Are weekly comics doomed?

[Bigwords]

You can occasionally find the US edition of Mad in UK newsagents, but it's rare. It's also surprisingly cheap - £3.25 for a $5.99 magazine seems wrong to me (and it was only £2.99 until recently. Bizarre.)

That seems just about right to me. The price reflects other magazines, and I doubt that the loss - if there indeed is any - would be marginal. It has to sell to make any money at all, and if it cost more it is difficult to imagine, in the current climate, such a title being worth keeping around.

And the 1990 puppet show was actually called The Beano's Dennis the Menace and Gnasher Show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3cbcceGII

That's the kind of pride in the originating title which needs to be brought back. If memory serves, all of the Channel 4 animations made it abundantly clear that Billy The Fish, Roger Mellie and The Fat Slags were from Viz. And they did it without being obnoxious, a trick some television channels need to learn. The production values may have been in the toilet, but the link to the comic was carried through all promotional materials. When was the last time DCT had billboard ads or full-page illustrated ads running in national newspapers?

Charmingly amateurish (right down to DC Thomson's name being incorrectly spelt in the copyright notice) but I image the programming budget for a cable channel in 1991 was next-to-nothing.

There are satellite channels (and a couple of Freeview channels) right now which would be delighted to have the budget to make anything new. History has a tendency to brush over the failure rates, but new channels finding a niche audience is as hard as new comics picking up readers, and causes far more fallout when they go wrong. Pick up a weekly satellite television mag from a decade ago (with all those hundreds of micro channels) and compare it to a new edition...

[Bigwords]

Still no edit function...*sigh*

"I doubt that the loss - if there indeed is any - would be more than marginal"

[Raven]

They simply aren't capable of properly focusing on titles when they are dealing with so much other product, and without dedicated stands - such as newspapers receive - the sales will always be disappointing from such locations.

The comic stands aren't so bad in the ones I know - much less cluttered and disorganized than the big WH Smith.

The Star Wars/Clone Wars comic was also down another 26.9%. Doctor Who Adventures was down another 23.2%. This is a continuing trend, every six months on it gets worse.

Maybe it is time, then, to consider placing comics in different businesses. How about Waterstones? Indie bookshops? Whatever handful of music shops we have left (Viz used to do a roaring trade in Virgin Records)...

The rapidly disappearing record shops and bookshops?! That's rather missing the point of my argument, though; you're still assuming it's a problem of visibility and awareness, whereas I suspect the problem is that they're just not particularly interested in the entertainments we grew up with, so even if they get a free comic with their shoes they won't be interested in reading it. They won't be interested in a Morgyn the Mighty tie-in or reading PDFs of early 1980s Nutty comics, because they'll find these things archaic.

What we're contemplating here is essentially how to keep things in a state of permanent stasis at a time when all media is in a state of massive flux: everything's changing, and we're probably in the end days now of print media (comics, newspapers, magazines), prescribed television schedules, physical formats for music and films, and, for kids, old fashioned linear, narrative entertainment.

[Phoenix]

we're probably in the end days now of print media (comics, newspapers, magazines), prescribed television schedules, physical formats for music and films, and, for kids, old fashioned linear, narrative entertainment.

Heavens above! No issues of The Guardian or Radio Times, no new books, no CDs, no DVD box sets? What sort of nightmare scenario is this that you are envisaging for us, Raven? And what about my little granddaughter? I know she's only just turned two, and she already knows how to negotiate her way round Andrew's iPhone 5, but what about our shared interests? No CBeebies, no Rastamouse, no Numberjacks? And who on earth is going to employ Mr Tumble? I'm no Luddite, but can we please just keep our Charlie and Lola comics?

[Raven]

we're probably in the end days now of print media (comics, newspapers, magazines), prescribed television schedules, physical formats for music and films, and, for kids, old fashioned linear, narrative entertainment.

Heavens above! No issues of The Guardian or Radio Times, no new books, no CDs, no DVD box sets? What sort of nightmare scenario is this that you are envisaging for us, Raven? And what about my little granddaughter? I know she's only just turned two, and she already knows how to negotiate her way round Andrew's iPhone 5, but what about our shared interests? No CBeebies, no Rastamouse, no Numberjacks? And who on earth is going to employ Mr Tumble? I'm no Luddite, but can we please just keep our Charlie and Lola comics?

The old newspaper-style news media will be online/digital. TV schedules just won't be prescribed - people will choose what they want to watch when they want to watch it and make their own schedules (as many already do; things will probably all debut on iPlayers soon enough.)

