It’s also important to separate out people in general, and those on the internet. People on the internet complain. About everything. And they are certainly not, in any way, representative of the general public.”

right because internet users aren’t real people at all and comic book fans especially never EVER use the internet.

Sounds interesting but not for every one….

You are in effect saying that because of the way things are now, no serialized book should realistically expect a significant amount of new readers after the first issue is published.

If that’s the case, then for the publisher, there is no reason to overprint any subsequent issues beyond the first one, because that first issue sets the readership bar for that series, and the circulation for every issue after that will have the same circulation or less. As a matter of fact, it will always be less, because, as you point out, such a serialized title is not designed to attract new readers, and there will always have readers who drop a series after initially being on board. From a retailer’s standpoint, there’s no reason to order any more copies than the previous issue of any given title, and little reason to have large amounts of rack space.

Can’t you see that this is the antithesis of good business practices, which emphasizes growth — i.e., increasing one’s customer base?

This is why I think rampant serialization in comics is bad for business — especially in the long term. You and some others may like it because it makes you feel part of an exclusive clique, but such exclusionary practices, if widespread, kill one’s customer base.

It would be one thing if a miniseries or a six-, 12- or 18-month-long story arc were done only occasionally, but they now appear to be the norm. And this new norm, I say, is not conducive to the health and growth of the industry.

Imagine if Marvel had such an “anti-growth” philosophy in 1961 – one that eschews new readers and focuses almost exclusively on serialization and a relatively small and select readership base. If they had, the “Amazing Spider-Man” miniseries would have come and gone, and no doubt, the character would now be long-forgotten.

I’d also add that manga–which sells exceptionally well–is exactly the same. A new reader would be just as lost in the 40th volume of Naruto as in the 40th issue of Green Lantern. It’s the nature of sequential stories.

Not neccessarily. Comics have changed fundamentally from the time Jim Shooter was a heavy hitter. The fact that most arcs within a storyline are setup as part ___ of ___ is just one example. IF your picking up part 4 of 5 on a book that clearly states it there should be some expectation that you are maybe not going to understand all of what is going on as it is stands. Expecting anything short of this is lofty at best.

Reading and enjoying are different from being able to comprehend. I comprehend the Fountainhead but I don’t enjoy it.

I know this is heresy in some circles, but the storytelling in comics has changed, good, bad or indifferent. THe days of the one in done stories, hell even the days of Levitz and his triangulkar storytelling in Legion are over becaus ethe nature of the business with trades and all has changed. This doesn’t mean the story telling in these books is bad, it’s just different.

And, as any successful business manager will also tell you, a business generally doesn’t enjoy success by FORCING customers to “like it or lump it.”

In short, if a significant percentage of comic book customers are complaining that many of today’s stories are difficult to follow, than I think it would be wise to analyze the situation further, and if true, fix the problem. Trying to point fingers at the customers (i.e., inferring they’re just dumb), or rationalizing the issue away, is a recipe for failure.

I was complaining on a message board recently that the first issue of “Planetary” I decided to try (coincidentally, one of the final issues) was not only incomprehensible, but extremely boring. The response from one poster? “You were unlucky to probably pick one of the least new-reader friendly issues of it.”

Jim Shooter supposedly once said that every issue of every comic is always someone’s first, and I agree with that. I should be able to buy almost any comic book on the rack and be able to take it home, read it, and enjoy it.

I’m having a hard time doing that these days.

Like everyone else I think that both Marvel and DC have had some triumphs, tragedies and everything in between in the past few years, and the industry clearly has some issues, and maybe fresh blood would fix some of them. But I’m still enjoying myself, even if I occasionally complain about the wedgies in JLA, etc.

I fundamentally disagree with this statement. There’s a difference between wanting to know and needing to know information to understand story. It could just be difference in comprehension of the material or understanding of history in characters, but these are sequential comics and they are going to continue ongoing stories of the characters.

For every person who claims that “The Lightning Saga” or “Secret Invasion” or “Final Crisis” as indecipherable, I can tell you about people who have picked it up as their 1st comic in months, years, or ever (I work in a comic book store) and had no problem following the story based on the exposition in the piece and their basic knowledge of the characters (not to mention the fact that many of these things aren’t complete stories as of yet and so of course it’s not a completely story and maybe confusing because the STORY ISN’T FINISHED YET!)

There is a huge difference in basic comprehension needed to follow a story and wanting to know every detail or “easter egg” place dinto a story to understand how it all ties in. THey are two completely different things, and sometimes I feel like people overread things to the point of a lack of comprehension.

Again, there is a seeming need in everything today for instant gratification instead of being able to wait for things to play out. This especially ends up unfortunately in the negative kerfuffle (borrowed with thanks to Greg Rucka) that occurs over the last week. I mean, people’s need for instant gratification had Jimmy Palmioti installed as the new E-I-C of DC by Friday afternoon.