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” BISAC stands for Book Industry Study Group (I know, I know)…”

To nitpick, BISAC stands for either “Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee” or “Book Industry Standards and Communications” (not sure which name is more correct nowadays…) to denote the subset of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) that works to create industry standards, including categorization.

What might be nice would be to have a list of comics-specific BISACs?

Thanks for covering this important change, Heidi.

Brian – when you say a list of list of comics-specific BISACs, what exactly are you after? The BISG list the existing comics BISACs on their website – https://www.bisg.org/bisac/bisac-subject-headings-list-comics-and-graphic-novels. When the new codes become official in January 2017, I’m sure they’ll add them to the site as well.

I had a friend who was a manager at Hastings for a bout a year that got let go over a year ago. Even then, the environment for employees was not good and they really didn’t have a good feel for the comics market. Not surprising that they owe Funko more than Diamond. There seems to be a big excess of Funko Pops at all the local comic shops as well as Hot Topics.

The company went private in 2014.
Most stores are located in small cities (one is in Fremont, NE).
Unless Wal-Mart fills that void, some readers will have to either drive to a metropolitan area (not uncommon in the midwest, where day trips are popular), or make better use of the local library and interlibrary loan. Or go online.
But casual discovery? Browsing… that’s unlikely.

“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.

““A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.”

It’ll help more than inventory sitting on the shelf unsold would.

i wonder if Diamond is able to absorb this kind of large financial hit? What will the domino effect be on the DM?

If they get pennies on the dollar, it won’t be for a very very long time.

>“A good time to stock up on bargains” at the expense of the artists and publishers who will never get paid.<

I suspect that the graphic novels were sourced via Diamond BOOK Distributors and various book store distributors. Those are returnable, although there are limits. Yup, the publisher/distributor takes a beating on returns… HarperCollins sunk Eclipse that way with The Hobbit.

Anything purchased via Diamond COMICS would be like a comics shop… it's one-way.
Diamond bought the stock from the companies, and re-sold it to Hastings, on credit. (They do this for many stores… I think it's a retail standard…. retail accounts get 60 or 90 days to pay each bill.)

So, Diamond is stuck, unless they signed some sort of distribution agreement with a publisher or company that says different.

Also, it should be noted:
When a book goes on sale in a bookstore, it does not affect a creator's royalties.
That is determined for every book sold, not on the sales price.
A publisher will sell a book for about 50% of the cover price to a store. The store can then discount the book if they feel they'll make more money doing so.
It doesn't matter if it's paid for full price at a comic con, or bought at 50% off on Amazon. The royalty paid to the creator is the same.

To the best of my knowledge, Diamond doesn’t offer more than 30 days to anyone.

This debt appears to be Diamond BOOK distributors which is a different company than the COMICS portion, but one which is probably in generally poor shape right now mostly because they’ve lost most of their client publishers — despite the lock on COMICS for the “Big Five”, Diamond BOOKS only appears to distribute IDW and Image — no Marvel, DC, or Dark Horse.

http://www.diamondbookdistributors.com/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=53&s=660&ai=70695&ssd= looks like a list of impacted pubs. I could be entirely wrong, but I think that everyone there other than IDW and Image DBD is “buy/sell”, where *DBD* will be the party out on the sale…. but what is Hastings going to have in stock? Probably a lot of Image and IDW (licensed) books. Those pubs may potentially be on the hook for at least some of the loss if the terms are similar to the “brokerage” deal that they have with DCD.

But that’s without actually having real knowledge of facts, and could be entirely wrong!!

-B

The bankruptcy court will decide which debts they have to pay and how much.

How much leverage the publisher has to get themselves paid probably depends on their size. Small publishers often walk away with nothing when a chain or distributor goes bankrupt. In cases like that, the creator will not get paid either. It’s happened to me multiple times.

Great insights. Last night on my commute home, the guy in front of me was reading Hellboy via ComiXology , the guy next to me had a JLA HC collection/GN, and I had was reading a digital comic but had a floppy with me too.

As one of the old time commentators, I think you are absolutely right about the sustainability of the old, accepted notion of a comic (especially those outdated attempts to recapture the old X-men or Teen Titans heydays with teams of youthful superheroes)

However, I don’t fret for the medium. As we are seeing with people like Noelle Stephenson, there are markets outside standard comics that seem to be doing just fine.

Instead of dollar amounts, I wish the first chart was physical units. As cover prices have gone up, that will increase dollar amount even if the units shipped is stagnant.

I’m also not surprised that TPB appear to be stagnant. Most Diamond accounts are DM stores. Most DM stores sell singles. Only a small subset of customers will buy a trade if they have the singles, and others will get it if they can’t get back issues. Most TPB prices are no cheaper than buying all the back issues which can often be found on the shelf at my local shop. If I want a TPB, it’s also cheaper to them online from Indigo, Amazon etc instead of paying full cover price (or marked up US as many Canadian shops are doing now) at my local shop. I am also guaranteed to get a new copy and not one that has been thumbed through by customers.

Meanwhile, the Walking Dead has relaunched how many times? Oh right, none.

Imagine that – if you put out consistently good material, sales will remain consistent as well.

Make mine Image.

I think one of the reasons paper comics still sell is because people spend so much time staring a computer screen. They do it for work, they do it with their phones to distract themselves. etc..

