Story Arc Length?
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Hey Tom,
Congrats on finishing Secret Wars. I feel like it was Marvel’s best event in years. I know it was tough, but I honestly feel like having one Writer and Artist on a story makes a huge difference.
Anyway, I was wondering about Marvel’s new storyarc format. When did 5 issues per arc become the norm? Is it the norm? I could be wrong but I thought that many story arcs used to be 6 issues and now I feel like they are a little shorter. Am I crazy or did things change?
> There is no story arc length norm, there’s only the preferences of the creators. We’ve got arcs of all lengths. What is a norm is the size of our collections, where 5-6 issues is the sweet spot–shorter, and they don’t seem worth the money; longer, and the cover price hits a point of resistance. So our creators are typically thinking in terms of where the book breaks will be.



