How This Picture Changed the Comic Book Industry FOREVER! || Comic Misconceptions || NerdSync
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- čas přidán 2. 02. 2016
- Have you ever looked at an old Marvel comic book and wondered why there's a picture of Spider-Man's head where the barcode should be? This is because of the direct market of comic sales, and has had enormous repercussions on the entire comic book industry from the boom of specialty comic shops, the market for back issues, and even the speculator bubble of the 90s. There is a lot of history behind this seemingly insignificant image!
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Every Wednesday, Comic Misconceptions explores the incredible stories, fascinating ideas, and mind-blowing theories regarding comic books and the rich history and culture that surrounds them!
Hosted by Scott Niswander (@ScottNiswander)
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The reason I love back issues is because I grew up reading my dads comic books...and now that he's gone, collecting those old books reminds me of the good times. That's why if I were to ever ask Stan Lee to sign a comic, it wouldn't be an expensive or rare one...it would be an old unimpressive Spider-Man issue...but it's the first one I ever read with my dad and what made me a comic book fan.
Thank you so much for leaving this comment!
I replied to give you another like.
Exactly, comics are tangible links to memories we fans shate. My first purchase with my own money was one of those 3 pack comics on the spinner racks when I was 7, haven't looked back! My mom gave me a dictionary, said I can look up the words I don't know, and my reading level shot up 3 grade levels because of Batman!
Yeah, and plus there are so many stories that haven’t been put into digital comics or trades. I’ve been buying old back issues of Master Of Kung Fu for a while now because there’s just really no other way to read them, accept for maybe if I wanted to buy a volume of the omnibus for 90$.
I read that as black issues
I remember when the barcode comics were introduced in 1975. I was outraged I always wondered why the heck can't they restore the image as the artist originally envisioned on the direct sales versions.?!
Spider-Manuary is over. Now it is Webrurary month. Then Spider-March Madness. Then April
I am upset by how funny this is. Haha
No Arachnid-April?!
@Cadeboy 13 J. Jonah July.
Mary Janeuary, Merry Marvel March, Storm causes April Showers, Aunt May flowers, Thor creates August of Wind. Nova ember
hydrolito leave this comment section, we are talking about only spider-man related months
Personally, no matter how many stories I can find online I'll always want the tangible copy in my hand. I'm five books away from completing the entire Ironman vol. #1 run(332 issues plus annuals). I know I can purchase any book over the internet, but every single book came from a dealer and it's taken me twenty-two years so far. I like doing it the old-fashioned way, sort of like treasure hunting and I feel like using the internet is "cheating" if that makes any sense.
Holy shit Much respect to you man. And Iron man is my favorite. And I agree finding them from a dealer feels more rewarding and satisfying. I sure hope you find those last few comics you need. 2 decades and finally finished the entire run. Good luck bro :)
Michael Argueta Thanks man. I'm two books away now. Getting close.
sirroxalot did you find those last 2 man
I have recently just started reading books on line, BUT there is nothing like having the actual print in your hands, the smell of an old comic just cannot be imitated. I have been collecting comics for 38yrs...and their is nothing like having the hard copy in your hands flipping thru the pages
bigbabysld preach lol
I bought comics in the late 1960s with little thought about them..since i was just a kid then. I got into a collecting comics as a hobby at age 12..in 1973. I was a Marvel fan & didn't care much for DC. I attended the second annual Marvel Comicon in NYC in 1976. I stopped collecting comics around 1983. I still have a number of the comics & related material i bought during the 1970s..up to the beginning of the 80s. The comic Book scene is vastly different today than from the 1970s. I feel privileged to have been a collector from an earlier time period over today's overblown & somewhat confusing array of material being offered at present time. I guess i'm just old school & a product of my generation.
Let's all agree that Sal is the best.
Agreed!
+NerdSync He's TIE-riffic. I'm back.
+NerdSync Aw shucks! Right back atcha, Scott!
Agreed
I agree that I love Back Issues and Off the Rack.
This was a super fun video to research! I learned a bunch about the comics industry thanks to that little picture of Spider-Man's head!