At some point you (and your eyes) want a break and physical book is a good way to do it.

How quickly they forget. It’s only been 55 weeks since this very website reported on Matt Fraction appearing on The Late Show with Seth Meyers.

Ben, I was actually going to throw in here how Seth Meyers, a confirmed comics lover, has had a lot of comics guests on, as had Disney owned Jimmy Kimmel. Colbert had a bunch on when it was Comedy Central but not sure about the Late Show.

That said, The Tonight Show is still the most hallowed hall of late night.

Also, will people stop saying that all we need for comics to sell 100,000 copies an issue is celebrities flogging them on TV!

You’re likely right that there is a Late Night hierarchy beyond my ken here, and appearing on one host’s show is not quite the same spotlight or recognition. Sorry to be snarky. I was just surprised that you seemed to be indicating that no creators (and I would claim, and I think you’d agree, that there’s a difference between Quesada doing Marvel hype on The Colbert Report, and a writer or artist being a guest who can both provide artistic comment and persona) were trying to establish this kind of profile, when one, very much not a household name, had done so recently. But I do largely agree you’re right that we only usually see this sort of thing when an established entertainer goes out of his way in an interview to mention his cross-media efforts in comics. Q.v. Kevin Smith, Brian Posehn, etc.

In case someone doesn’t have a cell phone, just an idea – You could probably use a Google Voice phone number (it’s free) to get the text messages, assuming you don’t need to receive new texts when you’re not at a computer.

I attended NYCC last year and I do not have a mobile phone. However, if you click on the ‘get code’ with no number in the box, it will give you an option to have a robo-call made to a land-line, which is what I did. But yeah, it’s not obvious.

You should really fact check your information prior to publishing it. If you select get code after entering your phone number you can select “Get code via phone call” and an automated call will be placed. Also you can have multiple codes sent to a single phone via text, so you can use one phone to fulfill the requirement of text messages if you wish to use that method.

I can confirm that the Google Voice phone numbers don’t work. IIRC, it gives a message along the lines of “phone number not part of a valid provider”.

wow mind blowing ! perfect article … One of the best shows on tv right now.

For the cost of the typical piano software program training course, it isn’t worth your time in attempting to
teach your self piano by browsing websites picking up bits of info along the way.

‘ one-story building with stairs are narrow or revolving ‘ distance between the street and housing ‘ piano value ‘ concert grand piano or baby grand, concert piano ‘ building containing more
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While the approach to restoring a square grand piano could be a difficult and
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[…] Advice| Victor Van Scoit reports on The Comic Book Women panel at Emerald City Comicon on promoting creator-owned work, which included plenty of concrete talk about building relationships with retailers and promoting yourself on social media. [The Beat] […]

Ken: Good words and a generous number of page previews! Good luck!

Ken is smart and he knows his stuff. I was fortunate enough to see some of his work ahead of time and the passion he put into his work. His points are solid and his advice is gold.

[…] Beat – Column: 15 Ways To Get Ahead In Advertising Comics. – Some good advice with this […]

Thanks Jimmy. (Congrats on the BQ news.)
And thanks for having me Heidi!

That Dora commercial is one of my favorite commercials of the last ten years. But, then, I have a seven year old daughter who went through that phase. Maybe I’m an easy mark. Either way: Good job, and thanks!

I wonder…
What if DC offered a discount to retailers…

Order the same amount of copies for the first six issues of a title (which would be a complete story arc, ready for bundling), and DC will add a higher discount.

AND… DC will also set variant ratios lower for these “subscribers”… maybe 1:20 instead of 1:25.

There was no messaging compliance agreement. Feel free to ask me directly next time — I’m always available and willing to talk!

On Prez: Looks like there will be a second miniseries after all, in September:
https://twitter.com/Manruss/status/700488890986070016?s=09

The all-at-once approach was the biggest missed opportunity of the New 52. When I first heard the sketchiest outline of that initiative, I thought it was brilliant… because I misunderstood what they were doing.

What I thought they were doing – and they should have done – was to roll out those 52 new #1’s one per week, for a year: Action Comics #1 the first week, Detective Comics #1 the second week, Sensation #1 the third week, and so on. This would give the new DCU a chance to grow slowly, more like the original did in its early years, starting with Supes, Bats, and Wondy as the founders. At this rate, readers could afford the time and money to pick up every single new series (or at least the ones that looked interesting to them), and give them a try. It would also be more manageable for editorial, compared to trying (unsuccessfully) to build an entire universe in a few months (in secret).

Meanwhile, for the sake of cashflow and customer retention, they would continue publishing the old series, but end one of them per week. A few would have to come to a hasty conclusion, but others would have anywhere from 2 to 12 months to tell one last story featuring the old-version characters, with all the stops pulled out. Think Crisis but without the crossover series. These would be the “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow”s of the current generation, and every fan who cared about the characters would want to stick around for them… and hopefully get drawn into the new DCU that they see dawning on the racks alongside them.

For retailers it would be less of a crapshoot ordering the new titles, because by the time the first dozen were out, they’d have actual sales history to base their orders on. And if DC was to market the new universe properly to new readers (for a change), retailers would have a year in which they’d have both old customers and new customers coming into their shops, each with something written for them. Some of the old-timers would probably leave when the last of “their” series ended (inevitable with a reboot), but – if the new creators did their job right launching the new series – not most of them, and not nearly as many as they would gain over a year of organically building a new universe and a new/renewed audience for them.

