Doctor Strange Cancelled at #20.

[Prof. Warren]

Have you EVER worked retail or with the public?

Yes. In a comic store, among other places.

As far as comic retailing goes, it was part of my job to not make jumping into comics seem daunting to new readers.

And to my mind, it isn't. Multiple volumes are simply not the obstacle that some want to make them out to be.

Google "Doctor Strange Publication History" and you immediate get links like this that lay everything out for you, with up to date information.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Docto...ge_Comic_Books

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor...Strange_vol._5

I've been working with the public and with books since 1979, both in retail and in libraries. You are talking about people that have never read a comic before. They don't understand the first thing about them -- much less the morass of multiple volumes or god forbid, the reading order of an event. I've actually had someone (and no she wasn't an idiot, but quite well read) ask me to teach her HOW to read a comic book. She didn't understand how the panels worked and what order they should be read in.

The fact that some people are so boggled by comics that they have to be educated as to how to read them in the first place shouldn't dictate how Marvel publishes.

Should every comic also come with instructions about how to read them, just in case there might be a reader who's confused?

And customers / patrons do NOT want to figure all this out themselves, thank goodness, or I'd be out of a job. They want to walk into a store or library and have someone HAND them what they are looking for. I've had people walk out of the store, when I told them a book was on aisle 8, alphabetical by author and the author's name was Bendis, because I was the only one in store and I was helping someone check out and I couldn't put the book in their hand. This is not the exception. This is typical. And then there are the kids, which is another story. So please. Quit acting like only adult people, who've read comics all their life, and who own a smart phone to look all this mess up, should be the only ones allowed to read comics.

I would expect this isn't a challenge at all for kids, who spend most their time on their smart phones and are quite good at navigating their way through information.

And if someone is so lazy that unless you personally hand them a book they'll walk out of your store, again that's not Marvel's problem as a publisher. Nothing they do on their end is going to make that person less of an idiot.

As someone who has worked retail, it does suck to deal with morons who insist on being catered to and who are unwilling to make even the most minimal effort on their own behalf but that's how it goes. No matter how much you bend over backwards for some customers, it's not going to be enough.

Likewise, comic stores, and book stores, and libraries have tens to hundreds of thousands of items and usually run payroll short, so often there is only one or two employees in the building. Expecting that person to know EVERYTHING about EVERY item, the reading order, etc. or have the time to look it up, while manning the cash register / check out is simply unrealistic and uniformed.

It's an imperfect world. I'm well aware.

I disagree. I think Marvel should be concerned about the long term health / earning income of these runs, instead of going for the quick buck, which ends up with diminishing returns and fewer readers. But yes, it is clear, that is all Marvel is concerned with.

Marvel surely cares at least much, if not more, about how their books sell than you do. It is how they make money, after all.

The idea that well, if they just keep putting a book out, with no breaks, no restarts, no reboots, no new #1's ever, that it will just sustain itself, magically defying the atrophying patterns of publishing, is a naive point of view.

Reboots and new volumes help extend the life of titles. That's just a fact. Luckily there's ways to keep it all straight.

[CaptCleghorn]

I mean, we're on a comic book forum, talking about comic books and how we feel about them and the creative decisions...seems like fair game.

I know. It's a comic book forum thread about the cancellation (and relaunching) of a series. It's pretty much the only relevant topic right here.

But the sales drop off after that new #1 might be steeper.

I'd hope Marvel has the numbers of Doc's previous series and is able to account for variant covers and event tie-ins. I'm pretty sure they see Surgeon Supreme 1 as outselling issue 21 without a title change. They probably have a good reason. But even if they do, it's not something we fankids have to like. I can understand and looking at the data from Marvel's view, even support that relaunch. But I may not personally like it. I've worked in businesses where I've backed changes I have not personally liked, but agreed with from the company's view.

I do hope Doc gets some good numbers as it's one of the few series I've been following for decades.