Unbelievable!

[BentonGrey]

Nope, seems to be gone for me too.

[HarryTrotter]

Apparently,the future is...cosplay.
Comic "pros" are getting crazier by the minute,cuz this is some desperate $hit.

[HarryTrotter]

I already commented on Waid/Meyer/Antartic Press situation before.Meanwhile Waid got sued and is now starting a crowdfunding campaing to gather money for his defense.
Lets just rewind that- Mark does his best to stop somebody from getting published,gets rightfully sued for messing with somebodies buisness,and now he wants YOU to pay for that.And if you trust every "news" site,Mark Waid is the hero. #IStandWithWaid   

[Silver Shocker]

Well, I'll say this, the "news" sites are ALWAYS going to side with the publishers and named talent over the consumers and the little guy. There's more benefits thrown their way for doing so. You might even call it a conflict of interest. They also want those juicey clicks, as we all know.

I wonder what Marvel thinks of this, and if it will affect Waid's comics work.

[HarryTrotter]

I know why they are doing this,its just that this spin is a bit absurd even by standards of CBR and Bleeding Cool and the like.Which at this point seems to be at war with reality.
Its not an ideology issue,and Waid is not some superhero.

Its not that hard to guess what Marvel thinks of this.We can at least hope we dont get an event out of this.

[HarryTrotter]

http://archive.is/peVrA
Waid,Slott,Wacker...are the kind of people to run a terror campaign on somebody they never even met.For years.Thats just...I have no words,really.

[HarryTrotter]

For a good kind of unbelivable------Ghostbusters 3.Nobody saw that coming.

[Silver Shocker]

Indeed. Color me cautiously optimistic.

[HarryTrotter]

Maybe there is hope for Boondock Saints 3.

[Silver Shocker]

http://archive.is/peVrA
Waid,Slott,Wacker...are the kind of people to run a terror campaign on somebody they never even met.For years.Thats just...I have no words,really.

I saw this late. That may be one of the most depressing things I've ever read. And what's perhaps even more depressing, is I have really no reason to doubt its true.

[HarryTrotter]

Waids response has been to write it off as crazy accusations.Because we all know hes such a great guy.
How is that lawsuit going,Mark?
/Checks the fundraiser/ Nothing in 2 months.And still- he doesnt mention WHY he is being sued.
But look,Larry Hamma donated 50$.Your set for life,Mark.
I did that joke already,didnt I?

[Silver Shocker]

Not that I recall. According to the girl on the post, gofundme doesn't allow campaigns to pay off legal bills. I hear there's a lot of crowdfunding fraud out there.

[HarryTrotter]

From what I gathered half of the crowdfunded projects never make it past the planing stage. And I have yet to hear of anyone getting their money back.

[HarryTrotter]

IDW is 36 millions in the red zone.How is that even possible? 

[BentonGrey]

WHAT?!  They're crazy successful; how is that possible?

[HarryTrotter]

Clerly not.Alienating your fanbase and bad tv investments I guess.

[daglob]

Makes you wonder... how is everybody else doing...

[HarryTrotter]

Not that great,I guess.Bigger they are...

[daglob]

I read an article by Chris Warner years ago where he said that comics are almost always on the edge of extinction, then something come along, a new concept, a new character, something. The reprint only comics were dying out when some started including new stories. Then came Superman, then the war, then... and so on. I remember something about the internet comics might be what saves the companies, although the newsstand comics might cease. This was in the '90s.

I have no facts to back this up, and a dodgy memory.

[Silver Shocker]

I was saying to someone recently that a Youtube reviewer I used to follow pointed out....a few years ago, actually, that the video game industry might have suffered a second crash (the first was in 1983, for those not super-up on video game history/trivia, and is most closely associated with the Atari E.T. tie-in game) and nobody really noticed it because of the industry having a much bigger safety net they did last time, because of the internet, digital sale, ect. and the way modern society has changed since then.

I follow a lot of video game industry stuff very closely (Jim Sterling's videos, chiefly) and the things we hear over and over are "Video games are too expensive to make" and "Tripe-A Video Game companies don't want to make money, they want to make all the money in the world. And placate the vicious vultures that are shareholders."

I posited that I feel like the comics industry may have had the same problem with the same result. It crashed again at some vague time in the last 10 years or so, and nobody really noticed, because, again, there's a extra safety net that wasn't there before. Again, everything needs to make money, but doesn't make enough money, so they have to result to tricks, and gimmicks and events and new #1s. So often that people get weary of them.