At least that’s how it all played out in my head, before I found out that The New 52 meant 52 #1’s all shipping the same month, and my heart sank.

P.S. I’m willing to move to L.A. to oversee this plan. ;)

Once creative teams are announced, that will be that. I can’t think of a better selling point than creative teams to retailers. Knowing WHAT you’re selling makes hand selling work.

The problem I had as a reader that with only a few exceptions, Lemire’s Green Arrow and Snyder’s Superheavy, none of these stories would have had much of a problem at all being adapted to the Pre-Flashpoint DC Universe. Instead of feeling like stories were adding, it felt much more like things were being taken away. My favorite character, J’onn J’onzz was no longer a founding member of the Justice League. Wally West is not the same character. It was baffling that a company that had spent decades telling me to invest in something and then pretty much irrevocably altered it without so much as trying to look like they care.

Now then, I continued to pick up anything written by Geoff Johns and Scott Snyder, but after awhile they were the only DC comics I was picking up besides Doctor Fate. I truly feel that Harras has really damaged the trust between fans and company, much like he did while at Marvel. The books where you can tell creators were allowed freedom from editorial interference, like Lemire’s Green Arrow, Snyder on Batman, Grant Morrison, Batgirl and Geoff Johns, were the best books on the stands. I’m hoping, really hoping that Geoff Johns is the key. Everything in his address really feels like he has been in editor-in-chief for the relaunch, which means letter creators do the books how they want. DC has one more chance to stick the landing and I really hope they do.

Still – it’s a fun place to be and Ross’ BOOM party van is always fun.

Hey! That picture is of me – from a brand new baby comic book store in Oakland, CA called Cape and Cowl Comics! Thanks dudes!

Glad to see Sra finally available in the US.
I wonder why they aren’t including Les Réparateurs?

A naive question:
What if a publisher launched a new title every month, instead of one big blast?
The publisher concentrates on promoting the new title, while maintaining some buzz from last month’s launch.

I don’t think that would be a sustainable model for the big two. Heck, Boom! does roughly 2-3 a month at a minimum. I honestly do like Marvel’s method – a cycle of “seasons”, like television, before tapering off, but they need to figure out a way to space out the end of one series and the start of the next to create a gap where people are champing at the bit to get what’s next.

I’ve pondered Torsten’s question too. Not necessarily for a big relaunch but for after that. In any given month, there must surely be a title that is worthy of cancellation and they could always have something on deck.

I know why they don’t – promotional dollars are more effective to use to sell multiple series rather than just one – but still, the most interesting thing about the solicits (to me anyway) is what is being cancelled and what new book(s) are coming out. I wouldn’t mind having that be something I could see every month.

@Torsten – this is without knowing the economics of the publishers, but it seems like the companies, at this point, have adapted to selling a few copies of a lot of books, and have allocated resources for staffing to meet that demand. If you staggered relaunches, I presume you’d run into the problem of having a lot of superfluous staff that you’re paying salary/benefits/etc for who are now suddenly doing a lot less work. Granted I’d be in favor of drastically reducing the number of titles published at both Marvel and DC, but I can see why if you’re Dan Didio, you’re not keen to suddenly have a bunch of workers sitting around or, on the flip side, to fire a bunch of people you probably rather like.

‘I maintain that the bulk of the titles in the DC You launch were exactly what the company needed to help diversify their line, but produced and marketed at the exact wrong time to have any kind of positive impact. ‘

Gotta love it , the hip internet crowd for years have been saying books arent selling due to lack of diversity, when they’re given diverse books and they flop they come up with all sorts of excuses.

I think a lot of your ideas for the relaunch is spot-on. But, like yourself, I doubt they will happen.
And what’s with Vertigo? The numbers for their last “offensive” have been depressingly low (and in most cases rightly so). So is the idea of having a non-superhero-line quasi-dead soon?

Well davebean, I’d actually give a good hard look at the wider industry and the kinds of books that are having success there. DC is woefully behind the curve on diversifying their line, and stumbled out of the gate with a myriad of poor marketing practices. It’s hard to succeed when you’re so hell bent on putting more bullets into your foot, even if you have the best of intensions.

I really loved Marvels double shipping policy in the 80’s (maybe only one or two years?), they double shipped the top titles in the summer. I was thrilled, but not burnt out, and I really anticipated it, since it was fun to read X-Men outside on a sunny day.

There is a comic shop in NOLA (Metarie, really) that buys any used GN/TPB for 10% cash or 20% store credit (of the MSRP) and sells the GN/TPB for half of the MSRP.

This results in customers constantly needing to come into the store to check for new (possibly rare, OOP) stock. Results in high turn of merch, and lots of foot traffic. Worth a consideration for any store.

Refreshing to see a comics retailer that is closing a store as part of a planned business model based on the reality of retail evolution and not bitterly blaming publishers, customers, retail competition or any number of the common closing complaints we see. Best of luck to him with his future plans.

That’s the thing about retail, it’s constantly evolving and if you don’t evolve with it you’ll get left behind. It’s fresh to see a retailer accept this and not blame everyone but themselves.

