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[Victorian Squid]

http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/10/21/marvel-layoffs-the-cheapskate-is-coming-from-inside-the-house-of-ideas/

Anybody see this today? I'm pretty sure these lay offs will lead to a quality drop, as remaining employees are rushed to do their own work and the work of the people let go.

Wow that guy sounds like a major tool.

Agreed 500%. Him and Dan Didio are the only two people in comics I would celebrate losing their jobs.

Really? 'Cause it sounds like you need to add one more name to your list from that article to me!

[Jubilee]

Ironies abound. Ike’s ban on carrying inventory means that Marvel’s book division has a fraction of the success it should have. To show how shortsighted this is, having a strong backlist hit is like being able to print your own money. You print more WATCHMEN, current kerfuffle aside, you sell more WATCHMEN. You print more DARK KNIGHT, you sell more DARK KNIGHT. With Marvel’s incredible backlog of timeless classics by Stan, Jack, Steve, Roy, Chris, and so on — and modern stories like CIVIL WAR and SECRET INVASION — can you imagine how much money Marvel would make if they could really invest in their bookstore program or develop NEW stories for the book trade?

------------

[Jubilee]

The problem with Ike’s Way is that it doesn’t have a plan for the future beyond squeezing other people’s ideas to the bone.



Yeah sure, it's Ike's fault that. The comic industry has only been doing it for 30 years at least.

[SilverPhoenix]

Wow that guy sounds like a major tool.



Really? 'Cause it sounds like you need to add one more name to your list from that article to me!

*Reads the Article* And you're absolutely right on that one. To say that this article is an eye-opener is quite the understatement of the year. While I've been extremely unhappy with Marvel's creative input for pretty much the past year (since Atlas got canceled), the fact that a giant part of my unhappiness can truly be pinned on Corporate polices gives me both a new perspective and vindicates that I think the industry (and medium's next revolution) isn't going come from either Marvel, DC (at the end of the day, Dan Didio is still running the publishing arm and will fuck this up in one way or another) or even Image (which is still far too tied to the Direct Market).

It's going to come from some company we're not expecting it from, or from a company that doesn't exist yet.

[DMM]

Sad for those Involved but about time things were cut, next step I'd Cull the talent (hint cosmic marvel, non bendis avengers and x factor aren't selling)

X-factor is awesome. Bendis sucks.

[Victorian Squid]

*Reads the Article* And you're absolutely right on that one. To say that this article is an eye-opener is quite the understatement of the year. While I've been extremely unhappy with Marvel's creative input for pretty much the past year (since Atlas got canceled), the fact that a giant part of my unhappiness can truly be pinned on Corporate polices gives me both a new perspective and vindicates that I think the industry (and medium's next revolution) isn't going come from either Marvel, DC (at the end of the day, Dan Didio is still running the publishing arm and will fuck this up in one way or another) or even Image (which is still far too tied to the Direct Market).

It's going to come from some company we're not expecting it from, or from a company that doesn't exist yet.

The day the news of the lay-offs broke, there were numerous messages and tweets from folks like Jimmy Palmiotti and others decrying the corporate culture at Marvel and elsewhere, and stressing both the need to support creators' owned projects (with some contradicting the usual comments from people here who make massive assumptions about how profitable they are or can be) and emphasizing the switch to digital as a key part of moving away from that [corporate culture].

On the one hand, I agree with the importance of choosing where you spend your dollars, on the other hand, at some point eliminating the print medium will lose those dollars spent from me entirely.

[Jubilee]

I think were seeing something major happening folks. I think were gonna see creator owned projects do very well soon, it seems to be moving that was

[Spidey-Man]

creator titles don't sell all that well.

I was wondering who that Pondscum guy was. Thought maybe it was some team.

Sorry to see layoffs but the industry is squeezed. it's not making a ton of money and it's best days are beyond it-sales wise and imo quality wise.

so i guess it was inevitable

anyway. i will spend my money on what i like. not on what some "pro" tells me is the right way to spend it.

I mean to me the quality dropped a long time ago

It wouldn't hurt the remaining people to feel the eye of the tiger again. the best work is often not done from a position of comfort.

