There is still a continuing amount of talk about the eventual end of the everyday floppy comic book with a focus on graphic novels. It does seem to be true that many are going that route. We see people like the Hernandez brothers going to graphic novel format only and companies like Top Shelf Comix selling pretty much only graphic novels. There is definitely a growing if not booming market for graphic novels, with independent publishers and creators getting a lot of benefit from going that route, but what would the comic world be like without floppies?I personally don't see the floppy going anywhere anytime soon. The main thing I see floppies doing for comic companies, at least the larger ones, is the hype factor. Monthly floppies help keep the product in the peoples minds, giving them that spotlight for fans to keep wondering what is going to happen next, giving fodder like cliffhangers for fans to chat about on the web. They also provide the collectible nature to comics that have helped push the hobby into other markets like protection, grading, and auctions.
If floppies were to cease to exist, I doubt the comic book market would disappear overnight, but I think the fan base would dwindle. Comic shops would certainly have to rethink their game plan, becoming more like bookstores, an area that is already held tightly around the country by larger stores like Barnes and Nobles and Borders. I doubt many would survive.
For now, floppy comic books are not going to disappear. They are an entrenched model that has been with us for decades. You can say that manga proves the graphic novel format works, but most manga have a floppy version themselves - some of their chapters are first told in trades like Shonen Jump and then collected in manga trades.
The graphic novel is growing, getting bigger as we go along, but a lot of their success can be traced back to the monthly comics that helped promote them to be a thing that people will shell out big money to own. It will be interesting to see if we get to the point of having just graphic novels and be talking about the days of going to the now dwindling comic stores every week when comics used to cost three bucks...ah those were the days.
Comments
A few years ago, while researching graphic novels for some new pages on my website, I broached the idea of the collectablity of graphic novels with the comic guy at my local store.
He didn’t think there would ever be much in the collection and investment of graphic novels. Even though graphic novels are immensely popular, floppies will still have the mistique of gaining in value and having your own collection. My opinion.
I tend to prefer graphic novels because I can put them on my bookshelf and that makes it easier to find them. I can read an entire story arc in one book rather than have to wait for months at a time to get to the end (and hope I remember to order the next issue in Previews). With the cost factor added in, graphic novels are a slightly better by.
I do, however, buy some of the floppies, especially if it’s a new series or character I want to read about, or a one shot of an already established character that I like.
Floppies will not disappear, but the 32 page glossy comic for $2.95 should. The big companies should focus on big “phone books”, like the Japanese manga anthologies. Will the comic buying public prefer a 200 page Superman or X-Men monthly with 2 or 3 stories featuring the title character, with backups of other characters in their universe? I think they will if you sold it for $8 or $9 on cheap paper, and if they discontinue all the repetitious books. There should be only ONE X-Men per month, ONE Spider-Man per month, ONE Batman per month, ONE Justice League/Justice Society book per month. Save the good paper for the collected editions.
Floopy’s are at the core of comic collecting and it’s my feeling anyone who would want to see them disappear has missed the point of what reading a comic is all about. Graphic Novels are for the most part aimed at the lazy comic collector or the reader who wants instant gratification which to me takes all the fun out of collecting. I’ve always enjoyed the hunt combined with the suspense and promise of what the next issue will hold. it’s like sitting down and watching all the Star Wars movies in one afternoon, where’s the fun in that unless you’ve already seen em and your just reliving the experiance.
Graphic Novels are good with respect to the story that you want to read over and over or the collector that missed a key issue and is now hard to find or out of your price range, the Graphic Novel can be handled in a manor without being overly conserned about what your handling is doing to it. lets face it Graphic Novels are generally nothing more than a over priced reprint of a story line and the comic companies are just trying to make more money on. Don’t get me wrong I have had a number of Graphic Novels over the years but all the fancy paper aside most were either a reprint or a one shot story line or just an excuse to show a few frames of T & A.
For me it’s the floopy that makes collecting fun and nothing else comes close.