Fifth Degree: Publisher Bait and Switch
American Vampire #6
by Josh Crawley
Picture the scene: you walk into the comic book store, scan the racks, and find a comic book — aside from the entertainment provided — that’s a pleasing little artifact. Maybe it has extra pages, or even just a cover paper stock you really, really like.
Fast forward a month, maybe two, or maybe just two weeks (this is comics, where any one of those could be on-time or late). You walk into the store and look for the second artifact in your collection. Once found, it doesn’t have quite the same luster as the first. After purchasing your little treasure and getting it home, you realize the true difference: inexplicably, the cover stock has changed. (No, I’m not going to say you have a disorder and before someone — correctly or not — diagnoses me with one, bear with me.)
This is a form of bait and switch, and I have no clue as to how this is supposed to help our industry. Publishers, we’re struggling enough to survive in this economy, and we don’t need any more help in making selling product difficult.
“Surely, Josh, this isn’t such a big deal. It doesn’t happen too often,” you say.
True, it isn’t the world tearing apart at the seams because then we wouldn’t be able to read our comics!
Seriously, though, it seems like it happens once every month or two, though what spurned me to write is that it’s happened two weeks in a row. Last week, American Vampire #6 shipped from DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. The issue shipped with a much glossier cover stock and smoother interior paper stock than the first five issues. Seems like an upgrade — if, unlike me, you’re a fan of highly reflective covers — until you factor in that there are ten fewer pages of comics for the same price.
Considering some may have expected those extra pages since there was no mention of Stephen King no longer writing a story for the title anywhere either in those issues (as I’m sure you know by now, not everyone follows all the news, announcements, etc.), those arguably-better paper stocks don’t seem to make up the difference.
This week Thor: For Asgard #2 will make the cover stock switch the other direction: it’s going from really glossy #1 to a less reflective cover for #2. Combine this with my issues with movie-related comic gluts, and you can see how I’d be annoyed, right?
Thank you!
“But Josh, you usually buy the softcover — if not hardcover — collection, so this doesn’t affect your collection,” you say.
John Byrne's Next Men Vol. 1
Sadly, you’d be mistaken. John Byrne’s Next Men Premiere Collection Volume 1 is an inch narrower and an inch and a half shorter than Volume 2. It’s comparable to putting a Marvel Omnibus Edition next to a DC Absolute Edition; except IDW published both of them.
Don’t agree with me that it’s detrimental to the industry? Want to back me up? Please, feel free to leave a comment below, send an email to josh@westfieldcomics.com, or keep an eye out for the post on our Facebook page.
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster at Westfield Comics. He may not be the keyboardist for Everclear.
September 14th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Josh,
I think you are playing fast and loose with the term “bait and switch.”
The definition of “bait and switch” given in the link in your article is “In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at a low price or with many features, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available at the original price or list of assumed features, but something different is.” I don’t understand how that fits any of the examples you give.
In the case of “American Vampire” and “Thor: For Asgard,” you’re getting exactly what was promised – same story and creators listed in the solicitation. Paper stock wasn’t mentioned as that hasn’t been a selling point since the 80s when comics started being printed on Baxter paper. Occasionally you’ll be told if there’s a gatefold cover or a cardstock cover, but that’s it.
In the case of Next Men, I can’t find the original solicitations, so I don’t know if the size of the volumes was specified, yet you still received a hardcover with all the contents as advertised.
Were formats changed? Yes. Did you still receive everything as promised and advertised? Yes. It’s obvious that the change in format upset you, but this is not by definition “bait and switch.”
And to the bigger question of do I think this is detrimental comics? No. I think what is printed on the paper is more helpful or hurtful to comics than what kind of paper it’s printed on.
Roger