tattooedcomicguy:

brevoortformspring:

The way comics are read and produced is changing, and so too is the way that they are numbered. And at the end of the day, like it or not, it’s the audience that really determines things like this. A new #1 inevitably, invariably increases the sales on a book, whereas a #whatever doesn’t. And the same story with the same art but a #1 will inevitably, invariably sell better than it will with a #30 or a #570 or what-have-you. You’ve shown us this time and again—and so we’re changing the way we think about issue numbering. And really, most magazines and publications don’t carry serial numbering at all, so it’s a stylistic convention of comics going back to the earliest days. I understand the comfort and familiarity of it, but at the end of the day, comfort and familiarity won’t keep the lights on at Marvel HQ.

This argument doesn’t fly with me. If you look at sales figures, the numbers quickly return to the normal levels within just a few issues. I think what’s changed is that publishers are placing more emphasis on market share. They’ll relaunch a book to score a temporary increase so that they can win the market share for a month.

Most “magazines and publications” also don’t have nearly the interest for new readers to track down and obtain back issues, either.  This 'volume’ thing just adds another confusing hurdle for both newcomers to the medium as well as seasoned collectors who just want to track down a past story, issue, or run.

I get tired of hearing Marvel editorial use ‘well, this is the way you guys want it’ as an excuse for everything from event crossovers to re-numbering, when clearly it works out in their favor. 

Re-numbering and multiple volumes are just a sly way to push consumers away from buying single issues from back issue bins at comics shops or online retailers and toward paperback / hardcover collections that they directly benefit from … or perhaps pushes them to just downloading pirated scans where if they get the volume number wrong, it’s not a big deal since it was free.