Scott? What are you doing here?
+Scott Niswander why do people still be issue comic and not tpb or hard cover or digital.
+Scott Niswander aww bless you
+xihang yang tpbs and hardcover are released after the single issues are published, so that may be a reason.
#Magicwebs
Huh, this was interesting.
Most of my collection is built on back issues. One of my favorite things to do when I go to my local comic shop is to explore the rows of old issues they have. It's like archaeology. Now I've probably made some people feel old.
Odin's eye. I'd like to have a peek around your collection :P
I love to read the old marvel letter pages. Interesting comments,ofton from future comic stars,and often answered by Stan Lee personaly.
It always astounds me just how much information you can squeeze out of a topic about comics
He's only half right. His explanation misses the role WHITMAN played in this. Before direct distribution, Whitman had a deal with Marvel, DC and Gold key which would allow them to distribute those books in three packs. The comics in those packs were generally distributed to department stores. They were not eligible for returns. so to differentiate the whitmans, they simply put a Whitman logo over the gold key and the DC logos. Marvel had different 3 pack deals outside of whitman as well as with Whitman, so they devised thee "diamond" corner box with a blank upc code. That's why you see Marvel books before 1979 with those boxes. Keep in mind that the first Marvel books with UPC codes appeared in 1976, many, like Fantastic four 171, had a cover date of June 1976. So, from 1976-1979, Marvel already had the blank UPC box in place. After 1979, they just continued to use the same method they devised for their deal with whitman for the Direct Market. DC adopted Marvel's blank UPC code with the Whitmans, as well.
Now that we have digital comics, the only people who want back issues are hard core collectors. Readers can just call up the issue they're missing in the app and get it right now, as opposed to having to go looking for the print issue. Also, this change will open up the market because before, to get into comics, you had to make the commitment to having your comic books all take up space in your house and it was a very particular kind of person who wants to do that. Now anyone can keep years worth of stories in their iPad and read them anywhere they want.
Digital issues are pretty good if there aren't any comic book stores where a person lives.I have lot's of comics on my ipad.(for free,shhh don't tell on me).
+TacoCatVids I've got four comic book stores within a 30 minute walk and I do all of my reading in the app. Print issues I buy are just for the collecting aspect (Spider-Mans, variant covers, etc)
The Sean Ward Show Sadly,no comic book stores and no monthly issues.Fuck the place where i live.Fuck it.
+The Sean Ward Show Comics are like boobs. They look good on a screen, but I'd rather have one in my hand. -Stan Lee
+The Sean Ward Show But is it really enjoyable to read comics on a screen? I mean doesn't it make your eyes feel like they want to bleed after a while?
Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer printed comics to images and words on a screen.
Old fashioned
Thrawn so do i
patthemightymat I don’t think you know, but that’s not gonna annoy him😂
So what did you think of the Batman TV show with sound affects written as words on screen, POW Wham etc.?
There is a certain vibe that comes with the textured paper and the smell of the ink.
This is the kind of video that I show my friends that wanna get into comic books.
Thank you, Scott, for all the great videos. I've come to learn a bunch of stuff I could have never imagined.
That's so great to hear! Thank you!
I dunno how it would fit into your niche but would it be possible for you to do an episode on Marvel's No Prize Award? I just think it's a really interesting way of getting the fans involved AND acknowledging artists' mistakes.
I second this
That would be pretty cool!
I am a simple ComicPop fan, I see Sal, I press like.
My plan is working... Haha
+NerdSync Quick, Scott, more ComicPop, these likes will make you famous
+Shadow Gabriel lol DId the same thing.
I read "back issues" mostly through trade paperbacks while I was young. The old ones still hit the young demographic with there campy stories.
Once I heard the word "Back Issues" I immediately thought "Sals gonna be here isn't he " then once he showed up I was like "I'm done , this is great :D"
Hahaha! You should wait for the episode we do about Variant comic book covers...
Fart on variant covers.
They didn't send back the comics here, for many years, just the covers. I would get a STACK of cover free comics every week from my mom. Some seriously valuable late 70s and 80s comix went thru my hands-if only they had covers!
