What are your thoughts on single issues and their future?

[thecoffeeman]

The collected editions market has continued to grow over the years, especially in the last few, but I’m not sure what the state of floppies is. I’m not here to suggest floppies are dying off—in fact, as serialist’s print has gone down, I’m amazed at how well comics have continued to endure—but I’m curious to hear the perspective of both the young and old on their viability over the next 10-20 years.

I know I’m one of the younger people that goes into my LCS each Wednesday (in my late 20s), but I often see at least one or two teens browsing and picking up some floppies to give a go. So it isn’t just a bunch of 45+ year-olds that are keeping the weekly floppy tradition alive, from my experience. The teens in front of me said they got into comics over the pandemic because everything else in their lives went digital… interesting tidbit.

What are your thoughts on the state of the floppy market? Do you still follow series week to week or have you gone fully for collected editions at this point?

I would say I follow about 7-8 series that likely won’t be collected any time soon, or are so tiny that even getting a trade is in jeopardy if their single issues don’t sell, but the rest of my reading is done in omnis and TPBs. Not to mention I’ve grown to like having something to look forward to each week instead of every 6-8 months.

[LordMikel]

30 years ago, they were talking the demise of floppies. I'll just stop there really.

[SJNeal]

My current pull list consists of 32 monthly series, 75% of which I pre-order every month through DCBS (along with maybe a dozen collections). That *really* helps keep costs down. I also keep a smaller pull list at my LCS of "hot" titles and event books that I like to keep up with on a weekly basis; I like to support them cuz they're great people.

That said, the $3.99 books seem to be going the way of the dodo sooner rather than later; a year from now I won't be surprised if the standard is $4.99 for 22 pgs. And while I don't think I'll ever stop buying comics, I need to reevaluate my spending soon - I'm thinking a lot fewer floppies and more collections, like many have already done - because even after online discounts it's a ton of money for relatively little entertainment.

Long story short, I don't think single issues are going anywhere, but this very well may be the year I do. Or at least cut back on them drastically.

[Jely4me]

My current pull list consists of 32 monthly series, 75% of which I pre-order every month through DCBS (along with maybe a dozen collections). That *really* helps keep costs down. I also keep a smaller pull list at my LCS of "hot" titles and event books that I like to keep up with on a weekly basis; I like to support them cuz they're great people.

That said, the $3.99 books seem to be going the way of the dodo sooner rather than later; a year from now I won't be surprised if the standard is $4.99 for 22 pgs. And while I don't think I'll ever stop buying comics, I need to reevaluate my spending soon - I'm thinking a lot fewer floppies and more collections, like many have already done - because even after online discounts it's a ton of money for relatively little entertainment.

Long story short, I don't think single issues are going anywhere, but this very well may be the year I do. Or at least cut back on them drastically.

If DCBS ever folds, I’m doomed, but I would also have to quit comics altogether, been going at this since the .25 days. While my number of monthly series is dwindling, I am reacquiring some old classics that for me are timeless, an example would be Thor. Bought the Simonson Omni, and the Epic that drives to #400, perfect, done. Batman is a bit tougher, I’m more into single stories, say from the #300’s, the Gene Colan drawn vampire story, after that, I pretty much skip around for the Aparo artwork. I’m going to reacquire the death of Jason Todd story as a grail set, forget the trade..point is that I’m falling out of love with monthlies due to content and lack of interest, the trades and a bit of back issue hunting helps me reminisce…

[ARkadelphia]

When my LCS closed in January 2021, I stopped buying floppies altogether. Now, it’s digital for weekly releases and collected editions for material I think I want to keep.

[Tayne Japal]

Depends on the amount of youth entering the hobby. A subreddit I participate in for comic collecting regularly has people posting that they haven't bought new comics in 10-20 years and focus solely on 1960s-1980s comic collecting. Of course, these people are in their 40s-50s (I'm 39).

I transitioned to buying mostly digital through Comixology years ago, but the explosion of variant covers (I'm a sucker for great cover art) increased my spending on individual floppies. This year I plan on cutting back on variants and be more selective of which floppies I support. I have a self-imposed, max amount of space for physical comics remaining (enough for 3 BCW plastic bins), so that is added motivation to be more selective in purchasing floppies.