Dan- there is a store in my area closing right now, and they are on their FBOOK page railing about how awful customers are right now. It’s sad.

I don’t buy a lot of old comics. If I do, it’s usually a PSA or a marketing premium.

What I do buy, and spend large amounts on, are books.
Generally, anything published before 1990, or, again, of a non-fiction genre.

That’s what I search for at conventions… the unusual. Not variant covers or the latest hot book.
Sometimes I’ll try to do the bargain bins, but it’s hard sometimes to find three books to meet the discount.

I’d like to see more comics shops become used bookstores.
That’s how comics shops started in the 60s… they were nostalgia shops, selling paper ephemera.
Old Life magazines, lobby cards, movie posters, dime store paperbacks, comics… That’s what I seek, and that’s why I tend to visit used book stores more than comics shops.

Perhaps we’ll see a comicbook version of Book Off, with miles of shelves filled with manga and graphic novels! (And toys and t-shirts and DVDs!)

Hmm… do many comics shops buy remaindered graphic novels (not Diamond clearance, but the stuff available to bookstores)?

I remember discovering Lee’s Comics hidden away off Central in Palo Alto. Then when they moved to El Camino, great location they had alot of great obscure independent comics. I only went to the San Mateo store a few times. Sorry to hear it closing down.

Gotta keep local ‘American’ businesses closed, and foreign multinational companies happy -that is the ‘American’ way: Wile this comic book shop closes, and pretentious bigoted Generation 911-snitches bash print mediums while they ignore the degrading livability in this fake country by staring at iPhones, Amazon is opening actual *book stores*, and Barnes and Noble are expanding their graphic novel sections (which should actually be labeled ‘Sequential’, but like most decisions that affect most ‘Americans’ the decisions must be made by out of touch suburbanites that have, or pretend they have, MBAs). Lee, you should go out of business. If you sit around and think you are making money in the 90’s (all based on b.s. Internet dot-bomb ponzi schemes, and excessively low interest rates) while Costcos and Wallmarts, and Targets were popping up like weeds, and local, people oriented (not today’s car oriented) main streets that enabled local businesses were crumbling. Lee, after the WTO protests in 1999 everyone has had their balls in a consumer vice. Americans are meek, and weak, and apathetic, bigoted, xenophobic, traffic ridden consumers that pretend the USA still exists. Leek, keep not being involved in democracy, and peaceful protesting, and watch another store close… Seriously, since concepts like ‘cooperation’ are taboo in the USA, and traffic, and outsourcing, and bigotry are a priority, why would Lee not lose another store…???

Get a grip Che Guevara.

“It is peak”?
That’s QUALITY journalism, right there.

Did comic book stores 1972-1994 beginning as a founding partner in what we grew in to Comics and Comix. Dealing paper in a digital era is tough all over. I saw the future shock hand writing on wall back in 1994 and began making internet plunge back then. Since then have sold in to 68+ countries world wide

So, on one hand, it seems comics sales are going reasonably well, or at least better than 5 years ago according to John Jackson Miller.
On the other hand some comics dealers seem upset about the current market, to the point that some of them are even closing shops.

So what’s the real picture here? Are people still buying comics and if so, where are they buying them? Online? Is there a new speculation bubble?

Lee’s Comics is an icon. I’m sad to see this legendary location close, but glad to know the other Lee’s Comics will remain open. All the best wishes.

Comic sales are up, but that does not mean comic sell through to the customer is up, It might just mean that stores have been buying more product than they can sell in order to get the variant covers their customers want. Too much of that leads to stores going under.

You acknowledge that this is unscientific, but even covering that poll result seems misleading. When two of the choices are diversity, and the only other two relate to the things that a lot of people don’t pay attention to (preview catalogs, press coverage, and interviews), it’s obvious that diversity will finish with a high percentage of the vote.

Consider a poll question like: “What character do you like most?” Choices: (a) Black Widow, (b) Vice, (c) Skateman, and (d) Toad. You couldn’t then write a post saying that 100% of readers prefer Black Widow.

Lack of diversity is and always has been a liability for mainstream comics publishers, and I’d argue that the sales numbers still show that people aren’t buying based on diversity.

(Also, love the site. Really. Keep up the good work.)

First and foremost for me is whether it’s a corporate owned intellectual property or a creator owned intellectual property.

I didn’t vote on that poll on twitter and won’t vote on The Beat’s poll because an important option isn’t included. (and frankly, since The Beat constantly gives sales reports I.m pretty surprised that it was omitted)

Cost.

The cost of single issue comics, most over priced, as compared to buying a collected book or original GN. I haven’t bought a single issue of a comic in over five years now. But not because of diversity, or reviews, or cover or any on that list. I find it’s just more cost effective to buy all the chapters in the book at one time. (and because I feel pretty stupid paying $5 for a 22 page chapter of a story)

Also, 95% of what I read is by cartoonists, not a creative team.

Some factors that influence me that were not part of the poll:

– Character. Marvel was my gateway into comics so I do keep an eye on their output. But a couple decades of Marvel’s seasonal events and churned out stories have gotten me to the point where I only really care about a bare handful of the characters, and almost none of them are A-listers. For example, I’m reading Captain Marvel for Alpha Flight, and the moment they exit the book or their treatment reverts to the standard nonsense, I’m gone.

