Surprises in comics

[NatGertler]

Steven brings up as argument against guarding the surprises in comics that the Death of Superman sold really well, despite people knowing he would die in it.

What that overlooks, however, is that many of those sales seem to have relied on customers not having information - that the man-on-the-street types didn't realize that this death was to be brief and temporary. And the death was followed by a run of issues that sold on the question of "which of these four new guys will turn out to be Superman", which might not have sold so well if the answer had been known to be "none of them".

In general, I think it's a bad idea to train the audience that there will be no plot developments that they can't read about (and have people explain to them how stoopid it is) n the web three months ahead of time.

[Steven Grant]

I'm not suggesting marketing directors should tell everyone everything that's coming up in every comic. I'm just suggesting there's no need to be so obsessive and paranoid about people finding out. I can't even think of any of these "big trade secrets" that have genuinely paid off in any significant way, and most of them are letdowns because they're basic plot points blown way out of proportion by all the secrecy.

- Grant

[DavidAllred]

I'm not suggesting marketing directors should tell everyone everything that's coming up in every comic. I'm just suggesting there's no need to be so obsessive and paranoid about people finding out. I can't even think of any of these "big trade secrets" that have genuinely paid off in any significant way, and most of them are letdowns because they're basic plot points blown way out of proportion by all the secrecy.

- Grant

I think the thing that bothers me the most (and I read your article btw) is not admitting that you goofed. With regards to Flash, it seems better to me to say, "We might be taking this title in the wrong direction, so look for a bang-up ending to a whimper of series. We're taking big steps to get back on track." I think comic fans are pretty forgiving people as evidenced by the continued purchases we all make in the face of (let's all admit) the occasional horrific story that paints a picture of our favorite good guy in a light we never wanted to see.

This sort of humble stance I think would endear even more readers to the cause than smoke and mirrors. I didn't read Flash #13 and haven't read it since issue #4. In spite of all the pleas from DC to read, I'm not sure when if ever, I will take time to do so. But I probably would have picked up a copy today if at least some of what was going on was more transparent.

[Charles RB]

Surely surprises in comics would be less likely to leak if the companies didn't say "We can't tell you ANYTHING about this issue because BIG IMPORTANT SIGNIFICANT THINGS HAPPEN!!!!". That's just asking for it to be leaked, and for people to hunt down leaks and rumours. That whole "CLASSIFIED DATA" thing on the post-Civil War solicits was bloody daft.

[Steven Grant]

This sort of humble stance I think would endear even more readers to the cause than smoke and mirrors. I didn't read Flash #13 and haven't read it since issue #4. In spite of all the pleas from DC to read, I'm not sure when if ever, I will take time to do so. But I probably would have picked up a copy today if at least some of what was going on was more transparent.

Unfortunately, this is kind of utopian, though I agree with your general sentiment. As I mentioned in the column, the big downside of announcing a cancellation is that it guts sales on the remaining issues, so the only good way to announce a cancellation is in after the last issue has been published. But that's not feasible in this day of Internet press and advance catalog orders. But perhaps a better way to go on something like THE FLASH would be to simply announce a brief hiatus in order to more strongly emphasize an upcoming storyline. Which would be just weird enough that the questions everyone would be asking would be "what's the upcoming storyline and what makes it big enough that it demands a hiatus precede it?!" But DC also had the other out of the ALL-FLASH comic; they could simply have solicited that in place of the regular book those months, and claimed it was because they felt ALL-FLASH - Mark Waid's grand, special return to the character that made him famous - was special enough that they didn't want to dilute attention to it.

There are ways...

- Grant

[zuludelta]

As I mentioned in the column, the big downside of announcing a cancellation is that it guts sales on the remaining issues, so the only good way to announce a cancellation is in after the last issue has been published. But that's not feasible in this day of Internet press and advance catalog orders.

Well, in these days of print-to-order publishing, wouldn't it be possible for any big publisher to significantly compensate for the lost sales on a soon-to-be-cancelled title by reducing the print run of the remaining issues (said reduction based on a predictive percentage value of sales loss)? Seems to me it would be a simpler solution than resorting to somewhat contrived solicitations and press release wordplay and hoping that the readers don't catch on.

[NatGertler]

Zuludelta: All the comics from the big two are printed based on their sales, since sales are preorders from stores. (They're not going to print fewer than the stores ordered; the stores would be correctly unhappy if the publisher did not print enough for their preorders.) Printing based on orders reduces their losses, however they would make more money if the orders didn't have that extra dip.