I totally support back issues. Old comics show so much about the culture of the time, and will never pop up again. An old art style won't pop up again, old printing limitations go away, and the ads are time and medium specific.
I also think old issues rely less on continuity and more on short runs, making them easy to follow. Stories can be so interwoven that you're forced to read every comic to know what's going on in your favorite. Services like Marvel Unlimited will eliminate comic stores the same way iTunes did record shops.
Collecting didn't ruin the comics industry, the industry's over production in response did. Back issues are cheap and physical copies make industries less disposable.
+Eric Fellner i like back issues and I do reviews on the classics but showing the pictures and the stories that come with it
Nothing will ever beat having a physical copy of a comic book.
Maybe I'm just weird, but one of the most RAD things about buying a bunch of X-Force and Uncanny X-Men at my job (Goodwill) a few weeks back was getting to see the ENTIRE comic in its original form. And by that I mean ads and stuff like old giveaways included. There's just something magical about sifting through an old 80's/90's issue and it sparking nostalgia within you, seeing what life was like back then. Again, maybe that's just me lol.
I remember my initial interest in comics was with the X-Men. Back then when old stories were referenced there were footnotes referencing the issue #. So I would read a new story, make note of the references and then buy those back issues. That is what turned me into a collector.
I feel very sad that I NEVER read a superhero comic,I never had a comic book store in my city (or I never knew). But then I saw Raimis Spiderman,which made me watch EVER superhero film,and now I basically know everythinf about any heros because of Channels like this,Thanks!
Fantastic! I didn't read an actual comic for years after I was interested in superheroes. I just searched wikipedia pages and talked with friends who knew about the stuff.
+NerdSync Exactly like you,except I never had friends that read comics
It's a great picture, it's how I want to see Spidey, love the Romita design of the Spidey mask.
It is nice to look at!
Should've put Sal in thumbnail. Everyone loves Sal!!
Originally, there WERE no bar codes! I remember when cover art changed to accommodate bar codes. (Collecting since 1968)
I still hate the damn things on covers. Remember how shocked I was, to see original art covers, with an empty box drawn on them for it.
this was interesting. and made me very grateful to have discovered Comixology, because there are a lot of comics I never would have gotten into if I couldn't read them from the beginning
Comixology is a godsend!
you guys are one of the best comic-based channel on youtube. Your information are so unique, interesting, well researched, and well delivered. I can't believe you do't have more subscribers and views
Unlike Scott, I was born in the '70s. I grew up in a little town where comics were sold only at grocery stores and the town drug store. Once I got an issue of Batman with the first half of a story, with the second half to appear in the next issue of Detective Comics - "coming in two weeks!" So I made sure my mom did her grocery shopping exactly two weeks later, and sure enough, there was the Detective issue. Unfortunately I was only able to get her to do this for one more story. Anyway, some of the comics had ads with references to "specialty comics shops." That blew my prepubescent mind - an entire STORE full of comic books?! That would be heaven on earth! Unfortunately by the time I was old enough to drive and get to other cities that had such stores, I was more interested in other magazines that you could only get in certain stores, if you get my drift.
"Originally all comics had barcodes on them" -- comic books were around for ~35 yrs before bar codes were invented...
Wow, this brings back memories. I remember getting into Venom because of back issues and I asked the vendor the same question about the picture. I saved enough money and bought his first appearance for $42. I had every Venom issue until they overdid the miniseries.
OK, you say "Originally all comics had bar codes on them!" This in itself is not true! I bought Spiderman 1 the day it hit the newsstand back in the mid 1960s! At that time, all inventory was done using the much older method of manually counting and recording the results. No barcodes were on any comics, or for that matter anything else. Barcodes were created to take advantage of new technology that included a computer system of inventory and sales. Programs were written for the computers and peripheral scanners were invented to work with those programs/ This did not actually get started until we were well into the 1970s.
