Sad, in a way...

Alexis · Post by **Alexis** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:15 pm

(Hi :> I have different aliases these days amd I don't prefer this one, but this is the only way people will recognize me without a big explanation... so HI EVERYONE. I've gotten bored enough to visit and register, it's been forever.)

Well. I don't know if I mentioned this in the past, but a couple years ago, I was working this ride thing at a festival. One day I wore a sonic shirt (a Sonic Adventure one, plainly with just Sonic on the front and back, the words "SONIC" and blahblah), and out of about the 1,000 kids or so I served that day, only a couple to a handful exclaimed that they recognized the character.

One of the kids was this boy that was basically like "OMG it's Sonic", and apparently he had been exposed to Sonic Adventure(2 and maybe 1?), and his favorite character was Shadow. (>_>;)

That was somewhat hopeful to me, anyway.

Spazz · Post by **Spazz** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:19 pm

Hmm, I wore my Stinkoman shirt out on Mardi Gras, and not one person pointed out that they recognized him. And I thought almost <i>everyone</i> had heard of Homestar Runner... I mean I've seen at least three people wear a The Cheat shirt in public before.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:24 pm

daytonafathead wrote:Buy her a gamecube and a mega collection for the LOVE OF BOB STEAL THEM FOR HER!

No, buy her a Saturn and Sonic Jam.

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:36 pm

I've gotten bored enough to visit and register, it's been forever.

Hey, remember that time we were playing PSO? Dork and I tried to rape your character while you went to put away some groceries.

We couldn't figure out how to do it.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 8:49 pm

Spazz wrote:Does that include Manga comics? I'm sure that those outsell plenty of other comics, besides the really popular ones.

Considering that manga and comic books sales have pretty much split apart from eachother as more and more people have started buying their manga from bookstores, I would guess not.

I hope the "traditional" comic industry crashes and burns, though. I'm sick of that thirty-two-page-jazzed-up-once-a-month bullshit.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:16 pm

Green Gibbon! wrote:When I was looking for issue #134, I had to run all around Lafayette. There's a comic book shop not far from campus, so I figured I'd just stop and pick it up on my way back from school, but they didn't have a trace of Sonic anywhere. I had to cross town before I finally found some at Books a Million.

I didn't even know the Sonic comics existed until like 4 years ago when my friend let me borrow his collection. The storylines didn't make any sense, but I was shocked that I claimed to be a Sonic fan and had never heard of the comics. Then I became an internet whore.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:39 pm

Pepperidge wrote:
Spazz wrote:Does that include Manga comics? I'm sure that those outsell plenty of other comics, besides the really popular ones.
Considering that manga and comic books sales have pretty much split apart from eachother as more and more people have started buying their manga from bookstores, I would guess not.

I hope the "traditional" comic industry crashes and burns, though. I'm sick of that thirty-two-page-jazzed-up-once-a-month bullshit.

Graphic novels are the way forward. They're selling better than they ever have done, are in good reprint and most that are part of a series even have volume numbers on them.

The formats have been experimented with as well. Traditional comic sized trade paperbacks still dominate most of the market (excluding Japanese comics), there's an increasing amount of digest sized trade paperbacks (both black and white and full colour) and Marvel's hardcovers that they produce for their top selling titles have proven very popular.

A big problem is the lack of marketing. Why don't Marvel advertise Spider-Man graphic novels during screenings of Spider-Man 2 for example? TV even. Hell, DC Comics is owned by AOL Time Warner, they could do a shit load of advertising - I know I'd rather have a preview magazine of DC comics than another one of those fucking AOL discs.

Spazz · Post by **Spazz** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 9:44 pm

I just remembered something. Last summer when McDonald's had those Sonic LCD toys, I saw a few kids crowded around the toy display thing and they seemed pretty exited. I heard them go: "Cool!" and "Ooh! I want that one." "That one's cool!" Yet I don't know if they were exited to see Sonic, or if they were just happy because they were "Video Games."

