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Friday, September 3, 2010
Kicking DC in the Nuts
Like it will do any good...
Okay, let me get this straight. DC had Identity Crisis and then the Identity Crisis tie-ins in the individual DC hero titles. Now, they have DC Countdown which promises to follow-up the events from Identity Crisis. That's clearly not enough extra books for DC fans to buy, so in April they'll have two mini-series, The OMAC Project and Day of Vengeance, spawned by the events of DC Countdown, which followed up the events of (say it with me) Identity Crisis. Knowing that fans will obviously be clamoring for more, they have two additional mini-series lined up for May: Villains United, which "also spins out of Identity Crisis," and The Rann/Thangor War, which is being established in Adam Strange and will cross over with Green Lantern. This fourth mini-series will also serve to "reestablish the cosmic scope of the DC Universe, and build on it." Man, if I was a DC comics fan, I would have to go to their offices and kick them in the nuts. Newsarama asked the question that had to be asked. No, not the "Are you guys insane?" question, but they asked if all of these mini-series were connected. The answer, of course: "Not really. The four miniseries are so strong on their own that I feel we could have done any one of them individually. The key of this was to four miniseries at the same time, and that way, creating a backdrop for all the DC Universe. You don't need to read all of them, you don't need to cross them all over, but what you're getting now is a sense of scope in the DCU." So remember kids, you don't have to buy them all. BUT, if you want a true sense of the scope of the DCU, you will need to buy three copies of each... If you read the entire interview, DC says they just want to make good comics that people can't resist buying. And to be fair, they do make some great comics; DC's The New Frontier was a beautiful wallow in nostalgia and We3 was so fantastic that I'm afraid to go buy the last issue and have it come to an end. Both Y the Last Man and Fables are interesting reads and one of these days I'm going to catch up with 100 Bullets. So, why not take chances on new concepts and talented creators? Why does DC need to milk a mediocre, over-hyped "event" to such a degree? I'm no expert, but I have some ideas. DC, and their doppelganger Marvel, knows what the people who support the direct market will buy. It's easy. The same recycled characters plus hot artist or writer of the moment and a carefully constructed campaign of hype equal big sales. Oh wait, add in rape and the death of a minor character and you're golden. I don't do this very often, but let’s look at the comics market. It's strange that people complain of a manga glut. Yes, there are A LOT of manga books on the shelf of your local Borders and Barnes & Noble, but is it really a glut? A glut is DC putting out approximately 70 comics a month featuring superheroes, with 15 of them featuring Batman family characters. A glut is when Marvel matches their 70 comics featuring super-heroes in the same month, with 12 of those featuring Spider-Man, 7 of them bearing the superlative "“Ultimate," and almost 20 of them featuring X-Men characters. That's a glut, folks. And that's what dominates and shapes the Direct Market. How many from each are in the latest Top 300? If you look at the December Top 300 list, courtesy of ICv2, you have to go to number 55 for a non Marvel/DC comic (Image's Rising Stars #23). Only eight comics in the top 100 are non-Marvel/DC. But, if you go over to the Top 100 Graphic Novels list from the same site, it's a much different story. Only 44 of the Top 100 graphic novels are from Marvel or DC. It's important to note that the sale of graphic novels are rising (up 29% in Dec 04 compared to Dec 03, while there was only a 5% increase for comics over the same period), and those sales reflect books from a much wider variety of genres and publishers. What about comic sales? Well those rankings are from the weird beast called the direct market. Retailers have ordered X number of copies, but who knows how many customers actually purchased these comics. It's well documented that companies, Marvel especially, encourage retailers to order more of their product up front. They use no-reprint policies, odd alternate covers schemes, etc. to convince retailers to order more of their product. But how much of that product just sits on the shelf waiting for a mylar bag and an inflated back issue price tag? Clearly super-hero comics, and the fans that buy them, dominate the direct market. It looks like Young Avengers #1 topped 240,000 in sales. That's a great number for a comic book today. Of course, those 240,000 comics were sold to about 80,000 fans. You know, one to read, one to bag and one to... Also, these great sales figures for Young Avengers #1 still can't touch the monthly sales of Viz's Shonen Jump. Over at The Pulse, using ICv2 numbers again, Paul O’Brien looks at Marvel's numbers over the last year. Of Marvel's 35 top sellers, only 7 had an increase in sales over the last year, while the other 28 lost ground. According to Marc Oliver Frisch's calculations,DC fared somewhat better, having 19 of 40 books that increased in sales over that same year. Those 19 include books like Sleeper and Y the Last Man. These numbers, and I'll admit I've never really paid much attention to them before, are kind of fascinating. I mean look at books like The Walking Dead, which enjoyed great word of mouth, but did not receive much official hype. Issue #1 sold 7,266 and this number steadily increased to 14,713 by issue #14. Even a smaller book like DEMO managed to end with numbers slightly above those for issue #1. Compare this to Ultimate Fantastic Four which started out with 188,552 at issue #1 and plummeted to 77,931 at issue #14. Going beyond the direct market, there's the traditional