Now think about this, Comics have been in existence for approaching a century now. Indeed I had a comic from the 1930s. If computers even existed as we know them now at that time, only the universities and the government were using them, and they were so large that they would not fit into small spaces like computers of today. Plus the language used for them would have been too much for businesses to even begin to understand, let alone afford to incorporate. Thus no barcodes! I was around when barcodes began being used, and that was in the 1970s!
+L. Cleveland Major congratulations on your ripe old age
+mickeynotmouse I might be pretty old, but I still like the comics just like always!
If I remember correctly, barcodes were on the covers around mid 1976 (at least for marvel) and it was at least a couple more years before direct sales started. I generally categorize 1970 to pre-barcode 1976 as early Bronze age.
Much of the information in this video is plain wrong.
I've bought comics since early 70's, no bar code, like my Hulk 181,has no code on it.
When you're "hunting" for back issues, you're getting stuff lcs got burned buying.
If we went back to old system prices would drop, risk would shift to publishers like marvel, would make them abandon sadistic garbage like Secret Empire, ie Punisher, dufus zemo, bad cap etc, why would marvel change it? If they had to buy them back would fix overnight. We need a store wide revolt to fix comicsgate. Dont like lady iron man, lady thor, lady daredevil, lady iron fist, all this garbage? Make Marvel pay for the unsold issues. Fixed over night, watch.
I really cringed when I heard that line "Originally all comics had bar codes on them", and felt really old.
Another cool video. I really did wonder why a spidey pic was at the bottom of my XMen comics. Cool to see Sal here too! Get the whole Pull cast to appear lol.
great topic, it provides informative fill-in much as back issues. much appreciated, thank you.
That is a thing I always wondered about. Well, wonder no more! Always appreciate learning something new and I'm finding your videos a damn good place to do that. Keep up the good work.
This idea of the picture on bottom left corner, it was also used for a happy anniversary for characters like Captain America in X-Force Vol. 1 issue #1.
i like how nerd sync comes with these unique like they are so different like no one would ever think of , keep it up
Look like those "back issues" will give you "back issues"
Well played! Haha
Fantastic post Scott!! Very informative.
wow... one little image means so much. Definitely earned a sub! Really informative
Thanks for another great episode guys, like always you must have spent so much time in researchand all; you really are awesome; keep it up !
Oh yes. Many weeks of research. But it's all worth it!
+NerdSync Yes it definitely is !
Thanks again for enhancing our conception and perception of comics; may you continue your videos for Eternity ! (if youtube don't copyright strike you for no reason of course)
I love that you didn't put comic pop or sal in the title so it was just a great surprise that made me smile. great job guys, excelsior
Wonderful video full of interesting history and information. I literally did not know the bulk of what was said in this video. Although, I do remember you discussing the spiderman image on the cover of comics in a previous episode. I love history and facts thanks again.
Also, don't forget those grab bags that comic stores often did with all those extras. Discovered so many great titles that I might have never picked up that way.
Comicpop Dude: "I found that I was being caught up in the culture of comics."
I fail to see the problem with that. The culture is literally what keeps people interested in comics. After he said that I kept waiting for the punchline but it never came, and then I realized he was being serious.
Thanks for making sense of that, I always wondered!
Why did i have a geekgasm over Sal's cameo, lol. Oh yeah, your set up for it was classic, lol. As soon as you said I'm not an expert on back issues I screamed out "Sal!", and I was right...awesome sauce.
So it didn't mean "Spidey Approved"?
I pressed the play button wondering how it could possibly take almost 10 minutes to explain a simple barcode image. Thankfully it didn't actually take that long. But what I got was a REALLY interesting lesson on how we got to where we are in the comic hobby. Thanks. More stuff like this please.
+Igaveyoumyfakename THAT is awesome! And YOU are awesome! Thanks for watching :) - Nali
nice to see sal on this channel, he's the man
Great video love hearing other people giving their perspective on the topic I'd like to see more stuff like this in the future.
I'm planning on it!
Awesome video!
Great video man
Great to see Sal!
came across this video at random really cool and informative thanks
ur videos are WAY more interesting than any other comics channel on CZcams
Dude! Kudos for getting Sal on your show haha!