Post by **Squirrelknight** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:02 pm

Spazz wrote:I just remembered something. Last summer when McDonald's had those Sonic LCD toys, I saw a few kids crowded around the toy display thing and they seemed pretty exited. I heard them go: "Cool!" and "Ooh! I want that one." "That one's cool!" Yet I don't know if they were exited to see Sonic, or if they were just happy because they were "Video Games."

Kids get excited over anything that's brightly colored or shiny. That's why kids are dumbasses. All of them.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:19 pm

But brightly-colored shiny stuff ROCKS! Nobody can deny that!

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:37 pm

A big problem is the lack of marketing. Why don't Marvel advertise Spider-Man graphic novels during screenings of Spider-Man 2 for example? TV even. Hell, DC Comics is owned by AOL Time Warner, they could do a shit load of advertising - I know I'd rather have a preview magazine of DC comics than another one of those fucking AOL discs.

Funny that you mention the state of the lack of marketing GN. Tokyopop just started advertising their manga selection on television some weeks ago. Odd that much larger companies like Marvel and DC never advertised their comics on TV at all while Tokyopop does.

My guess is that Marvel & DC believes that the cartoons and live-action movies are a better form of 'advertisement' for the comic than an ad promoting the Graphic Novels themselves. *shrugs*

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:42 pm

Esrever wrote:it did outsell X-men roughly 2:1

No offense, but I find this very hard to believe. Haven't the X-titles typically always been among the best selling since the 80s?

Post by **Green Gibbon!** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 12:32 am

I was also thinking that sounds like a dubious bit of information.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:37 am

Ngangbius wrote:
A big problem is the lack of marketing. Why don't Marvel advertise Spider-Man graphic novels during screenings of Spider-Man 2 for example? TV even. Hell, DC Comics is owned by AOL Time Warner, they could do a shit load of advertising - I know I'd rather have a preview magazine of DC comics than another one of those fucking AOL discs.
Funny that you mention the state of the lack of marketing GN. Tokyopop just started advertising their manga selection on television some weeks ago. Odd that much larger companies like Marvel and DC never advertised their comics on TV at all while Tokyopop does.

Hopefully Marvel and DC will follow (and I wouldn't exactly call them "much larger" comanies, Tokyopop is really damn huge and mainstream). I downloaded on of the Tokyopop ads, not great, but it does the job and shows the art.

My guess is that Marvel & DC believes that the cartoons and live-action movies are a better form of 'advertisement' for the comic than an ad promoting the Graphic Novels themselves. *shrugs*

The moives and cartoons are good advertisers of the characters and franchises, but not so much of the comics themselves. Comics are an overlooked and often belittled art form, they need as much direct promotion as they can get.

And yeah, Sonic outselling X-Men sounds VERY bullshitty.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 1:56 pm

I've just recently gotten back into comics. It's true that some of the new talent is really impressive, and the quality of mainstream series has definitely gotten better. Recently I've been following the work of writer Jeph Loeb, who is freaking awesome. He wrote the Batman series <B>Hush</B>, which is absolutely great and I recommend it to anyone who has any remote interest in the character (it's also a great intro to Batman beginners). Also, the currently running Superman/Batman crossover also written by Loeb is just as good.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:08 pm

You liked Hush? Really?

The only positive thing I can say about the writing is that the artwork was nice.

If you're looking for some good Batman stories, check out (if you haven't already) The Dark Knight Returns. There's a reason it gets as much praise as it does. The Killing Joke, too.

Also, though it's not Batman, Watchmen is incredible. Probably the best comic/graphic novel I've ever read and one of the better stories of any medium, too.

Post by **Esrever** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 2:42 pm

That bit about the Sonic comic outselling the Uncanny X-men comic 2:1 in the mid ninties is actually true, I swear. It was mentioned in a few industry mags, and you can even check it by comparing the circulation numbers published annually in both books. How was that possible? Well, just remember:

1. Uncanny X-men (the main X-men title) is only one of about six or seven different X-Men comics that were published monthly at that time. So it was only outselling one X-men book, not all of them.

2. The Sonic comic sold really really well back then... readership somewhat inexplicably went up as the influx of new games and television shows stopped.