– Cost (mentioned above). I’m more likely to pick up a $3 book by an unknown than a $5 book from an established franchise. $5 first issues are the reason I decided to give Extraordinary X-Men, the last Ant-Man series, and several other of Marvel’s recent offerings a pass. On the other side of things, $1 issues have gotten me hooked on quite a few Comixology Submit titles.

– Publisher. DC’s recent flailing for direction and Marvel’s clunky attempts to synergize their comics with other-media adaptations have both been something of a turn-off over the last few years. It’s one more barrier to getting me to buy their products and has lead me to actively seek output from publishers I feel have something more interesting to offer.

Hmmm…

That design is Sam Wilson Captain America, not movie Falcon.

Makes you wonder if this will not be movie inspired promotion (which has had a history with Dr Pepper).

Hi…can I purchase these cans with box? Tks

Kickstart comics have been in Walmart for years now.

I can see all ages titles working well in big box stores. Especially those that tie in with games or videos.

I see the more bestselling graphic novel titles at Target, generally from the mainstream book trade publishers, who know how to sell into those markets. (Target has a long history, stocking the MAD paperbacks back in the 1980s.)

you can buy CF comics on the Wal-Mart website? what a world.

Well, I think the market wants fewer $4 comics. But, yeah, I’d be very curious to see Marvel’s market share broken out when you take all the Star Wars books out of the equation…

There’s talent at Marvel and DC, that’s never an issue. People’s tastes are just diverging right now. Ebbs and flows. Spider-Man and Batman respectively will always be popular to some degree. The Big Two will be fine.

I’m a Boomer, in my early 60s. I read more Image comics than from any other company. Saga, Lazarus, Velvet, Black Magick, Descender, Shutter, and Copperhead are amazing comics and they don’t force me to read crossovers with titles I don’t have any interest in. From Marvel, I read Ms. Marvel and am looking forward to the return of Captain Marvel and Black Widow. From DC, I read Red Hood Arsenal (but only because Roy Harper is my favorite character; the book kinda sucks right now), Harley Quinn, and Black Canary. Astro City continues to amaze and delight.

I like diversity and variety. I grew up a DC reader, getting 30-40 titles a month, but I got tired of reboots and being made to feel like I don’t matter. I got tired of endless crossovers and the unrelenting lack of fun in most DC books. It was the New 52 reboot that drove me to find new comics to read and inspired me to sample Image titles.

I can’t help buy wonder if DC and Marvel even know who their readers are or what readers they want to encourage. It seems that every time I get to like a character or comic, they’re rebooted or canceled. It’s too frustrating for me.

Marvel and DC have done amazingly well for two companies that, to most normal people, sell the same product, and have been repackaging that same product for 60 years.
I doubt any of the major film studios or prose publishing house would have survived this long on that model.

I think you missed the nut graf in the Rising Son piece!

“If publishers could keep trades available at Distributors, trades like Bee & Puppycat, Lumberjanes Vol One, Rick & Morty, Steven Universe, Lady Mechanika, Afterlife With Archie Vol One, Amazing Gumball and Bob’s Burgers would be selling like Saga. I don’t understand why they let these books go out of stock ever for any reason ever. Get it together guys!”

This is a significant problem, not only because it disappoints customers, but ALSO because it dramatically, drastically and completely undercuts the efforts that RETAILERS have put into promoting these titles. We only have so much “promotional bandwidth”, and “flaky indies” is why a lot of stores evolved into Marvel/DC dominance.

What kills even worse is these are not artistic problems (which I think some of use would sympathize with), but basic organizational ones of not predicting supply in the face of what I would argue is pretty clear evidence.

And I also hear very very similar to Shelly’s above comments in the store ALL the time from 40+ customers, so it is definitely not just the “new customer”.

-B

Maybe the graphs aren’t indexed clearly because they’re explained in the context of the article…

I was also under the impression that Marvel and DC don’t need to be profitable publishers, since they operate as r&d for Disney and Warner Bros.

Not that that’s any comfort for the retailers.

David: yes the context makes them easier to understand but not to gank for another article! I’m amazed at all the work you’ve put into this! Great job. I can only steal from you and add my own slogans.

DC is making products for people who don’t read DC Comics because someone on Tumblr told them to.

Meanwhile the New 52 was the best “jumping off point” a reader could ask for. The post 52 resurgence was based on taking badic tennants of casual fan knowledge and telling New stories that took into account 75 years of storytelling. Lose the history; lose the fan interest.

Now DC is this weird mess of overly decompressed 90s extreme storytelling and borderline pandering “quirky” books that at $4 a pop aren’t econical to experiment with even if you had entertained the thought of checking out a millenial reboot of “Prez”

Luis and Janet were good friends of mine when I lived in Queens. Their store was an oasis for collectors and readers alike. Clean, bright with everything a comic fan, reader or collector would want. They bent over backwards to accommodate their customers and killed them with kindness. Upon one visit I watched quizzically as a customer went through 10 copies of a single comic to find the ‘perfect condition’ issue. I looked at Janet and she just shrugged it off as this customer was VERY particular. (Peculiar?) As I said, I would still be a customer there today if I didn’t move away. I am truly saddened and I wish them well along with their sons. Buenas suerte!

