GroupThink: The Comics Consumer Experience Fall 2013

In the GroupThink feature, I type out a few thoughts about a general comics industry issue and then throw it open to as many of you out there that want to provide a thought or two on the matter. In this way I hope to focus the collective mental energy of CR readers in a way that doesn't involve having a constant open door to the site.

Once or twice a year, I like to think out loud about the experience of engaging with comics from a consumer/patron's standpoint. So I throw it open to you. What things would you like to see change in the way that you engage with comics as someone that just walked in the door or turns on their computer and wants to buy or interact with some comics? Don't think of what's good for comics, or what you think comics should be: think selfishly, in terms of what you like, what would work best for you.

To distinguish this entry from previous and future installments, let's break it down in to three categories: print comics, digital comics, everything else. I'll go first.

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As a consumer of print comics, I continue to find frustrating the fact that I can never get a firm answer on what is available to me as a consumer through the direct market system of hobby and comics shops. Print comics is my preferred way to read comics and buying them in comics shops is my preferred way to purchase them. However, with digital comics generally and with print comics purchased at major bookstores and through Amazon.com, it is very easy for me to determine if the book I want is available for sale and/or order. As someone in a town without a comics shop, knowing if I can pick up a comic or have it ordered and waiting for me when I do get to a comics shop would lead to hundreds of dollars spent through those retailers. What I tend to get in phone or in person when I ask for a book is a) confusion, b) outright falsehood, c) someone suggesting I not buy the book there, d) someone expressing uncertainty that this book can be ordered at all, let alone in a timely fashion.

Not all stores are like this. But three of the seven I've spent money in this year were.

I urge comics to make a greater industry value of being able to quickly and professionally ascertain what's available and when it can be made available in all of its primary markets. I believe this is possible because of the small number of major distributors working this market. If it's not possible, if there is a mechanism or a difficulty with which I'm unfamiliar, I would like to see the orientation of those shop owners with whom I work change in a way to better reflect that they simply don't know and/or can't give me the information I require. I am sick of being exhausted out of making a purchase.

In terms of digital comics, as a consumer I'd like to see more curated back issues in comic book form. I would enjoy being able to pick up several underground series -- say something from Gary Hallgren or from Bill Griffith -- in the comic book form rather than as part of a later collection. We have a number of small publishers working the trade collections market that it seems to me there would be room for something similar aimed at digital. Where are the curators and packagers for this new wave of digital comics consumption?

In terms of everything else, as a consumer I'd like to see conventions and festival continue to play with alternatives to the comics-as-flea-market model. I love a big convention sales room, I really do. I enjoy buying comics, and like meeting the cartoonists. But I enjoy other interactions as well. I'm encouraged by shows like The Projects and Autoptic that give over a significant part of their core identity to something other than the big convention room; I am similarly interested when comics shows primarily focused on the traditional model stress these elements, like this year's MoCCA Fest and its surprisingly strong, back-of-the-room, original art display. I would like to see more and more people play around with the basic model not because I hate the basic model but because I think those flourishes are everything.

What about you?

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.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) I'll run the results as soon as I can.

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