due to the fact that a lot of comics are released in both monthly and collected form, giving readers more options. Oh, and then there’s the internet and digital comics, but that’s a whole other issue.
“since buying good comics just to have them sitting around for months is like buying a bottle of liquor that one doesn’t plan to open for months. :p”
beautiful analogy
Thanks! I am proud of myself for coming up with that! :o)
I didn’t read “The Invisibles” but I found Alan Moore’s “Promethea” a more sane read month-to-month. Reading the book in trades (as I read the first year’s worth) was just this massive case of information overload but reading it monthly I was able to take the little nuggets of information and process them over a month and re-read (which I did often) so that the whole thing fell pieced itself together in my head more easily. Granted my head isn’t what it used to be … :)
Seriously, though, I think most American readers, like myself, are just used to the monthly cliffhanger and I think the waiting for a month is part of the fun of reading comics. Not that I don’t like complete graphic novels but there’s still a bit of a thrill getting to that big cliffhanger and knowing it’s going to be four weeks (I HOPE) before I know What Happens Next.
I must say that the kind of patience you guys have really amazes me. :)
I read Preacher, all of it, in one night and a day, and at the end of it, issue 66 was incomplete. GAAAAH!
(But hey, for the record, I bought the complete run of Preacher off eBay soon after, and managed to re-read the whole lot, including issue 66, properly)
You’re right, you know. Having bought a monthly issue, I seldom have the patience or the perseverance to keep it stored and then read the complete arch in one go. But reading the issue also ends up in me forgetting little details fomr specific issues.
I guess it’s people like me that have fed the TPB market, making sure we have all the issues, all the context and all the story in one book and then read it.
Thank you for the interesting comment! That part about forgetting what happened in the previous issue is the one which partly inpsired this post – I was buying the Indian reprint of Ultimates every month, or rather, everytime it comes out – the schedule goes haywire everytime. Finally I decided to read the series off a CD and now, it’s a problem for me to figure out which was the last issue I bought off the stands. :-P
I am really worried that someday if I take to reading comics in the serial monthly format – and I like a particular comic a lot, I would end up going berserk, or just end up hating that comic just so I don’t have to wait. Did that make any sense?
I also read Alan Moore’s Promethea, and I have to agree that the series was overwhelming at times. Like Morrison, Alan Moore also likes to throw a lot of things at his readers, but he seems the more cohesive of the two, making his work easier to read on a monthly basis. Promethea was a complex and beautifully written series that was great to take in slowly. :)
Ultimates wouldn’t be the first season based comic, I think. Although they did have yearly runs, Transmetropolitan and Authority followed a season structure unto themselves too.
Also, for the very reasons you mentioned, Marvel has resolutely refused to get into the Graphic Novel business, instead content with churning out TPBs. Tht’s not to say that DC is clean, though. Many Vertigo titles are TPBs of monthly ishes.
But did those series stop between seasons? That’s what I meant by the Seasonal Format – the way the guys actually pause for a couple of ( more?) months before continuing with the story in the next season.