What was their outreach like? I’ve lived in NYC all my life, went to high school in nearby Queens, and have tried to frequent as many comic book stores as possible, and even I thought this place closed years ago. NYC is not dying for comic book stores (hell, we have 3 different Midtown Comics megastores). You can’t just have a comic book store and wait for people to come in. Did they do FCBD? Did they make a big deal about it? In stores? Did they promote beyond “the big two’?

Honestly, if it’s not a rent issue, then I don’t see a reason why this has to happen beyond “We didn’t try and get new customers”.

Their comic shop locator profile shows them as “kid friendly” and a participant in Halloween Comic Fest. They state they participated in Free Comic Book Day, but there is no FCBD stamp on their profile.

Their store (and the previous location) are near the LIRR station. It’s a 10-minute walk to the nearest subway station. (So the location might be a problem.)

Their website: http://www.comicden.com/
It’s functional, but doesn’t have a good e-commerce portal.
(Also, they need to update their location information…although that’s moot now.)

Their Facebook page has TWO posts, both promoting Free Comic Book Day in 2013.
“39 people like this”

Google rates them 4.4 on five reviews.
Yelp: 4.0 on three reviews.
One review from September mentioned that there was not a decent selection of graphic novels, which could have hurt sales. Not many back issues as well, according to reviewers.

Montasy is 1.5 miles away. Royal Collectibles is also nearby, but not as accessible.

‘It’s like a dying hobby’, the store owner says… How the heck can you have any type of long term expectations for pamphlet sized stories priced over $2, w/ads, and based on stories that could not leave the realm of homo-erotic power fantasy fulfillment, christian/conservative-extremist ‘red scare’ censoring via the CCA, and speculator bubbles based mainly on brands, trends, and nothing to do with quality sequential story telling. Disney, Time/Warner, and other foreign entities need people to go online, since the data mining, and predictive analytics tracing our online activity is more valuable than having anything to do with sequential; the market is more about ‘comic books’ and merchandising, than it is about sequential art/writing, characterization, respect for continuity, or keeping readers. The marketing structure needs to be rebooted if you really want to gain new readers, instead of just making Captain America ‘black’, or having Wolverine be a ‘woman’, or go on the radio like Axel Alonso did when he was promoting his ‘hip hop’ covers, and said that people with read hair are gay, so that is why he made Rawhide Kid homosexual -do you think then that all those outcast red headed comic book fans at your comic conventions like it when they are called homophobic slurs just because they read ‘comic books’? Yaaay, Alonso has pride in making the Hulk Korean, since he is ‘part Korean’, as he his wife is from Korea. Is’nt that great, guys? Minorities are just like regular white folks in this fake country, as everyone gets off obsessing how they are ‘different’, and how to charge something that is over priced and full of advertisements…

At 01:55 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qpblNikGY

Isnt that great how red hair means that you are gay, according to Alonso? Isnt that great the decision making process for large foreign multinational corporate entities that have access to everywhere we shop?

This is my local store. It’s right up the block from where I live and I have to say I feel kinda bad about it closing. I rarely frequented it because of the size of the store and it’s small selection but Janet is always very nice and accommodating when I did go there.

I work in the city and Jim Hanley’s Universe is literally right across the street from me. So every wed morning I walk over there and pick up my comics. Ugh. Now I feel terrible about not supporting my local store. But too late now I guess…

I lived in NYC from 2006-2011. I made it a point to try and visit every shop in the City (except staten island) and I never even heard of this place.

Torsten’s comment makes it seem like they did no outreach or social media of any kind. So….. sad, but not surprising right?

The Badger looks like the last kind of comic that would interest me, but comparing it to lost golden age IPs as to why it failed feels like rubbing salt in a wound.

Baron was obviously hoping this would get him back in the game (and probably back to making a living with comics).
Pointing out that he has failed seems like insult to injury.
Comics fail all the time, no need to point a spotlight when an older creator stumbles.

Almost everything fades with time. Don Winslow was a very popular character in the ’40s, featured in a radio show and two movie serials. But how many people under 70 have hard of the character today?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Winslow_of_the_Navy_%28comic_strip%29

For that matter, how many people under 40 have heard of Lil Abner (a comic strip that ended in 1977), or know Dick Tracy as anything but a Warren Beatty movie?

Maybe Baron should create something new instead of trying to relive past glories. (That goes for the entire industry, not just Baron.) How many people who bought comics in the ’80s are still going to a comic shop today? Some, but they’re outnumbered by younger people who may have never heard of Badger.

Without passion or prejudice, Heidi, you have stated the facts.

Wait 12 weeks between third and fourth rounds, 20 weeks between fourth
and fifth rounds, and 6 months between fifth and sixth. You have a
smaller fatter version of yourself as the lean muscle mass you had will have
decreased, and the fat will still be there. Fast weight loss which focuses on low calorie intake and fat burning without proper nutrition is
indeed a starvation practice. Craig Primack said in an interview with The Star
Telgram. These drops sell for about $25 online (I used these because a lady at
work bought them and didn’t use them so I paid $32 for three 2oz bottles.

“it’s obvious that all kind of comics were being published in multiple genres, and the styles are more like what you’d find on tumblr today than the “house superhero style” that many think is essential to the form. A lot to parse.”