Like how (bringing it back to IDW) Ghostbusters by Burnham and Shoening has to relaunch itself every year or so with a new miniseries and/or new ongoing. And the miniseries is ALWAYS either a crossover with other iterations of Ghostbusters, or other properties IDW has the license to, like TMNT, and now Transformers (tieing in, yes indeed, a Transformers toy that turns into the Ecto-1. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda want one)

Me and HT were talking about the X-Men movie franchise, and just as I was heading off to sleep, it dawned on me that the X-Men franchise IN GENERAL, has faded from the public consciousness. And how can you blame it? No cartoons in years, no X-Men specific games in years, every Fox X-Men movie after DP2 being heavily delayed, and noone cares much because MCU. But I realized even the comics feel like something that gets a lot less attention that it used to (to say nothing about picking apart the quality of the comics in general over time. I was trying to think back and figure out the last time the books were constantly good and I had trouble nailing down a specific spot)

Getting back to IDW. I love the GB comic, and it's still going on, but it doesn't sell a lot. In fact, my local comic book store never got aissue of an last mini because the shipment and damaged, and they were never able to get more copies. Because the book doesn't get second printings. The trade is out now, but whatever.

The comics industry has been fighting a war of attrition for at least the better part of a decade. It's only natural the long-term effects of it would kick in at some point.

[HarryTrotter]

Does the comic industry have a safety net?
Fabled digital sales?Because we never see any actual numbers.
A recent "Disney is planning to close down Marvel" hoax at least made people realize one thing: they just need the IP,they dont need actual comics.

[HarryTrotter]

In the random movie part of Youtube,one guy went thru all of video nasties.72 films.I find that disturbing.
For those not in the know,video nasties is a term for a list of movies that were banned (for distribution) or considered for banning in the UK back in the 80's.Some of it is tehnically still banned.While you have Evil Dead and Friday the 13th on there you also have...a lot of nazisploitation gore porn that was really funting popular in the 70's.
Worst.Decade.Ever.

[Silver Shocker]

I've read of the video nasties list on Tvtropes. I'm not really a gore hound (the Walking Dead and some video games, that's about it for me) so I don't think I'd want to watch those. I think of the various reviewers online who review terrible games, movies ect and go "I wouldn't want to do that". Evil Dead and Friday the 13th though - that makes me think of the German Index for violent video games.

The 70's couldn't be all bad though - they gave us the original Star Wars and Claremont's X-Men. Strangely I always think The New Teen Titans came out in the 70's but apparently it was the 80's. I'd the guess the reason why is because I'm mistaking Perez' work on that book with his work on Avengers in the 70's.

[HarryTrotter]

Its an interesting work of cultural archeology and a testament to human spirit going thru 72 of these.Most of us couldnt do it.Or wouldnt want to.Even if as reviewer notes,good deal of it looks tame by todays standards.
Also,due to limited releases and the fact nobody bothered with DVDs later on,some of these are worth a lot for the VHS collectors.And are really only available in that format.

I like slashers like Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street,but thats about that for me.

Satan was cool in the 70's apparently. 😀
http://www.armagideon-time.com/?p=7638

[HarryTrotter]

So we got more info about Waid vs Meyer case...and Waids messages to APs publisher paint an ugly picture.
https://youtu.be/U4sQEaj_3dQ

"Tell me you dont feel bullied.Just say that and you will never hear from me again."

[Silver Shocker]

Going back to IDW's financial problems, I read that IDW is getting help from the former president from Archie Comics to help with that.

[BentonGrey]

If IDW goes under, they will take pretty much every book I'm reading with them.

[SickAlice]

Wonder if it's the age trend honestly. Printed comic book sales and interest fluctuates like a roller coaster the high points being named ages with fast drops between. The industry has stated they don't know how to resolve this. Further in our current era most CEO's believe print will end sometime in the future though most estimate more closely it will become an issue of lesser books in print. I could see IDW taking a hit earlier than others because it's properties aren't as hot topic as the big two currently, especially of course Marvel right now. People like Turtles sure, comics about Dungeons and Dragons and X-Files I doubt as much. Just saying we'll the see the whole book cutting thing happen with DC and Marvel soon. Then again Image and Dynamite survived past trends even when they had nothing to put out and Chaos Comics somehow is still around in a way so I kind of believe IDW won't fold either. Though we are in an era where we've seen commercial giants crap out and sell themselves off, I mean Fox Pictures I would have not anticipated and Sony isn't doing so hot either so if it does happen I'll be sad but not surprised and as always still have the fond memories and old books to read. Hey, wouldn't that actually up the value of our TPB's? * rubs greedy hands together *