How to Flush Seventy Plus Years of History

The comments below were sent to CBG (Comic Buyer's Guide Magazine) in response to the news that DC was going to renumber their comics at #1 again including titles like Action Comics that have been continuously published for decades and had currently just passed issue #900. This had particularly poignancy today as I try to reorganize and display my collection, and find all the reading, time and effort it has taken to participate in these titles that are now so casually betraying us.

LETTER SENT TO CBG:

Most of the comments I have read focuses on changes to this or that character. I could care less. Those kind of changes come and go. If they want to turn Superman into a mighty gopher for awhile, more power to them. But the renumbering thing, particularly the legacy titles, leaves me in quite the quandary as what to do next.

I’m 56, not the prime audience any more. DC and much of fandom really aren’t interested in the oldtimers’ opinions anymore. Fine, so be it. But it still leaves me with an individual decision as to what to do. I started collecting in the early sixties. Adventure, Action and Detective were all ready in their 300s. But that didn’t stop me from wanting to get them. I was actually more fascinated with the higher numbers and their sense of history than the barrage of single digit titles.
I thought, someday, I will get to see these titles reach 1,000!

Now they never will. Oh, sure, DC may take Action Comics #90 whatever and call it the One Thousandth issue of Action Comics, charge $25.99 (estimated price for a 64 page comic in eight years) for it. But it’s not the same thing. Not the same thing at all.

Is there any evidence, any at all, that this works? I have seen sales for new comics rise, and then fall back quickly to what they were before the renumbering occurred. I have seen sales on legacy titles rise dramatically when they were well done with great stories and art. If this is a gimmick to save comics as monthly periodicals, then I fear it will fall far short. Quality, marketing, and better distribution systems is what might save comics.

So, I have no idea what to do. Do I use this an excuse to save my family some $100 a month and end my fifty year ride? Or do I just pray that this is just one small glitch, and that sanity will be restored, as it was when Marvel thought it was swell to hand things over to the Image crew?
I don’t know. Any thoughts from others in the same dilemma would be greatly appreciated

AND, OF COURSE, NO ONE HAS COMMENTED.