You’re right. If Will Eisner, Jack Cole or Jack Davis had come along 30 years later, fans would have rejected their styles for being too “cartoony.” And they might have rejected Kirby and Ditko. Heck, they DID reject Kirby and Ditko in the ’70s and ’80s. They didn’t draw enough like Neal Adams.

Five 80s comics I’d rather see brought back than ‘Badger’:

The Ballad of Halo Jones
The Elementals
New Statesmen
Thriller (the DC Comics series, not the album)
Video Jack

I think the better strategy would be for Baron to get back in the scene with a title from the big two and then bring back The Badger. He was the go-to writer for the Punisher. Wish there was a way to get him back on that title with a hot artist to raise and reestablish his profile.

I have always looked his works, Nexus and the Badger are two of my faves, but I almost missed the book in the solicits because it’s from such a small publisher.

I enjoy the artists attached to the project, but they are not hot artists at the moment. That’s another obstacle to getting attention.

I would love to see First comics make a comeback, but fusing them with Devil’s Due, a publisher that has a slightly sorted history, doesn’t seem like a partnership that offers First much.

All in all, First’s reappearance in the field feels slight and timid.

Looked his works should be loved his works.

Oliver C: I’d also go for a Thriller revival. That book was about a decade ahead of its time — a Vertigo comic before Vertigo existed.

I seem to see this phenomenon more among fans than creators, but it does all seem to be focused on the same time period (generally 25-30 years ago, so right now the mid-80s to early ’90s). In the cases I’ve observed, the fans really liked Comic, and want Comic to come back so they can have more Comic, and they’re dead sure it’ll be a hit because, well, it’s their favorite comic ever. Sometimes it even does come back (usually if it was a Marvel/DC book and they’re interested in preserving the trademark, or there was a toy line/cartoon attached and the owner of that is), at which point it either has middling success before limping towards cancellation or tanks right out of the gate, and the social media babble is full of protestations that it would have worked if They Had Just Done It Right. Never during this process will the notion that the rest of the world just isn’t as enthused about their favorite thing from when they were eight enter their minds.

All of which is a very roundabout way of saying I’ll be eyeing the fortunes of IDW’s ROM revival with some interest.

(There’s also an interesting permutation of this where a fan-turned-pro will try to make their favorite mid-list character or concept into the new superstar, despite decades of evidence indicating that very few people give a damn. Geoff Johns has done this at least twice, with Hawkman and Cyborg.)

It’d be interesting to learn of the reasons for his initial drop off 20 years ago, what brought him back and how.

Weird that there’s no lettered preview of Secret Wars #9 today.

I’m wondering if people have been buying ANAD comics and not reading them or if there’s gonna be a rush, as much as a comic store gets at least, on 3-4 months of issues.

Great piece, I really liked what you said about the live action tv dc stuff. But then I thought about that Arrow comic with the show runners, and how that didn’t really work. Maybe the talent just wasn’t right. If they were up for it, sticking Valentine and some of those other creators you mentioned and getting cohesion ‘like Marvel Star Wars cohesion’ for that line would be a thing of beauty. But, if you were to do that, would you detach it from continuity?

Another issue, especially when it comes to initiatives and new readers, is the delivery system/venue/format. Some people just don’t want monthly drips of a story or to collect comics they just want to read stories. There are a whole world of publishers and creators making those connections now. D

These are all great ideas but I’m particularly interested in the Vertigo one. I think the push they made at the end of 2015 is falling pretty flat and I’m guessing only two of those books will have any sort of lasting traction (Sheriff of Babylon and Unfollow). It’s really hard to see what kind of identity Vertigo can have now that Image is drinking their milkshake. I mean, I’m all for them putting out original, mature-reader works – especially if there is something in it for the creators – but going back to being a place for edgy, sophisticated mature-readers stories about weird DCU characters might be an ultimately more successful and brandable route for them to go.

DC needs to create some new characters, and not just superheroes., instead of reviving old series. I assume this is supposed to appeal to readers’ nostalgia, but there aren’t enough 50-something Baby Boomers and 40-something Gen X’ers still reading their comics to make this work. Create some new characters for the new readers.

“Steal a big name”: DC surged in the ’80s by “stealing” Frank Miller, John Byrne and other popular Marvel creators. Of course, they were helped by Jim Shooter’s management style, which led so many writers and artists to flee Marvel.

Question was the goal of this article how DC could sell more comics?

Because of it was only DC Unlimited is the only idea that fits that idea.

Tie in books to tv shows and cartoons don’t sell.

Vertigo comics featuring Constantine don’t sell.

Books written by minority writers like Orlando, Valentine, Tynion, Doyle don’t sell.

Diverse types of books like Omega Men, Black Canary, Midnighter, Prez don’t sell.

Short of WB magically getting the rights to Star Wars DC isn’t going to be selling comics.

I agree with Robert Mayland above. I’m not saying that DC couldn’t use a pretty hefty dose of diversity I think that the idea that somehow hiring someone of color will produce a comic book that is not only a) great and innovative and b) everyone of color will automatically read it..It’s not only demonstrably wrong (see the rest of the Top 10 comics on the list) but it’s also mildly condescending tbh.

“At the same time, it’s possible that they misjudged how big the market actually is for this kind of approach to their heroes.”