[MRP]

Depends on the amount of youth entering the hobby. A subreddit I participate in for comic collecting regularly has people posting that they haven't bought new comics in 10-20 years and focus solely on 1960s-1980s comic collecting. Of course, these people are in their 40s-50s (I'm 39).

I transitioned to buying mostly digital through Comixology years ago, but the explosion of variant covers (I'm a sucker for great cover art) increased my spending on individual floppies. This year I plan on cutting back on variants and be more selective of which floppies I support. I have a self-imposed, max amount of space for physical comics remaining (enough for 3 BCW plastic bins), so that is added motivation to be more selective in purchasing floppies.

There are lots of young people entering the hobby. They are not buying comics as monthly periodicals though (either in printed floppy form or digitally). The young adult graphic novel sector is the fastest growing segment of the book publishing industry currently and has been for the last 3-4 years. Lots more people are reading comics now than were 15-20 years ago. But they are not buying them in the monthly periodical format. They're not even really buying them in collected editions. It's OGNs, complete stories with beginnings, middle and ends that provide a complete and satisfying reading experience that is fueling that growth with younger customers.

The monthly periodical is a dinosaur product with no place in the mass market. It survives in niche markets, mostly with older readers or longer-term customers who were first introduced to comics in that format and have nostalgic ties to it. A lot of that particular market however has switched to collected editions or digital. Not enough to make the format untenable in the niche market yet though. However, attrition will continue, and unless there is a miraculous influx of new readers who specifically want to buy and read comics in physical periodical format, it will not be a sustainable format long term. It will be a slow process, not one that happens overnight. Periodicals could be viable for 5 more years, ten, twenty, but eventually they won't be. Economy of scale works against them. As people move to other formats or get priced out, print runs get smaller. The smaller the print run, the larger the per unit cost, so prices will have to increase to cover that (this is the main reason niche products cost more than equivalent products in the mass market and why comparing the price of comics now with prices in the past based on inflation is irrelevant, it's apples and oranges because comics used to be a mass market product and are now a niche product, and inflation increases affect the two markets differently). The more prices increase, the faster loss of customer attrition will be, leading to print runs to become even smaller and more expensive. Unless there is a significant infusion of new customers to change that trend, periodical comics will eventually become untenable.

And the likelihood of there being such an infusion is infinitesimal. Not only are periodical comics a dinosaur product, but you also have to factor in how difficult it is for a potential new customer to get started buying them. First they have to find a destination shop-either a brick and mortar comic shop-which do not exist at all in large swaths of the country, or an online vendor that they would have to intentionally seek out. Second, the books have to be in stock-which since print runs are set to preorders and most shops preoder based on pulls and not for shelf copies for the vast majority of titles published and released each week, even if someone managed to find a shop or site, get there, the shop might not have what they are looking for in stock, especially if it is an ongoing story and you're looking for previous parts from past months releases.

That's a lot of hoops for a potential new customer to jump through to just try a product they aren't sure they will like in a format that is expensive for what you get and not a familiar way of consuming stories for someone who didn't grow up on the serialized periodical format.

I grew up on periodical comics. I like periodical comics some times-I prefer collected editions for a lot of things, and for stuff like Marvel I do Unlimited rather than buying individual issues because I don't mind waiting 3 months to read what I am interested in. But taking my personal preferences and familiarity with the format out of the equation-it is a terrible way to deliver stories to modern audiences. It is an expensive and unsatisfying way for a modern customer who did not grow up on serialized periodicals to experience comics. It's not going to go away soon, but it won't persist forever. Comics are not dying, they are evolving in the way they are delivered to market and consumed by customers. The periodical will eventually give way to formats better suited to modern consumers. But there's still enough of an audience for them currently for them to hang around a while.

-M

[charliehustle415]

When my LCS closed in January 2021, I stopped buying floppies altogether. Now, it’s digital for weekly releases and collected editions for material I think I want to keep.

This may be the answer, if brick and mortar comic shops can't stay open then floppies may not be long for the world.

