At least they only lost 4.1 million rather than 4.5

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/0...reasingly-reliant-on-comic-shops-for-revenue/

 

Their new continuity is terrible. They should have continued their main continuity instead of throwing it out on a whim.

 

That's what happens when you smother a 13 year old continuity in it's sleep with a pillow.

Jumping on points for new readers are more often jumping off points for older readers.

Idw had the best written and beautifully drawn Transformers media in the entire 35 year history of the franchise. They threw it away. And nobody wants their bland, flavorless reboot.

Perhaps sales will climb again if they bring back Scott, Roberts, Barber, Roche, Milne, Durocher, and Zama.

But it's probably too late.

 

You’re probably right on that it’s a slowly sinking ship. But IDW has so much more than just TF. It’s more than just TF related.

 

Didn’t IDW just secure 21M in funding or did I imagine that article?

 

The Bleeding Cool article in the OP is talking about the quarter than ended January 31st.

A few days ago IDW put out a press release announcing that they raised $24million through a private stock offering, which they needed because they are still trying to pivot into TV production.

 

It's not as if IDW wanted to end their continuity prematurely in order to coincide with Hasbro's Bumblebee movie release :/ That was a mandate on Hasbro's part afaik.

 

I like the idea of the reboot. Basing the comics off the toys on the shelves makes a bunch of sense--Hasbro wants to sell toys. One of the main problems with IDW's old way was that they often had comics featuring characters that were never going to be toys and could never be toys because Hasbro didn't care about making them. As a toy collector, it was frustrating having to go to third parties to get the characters featured in the comics, and absurd that for a long period of time that the only TF-related fiction worth consuming had absolutely no presence on the shelf.

Now, they've tackled that problem by using the Siege designs in the comics. Great idea, but it forgot what made IDW successful--the art. Panel art can be stylized while still looking like the toys on the shelf. I want to see Milne's take on Siege, I want to see Roche's dark savage take on Ironhide, I want to see Zama's Starscream, etc. I don't want to see a direct recreation of the toys, the art should be allowed to be more expressive while still retaining its resemblance to the toy it's based off of. I'd prefer it if the toys were based on the art because I think that turns out better, the perfect example of which is T30 Springer. The covers are wonderful, and make me want to buy the comics...until I see the line art inside the comics, which is not my cup of tea so far. A slow burn story is a good idea as well, but the art has got to be good to make one want to actually stick around for the pay off. I was one of many who jumped off of IDW when Milne was taken off of MTMTE abruptly, around the same time the page count got lowered and the writing took a nose dive. I haven't forgotten or forgiven IDW for this mistake, so maybe IDW should try to remember what made them successful at the peak of their popularity back in 2013-2016: the frigging art.

 

IDWM somehow managed to convince current stockholders to throw good money after bad. I really don't see how $23 million can be enough to fund the production of 4 shows. But after reading further, the press release on yahoo states they paid off all short term debt. In other words, the investors bought IDW's debt. Possibly in order to avoid declaring bankruptcy.

The comics are small potatoes compared to television/streaming markets and TF comics is only a part of their publishing operations. Hasbro is trying to grow their animation production operations and this may be putting pressure on IDW to grow in the market as well. If Hasbro produces their own animated Transformers shows, what is stopping them from publishing their own comics?

 

I guess when it starts not working out for them in ways they can actually feel, IDW could make it an alternate timeline to the main IDW continuity that the Lost Light drops in on after the final issue of Lost Light.

Dreamwave’s Armada comic had G1 Decepticons travel to the Armada comic dimension to mess things up and to please the older fans.

 

Should also be noted in their annual reports they lost 36 million last year.

They are going down in flames right now.

 

Why aren't people reading comics anymore? Videogames? Bad stories? Too expensive? Ugly artwork? Lack of accessibility? Apathy? Fans all grown up? Bad economy?

Yet a lot of us can buy the entire line of TFs and Masterpiece. Why? Why? Why?

 

Maybe three years ago, but the Lost Light/Optimus Prime relaunch saw a pretty noticeable downgrade in quality that stuck by until the end.

That’s where the slumping sales started too. So I don’t blame IDW for cleaning the slate and starting things over with a new creative team, since staying the course probably wouldn’t have helped things either. Besides, if nothing else, the reboot’s making some interesting worldbuilding strides right now.

However, the current slow burn approach might not’ve been the best idea to get readers with, even with the bi-monthly release.

Also dear god is Angel Herandez’s art bad.

 

Lost Light was far better than the new continuity. I’ll even go as far as to say that the worst Lost Light issue is far better than the best issue of the new continuity.

 

Basically this, yeah. IDW's comics got so short it became like paying $2-4 for five-ten minutes of a TV show. Netflix is like, $12 a month for thousands upon thousands of hours of content. You're not only competing for someone's money when you produce media, you're competing for their time. $2-4 for a very short comic has a terrible balance of time and cost when compared with almost every media option out there. Transformers toys last for as long as you keep them nice, which can be a lifetime in many cases. Comics need to go to a subscription model (one with a good amount of content new and old) if they actually want to survive.

To get more specific, Lawrence's art really put me off my main read (MTMTE) then Till All Are One got cancelled and I got depressed and stopped caring until Requiem for the Wreckers gave IDW the only send off I needed. Hernandez' art has done nothing to pull me in as a "new" reader. The artists are what made IDW the company it used to be. Milne and Roche are the two who instantly come to mind when I think of what I loved about IDW. I don't think IDW can course-correct at this point, but bringing some of the artists who made their company back into drawing interiors would be a decent start.

 

The short version is that single issues are terrible value for money and fewer and fewer people are willing to pay that. The slightly longer version is that, plus industry shenanigans that drive away even that audience. Some people will go on about culture wars and SJWs and all that crap, but the real problem is books getting rebooted twice in a year for events they have nothing to do with and huge crossovers featuring 30+ titles in a month. For several months.

Obviously this kind of thing is more of a Big Two issue, but it still drives people away from comic stores and buying floppies.

What's messed up is there's no real reason for it. The MCU is the biggest entertainment property in the world right now. Comics that go through book distribution channels, like manga volumes and young adult graphic novels are making bank. Chances are, the industry will crash, things will reform around TPBs and GNs going through bookstores, and the sad casualties will be the good local stores.

 

LL’s best moments were those that piggybacked off of the much-superior MTMTE.

The concepts unique to the series? Not as good. Anode and Lug in particular can suck a frag.

The current series has yet to outright annoy me. A low bar to be sure, but it’s one LL at its worst didn’t hit, so...

 

the Herandez art isnt THAT bad, it's competent. but we're spoiled. we've had amazing art from Roche, Milne, Durocher, Stone, and Griffin.

 

I guess I'm never going to see Marvel G1 UK vol 6 and Marvel GI JOE HC vol 9!!!