[Albert]

Surely surprises in comics would be less likely to leak if the companies didn't say "We can't tell you ANYTHING about this issue because BIG IMPORTANT SIGNIFICANT THINGS HAPPEN!!!!". That's just asking for it to be leaked, and for people to hunt down leaks and rumours. That whole "CLASSIFIED DATA" thing on the post-Civil War solicits was bloody daft.

Agreed. In the words of Chief Wiggum: "What is your fascination with my FORBIDDEN CLOSET OF MYSTERY?"

[jcpetersen]

This isn't the first time fake issues were solicited in order for a "death"/cancellation issue to be a surprise.

Malibu did it when they launched their Ultraverse titles, soliciting issue #5 for The Exiles when the title was ending with #4. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exiles_%28Malibu_Comics%29)

However, that was in 1993, which is probably ancient history as far as the internet is concerned.

[zuludelta]

Zuludelta: All the comics from the big two are printed based on their sales, since sales are preorders from stores. (They're not going to print fewer than the stores ordered; the stores would be correctly unhappy if the publisher did not print enough for their preorders.) Printing based on orders reduces their losses, however they would make more money if the orders didn't have that extra dip.

Thanks for the clarification NG. When did the big two shift to strictly print-to-order publishing? I've mainly been sticking to reading TPBs and back issues since the turn of the century so I haven't been keeping up with the publishing details concerning the floppies.

Since the print runs are based on pre-orders, it seems like the retailers bear the brunt of the lost sales, since the big two get paid for the number of comics printed anyway, regardless of how many copies of a to-be-cancelled title are actually bought by customers. Good for the publishers, not so good for the store-owner. Maybe the retailers can look into lobbying for a limited return policy on books that are scheduled to be cancelled. They could also rigourously and meticulously examine statistical trends and base their pre-orders on that, like most good businesses do.

[Paul McEnery]

The important thing is that this is all relatively new (and for that matter, it applies to other media too). Basically, the intarwub has turned everyone into a virtual pro.

Now people did wind up selling and buying Previews a ways back -- and Christ almighty, having actually had to use the bastard as a retailer, I really can't see the appeal. So there was already that.

But now companies can't even wait until the Previews scuttlebutt comes out. And that means that the actual comic book doesn't matter one tiny little bit.

I bought 52, for my sins, just so I could see the world-building on the fly. And I bought issue 52 a month late, and it was touch and go if I was going to bother. Because instead of going to the store, I read the spoilers online. And then the story was done, and I'd lost the motivation.

That's something people haven't noticed yet. We're past the point of actually needing to see the comic book or movie. All we need is to be part of the conversation about it. The world has gone Hollywood. And now Hollywood has gone hyperreal.

The product has vanished. What's important now is gibbering excitement about the product. Every movie now is Snakes on a Plane. Did you need to see Snakes on a Plane? You did not. Nobody did. All you needed was the mental image of Samuel Jackson yelling "Snakes on the Muthfucking Plane!" Which is endlessly amusing, and has probably killed his career stone dead, too.

That's where we're at. It's all about memes as mental toys.

So obviously the next stage is to eliminate the product completely, and just sell the gossip.

[mattx110]

The important thing is that this is all relatively new (and for that matter, it applies to other media too). Basically, the intarwub has turned everyone into a virtual pro.

Now people did wind up selling and buying Previews a ways back -- and Christ almighty, having actually had to use the bastard as a retailer, I really can't see the appeal. So there was already that.

But now companies can't even wait until the Previews scuttlebutt comes out. And that means that the actual comic book doesn't matter one tiny little bit.

I bought 52, for my sins, just so I could see the world-building on the fly. And I bought issue 52 a month late, and it was touch and go if I was going to bother. Because instead of going to the store, I read the spoilers online. And then the story was done, and I'd lost the motivation.

That's something people haven't noticed yet. We're past the point of actually needing to see the comic book or movie. All we need is to be part of the conversation about it. The world has gone Hollywood. And now Hollywood has gone hyperreal.

The product has vanished. What's important now is gibbering excitement about the product. Every movie now is Snakes on a Plane. Did you need to see Snakes on a Plane? You did not. Nobody did. All you needed was the mental image of Samuel Jackson yelling "Snakes on the Muthfucking Plane!" Which is endlessly amusing, and has probably killed his career stone dead, too.

That's where we're at. It's all about memes as mental toys.

