William James Cuffe of All The Fun Stuff in Katy, Texas, perhaps stimulated by Steven Bates' column on stand-alone comics (see 'I Think I Can Manage -- K.I.S.S. Me You Fool'), or by the comment from Joe Krolik of Comics America on stand-alone comics (see 'Joe Krolik of Comics America on Marvels in 7-11'), sent us his thoughts on the proliferation of mini-series and one-shots, especially from Marvel:

I have just perused the June 2005 issue of Marvel Previews, and what I saw astounded me.  Aside from the price increase that has already been covered (see 'The End of $2.25 Marvels?'), this is what caught my eye:

- Out of the 59 new (not reprint or 'must-have') products listed (their main line only, not Max or Icon titles), 27 were one shots/limited series.  Working out the math, that means a whole 45% of products coming out of Marvel are limited series.  That is almost HALF of all the new titles!

- One of these new limited series, The House of M, will be published every other week.  I will have to commit to half of the total series before I even see issue #1 hit the streets.  Not only that, but there will immediately be a one-shot spin off (The House of M: Spiderman #1) as the miniseries begins, and another limited series, Mutopia, later in the year.  This is only slightly more palatable than the Age of Apocalypse nonsense this month, where there were TWO different Age of Apocalypse #1, and retailers had to commit to the ENTIRE six issue run before even seeing a single issue.  And yet again, Marvel is producing the five issues of Last Hero Standing all at one time -- forcing me to commit to the whole run before I've even gotten any feedback on interest from my customers.  I have to hurry up and buy or I'll miss out.

- Three of the titles solicited will have variant covers: The first and

second issue of House of M, New Avengers #8, and issue #8 of Captain

America.  The House of M choice can be credited to the reaction to multiple printings of Identity Crisis and Green Lantern: Rebirth, but why Captain America #8?  Perhaps it is just my store, but I have NO subscribers to Captain America, and I sell more copies of Captain America & The Falcon than the base Captain America series.  I can almost understand having alternate covers for New Avengers #8.  After all, we supposedly learn the secret of the Sentry.  But almost every issue of New Avengers has had an alternate cover.  This is issue #8 already -- if the title isn't good enough to bring in readers after half a year, it is running on hype and marketing.  What are you celebrating if EVERY issue has an alternate cover?

- Nine of the 59 titles solicited are new titles, and of those, NONE are continuing series. I only have so much money in my budget to put towards comics.  That budget has to stretch across Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, and Independent companies.  Marvel has the most stringent, stingiest discount of all the comic companies, yet they expect us to consistently take the chance of each new title and new #1 they spew out.  Despite being able to alter my orders up to three weeks before they ship, any retailer will tell you the most amount of interest in a title will be generated when the first issue is released.  Does Marvel not have enough confidence in any of its projects to make the long run?

Reality check: Marvel isn't the only company guilty of this -- DC is just as bad lately with the entire Seven Soldiers series.  Aspen Comics puts everyone to shame with the sheer volume of alternate covers they produce.  The defunct Dreamwave depended heavily on the practice of alternate covers and multiple miniseries.  So why am I aiming the brunt of this missive at Marvel?

It's the sheer volume.

There is nothing wrong with producing a limited series, then deciding to make it into a continuing series should it prove popular.  In Marvel's defense, they are putting out some new characters (Gravity, for example) and trying to breathe some life into older properties such as New Warriors and The Hellions.  But Spider-Man already has four monthly titles, not to mention being featured prominently in New Avengers -- does Marvel *REALLY* have such demand for Spider-Man titles that they need to produce another FOUR limited series featuring him?  No, otherwise Spider-Man Unlimited would come out more frequently.  Did Wolverine: Soultaker necessitate being a miniseries?  No, it would have served better as part of the Wolverine ongoing series.  Are the fans really clamoring for another Kitty Pryde mini-series?  No, Mechanix was a flop, so there's no excuse of 'maintaining the copyright' with Kitty

Pride - Shadow & Flame.  At this rate, I doubt Marvel will be satisfied until every X-Man ever has their own ongoing series.

There was a time that a limited series was a special event, and the stories reflected it.  But other than a cross-marketing scheme, I see very little of quality in the quantity of titles being cranked out.  Only Marvel uses the tactic of spamming every property they own in the hopes one or two titles will stick.  Marvel has cheapened the format to just another way of getting an issue #1 on the stands, an attempt to make comic buying into an impulse sale.