r/comicbooks • u/OrionLinksComic • 21h ago
Discussion Image is leaving globalcomics, and I always feel like I'm becoming more and more excluded from the medium.
It sucks Balls, we were kind of suspicious that image pullout all new release from moments. But unfortunately they will be gone on 03. August, what a shame. Image Comic is a very important block if I'm honest, not only have they published the most important comic series for the last 20 years, but I also think you've brought back genres such as horror (TWD, Ice CreamMan, Infidel), crime (see all of Ed Brubaker, that Texas blood, Chu) and now somehow romance ( Bingo Love, Love Everlasting, SLEEPLESS), but also with it a diversity on POC and LGBTQ+ Comics ( SINS OF THE BLACK FLAMINGO and BITTER ROOT). I just had some "fun" and have now deleted all the series on my stack on the Global Comics app that come from Image Comics, from 1551 are now 1098, A lot of people would say that's not much, the thing is, it only charges per series, so it doesn't matter if it's a one shot or three omnibuses, so I could imagine if big things like Invincible or Saga would be hit hard. You also have to say that a Dark Horse or IDW, for example, wants to sell more of their comics there, So they already offer comics that you can read freely in gold ( Globalcomix subscription), or the beginning of a series, but then you come to a paywall and then you have to pay now and buy it. And of course we still hav Publisher that give many stuff on gold, see Madcave, Vault and co and absolutely nothing against them, I think it's good that we also show more from small publishers or one man comic publications, but I'm also a person who also claims that it somehow still sucks, especially when its important cornerstone of the modern comic world just disappears like that.
and we had already had the problem on this platform when Boom Studios and, well, oni left. Which was also a pretty big bummer in the first place because these two publishers also published books for different age groups. In general, I kind of have the feeling that this platform doesn't know what it wants to be, I kind of had the feeling at the beginning they didn't really want to be the new comixology per se, but a webtoon like thing, But only went this route because it revealed itself because everyone was desperately looking for a new home for their comics because Amazon had just destroyed one of the most important platforms. and I have absolutely nothing against web comics, don't get me wrong, but I also think there's a difference between amateur art, even if people find it a bit mean, and really things that are professional. especially with the fact that everyone can do something in some way, and so that the platform is flooded with, let's say, not so good stuff, or there is something popular that is also just really crap because it happens to the algorithm building up instead of really having any artistic value. and if this were a video essay, I would consciously make a gag somehow by pointing to MWM, But hey, if you really think you readership is that stupid and down to the lowest denominator, then you kind of deserve to be knocked down.
you know, I'm currently looking for a job, I lost my old job in a warehouse, and yes, I'm now financially worried about the money, I'm technically registered as unemployed and receive unemployment benefits, and believe me, here in Germany you are being watched like by vultures, and there are a lot of stories here in Germany where parents are punished because their children do holiday jobs, or because they have at least saved up the money to go to the cinema once a year. Plus, as I've written many times before, it's really crappy to get comics in Germany, not only because your selection is smaller, but also from a technical point of view because books in general are really expensive here in Germany. That's a bit of a fact, what you can read still depends on your wallet and how you get it. I would probably never have started reading crime comics in my life because I just didn't thought much of them in the beginning, but then I started reading some on this platform because it didn't cost me anything and I immediately fell in love with the genre. but also you want to start a series like that Saga, TWD or Astro City, you still have to dig deep into your pockets no matter what format you want to read them in, which somehow absolutely sucks.
and don't get me wrong, I know they have to make money, everything has to make money somehow, because at the end of the day each of us still has to put food on the table, or I would say cover costs for production because those in production also want to get food. The reason why individual comic issues are still sold is precisely because they are easy to produce and also bring in money straight away, especially if, for example, they are brand new comic ideas that don't have a brand title's or are very new in ideas or creatives. Of course, there is the graphic nobel market, or for example very noble collector's editions, but these are either more in their own world, or are things that are generally considered legendary in the beginning, Especially since they attract an audience that has a little more money in their pockets.
and I just kind of have the feeling, not just necessarily in comics and I'm not just the only one, That's there is excluded for people who don't have a lot of money in nerd spaces. Oh yes, the nerds really complain when it gets expensive, but I have often experienced how I get yelled at when I say the prices are too expensive for me, who is a low earner. I think the stupidest thing I ever received was from a guy who told me that someone like me doesn't deserve escapism because, well, can't afford it as a low-income earner and and later that he then complained about why the PS5 is so expensive. I mean, clearly the middle class is also feeling more and more that things are becoming more and more expensive, but I still always saw that at the end of the day the customer always gets the middle finger, and we are all somehow customers for some company at the end of the day. I like to play tabletop role-playing games with my friends, and we've even noticed how the prices are getting more and more expensive, or in general it's difficult to keep up with them. But I think it's even worse with video games, especially because they're also extremely expensive because of things like Hardware, Regardless of whether you play on the PC or console games, unfortunately you still have to dig deep into your pockets, and in the future it will get even worse, and yes, games are also becoming more and more expensive, and that's really shit, I mean we've already heard that, about the news, that GTA 6 may will cost 100 US dollars, or that the next Playstation will no longer use disc's.
I'm really noticing that art and culture are becoming more and more expensive especially for people like me and my friends, and we are prepresented everything from the unemployed to McDonald's staff, all of whom are paid shitty and are still part in society. What's the point of art and culture if it's not for the people, but only for people who can afford it? Back then, theater was a medium for the masses, the most important plays from ancient Greece, when do think about it where popcorn entertainment and now they are so high culture that they are no longer accessible to lower people, I mean, I'm really glad that Christos Odyssey Adoption is so successful in the cinema precisely because of that. a strange little sin of my youth, Back then I stole non-fiction books from bookstores, at the lowest end of the German education system callt Hauptschule You can really forget it if you're interested in history or cultural things, because they think you're too stupid for it anyway, and teaching myself will also be complicated because, as I said, the internet is full of shit, and books are, as always, extremely expensive in Germany. Ironically, I turned it into a comic idea about a guy who breaks into a university library and is then chased by crazy people who believe that the poetry of an opium addict shithead is somehow a holy text and thry have to make human sacrifices.
And what does that say about a world where you can only get its most important foundation (Literatur, Culture, co) as a lower class citizen by getting them illegally? I'm someone who says piracy isn't really a solution, just a bad band-aid on a gunshot wound, because we really have a fundamental problem in society as a whole, that people are just generally excluded if they have little money or a lower in society. I think people have a right to culture, and it doesn't matter in what form, and I see in the future that dream will be even more further away. I noticed that in my second job, which I have now lost in this warehouse, I earned less than in the supermarket where I had my first job, and I want to be honest about what's going on in general, I earn maybe even less in the next if i am unlucky, what is standard for me.
and do you also have these feelings?