[Victorian Squid]

*Reads the Article* And you're absolutely right on that one. To say that this article is an eye-opener is quite the understatement of the year. While I've been extremely unhappy with Marvel's creative input for pretty much the past year (since Atlas got canceled), the fact that a giant part of my unhappiness can truly be pinned on Corporate polices gives me both a new perspective and vindicates that I think the industry (and medium's next revolution) isn't going come from either Marvel, DC (at the end of the day, Dan Didio is still running the publishing arm and will fuck this up in one way or another) or even Image (which is still far too tied to the Direct Market).

It's going to come from some company we're not expecting it from, or from a company that doesn't exist yet.

So a day or two after firing a bunch of people, Marvel announced a search for 27 unpaid student interns to do some rather familiar-sounding jobs...

[SilverPhoenix]

The day the news of the lay-offs broke, there were numerous messages and tweets from folks like Jimmy Palmiotti and others decrying the corporate culture at Marvel and elsewhere, and stressing both the need to support creators' owned projects (with some contradicting the usual comments from people here who make massive assumptions about how profitable they are or can be) and emphasizing the switch to digital as a key part of moving away from that [corporate culture].

On the one hand, I agree with the importance of choosing where you spend your dollars, on the other hand, at some point eliminating the print medium will lose those dollars spent from me entirely.

And this where I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. I personally don't think that the print format is going to go away completely, simply because there is still a market for the Trade/Graphic Novel format. However, the floppy format is on borrowed time and while I may end up missing it due to my nostalgia for it, However, I feel that the medium needs a inexpensive barrier of entry for it to become the viable money-maker we all want it to be.

[Victorian Squid]

And this where I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. I personally don't think that the print format is going to go away completely, simply because there is still a market for the Trade/Graphic Novel format. However, the floppy format is on borrowed time and while I may end up missing it due to my nostalgia for it, However, I feel that the medium needs a inexpensive barrier of entry for it to become the viable money-maker we all want it to be.

Well--it already is, for a number of small publishers who've announced just this year an end to print and conversion to digital, most recently Shonen Jump.

I don't think we're disagreeing there from what you say, but when there's no longer a weekly walk down the racks for what you call "floppies", I won't have any incentive to seek out anything new beyond hardcovers of a few favorite individual creatorsw (hich I already do buy now). If it ain't out there for me to eyeball, I won't be going out of my way to seek it out--just like all the tens of thousands of webcomics out there now, they are lost to me in a sea of e-sameness whether they are collected and published later or not, largely, outside of the few names I know from print. Those weekly trips for comics are the number one place I discover new things the medium has to offer, and how many struggling artists, writers, etc gain exposure.

[mrorangesoda]

So a day or two after firing a bunch of people, Marvel announced a search for 27 unpaid student interns to do some rather familiar-sounding jobs...

Saw that today. What a bunch of horseshit.

[Victorian Squid]

Saw that today. What a bunch of horseshit.

I'm sure Rob can tell you why it's awesomeness.

Unfortunately, it turns out @OccupyMarvel is just a way for staffers to schedule their name on the waiting list for the single bathroom in the offices.

[Stalzer2002]

[
I don't think we're disagreeing there from what you say, but when there's no longer a weekly walk down the racks for what you call "floppies", I won't have any incentive to seek out anything new beyond hardcovers of a few favorite individual creatorsw (hich I already do buy now). If it ain't out there for me to eyeball, I won't be going out of my way to seek it out--just like all the tens of thousands of webcomics out there now, they are lost to me in a sea of e-sameness whether they are collected and published later or not, largely, outside of the few names I know from print. Those weekly trips for comics are the number one place I discover new things the medium has to offer, and how many struggling artists, writers, etc gain exposure.

That's interesting. For me, it was the complete opposite. When I broke the monthly habit, it also broke the habit of the things I was reading. It gave me a chance to try things I might not have otherwise, like Scalped, Unknown Solider and the Sixth Gun.

[Spidey-Man]

It' s not awesome, it's not horseshit, it is what it is



There's a massive economic crisis

everyone's feeling the pinch

layoffs in all fields

People asked to do more for less or the same



Why would the comics industry be immune? Especially when you people, and others, are buying less comics these days-far less than three years ago

I mean every month for two years some fields have lost thousands of people. Why this hits closer to home and means more to people here i have no idea. because they make your incredible hulk comics?

Comics are hardly a necessity. people are giving them up and spending money where it counts.