Comics Formatting is Fucked

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>>93086438
This is why I mostly read 70s/80s comics.

Decompression can work if a writer has a lot of story that truly needs 6 issues, but usually it works out to 2 issues of content (at most) stretched out over 6 issues or more.

I can think of just one current series that does done-in-ones all the time: Nick Fury. There are occasional issues of other series (like Batman #23) and I pick those up when I'm aware of them.

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nah

this post is retarded

>>93086438
Writers have been writing for trades for ages. The fact is to grab most readers you need a reason for them to come back next month, and that means arcs.

Floppies are becoming increasingly outdated as more people are buying trades.

>>93086485
Yeah, I'm starting to prefer older comics because they get on with it. Even in the 80s up to the late 90s, longer arcs at least felt like there was enough substance to fill up multiple issues.

I can't help but speculate that current decompression is the result of laziness, since it means you don't have to come up with a plot every month.

>>93086543
>"I'm content with being a sucker."

>>93086438
Its your own fault for buy floppies you fucking sucker.

>>93086438
Warren Ellis' The Authority happened.

>>93086578
>Floppies are becoming increasingly outdated as more people are buying trades.
Then why bother wasting resources on an outdated format? Is there any good reason for not releasing single issues as digital, then collecting them in physical trade? Like, I get wanting a physical copy and all, but does anyone really give a shit about floppies anymore?

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>>93086438
Compressed story telling neccessitates certain story telling techniques that are today seen as undesirable.
Omniscient narrators, thought bubbles, characters vocalizing their own thoughts and motivations or other things like these are sort of required to really compress stories to the point where you can tell a story in 18 pages.
Today, people just don't want to put up with those techniques anymore. They want more expansive, natural dialogue with individual facial expressions being portrayed in the panels and they want more detailed action sequences.

>>93086684
Diamond would rather crash the industry entirely than give up its monopoly on floppies distribution.

>>93086687
Those techniques aren't bad and can be used to good effect. A good example of which is Moore's Miracleman. The omniscient narrator is done by way of the character's narration of what can't be adequatly shown.

>>93086438
Don't know what you are reading, but the books that I am reading (Superman, Batman, Justice League, Green Lanterns) have done-in-one single issues.

"Justice League" had one two days ago.

>>93086835
>Batman
King's run had multiparter after multiparter.

>Reading individual issues
Do people really still do this?

>>93086848
>brave and the mold and the two-part catwoman story
>spooky forest episode in superman
>the two parters like dinosaur island, frankenstein, supersons
>cant comment on JL
>the halloween issue of GL and probably another one

Some of them yeah, but I like a one and done and a multi part arc to vary a little

Grayson was great at this as well

>>93086687
I don't buy that. Seems to me that comes down to a matter of the creative team's skill. You don't need a million beat panels to get across how a character feels about something.

>>93086940
Compression vs decompression isn't down to a matter of skill. On their own they're just tools themselves.

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>>93086438
Try reading something not by the big 2.

>>93086848
"The Brave and the Mold" was a single issue. So was the annual.

>>93087024
Will you indie-fags please just fuck off for once.

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I always see this used as an example of a compressed comic series done well. Which just entrenches my preference for decompressed comics.

>>93086438
>When did we as customers become okay with waiting a month to pay for a piece of a story,

When Bendis happened.

>>93087061
Only when capeshitfags all kill themselves.

>>93087024
Just as decompressed as anything by the big two.

Archie is the only one that regularly does done-in-ones, and even that's been eroded by decompression in the New Riverdale books.

>>93087067
Hi Bendis

>>93087115
Bendis the writer?

>>93086438
>Whatever happened to done-in-one single issues?

Warren Ellis invented "wide-screen comics" as an excuse to fill issues with full and double page spreads, which are pretty, but obliterate storytelling real estate per issue.

>>93087599
>spreads
Holy fuck, spreads are their own special breed of cancer.

>>93086684
>Then why bother
$$$
Comics is one of the few mediums in which people willingly buy the same stories at least two times.
I mean, there is a reason why the "best selling" floppy each week doesn't go over a few dozen-thousand. Only collectors, the uninitiated, and those who for whatever reason feel the need to keep supporting the capeshit genre buy floppies, and even fewer know what a good story is.
Tl;dr stop reading capeshit if you're going to complain about decompression in comics, read a graphic novel and support ongoings that are actually good.

>>93087831
>indie-fags fellating "graphic novels"
No, seriously. Fuck off. Your pretentious yammering got old ages ago.

I feel like everything is catching this.

Shows and movies aren't self contained. Everything has to be a continuing arc, rambling from ep to ep

I don't mind continuity from episode to episode but when you have to keep watching forever to get one conclusion, then fuck it. Especially since the show, comic, whatever is probably going to get cancelled or rebooted before they ever conclude anything.

Comic BUSINESS
Longer interesting comics = people coming buying it
Longer comics = more sales | trades of the same comics = adds more sales for the same amount of work
If people wouldn't buy more those kinda comics when they first came out now it's kinda late. But you know how you can bring back that kind of story telling?
Wait until a similar kind of a story comes out and make that fucking issue no1 of the entire year. Make it have like 100k+ or more sales each month.
If not, nothing will change

>>93088362
>>Shows and movies aren't self contained. Everything has to be a continuing arc, rambling from ep to ep

This is my biggest gripe. More movies now have "Part 1" and "Part 2" to them. Shows like South Park don't feel as fun to watch anymore because its gotten so serialized, and its plots have already been pretty thin over the past few years to begin with. You have stuff like Daredevil being described as "a thirteen hour movie", which is nice to a point but makes it harder to enjoy individual episodes.

>>93086438
When they started writing a story long enough to need multiple issues.

Yeah some are decompressed but others would you honestly say you'd enjoy more if they were short enough to fit into 1-2 issues instead of 5?

>>93089641
Doesn't help that page count has been cut down over the years.

>>93088225
As if cape comics are any better.

>>93086438
Single issue stories sell worse than long-term ongoing stories when it comes to comics. Comic fans (well, Marvel and DC fans) want stories that "matter" to the rest of the universe. That's why big events always sell.

Floppies are outdated i feel. I love holding one as much as anyone else, but digital for weeklies and trades for collecting and full stories is a much more convenient system

>>93086485
>This is why I mostly read 70s/80s comics.

They were perfect. Built up long-running plots but still a single issue had plenty of meat in it. Much more character development than you see these days and supporting characters actually existed and got built up as well.

It's very odd what has happened with supporting casts in general. You'd think with decompression it would at least provide more space for those minor characters, but instead it means less focus and attention.

>>93086684
>Is there any good reason for not releasing single issues as digital

They don't make enough money. Digital sales are only 10% of physical. At the big 2 you still have to pay creative teams a guaranteed rate. Far more people buy floppies than digital and digital is not growing at all.

Eventually trades might sell enough to where a guaranteed failure would still cover production costs, but we are not even close to being there yet. Don't ask stupid questions like this.

>>93088362
This is why I don't watch new TV shows anymore. I just find things that are already finished.

>>93090723
This is honestly my main gripe with decompression. Somehow the longer stories are less substantial, which should not be possible, yet here we are.

It seems like there's this odd focus on action lately, even though, as a static medium, comic fight scenes are just not that interesting.

And again, we're waiting around for a month to pay for merely a piece of a story, when it used to be a complete tale each release date. I feel like I'm being ripped off here.

>>93090965
And I think worse than supporting casts this has almost killed the concept of team books. They're just a bunch of people doing nothing. No characterization. No meaningful developments.