Someone told me about a place that had a free Comic Book day which after watching this might be a good way to "unload" your excess comics.
WOW.....Very informative. Thanks
The comic industry is so interesting! It so cool that real world problem effect the comics themselves
That's my favorite part about learning about comics history!
Tell ya what guys. Send all your back issues to me. I'll provide an address and even pay for shipping.
Robert Frias
No.
arg I hate having barcodes on the cover. Learn from Image, marvel!
Feels good watch NerdSych before going to bed.
Good night!
My favorite comic book store has both a great selection of new comics and a large area of back issues. It's awesome
My favorite comic shop closed down a few months ago, and I'm still heart broken. I gladly traveled 45 minutes to get there. It had everything; statues, action figures, trades, hardcovers, back issues, magazines, all sorts of collectables, and seem to have a loyal customer base. Yet, it slowly went out of business. Many, rather than travel and peruse the comic shops on a weekly basis, choose to order online and download the issues. It's just not the same. I need to hold the actual comic, feel it, smell the ink, and appreciate the art that I hold in my hands. It's sad to think that the day will come when there will be no paper comics, just digital images behind the glass screen of a computer. Just as the movie and music industries are quickly turning to downloadable content. No DVD, no CD, no comic book, to physically possess, but literally in the "clouds".
I don't know if there will ever be a time when comic books will stop being printed for good, but that might be an interesting topic to do a video on.
+NerdSync I'm glad you say that. Please do, I'm interested in what you would have to say on the topic. Also, will there come a time when rather than individual issues on a weekly basis, there may be complete stories released on a monthly basis in trade or hardcover.
There are all kinds of good, even great, online comic book subscription services!
I personally get my orders every month from All New Comics - mind you, they ship to Canada only.
Louis Riehm the media has been saying ebooks will end paper books for over a decade now, CDs were the end cassettes and vinyl, yet there are still book stores, DVDs to buy and record shops.
There will always be a market for all of it.
Digital is a fail waiting to happen.
I understand but nowhere here sells real comics (I live in the south of England) and.i read the online and love them
I'm glad this video exists.
Thank you.
Growing up with the X-men TV Show and then seeing Spiderman or Captain America's face on the corner of the comic really confused me as a child. Made me think they made a special appearance in the issue.
This is off topic but I love your podcast! Yours and Mrsunday's are the only ones I listen to :)
Thank you!
Good stuff!
Very well done. how the icon we have all seen familiarly on the bottom corner of many books, for me late eighties Black Spiderman bad luck outfit books, turned into a discussion of back issues themselves out of the origin and purpose of the icon from the direct sales market, which led to back issues, which is where in my age group most people found those issues. Segued well friends! Back issues aren't done, but the concept has evolved. Marvel loyalty programs practically are changing the comic book industry.
Great video!
Thanks for the kind words!
Good job
Scott keep doing what you do best
My gaming group (back when "Champions" was a thing) always used to joke that Spider-Man got one experience point for every comic where his face appeared on the cover (thus explaining why he was the most powerful character in the Marvel universe).
Great video! It's cool to see Saul.
You should do a video on the Spiderman costume that came out before the first Spider-man comic. It is a neat story and would make a good video.
I literally have no more room at home to collect so i've gone digital. And i'm recollecting all on digital. But there is something about holding a #1.
Great episode.
4:08 as well, as a kid growing up in the 80s and 90s, some stores would offer sealed mixed polybags from a supplier with things like a certain run of comics (i got the 1986 Superman #'s 1,2 and 3 this way for a buck at my local department store in the toy section a year after it was published), or other collections (one common staple in our Easter Baskets and Christmas Stockings as kids were things like the complete set of Marvel's adaptation of Return Of The Jedi or the first few issues of their A-Team series, in a sealed bag). This was VERY common to find in many discount and department stores in the 80s and early 90s, at least here in Canada, and ALL comics had the Direct Market box on them.
I'm from a country which is an Island in the South Pacific.
