Another Case For Physical Media (reposted BW article)

I’ve mentioned my other website, BW Media Spotlight, in the past here at the Clutter Reports and even used a few reviews as filler posts, since reviews are part of what I do here and these reviews are things I own and considering whether to remove or not. The books I reviewed here were also reviewed over there, only the book reviews here are an overview while the other site goes over them a chapter at a time. Even the times I’ve shown off new art supplies and my art desk were things I use to make logos and comics for my other site.

I’ve defended keeping physical media in the past, music in that case, how while going all digital sounds good on paper (pun intended) there are negatives that don’t always work. There’s nothing wrong with a comic, novel, video game, CD/cassette/record, or home video library if they are things you actually plan to read, play, or watch. Recent events with popular digital comic site ComiXology are another example. I want to get rid of the comics I don’t want to read anymore, making a digital archive for my website’s purposes (it will easier to look them up and get the panels I need) but having that comic in my hands and knowing it stays mine is a good thing. What follows is my look at the changes ComiXology went through after being bought by Amazon, the recent huge layoff alert, and why the paper stuff is still a good option. I’ve made a few changes if I thought the more casual fans that would stumble on this site would find something hard to follow or don’t follow my other site. Here’s the original post if you’re curious. And now….the repost:

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I have no idea what’s going on with ComiXology these days. Just recently I posted a BW Ramble v-log about how they finally fixed the Guided View feature, which reformatted the normal comic page for cleaner viewing on smartphone and tablet screens, and even the larger computer monitor, a feature they dropped when Amazon bought the digital comics service and decided to integrate it into Kindle. Now they’re cutting a huge chunk of their workforce. Almost 75% according to Bounding Into Comics. Yes, with people being allowed into that area of space we call “outside”, which I vaguely remember visiting once or twice, demand for at-home media has gone down. Streaming services are not making as much money as they were during the lockdowns and that’s only partly blamed on some…questionable decisions by streaming services that a Clutter Report version of this article would be out of place going on about. Part of it can also be blamed on our current economic issues and I won’t go into a political rant here because, again, I’m reformatting this article for a decluttering blog and I don’t even like doing those kind of rants on the storytelling discussion site.

Even people currently working at ComiXology are complaining about the layoffs, not to mention high ranking types who are already hitting the job sites for work. That’s certainly bad news in this climate and I wish them all the best of luck, but BW Media Spotlight and The Clutter Reports aren’t business sites, it’s a storytelling or clutter organizing site. Digital comics, for some, have replaced physical comics because they take up less floor space and are a bit cheaper since there isn’t printing costs to deal with…I mean, in theory they’re cheaper. However, with such a huge drop in people running the site this is a format of comics that may take a hit of its own, and frankly just pushes my belief that physical comics are still superior in the end.

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Cleaning The Under Art Desk Shelf

This fell slightly short of being a “quick project”. So I had trouble sleeping Friday night…again, but this time I was able to actually get some organizing done that I wanted to do last week. This is a shelf on the bottom of my art desk. As a former computer desk I guess this was an option for where the computer could go…provided you could turn it on and off with your toe? I don’t remember how I had the computer on this one though I don’t remember getting on the floor any time I wanted to load a disk or CD. Anyway it became a junk shelf until it was blocked by two big piles of comics. Since I was finally able to move those it was time to go after this.

It wasn’t a hard project and only took a few hours, though there are parts I need to still do, possibly next week and hopefully with a bit more sleep, but I got the important part done and that works for me. Let’s go over what I did, because otherwise this isn’t much of a report.

Seeking A Comic Price Guide

 

Can someone recommend a free online comics price guide I don't have to sign up for to use? What's the sense of making it free if I still can't use it. I don't want to sign up to every website under the sun just to use the internet.

— BW Media Spotlight (@SW_Tronix) April 9, 2022

This is what I posted to my Twitter feed. (My official Twitter is for my main website; The Clutter Reports being a side project it doesn’t have its own Twitter.) Let me back up a bit and explain where this comes from, but that’s this week’s topic.

The plan this week was to price up a bunch of my comics and put them on the Clutter For Sale page. Given my low reader count the odds of selling it there are quite low. The two sales I’ve made are a fluke and I know it. I want to be able to list them on other services where I have a better chance of selling them. Also, it’s a list for myself of what I have to sell and what they might be worth selling for. However, to sell any of them anywhere I want to find out what they’re worth. While part of me wants to sell them for what I paid them for, that’s kind of silly when I really need the money. Not to mention that some comics may have gone down in value rather than up so if I price them too high they won’t sell, while if I sell them too low I lose out on money I could really use.

For this I need a price guide. Note that it’s a guide. It’s not a given that it will sell at the price they list and it does depend on condition, though most of my comics are in very good condition at least. So I went searching around, using a few different search engines in the hopes of finding something that would give me some prices to go by. You’d think with all the websites out there I’d find a few, average the prices listed between the sites, and come up with a fair price based on the condition of the comic. As you can guess from that tweet, I was not successful.

Comics & Cardbacks: An Actual Cleaning Project

Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve actually done one of these, hasn’t it? Between computer issues and time I haven’t been able to work on a day-long anti-clutter project. So this week I was lucky to actually be able to work on one. At issue was the set of cardbacks left over from a previous organizing project. I cleaned out the folder box but there was another set of these and I thought I’d go over them at the same time. Then the delays happened. No delays this week.

