A Marvel complaint

[CaptCleghorn]

I am unhappy with Marvel's Annuals only having 40 pg. That's barely more than a regular issue! Time was when we saw 64 and 72 page Annuals PLUS covers. It's nice to get a 30 page story (usually) but let's make these issues something truly special again and not just fill-ins.

And Annuals deserve Legacy numbering.

[baltiroo]

I have to agree with you. Just call these one-shots that's much more palatable. I love the Annuals of yesteryear. They felt like they mattered and you looked forward to them. Now they just feel like inventory issues.

[XPac]

I miss the extra stuff they used to put in annuals back in the day. They were almost the comic book equivalent of DVD extras. Whether it was Wasp and She-Hulk rating how hot the male Avengers were, or Spider-Man ranking the strength level of himself and various other marvel characters, I thought those things were kinda fun.

[WebLurker]

I have to agree with you. Just call these one-shots that's much more palatable. I love the Annuals of yesteryear. They felt like they mattered and you looked forward to them. Now they just feel like inventory issues.

Don't know about that. Lot of the older ones were just adds for other series and/or full of short stories that had nothing to do with the series the Annual belonged to. I'd take the modern ones, with a full story actually about the main character(s) any day.

[Personamanx]

Eh, I kind of prefer them as "unimportant" side-stories that wouldn't likely be told in a main title. They definitely should be a bit meatier that the standard issue though.

[Dermie]

I miss the extra stuff they used to put in annuals back in the day. They were almost the comic book equivalent of DVD extras. Whether it was Wasp and She-Hulk rating how hot the male Avengers were, or Spider-Man ranking the strength level of himself and various other marvel characters, I thought those things were kinda fun.

Agreed! Some of them were just fun, like the "rate the male Avengers" game, or a story of "young Petey" babysitting a toddler Robbie Baldwin, etc. But there were also some that got put to really good use--the NEW WARRIORS Annuals in particular made those back-up stories count. In one of them there were a bunch of small stories spotlighting various team members, most of which became relevant to the main book (like Rich Rider meeting his new girlfriend, or Speedball's parents getting divorced, etc). We learned more about Living Lightning's backstory and family in his two back-up stories in Annuals than they ever found time to deal with in the main series. One AVENGERS Annual had a Mark Gruenwald story where he finally showed the story of Quasar actually officially joining the Avengers, which had previously taken place off-panel between issues.

They should definitely consider bringing back the back-up features. Like you said, they were the comics version of DVD extras--and everyone loves those!

[sirmarkus]

Eh, I kind of prefer them as "unimportant" side-stories that wouldn't likely be told in a main title. They definitely should be a bit meatier that the standard issue though.

I agree, I like them as a bit of a bonus issue. Not something you have to buy to keep up with the rest of the story, but something meatier and fun to read.

[Snoop Dogg]

Annuals aren't really annuals anymore and are a good way to avoid cluttering the backlogs with one-shots upon one-shots, but I wish that production money was going to more substantial things for other characters than just side dishes for big existing stuff.

[JKtheMac]

Like most things this is probably a situation created by feedback. Longer annuals become very expensive and so there is probably a sweet spot of length and cost that Marvel have settled into at the current pricing structure.

This also probably applies to added content. When they add stories from the Bronze Age many rightly point out they either have no interest in those, or have already read them, own them, or have access to them on MU. When they have short related stories they run the risk that some will say they are superfluous. When they add single page comedic material some find them filler. It is quite likely that a long single story by a different but notable writer and or artist is most likely to garner interest.

[kjn]

I agree that cost and reader interest for the type of added content matters, but so does distribution. The newsstand distribution was dominated by anthology titles, and in markets where there still is a viable newsstand distribution for comics (like Sweden), anthology titles still dominate. You get the main—usually self-contained—story with the title character, some editorials, maybe some comments from readers, one or two short comics, and a backup story, which might or might not involve the title character. Right now, I think the usual page count for a Swedish comic is 68 pages including the cover.

So what the annuals used to look like were how basically every comic used to look like—the annuals were simply somewhat more resistant to the change towards shorter single-character issues that were all part of a long single story-stream.

[MyriVerse]

We're reaching a point in time where it's cost prohiitive. I'd rather not pay $7.99 (or whatever) for a double-sized book, tbh. Given the option, I'd say just don't have Annuals anymore. These issues are rarely important, rarely good, and just compete with Marvel's own better products. Plus, in some cases/titles, we're already getting 18 issues a year or whatever.

[Mike_Murdock]

Marvel has been releasing those $1 True Believer stories, which suggests they can do an old story for a dollar. That being said, I have no idea the logistics of the whole thing and whether something changes in the costs of printing a story the more pages that story has. But I'd love it if a standard story is $4, a 40 page story is $5, and a 60 page story (one 40 page story and one reprint backup) could be $6. The question is whether people actually want to pay for reprints in this day and age. If we're talking having 60 pages of new content, the price is going to go up significantly.

[JKtheMac]

We're reaching a point in time where it's cost prohiitive. I'd rather not pay $7.99 (or whatever) for a double-sized book, tbh. Given the option, I'd say just don't have Annuals anymore. These issues are rarely important, rarely good, and just compete with Marvel's own better products. Plus, in some cases/titles, we're already getting 18 issues a year or whatever.

However, if you are a fan of the character and not of the writer in the main book, these can be a breath of fresh air, or even the only comic for that character you will purchase.

[CaptCleghorn]

I'm glad there's conversation on this. Even if some of you disagree with me.

On the cost issue, story pages will cost for standard creative team rates and a 40 page story will cost twice what a 20 page story costs. But stuff like character pages and who's who stuff won't cost as much. Granted, the demand for those is different than for a more traditional story.

True Believers has shown that Marvel can publish cheap reprints. Granted their reprints payments may be pathetic. But we'll see what the new Marvel Tales does. And digital may have a further effect on an already different (from the seventies) reprint market.

[matt levin]

Two points from me:
especially for 'unknown quality' issues, when I preorder, this is my pricing guide: number of pages [should] = number of dimes spent; ie., 32-pages 'should' cost $3.20, 40 pages, $4; I don't hold fast to this, especially for indy titles, but for the Big companies...pretty much.

And secondly, *I* remember (at least, I think so) when I'd buy a Marvel annual because it Reprinted Issues from Earlier in the Year which I was unable to get at the time, plus all those good extras others've mentioned above. THAT made annuals special for me. Nowadays, "annuals" are generally meaningless for me, pricey and often seem as though merely 'just another issue, with a few more pages.' Which, for me, is most often unattractive.

Here's a perhaps related question, though: what is the difference between a (ahem) True Believers issue and a (cough) facsimile (is that what they call them? Sorry, I'm forgetful these days), other than the first costs a dollar, and the second costs $4?