3. The Sonic comic follows the Archie publishing motto. It's about half the price of an X-men book, and it's heavily circulated at newstands, grocery stores, and back in the mid-nineties, at Wal Mart.

I still remember those times, man. You'd walk into a grocery store, or a 7-11, or some place that only carries a handful of comics, and the only comics they'd all be guaranteed to have were Spiderman, Xmen, Batman, Superman and Sonic the Hedgehog. Those were strange times.

I buy everything in Graphic Novel format now, too, incidently. It's great that so many publishers are supporting it now!

Ngangbius · Post by **Ngangbius** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 4:59 pm

2. The Sonic comic sold really really well back then... readership somewhat inexplicably went up as the influx of new games and television shows stopped.

Wasn't this around the time the Sonic comic started to really suck? I could be wrong though as around that time I've lost interest in Sonic the Hedgehog and wouldn't gain it back 'til Sonic Adventure 1.

Post by **Popcorn** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 5:43 pm

I honestly think the UK Sonic the Comic was actually, for the most part, pretty good-- when Elson was drawing the art was good enough (even if everything else was less so), and when Thingy was writing the stories were unpretentious, straightforward and honestly gripping. Then it sort of went crap. Who cares.

Post by **Esrever** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 5:43 pm

I've got scans of a few dozen issues of the UK comic, and I've liked them for the most part. The first few issues were pretty terrible though. :)

Final_Cosmos_the_Ultra · Sun Jun 20, 2004 6:28 pm

The Almighty Bunghole wrote:Kids these days are growing up with different games. Kids these days are growing up PS2's etc. Since Sonic hasen't made such a big impact for years, kids may only know him from the tv. Unless they have older siblings who grew up with Mega Drive's and SNES', they probably don't even know what it's like to play a 16-bit game.

It reminds me of kid of cam into my work (I work in a video game arcade) and he was looking at some of the prizes and he asked me "what's that?" pointing to a portable cassette player, and I told him it was such, and then he turned to his mum and said "What's a cassette?" It's a thing called the generation gap, it comes in many forms.

You're kidding right? ........... Have CDs really taken over that much?

Hey Green Gibbon and Spazz how is it being in the 2nd worse state ever? Yes I down here too. Damn it.

The Scarlet Scorpion · Mon Aug 16, 2004 1:19 am

Delphine wrote:...there is a child in the world who doesn't know what a cassette tape is? B-but, but they still sell them, and, and...

Oh lord. I'm OLD.

Think that makes you old? I have records.

Just because some little banyard doesn't know about non-digital stuff isn't your fault, you know.

It's the little banyard's parents' fault.

In fact, casettes, being cheaper than most CDs, outsell their discoid counterparts by a sizable margin (I forget the exact statistics. I'll have to look them up now...).

One more thing: I agree, the current "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series rules (my only quibble is that they didn't go with a new version of the original theme from the '80s. Other than that, I have no real complaints).

Post by **Esrever** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 11:03 am

TWO MONTHS! Two months since someone had posted in this thread! Why do you DO THIS to me? What were you THINKING?

RAAARRRRRRGGGGGGAAAARRRAAAAAGGGUGUGUGUGLE!

J.C.14 · Post by **J.C.14** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 2:10 pm

Squirrelknight wrote:
Spazz wrote:I just remembered something. Last summer when McDonald's had those Sonic LCD toys, I saw a few kids crowded around the toy display thing and they seemed pretty exited. I heard them go: "Cool!" and "Ooh! I want that one." "That one's cool!" Yet I don't know if they were exited to see Sonic, or if they were just happy because they were "Video Games."
Kids get excited over anything that's brightly colored or shiny. That's why kids are dumbasses. All of them.

shiny things hurt my eyes...bright colors relfect from the sun causing more hurt to my eyes.

Bee Bom Boo

AND NOW FROM JILL THE LESBIAN

Jill: Hello, I'm Jill and...hello and....goodbye!!

THAT'S ALL FOR JILL THE LESBIAN

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:18 pm

Your posts hurt my eyes.

I mean that in the nicest way possible.