Original Alpha Flight

[Le Messor]

maybe MARVEL should consider finding a place for some experienced comic book veterans who still want to tell good stories.

Agreed.
Good storytelling should be the first concern of all creators

If an audience isn't being established for new characters/characters intended to make it BIG at the movies

There are two problems here:
One, few comics these days are accessible to children. Partly because of content (I wouldn't show kids a lot of the stuff in comics these days), partly because of the death of the spinner racks - basically, you have to go to a comic book shop to get them. Even if there's one in your home town, not everybody is willing to go out of their way to find them, or will even think to.

Two, apparently quite a few people watched the Marvel movies and DID go to comic shops to read about their characters - but none of the characters on their screens were the same as the ones in the books. They'd got legacied out.

Those are things that need to be fixed if the industry is to continue.

~ Le Messor
"The average amount of sleep required by the average person is 'just five more minutes'."
~ Anonymous

[Garry/Al-Fan]

That seems (to me) to be a serious, significant mismatch if what is portrayed at the movies isn't the same as what is in the comic books.

I just hope MARVEL can recapture some of the good sequential storytelling that it used to have, with the kind of craftsmanship and heroes that made it one of the Big Two.

[Le Messor]

It's always been the way; remember when the Blade movies were big hits, and there was no Blade comic book at the time?

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I would've gone with a Guardians of the Galaxy movie/comic (so I've read) mismatch, because I actually think the first 2 Blade movies did a good job of reenvisioning the character.
I am getting to a point where I won't mind if MARVEL determines it's current output is intended for a newer audience, a newer fandom...even for ALPHA FLIGHT.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

In September 2019, according to COMICHRON, The Magnificent Ms. Marvel # 7 had 13,097 copies ordered/sold. ALPHA FLIGHT: TRUE NORTH had 18,261 copies ordered/sold. In fact, the orders/sales of Ms. Marvel have been below AF:TN in October (13,023), November (12,230), December (12,098, and January 2020 (13,116). If MARVEL's VP of Content and Character Development considers The Magnificent Ms. Marvel a success (regardless of the order/sales numbers), but does not consider ALPHA FLIGHT: TRUE NORTH a success, then there is a clear and undeniable double standard in effect. Good characters are good characters, whether they are black, white, or zebra-stripe. And original ALPHA FLIGHT are good characters. My eight-page (re-)introduction of the All-Old, All-Familiar ALPHA FLIGHT is ready for submission.

[Le Messor]

I'd love to see a new Alpha Flight series handled well; but please note that there's a massive difference between (expected) sales for a one-shot vs #7 of a series.
What's successful for one wouldn't be the same as what's successful for another.

I don't know what the difference is, but I do know that #1s (of a series) are expected to sell more than #2s, which are more than #3s, etc (it eventually settles, generally). Which is why there were two series of Squirrel Girl started in the same year; so they'd have another #1. :/ (That isn't two series that ran at the same time; they rebooted it in the same year it started.)

~ Le Messor
"The big print giveth and the fine print taketh away."
~ Monsignor J. Fulton Sheen

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I hear you.

[Phil]

The thing with those numbers is that they relate purely to Direct Market Diamond Comic stores and don't take into account digital copies or trades, which is how a lot of younger audiences tend to pick up titles these days.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I hear you, too.
So there is one set of rules for one title, and a different (shifting) set of rules for another.

[Phil]

Not at all; digital sales still count for AF.
I just imagine that a lot of AF readership are old school paper readers, like myself.

My comments at http://alphaflight.net/content.php?1...-Sales-Figures agreed with yours.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

Okay, but I'd like my submission to be solicited. If it doesn't nudge ALPHA FLIGHT closer to being the heroes they can be, then that will be my shot at it and then somebody else can make their pitch.

[Garry/Al-Fan]

Over on YouTube, there is talk of GAMESTOP not selling MARVEL & DC comics anymore. Is that going to impact the comic book industry in any way? Is the comic book industry shrinking?

[Garry/Al-Fan]

I'm new to TWITTER, but there seems to be a growing number of artists' renditions of the characters. Could these mean that MARVEL is planning to do something with this property?

[Le Messor]

I like your comment title.

It's possible that something's going to happen soon - I hope something does, and something good.
BUT, it could just mean they're getting requests, or that they've got nothing to do during the quarantine. Maybe a lot of more obscure characters are being drawn. (I don't follow Twitter at all, except this thread, so I don't know.)

I also know that I've been planning for months to scan in all my old artwork and photos; I've finally just finished it now, in part because the quarantine has given me extra time. Maybe that's what others have been doing, and a few of them happen to have AF pictures?
(I definitely do, and plan to share some when I get them organised, if I can get my head around posting images here.)

~ Le Messor
"Things are beautiful if you love them."
~ Jean Anouilh

[Garry/Al-Fan]

Imagine if---from ALPHA FLIGHT # 29 to #36---a consistent creative team crafted a storyline that actually treated ALPHA FLIGHT like "Canada's Greatest Heroes." Imagine if, for at least 8 issues, the writer, artist/inker, letterer, colorist, editor/assistant editors, and the editor-in-chief were all committed to telling a cohesive, coherent story featuring 9 (possibly 12) of the core members of the team. Imagine starting with a double-size issue (like the first issues of volumes 1 & 2) and culminating in a super-size anniversary issue # 36 (like volume 1's issues #12 and #24). Imagine.