What I mean about kids' entertainment is that what we were used to a monologue; kids of 2013 and beyond will increasingly expect it to be a dialogue that they're part of - which they can participate in and change, and which, ultimately, will be geared towards them individually.

Is she enjoying the Charlie and Lola comics, themselves? I hope so. I hear the same as was reported by another poster upthread, totwise: seizing on the free toys but not really interested in the comic.

Yes, they're adapting to the iPhones very fast and young!

Mr Tumble will end up on a grim government work scheme and, after two years, will be forced to pick up litter and make meals for the elderly.

[Raven]

Oh, and as for DVD box sets, people will be signed up to Netflix type arrangements, won't they, with unlimited shows and films streamed to their TVs or whichever devices they favour? A clutter-free future!

[Phoenix]

Mr Tumble will end up on a grim government work scheme and, after two years, will be forced to pick up litter and make meals for the elderly.

Ah! So there's a slim chance he and I might meet one day then? The slimmer the better, really.

upthread, totwise

Wow! If this is the new, less accessible English, meaning-wise, that is going to accompany us into the nightmare future, I might just have to reassess my opinion that I am not a Luddite.

Is she enjoying the Charlie and Lola comics, themselves? I hope so.

As I said, Raven, it is one of our shared, pleasurable experiences. There are, of course, those few moments when she seems to be less focused than I consider reasonable, but as she is plonked on my lap at such times, I find it quite easy to put my hand over her mouth and pinch her nose. She soon wakes up, and we get back to where we left off. She realises that I'm not at all inconsiderate, because I'm always prepared to backtrack a few panels just to remind her of the way the story was developing. So yes, she enjoys it.

[colcool007]

Still no edit function...*sigh*

"I doubt that the loss - if there indeed is any - would be more than marginal"

Found it and put it back on. I must have hit the wrong button. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

[Phoenix]

A clutter-free future!

One surprising effect of that, given the removal of any need to store the clutter, could well be that smaller houses will become more acceptable than they are now, which will lead inexorably to a situation where small houses will be more expensive than large ones. At that point I might just be able to afford to move to a property in London large enough to house my story paper collection in comfort.

[Bigwords]

Oh, and as for DVD box sets, people will be signed up to Netflix type arrangements, won't they, with unlimited shows and films streamed to their TVs or whichever devices they favour? A clutter-free future!

The paper-free future was mooted in the eighties, and we are far from attaining that. I honestly can't imagine there not being periodicals available, nor some form of scheduled entertainment - the "huge success" of Curb Your Enthusiasm wasn't as clear-cut as some outlets (especially blogs with a vested interest) like to make out. Physical media will always have a place.

[Bigwords]

Still no edit function...*sigh*

I honestly didn't mean that post to come off as snarky as it might have seemed. It has been a long week.

[Raven]

I honestly can't imagine there not being periodicals available, nor some form of scheduled entertainment - the "huge success" of Curb Your Enthusiasm wasn't as clear-cut as some outlets (especially blogs with a vested interest) like to make out. Physical media will always have a place.

You don't see the demise of linear TV scheduling due to on-demand? Schedules are already meaningless to many people who use PVRs and the like. There'll be some form of scheduled entertainment - news coverage and live event TV like The X Factor-type Finals, etc. I'm sure, but mostly people will pick things for themselves to watch in their own time.

What's the relevance of Curb Your Enthusiasm here? (I'm not sure what incidents you're referring to there.)

There'll probably always be some forms of paper periodical available but surely as an increasingly minority interest?

Physical media will always have a place.

For us, who grew up attached to it, but for future generations, with on demand access to whatever information and entertainment they want, at any time, as the alternative?

[Raven]

Still no edit function...*sigh*

Found it and put it back on. I must have hit the wrong button. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

I still don't have the edit function.

[Bigwords]

What's the relevance of Curb Your Enthusiasm here? (I'm not sure what incidents you're referring to there.)

The last season was released on the internet rather than on a network, and it was hailed by some as the end of television as we know it. A detail which a lot of people have missed when talking about that fact is the unique - and hard to replicate easily - circumstances which led to that. Same with Dr. Horrible's success online - the episodes vanished from free-to-view so that DVD sales could happen. I am not convinced that anyone wants streaming-only as the default position for television, just the same as I find internet-based comics hard to square against what I see taking place in bookshops. Strips intended solely for the internet have been collected in various editions for the past decade, and it is - if anything - increasing.

If we are going to lose comics (a thought I contest), then it won't be to the internet, it will be to graphic novels and paperbacks.

[Bigwords]

Uh... I don't have edit capabilities yet either.