The Big Picture: Continanity: Rebooted

[Smokescreen]

I'd have to agree about the marketing problem. I've been reading comics for years and it's only been recently that new readers could be told: hey, pick up this trade paperback; it's a great story and totally give you a reason to care about this character.

I partially disagree with the digital release: DC really fucks a lot of longtime comic book stores-you know, the ones that kept their books alive for five generations-by doing the release on the same day. Even a 24 hour wait would have been a decent kindness to the stores that have helped keep them in the public eye.

And I'm not utterly opposed to digital distribution, merely that digital distribution comes with the occasional issue, not the least of which seems to be that they can take it away from you.

And I don't like having things I've bought taken from me.

 

[Draconalis]

I have to ask, what's up with the accent?

Yeah... my whole comment was going to be:

"Did he always have such a thick accent?"

 

[GeorgW]

Wow, the Boston accent really shot through the roof today. Also, loved the episode, some really good points.

 

[The Great JT]

That second part, the "put comics where new readers can find them" bit is the part that prohibits me from reading. I don't have any bookstores, comic or otherwise, anywhere near me and I the only place in town that sells books (the local Wal-Mart) doesn't have 'em.

The digital distribution method is a good idea, but again, Bob is right and that most of the reason we're hearing and buying the new stuff is because DC IS ACTUALLY ADVERTISING THE BOOKS.

 

[TStormer]

He said in another video that his accent bleeds through when he gets passionate.

I still lol'd every time he used it.

As for the actual vid: This might be the chance for me to get into comics.

 

[ManupBatman]

Moviebob newbs. He brings in the accent when ever he wants to give the impression he wants to lay down the law.

Guess you guys came in mid stream >.>

Also this video is being linked to several of my comicbook friends. I'm sure they feel the same way. I mean these characters were spandex, it's really not that complicated.

 

[MrMisfit]

Thanks to everyone who replied to my 1st comment. I like the boston accent on Bob. He should use it more often.

 

[luvd1]

Downloading your comic. It's the future today.
To be honest. The idea of buying a paper comic seems absurd to me now. It's like buying separate chapters instead of the whole book. and I agree, I've never cared about the messed up history coz no matter what unless your 80 years old you'll always jump in some where in the middle. Everyone knows about the joker, but who has read the first dust up between batman and joker? Though saying that I like the new slate dc are doing coz the history is pretty messing with pointless story lines that didn't work and hangs around like hangnail. Best cut them all out or you'll start pulling and we all know what a bad idea that is.

 

[Lieju]

I have problems with starting a comic mid-way. Or a tv-series, or book-series.
But that's because of my OCD-type of a thing.

So with this reboot I might actually get into some American comics...
Until a character appears in some other book or the storyline is a cross-over, and then I have not read them in order after all, and ARGGH! and I go back to manga.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Comic books just aren't a good entertainment value for your money and as the great comic crash showed they are about as good an investment value as paperbacks.

Seriously modern comics are maybe 13 pages of content and 7-8 pages of obnoxious ads. That just isn't worth the asking price of $3-4.

The trade paperbacks are a much better value but those aren't available for a long time until after anyone remotely interested has either shelled out money for the paperbacks or has stopped caring.

Reading comics on a tablet or pc doesn't work unless you happen to have a monitor that you can easily set up in portrait mode. A 6-7" tablet is way too small for comics, and a 10" ipad is an acceptable size but then you have the same poor value position. You get 12 pages of content for $2-4 and you can't even display it on your shelf.

Comics are another one of those sadly dying industries that just can't survive the internet age.

 

[Zing]

It's like I'm really watching The Departed.

 

[deleted_by_strongbad]

I like that every comment is about the accent, hell I never even look at the comments let alone post one, congrats bob you've got us all talking about it. I know the current theory is that this is your normal accent, but it sounds much less natural than I normally hear so was it your natural accent, you trained yourself more into the neutral-midwest/american-generic and now for some reason you are trying to do something between cliche new york mobster, depression era newsie, and jfk? Sorry if that's actually the way you sound, not trying to poke fun, but its weird because none of my new york/boston/general east coast friends sound like that, who does sound like that are my chicago friends after we've had too much to drink and are trying to sound like our east coast friends .

chowdaaaaah!

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

When the Boston accent comes out of Bob, you know shit's about to get real...

 

[Swarles]

Wow, you were talking like the Game Anti-Thinker there Bob.

 

[DTWolfwood]

yes advertisements actually work :O

what a novel idea. XD

 

[Canadamus Prime]

How is his voice changing from the usual voice to another... different American accent. I can't name it.

He sounds like a post-game commentator for the Yankees.

Sounded to me like he was doing an impersonation of a character from The Godfather.

 

[Rorigon]

But the crazy thing is, once i noticed, i couldn't unotice and the rest of the episode went right over my head.... need to rewatch

lol, same here. I kept trying to figure out why he was slipping into a Boston accent, and wondering if I'd just never noticed it before. Got used to it though by the 3 minute mark.

Good episode, though. I'm always interested in the comic episodes, since I don't really know much about them.

 

[drisky]

I have to ask, what's up with the accent?

I just figured he made an obligatory reboot of his accent, so that new fans know he is from Massachusetts (although it sounded form New Jersey).

 

[Mr. Omega]

The biggest thing that keeps me from keeping up with comics has been location. There's a comic shop on my campus... all the way on the other side of the campus. And no bus goes near there. So hearing about the fact that the new 52 comics will be released digitally will be very helpful for me. And yes, comics have had an advertising problem for a while now. I only got back into comics because my local libraries have some big sections full of the collected volumes of story arcs.

 

[Avistew]

Awesome! Bob's real voice! Me likey.
I think you have a point, but comics also tend to have more issues and go on for longer than the other media you mentioned. Okay, Dr Who has tons of seasons but you could technically consider each new Doctor some kind of reboot.
I think what would be good for comics is to actually end them at some point and start a new one. But I'm all for the commercial idea too.
On that note, here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idCfan_nMhM] is a commercial for a French-language graphic novel. The text is in French but you can always look at the pictures, I guess.

I also see posters advertising BDs (that's how we call graphic novels here) all the freaking time. I've picked up lots of series due to simply seeing the poster in the subway or in the street. It works.
I do think we relate to sequential art differently though. Series get one release per year (50 or so pages) and it's pretty much always hardcover, for instance.