THIS. I’m sorry but it’s quite clear that Tumblr and its ilk are basically the very vocal minority (no pun intended). I agree with you that Batgirling isn’t bad but, as you said, you can’t try to build the undercard with it simply because there isn’t that much of a demand for it and no amount of promotion would help that. Also, while I’m spouting anecdotes I have a sinking suspicion that this same demographic they’re so desperately trying to court is of the same generational mindset that most of their media should be free or illegally downloaded. Obviously this is unprovable conjecture but we’re all just spitballing here anyway.

The rest is SPOT. ON. Especially the DC Unlimited idea. I’m sorry but who on Earth would pay $3.99 a pop for a DRM digital copy of a comic that costs the company next to nothing to produce?

Finally, before I step off my soapbox I’d like to add the idea that perhaps DC should shift into more of a manga approach and begin selling longer books at more affordable prices. No matter how you cut it, 4 bucks for an 8 minute read that won’t be continued for 30 more days just isn’t a good bargain. Especially in these days of super decompressed storytelling.

Everything having to do with sales, or (perhaps more importantly with the nature of a non-returnable Direct Market) the *perception* of sales really actually at the end of the day comes down to “is it any good?”

So any essay that doesn’t begin with editorial (and/or institutional) direction is, probably, missing the point.

-B

Hi Brian,

Maybe, but I’m not privy to actual conversations that occur regarding creative directions for DC’s various lines other than hearsay. Frankly, as of right now, I don’t know what DC’s editorial direction even is, if you were to really ask me. Perhaps you have better insight?

I sure hope no one ever actually makes the argument that good sales = good comics, cause there’s a whole lotta not very strong (IMO) X-Men comics that would disprove that thesis right quick.

But Brian – some of the DC You books are amazingly good and yet don’t sell. So material being “good” is not the answer. If they’re producing good material but it isn’t what the comics fans who walk into the store every week want, then their marketshare will continue to drop. And if they’re producing good material but the retailers and/or regular subscribers don’t have any faith in it then it won’t get on the shelves anyway and the people walking in to try it out won’t see it.

DC needs to decide if they want to be a comic book company anymore or not. If they don’t, then their dwindling marketshare in the comics market doesn’t matter at all and they can just continue to do what they’re doing until they reach the point where they’re not making enough money on the comics publishing to cover the overhead. At which point they can shut it down or license their characters out to another company to publish. But if DCE doesn’t really care one way or the other about publishing comics anymore and really want to be a brand management company, then maybe they just get as much money as they can out of the market for the next few years and shut it down when the profits start to being too small to care about.

If they want to be a comics company then they need to start sucking up to the retailers again. DC only gets their stuff on the shelves when they stroke the retailers a lot because the retailers in the business continue to view Marvel as their cash cow and DC as the also-ran. So if they want to be a comics publisher they should be bribing the retailers more heavily than Marvel does – do things like make more books returnable for longer to get retailers to stock more on the shelves and take more chances, or create some incentives for retailers to stock a diverse selection of titles rather than incentivizing buying dozens (or more) of extra copies of a single title to get those variant covers they sell on eBay. It may not be “fair” that they need to suck up to retailers more than Marvel does to get their books promoted, but business ain’t fair and if Marvel is doing that much better sales wise then its time to make some drastic interventions.

If they can’t afford to do that, and still want to publish something like “comics” in house then the other choice would be to give up on the month-to-month Direct Market and push heavily into the digital realm. Cut their printing costs dramatically by giving up on floppies entirely and switching to a digital to collection pipeline that would get their books on the bookshelves faster and forget about the monthly magazine format entirely. it would mean essentially giving up on the direct market, but with their marketshare dwindling as rapidly as it has this year the DM might just give up on them if they don’t do something drastic.

But they need to do something dramatic to convince readers and retailers that they’re not in a death spiral at this point. The reboot and the jump back to 90s style comics goosed their sales for a while on the nostalgia wave, but it didn’t work for long and its not going to work again. They need to do some more fundamental things than just make “good comics” to get back where they need to be or else they’re going to leave the market one way or another.

Robert,

“Tie in books to tv shows and cartoons don’t sell”

Maybe, maybe not. The current set of books DC releases are never adequately promoted for the tv viewer, or given creative teams that general interest the LCS customer. But, do both of those things and perhaps they will move units. They just announced a “Dark Archer” comic co-written by John Barrowman. But it’s probably going to be so underpromoted and hidden in their Comixology lineup, it’ll barely make a blip on the radar.

I know Buffy tie-in comics really aren’t all that comparable given that it was considered the “official continuation of the show”, but that first issue sold 90k copies. There’s an audience out there for this kind of stuff provided you hit the right buttons.

“Vertigo comics featuring Constantine don’t sell.”

Certainly not issue 200-300 something, which is how Hellblazer was basically left for the entrenched reader. But I think it’s hard to argue that an IP that a reader recognizes, starting at issue 1, wouldn’t sell better than a creator owned one that they don’t, barring there being a superstar creative team in question (and even then, it might not sell all that well, again see: Twilight Children).

The locals know that neighborhood. That’s not good.

That being said, we did just lose our best LCS here in Philly.
Will comic readers be willing to walk near the worst parts of The Wire for their comics?