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Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Just a Thought About Mini-Series and Story Arcs
Doug: I'm about done with my Marvel collection as far as the eBay listings go. Yesterday I decided to take the lid off the first DC longbox and get some things ready to go live (they do later this evening if you're so inclined as to check them out -- information is on the sidebar). While much of my DC collection has been pared down through the years, I did hang onto some "key" issues, arcs, etc. here and there. Of note was what DC was doing in post-Crisis Batman comics.
Doug: In the years after the Crisis on Infinite Earths event, DC pursued a strategy similar to what was catching on at Marvel and within their own publications -- the mini-series. However, with Batman they chose to publish these within the regular monthly books rather than as stand-alone series. Your thoughts on that, pro or con?
Batman: Year One (Batman #s 404-407)
Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast (Batman #s 417-420)
Batman: Year Two (Detective Comics #s 575-578)
Batman: A Death in the Family (Batman #s 426-429)
Batman: Year Three (Batman #s 436-439)
Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying (Batman #s 440-442 and New Titans #s 60-61)
That's an interesting question, I had never thought about the post-Crisis approach with Batman before. Year One kind of makes sense to me because it was fresh off of Crisis and good timing to refresh the origin. But of course they did Man of Steel as a separate mini, could have done the same approach here.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this approach was a result of Dark Knight Returns being such a phenomenon, and wanting to market regular series story arcs as events in this same way. I think other than Year One, if the story arc wasn't part of current regular continuity, might be better as a mini. Otherwise, I don't think it was a big deal.
I guess "pro", since I've read several of those miniseries, but didn't follow the ongoing Batman or Detective series. Some of those were good (Dark Knight Returns, Year One,Year Two, Many Deaths) but I've always thought Death In The Family was a clunker. Ayatollah Khomeni hires Joker to be Iran's ambassador to the United Nations? Silly.
ReplyDeleteFor a character like Batman, who has several of his own ongoing series, it made a lot of sense to just incorporate these "landmark" stories into one of the regular titles.
ReplyDeleteI think that approach should have been adopted for Superman as well. I know the Man of Steel mini was supposed to introduce readers to the "new" Superman mythos, but since DC already decided to launch an additional Superman series (written and drawn by Byrne at first), the 6-issue mini could have instead simply been the initial issues of that title.
I think the "internal mini-series" idea works (as long as you don't miss an issue); obviously they were already starting to "write for the trades" at that point.
ReplyDeleteMike Wilson
Definitely pro. . . esp. for characters like Batman with more than one on-going title.
ReplyDeleteI see both sides of this strategy from a marketing standpoint. And looking at the "price guide", it doesn't seem like the lack of #1s has really impacted the prices of some of these story arcs. It seems like once DC saw the "specialness" of the prestige format they went that route with many of the Batman outside-the-regular-titles mini-series: Gotham by Gaslight, Ultimate Evil, The Cult, Two-Face Strikes Twice, etc.
ReplyDeleteMike W. -- what a cynic! ;) I hear ya, brother!
Doug
If I ran Marvel or DC, I'd save miniseries for out-of-continuity tales, stories by creative teams who would take a long time to create a comic, crossover events, and stories starring non-headlining super-heroes, villains, or supporting cast members. I'd keep all regular stories in the characters' monthly/ bi-monthly comics. I like that DC ran Mudpack, 10 Nights..., Year One, etc. in the regular Bat-books even after Dark Knight Returns was a successful mini-series.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't reading comics when the Man of Steel mini was released. Were the regular Superman comics on hold then, or did they run concurrently? If they were, I'm surprised DC didn't split the story across the regular Superman books the way Marvel split Kraven's Last Hunt among the Spider-Man series.
- Mike Loughlin
Mike --
ReplyDelete"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" closed both Superman and Action Comics after publication since the 1930s. Then the Crisis was published, and after that Man of Steel ran as (help me out here) a weekly (or bi-weekly) series before Superman launched again and Action Comics became the second wave of "DC Comics Presents" with Superman team-ups. I think it became Action Comics Weekly with #601 (again, correct me please if I'm off).
Doug
Doug, that's right, they put the Superman titles on hold to run Man of Steel bi-weekly over 3 months. Superman was then changed to Adventures of Superman (continued the numbering), and they launched a brand new Superman with an issue #1. Action just continued from where it left off.
ReplyDeleteThat's the different strategy...they were still producing 2 titles a month with the mini since it was bi-weekly (even did an alternate cover for the first issue which was not common back then), and then immediately expanded to the aforementioned 3 titles.
Ah, thanks Ewan!
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten off the top of the ol' noggin that Adventures had picked up the Superman numbering. And yes, the eponymous Superman was the Byrne vehicle after the conclusion of Man of Steel. I wonder if Man of Steel was the first comic with an alternate cover for the direct market?
By the way, did any of our readers win one of the 3,000 limited edition Man of Steel trades available only through direct market retailers (most likely in raffles of some sort)? I did -- it was basically just the six issue mini stitched together -- same exact books, just bound into a volume with a pretty generic cover.
Doug
Gotham by Gaslight - love it, and pretty much all things Elseworlds.
ReplyDeleteThe Cult - I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Worst Batman story ever (oddly compounded by the fact that the art was really nice. Such a waste of Wrightson's talent and effort.)
Thanks Doug & Ewan! I like that model, even if it only works for a big reboot. DC did something similar when they relaunched Justice League as JLA in the mid-'90s. They cancelled JLofA, then showed the Big 7 getting together in the mini-series Justice League: Midsummer's Nightmare before publishing JLA 1. The mini wet the appetite for the monthly.
ReplyDelete- Mike Loughlin
I like the concept of having the "mini" within the series where appropriate. I am not an avid DC follower so some of the nuances escape me, but I did own some of the "Year _" issues. Especially in long series like Batman and Detective, I think it is appropriate that they occasionally reboot or get away from the linear time constraints of an ongoing and ongoing and ongoing story. When a story is of an "other" or "alternative" world I can see more of a challenge.
ReplyDeleteUpon retrospect and In general, I probably prefer that "minis" be in the title. I think on the Marvel side that I would have preferred the Iceman, or Falcon, or Jack of Hearts minis to have been serialized as backups of XMen, Cap or Iron Man. I always liked backups and those tales weren't weighty enough for their own title. Or I would have just liked to have seen them in Premiere, or Presents, or Spotlight. I am sure the limited series had better sales, but from a collector's standpoint it got burdensome. So many seemed like tryouts that failed.
Good topic. Never thought about it before.
Another day, another rip job review of the Fantastic Four flick. This one comes from the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips, generally a friend to the superhero movie:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-fantastic-four-movie-review-20150805-column.html
Doug
The pro of the mini-series itself I think is that it could be used to tell a tale with more breathing room than what was the norm in the regular monthly title and also you could do mini series with characters that people enjoyed but were not necessarily characters than can hold their own monthly ongoing.
ReplyDeleteThe mini-series format could potentially even give characters who do have ongoing's a much needed breaking from the monthly grind. Creating some anticipation for them during the breaks and ensuring they don't wear out their welcome. With the way Batman did it obviously helps with collecting for trade because there's a more clearly defined start and end to a particular storyline.
The con of it at least in the way of doing it within the monthly title is that it seems to lead into the decompression syndrome we have now where your average issue feels like seeing 10 minutes of a movie and then being told to come back next month for the next ten minutes and btw you'll have to pay full admission price each time. Combined with the success of Crisis and Secret Wars also leads into the relentless onslaught of "events" and constant monkeying with the characters costume or status instead of just telling a damn story with them. It's not enough to have the events themselves but there has to be the event comic within the characters own title. "