You’re probably wondering why I save cardbacks from the various Transformers figures. Perhaps you don’t remember the days of tech specs on Transformers figures, something that’s fallen out of fashion for various reasons. One of them was the need for multi-language packaging at one point. When that ended they never really went back to the old spec cards, something you’d clip off of the back of the packaging. These would include the character’s personalities and stats. While Hasbro has included this in packaging the old tech specs remained at a set size (sometimes reduced for smaller figures) but that doesn’t exist anymore. It had been a goal of mine to create new tech spec designs, but with the internet serving as a way to find examples and information I don’t really have to have this big pile of cardboard. So this week I planned to cut that down a little.

Free Comic Book Day

photo of Mark Marderosian at Free Comic Book Day, That’s Entertainment, Worcester MA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I didn’t do any clutter cleaning this week because Saturday was Free Comic Book Day. You can read about what I picked up over at my other website. I was going to do an article introducing my next project, but after starting that article later than I had planned I didn’t have time and I didn’t get to do anything during the week due to other things going on. It won’t be as big as one of the comic organizing project phases, but it will be at least two days of trying to figure out where to put stuff. So instead of a preview hopefully you’ll simply see the results. I just need to actually work on it next week because I have the whole week to do it.

Comic Report: Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey

I just finished reviewing another trade collection on my other site but only the individual issues. Here I’ll be looking at the final collection, so we’ll take a week off from Transformers. I’ll resume the Alternators reviews next week with Side Swipe.

 

The Death and Return of Superman video game (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Doomsday is name that…well, should be familiar to everyone who speaks English because “doomsday” is a rather well-known word. But for Superman fans Doomsday also refers to the giant monster that killed him in one of the most famous story arc in comics. “The Death And Return Of Superman” is a multi-arc storyline dealing with Superman sacrificing himself to stop the only threat besides Darkseid who is Superman’s physical equal. All of his other enemies have to outwit Superman only to learn he’s more cunning than they thought. The storyline deals with his death, how the world is changed by his disappearance, and his ultimate return because no way is DC giving up what was their flagship character at the time, although it seems Batman has recently usurped that role. Which as much as I like Batman says more about the world at large than Superman himself. He’s still my favorite superhero.

The original storyline was huge, but it lacked any kind of actual origin for Doomsday. He just shows up one day and kills Superman. 1994’s Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey is a three-issue miniseries that brings us that origin. Where did Doomsday come from? Why did he want to kill Superman? Those answers were finally revealed, and then collected in a trade collection the next year. I’ve already reviewed the three issues, and will link to those reviews if you want a deeper analysis, as well as the actual issue where Superman and Doomsday fought to the death, which isn’t in this collection but I thought you might be curious. While I will go over my thoughts on the miniseries this is The Clutter Reports, so my focus will be on the collection more than the story itself.

You might want to look behind you, Doomy!

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey

collecting issues one-three of the 1994 miniseries

DC Comics (1995)

WRITER/LAYOUTS: Dan Jurgens

FINISHED ART: Brett Breeding

COLOR GUIDES: Greg Wright

COLOR SEPARATIONS: Android Images

LETTERER: Bill Oakley

“SUPERMAN” CREATORS: Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

Comic Re-Integration Project: Week 3

This is going to be a short report. This week I was more interested in finally finishing my Christmas comic…which as you can guess from the posting date is already a few weeks left. If I can get it done for tonight I’ll be very happy. Not that I didn’t do anything. I did organize my letter “T” titles, which included two big ones: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with at least four different continuities to sort separately) and some Transformers comics I came across, some of which I already pulled out since I know I don’t want them. Not that they’re bad (though some of them are) but IDW took the franchise in a direction I don’t care for, which is the opposite of what they did with the Turtles comics. And there’s still the border marking, mixed with my removable tape running out. I have to use regular tape and hope the bag doesn’t rip the next time I go to read the comics down this way. Removable tape is hard to find, if they still make it.

The plan is to finish off this phase of the project this week and move on to another project while I continue to slowly go through the collection, finding the comics I still enjoy and want to read again versus the ones I don’t care for and willing to go away, thus cutting down my oversized collection. We’re almost done with this one.

Comic Re-Integration Project: Week 2

I needed a few days break before I resumed the project on Thursday. But I got quite a bit done in three days, and now I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once I’m done with this I have to organize my records, then I can put the table away and have room to take down my Christmas decorations. So I want to get through this as fast as my body can go through. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve accomplished this week.

Comic Re-Integration Project: Day 5 (Week 1 wrap-up)

There really isn’t much to report on today’s work. I sorted my Sonic The Hedgehog comics, and found there’s a few missing somewhere because of course there is. I found a couple of series I want to get rid of, but one of them needs to be reviewed on my other site first for completeness sake. I marked myself one week to complete this project, and I didn’t. There is still more sorting and organizing to do before my comics are in a proper order. That doesn’t mean I failed, though.

Comic Re-Integration Project: Day 4

It was time to break out the table again. Today was all about sorting comics. That was the plan…but the plan didn’t require me to hate myself for what I’ve done to myself! As I’ll get into I had to seal with one section of comics totally out of order and having to be sorted more than I thought, and other titles and letters I thought I was done with! It was a huge exercise in frustration and I only have my past self to blame! But I got through it and that’s what matters!