Comic book stores in my area sold the one's with the bar codes cheaper than the one with the just photo. We could only buy the bar-coded ones in a discount book store called BOOK SALE. While the Direct Editions and ones with Spidy and/or sups is comic book stores like FILBAR'S and COMIC QUEST.
great video more business of the comic industry i want
Now,that's a good collaboration!!!
My first book was right off the newstand 1995 an Age of Apocalypse tie-in. This in turn sent me into comic shops which turned me into a collector. I loved the collecting/hobby aspect of it. I don't even know what I would have done if I'd had a Comixology app. back then.
great vid!!!
Also, some comic series were Direct Sales ONLY! DC had their premium comics, printed on nicer paper and a bit more mature in content as Direct Market only, which helped as well both give comic shops an incentive, as well as kept more mature content from showing up in places like a supermarket.
Seriously stopped in the middle of my X-Files marathon to watch this, minutes after it was uploaded, at midnight here in England. I was not disappointed. Excellent video Scott.
Now when someone asks me (which is more frequently then you would think), I can just point them to this video and channel! (I love sharing knowledge but I'm sick of this question being asked to me haha)
Hahaha, you have some serious dedication! And yeah, feel free to point people our way!
+NerdSync always do my man. Plus, insomnia mixed with insanity and a love of comics goes a LONG way. Haha
HUZZAH!
Digital comics suck. Nothing beats the feeling of a new, slick comic in your hand.
JacPod stay in the past old man
King Bradberry No
JacPod Good luck finding all of those great golden-age comics without digital, like a complete run of hard to find titles
farpointgamingdirect it is possible to get a run of lesser known Silver or Golden age titles, it's not all about the big guns of Marvel and DC.
Real print is far better, less strain on the eyes and feel of turning the paper. Things are only going to get more digital in the future
Do a video on who you think is the most powerful member of the Justice League. Or a video on the outcome of a hypothetical battle between the core members or the Justice League vs the Avengers. Or both. Love your channel. Keep up the good work.
Is there any chance of doing a episode talking about Roger Stern? (he's my favorite writer).
Thank you Scott, I always wanted to know. :)
Glad I could help!
I always thought the Spidey head was there to cover the barcode if anyone tried to replicate the issue and cover
In Newcastle, Geek Retreat's back issue section is a mess of damaged comics in boxes so full you can't check what comic your holding without pulling it out.
of course he showed a pic of Mopey (sp?) when he said "wizard" lol I saw that coming from a mile away
I blame the editor who put that in because I asked him too!
Awesome! Love back issues.
A question I always had but never knew until now thanks.
Um Scott, not all wizards can tell the future. Divination is the most uncertain form of magic and is often laughed at in wizarding social circles. Muggle.
I love this comment more than I've ever loved anything!
Speaking as a person whose understanding of such things doesn't just come from J.K. Rowling, there are two kinds of dharma, fixed and mutable. Fixed dharma can be predicted (it's set at birth, like your DNA) whereas mutable dharma is dependant on the choices a person makes in life, and is much harder to predict. To quote Gandalf "All you need to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."
Except among us Ravenclaws were always excited to learn (even if we scoff upon it)
J. K. Rowling bastardized biblical ideas and in her own statement if you know how the new testament ended you will know how this ends it's obviously significant that she would give her main character a symbol of the lightning bolt too,God is the only one that can predict the future and when everyone gets the microchip in a way we will all have our lightning bolt,I won't get one I'll be like Dennis Leary in demolition man, I'll live in the sewer and eat rats lol
@@scotendowins893 Yet more reason to believe that JK Rowling is evil and may have had an even more nefarious agenda than simply making a fast buck. I for one would like to see Hogwart's overcome by a ravening hoarde of Dothraki and burnt to the ground!
2:30 in you answered the question. done. dont need the rest.
back issues are my life. i looooove finding older comics, i love having complete series in singular issues, it feels right.
I got plenty of comics with Spidey's face near the barcode. I love it.
SAL!!!! Back issues are the best!
+NerdSync yo! Love your channel! Love the content too! Question! What's the camera you are using? It looks really crisp.
YES!! Sal, Sal is the best