bookstore market, where they sell those other types of comics, the graphic novels and manga digests. By almost all accounts, the bookstore market is a growing force in sales of graphic novels. For instance, ICv2 estimates that manga sales in bookstores have increased 40 to 50% in 2004. What exactly are the sales figures in bookstores? No one really seems to know. I think it's safe to say it's a growing figure, especially with high profile books like Persepolis, McSweeney’s Quarterly, LOCAS and In the Shadow of No Towers getting so much mainstream attention. Also compare the amount of space given to graphic novels and manga today in bookstores with the graphic novel/science fiction ghetto of just five years ago. You don't receive increased space in Borders or Barnes & Noble without growing sales to justify that expansion. Beyond comic stores and bookshops, look at your local library. Graphic novel sales to libraries are growing as well. Librarians are realizing that reading comics still equals reading and graphic novels and comic collections are growing on library shelves. Scholastic's new graphic novel imprint Graphix!, which just released the first volume of Bone, is just one sign that comics are being recognized as a force that's not going away anytime soon. All of this is great news to someone who finds most of his reading material beyond the crowded front racks of comic shops or even outside of comic shops. But what about the direct market and those 140 (just between DC and Marvel) super-hero oriented titles published each month? (That's not counting the little league super-hero comics aping the big boys.) What happens as the graying but vocal readership of spandex titles grows old and dies? Who's going to buy those 140+ titles each month? The new fans brought in by movies? Nah, not over the long term. Comics are not movies, and I don't think comic movies significantly increase the readership of comics enough to replace the shrinking fan base of capes and tights comics. DC and Marvel know they have to take advantage of every chance to milk their existing readership before they die off. Super-hero movies may keep them afloat, but they are not going to save them. However, if you can get your fans to buy another $100 dollars of comics born of one mediocre 12 Issue-mini-series, you're good for now. And will the fans buy? Go read the responses to the DC announcement and see for yourself... Do comics cost too much? This is my favorite recent quote about comics and it comes from Tom Spurgeon: "The only comics that are too expensive are shitty comics." That should be engraved above the entrance to every comic book store. It also explains why I have no problem paying $5.95 for a B&W copy of Black Hole #12, but could never pay $1.99 for a color copy of Fathom. Good news Finally, last week, a book came out that I'm really excited about. Here is the scoop on BLUESMAN from Rob Vollmar: BLUESMAN: Book One- Release and Preview On with the show...this is it! Absence of Ink Press hopes you all will put your hands together for the newest member of the AOI publishing family, BLUESMAN from the trans-Atlantic, Eisner-nominated team of Rob Vollmar and Pablo G. Callejo. Book One, containing the first sixty pages of the exciting story of blues guitar player, Lem Taylor's harrowing journey across Arkansas of the 1930s with much worse than hell-hounds on his trail, hits the stands Wednesday, January 26th and to celebrate, we are making a six page preview of the series available to the public at our website at http://www.onypsus.com/absenceofink/bluesmanshort.pdf At over two years in the making so far, BLUESMAN has already garnered high praise from preview critics. Writer and historian William W. Savage Jr. (COMICS BOOKS IN AMERICA) called BLUESMAN, "a sensitive and incisive treatment of a neglected occupational group, and a careful, insightful evocation of a bygone time" and critic Alan David Doane found it to be, "one of the most thoughtful, moving and human stories I've ever read in any form." Come on over to website to see what all the fuss is about. We're pretty sure that you'll be glad you did. BLUESMAN Book One 72 pgs, B&W, $6.95- Diamond Order Code- SEP042266 Additional resources about BLUESMAN 5 QUESTIONS WITH ROB VOLLMAR conducted by Alan David Doane PULSE INTERVIEW WITH ROB Conducted by Jen Contino These were my own thoughts after reading the first installment of BLUESMAN: "After looking at the first (of three) installment of Rob Vollmar's Bluesman, I realized that I couldn't wait to see this book. Hopefully, you remember Rob's project with Pablo Callejo, The Castaways. They've teamed up again for Bluesman and this is one of those books that should appeal to not just comics fans, but history buffs and music aficionados. The first part tells an appealing and very human tale of two traveling bluesmen trying to eke out a living during the early years of the 20th century. Immediately, the personalities of the two musicians shine through the narrative. As a reader, you like these two fellows and the way they approach life. The story starts at a leisurely pace allowing the reader to get acquainted with the two itinerant musicians and the rural America that they travel through, but as the first installment winds down, the shadow of violence and racism stretches out over Lem and Wood. As I ran out of pages, my first instinct was to jump in the car, drive to Rob's house and beg him for the next part of the story. I needed to know what happened next. Remember that feeling?" And just so you don't think I hate DC and super-hero comics Bizarro World! Now, this is going to be fun. There's a sneak peek there too. Go look at it; Tony Millionaire's Batman looks to be my favorite. If I'm not mistaken this comes out tomorrow. They had me at the cover...
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April 22, 2008:
February 4, 2008:
November 20, 2006:
A Comic-Con without the Captain