The only way I can imagine then going on into the future is having them back in grocery stores and drug stores.

[SJNeal]

This may be the answer, if brick and mortar comic shops can't stay open then floppies may not be long for the world.

The only way I can imagine then going on into the future is having them back in grocery stores and drug stores.

Which ain't gonna happen, unfortunately. Part of the reason which is in MRP's post above yours.

[Tayne Japal]

MRP,

Thanks for the insight. Though I am a purchaser of variants, I'm curious to see how long the Big 2 can continue using them to prop up individual sales. There may not be another market instrument available once variants no longer justify the cost. I think creator-owned comics will do fine without them. Of the Big 2, I predict DC would be the first to transition away from monthly releases, beginning with their non-marquee books, of course. Probably by the end of this decade. WarnerMedia's purge of DC's staff last year should be a major indicator.

Since you mentioned complete stories, it made me think of Zenescope. Not sure if you're familiar with their work, but they abandoned their strategy of doing mini-series and one ongoing series (Grimm Fairy Tales) at the end of 2020. They shifted to still having that single ongoing, but everything else is oversized, self-contained books (72-pages for $7.99 or 80-pages for $8.99) and some 30-32 page ($5.99) one-shots sprinkled in between those releases (usually quarterly). They may be ahead of the game, but I've yet to see similar, smaller publishers (Aspen, Valiant, or Action Lab for example) consider a shift away from the monthly format.

[SavageJudgeDredd]

I'm happy that it's around, and it's heartening to hear stories of it bouncing back over the years a bit. When I got into comics seriously around 2006-07, it seemed sales were lower than they've been in some recent years.

That said, I myself don't really do floppies, I only have one comic I buy in single issues: Savage Dragon. Because it's my fav and I want to support it. But, I get it shipped. Comic stores are always fun to see though.

I find comics are just too pricey in singles, so I go for trade paperbacks, and digital if it's DRM free and reduced price a little. I just want to see the medium thrive and live on, in whatever form it's available. There are ups and downs to most of the options. Comixology's viewer is a dealbreaker for me though, I need my DRM free options and viewers of my choice. For the record, my main pet peeve is it can't remember your zoom percent setting between pages. Plus, DRM free is better for a lot of reasons. Give me that download.

[charliehustle415]

Which ain't gonna happen, unfortunately. Part of the reason which is in MRP's post above yours.

Yeah exactly, I just remember the good days when I could go to with my dad on a pharmacy run and coming home with an issue of Web of Spider-Man #100 (best memory of buying a comic)

[SJNeal]

Yeah exactly, I just remember the good days when I could go to with my dad on a pharmacy run and coming home with an issue of Web of Spider-Man #100 (best memory of buying a comic)

Yeah, a lot of my earliest comics came off of spinner racks at 7-Eleven and Longs Drugs. Of course the spines were always broken and the covers dog-eared, but at only $0.75-1.00 a piece, 6 yr old me didn't really care.

[charliehustle415]

Yeah, a lot of my earliest comics came off of spinner racks at 7-Eleven and Longs Drugs. Of course the spines were always broken and the covers dog-eared, but at only $0.75-1.00 a piece, 6 yr old me didn't really care.

Yeah for me the drug store was Walgreens and the 7-11 was where X-Men Children of the Atom was located.

I remember my dad would only buy them for me if I could get a comic with the change he had left over.

Man I miss those days

[Captain Craig]

My monthly "floppy" buys hovers around 10 books, 12 max at any given time. The price point for that format for pages offered makes less and less sense every time they hike it up. No amount coloring, paper quality, talent on the book etc justifies the price.

I just dropped TMNT after 125 issues cause I'm going to keep up with it in the Deluxe HC. After the Silver Surfer Rebirth mini this year I aim to not add any minis to my hold list, if I'm interested it'll be a TPB later(at a discounted price somewhere).

Sure, this topic has come up before online almost every time the format jumps a dollar but it does feel like the tipping point is coming. Will that be $4.99? Even at a 25-30% discount that is still a price per floppy amount to pay. Now you're talking a light meal from a fast food menu in most places for just one book? We can make other comparisons but I think you get my point.