So obviously the next stage is to eliminate the product completely, and just sell the gossip.

i like artists. the story is only half the battle. plus a well-written story is half the fun. getting burned out after 52 issues is different from following unravelling stories in an ongoing.
going to a movie theatre you enjoy the movie once. comics are always there. plus, if you buy 11 out of twelve or eleven out of thirteen issues of something like "the long halloween" you want to see how the writer finishes the story. it's not like snakes on a plane had much of a mystery going on.

umm compare 52 to issues of daredevil, and snakes on a plane to harry potter. 52 is eventy, daredevil is it's own little world. snakes on a plane is an event, harry potter is a story with cliffhangers.

[Paul McEnery]

i like artists. the story is only half the battle. plus a well-written story is half the fun. getting burned out after 52 issues is different from following unravelling stories in an ongoing.
going to a movie theatre you enjoy the movie once. comics are always there. plus, if you buy 11 out of twelve or eleven out of thirteen issues of something like "the long halloween" you want to see how the writer finishes the story. it's not like snakes on a plane had much of a mystery going on.

umm compare 52 to issues of daredevil, and snakes on a plane to harry potter. 52 is eventy, daredevil is it's own little world. snakes on a plane is an event, harry potter is a story with cliffhangers.

Potter. Exactly. I got caught up in following it. Read 1 through 5. 6? I just went online to find out which father figure died. Imagine my surprise when it was Dumbledore. At this point, for 7, the only question left is will Harry die fighting Voldemort, or will Snape suddenly pop up in the final battle and save his ass.

And I'll know that long before I've even seen a copy in the flesh.

[NatGertler]

Thanks for the clarification NG. When did the big two shift to strictly print-to-order publishing? I've mainly been sticking to reading TPBs and back issues since the turn of the century so I haven't been keeping up with the publishing details concerning the floppies.We seem to be talking past each other here, as this is a when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife style of question. For as long as there has been direct market ordering, the number of copies printed for the direct market has been based on the number of copies that were ordered from the publisher. They might do some overprint for damages and some overprint beyond that based on expected reorders (your famous superhero dies in the issue, overprint a lot; the hero gets a hangnail, not so many), but those were always calculated starting from the orders placed. As the direct market is now by far the primary sales source for the superhero pamphlet product (the sort of material where you have this storyline-will-go-away cancellation situation), that really effects the bulk of the numbers.
The real shift in this was in the mid-'90s, which was a shift not in whether they were printing based on customer orders, but who those customers were. Before the distributor exclusivity arrangments, the distributors would order extra copies from the publisher based on expectations for reorders; now its the publisher taking that risk.
Retailers bear any brunt of the loss of sales only to the extent that they don't reduce their order to reflect the status. These days, retailers can still adjust their orders after the previous issue of a monthly DC or Marvel book has come out; it's not a matter of a retailer having orders for a lot of issues already set and in the pipeline when the cancellation news comes out.

[mattx110]

Potter. Exactly. I got caught up in following it. Read 1 through 5. 6? I just went online to find out which father figure died. Imagine my surprise when it was Dumbledore. At this point, for 7, the only question left is will Harry die fighting Voldemort, or will Snape suddenly pop up in the final battle and save his ass.

And I'll know that long before I've even seen a copy in the flesh.

darn, well, i only read 4 before i quit, but every child in the world is waiting for those books. so, aparently, you are the one who should be trade-waiting...

[Paul McEnery]

darn, well, i only read 4 before i quit, but every child in the world is waiting for those books. so, aparently, you are the one who should be trade-waiting...

I've always been an early adopter.

Ultimates 13, there's another one. Did I even bother to skim it in the store, after reading all the other ones? I did not. Got the synopsis, couldn't be arsed.

I predict a fire sale on final issues.

[bartl]

This isn't the first time fake issues were solicited in order for a "death"/cancellation issue to be a surprise.

Malibu did it when they launched their Ultraverse titles, soliciting issue #5 for The Exiles when the title was ending with #4. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exiles_%28Malibu_Comics%29)

However, that was in 1993, which is probably ancient history as far as the internet is concerned.
Not so much "ancient history", but commercial use of the Internet was not allowed until 1994. IIRC there were precious few webistes until 94 or 95 (I CAN look it up, but I'm feeling lazy).

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

Unfortunately, this is kind of utopian, though I agree with your general sentiment. As I mentioned in the column, the big downside of announcing a cancellation is that it guts sales on the remaining issues, so the only good way to announce a cancellation is in after the last issue has been published. But that's not feasible in this day of Internet press and advance catalog orders. But perhaps a better way to go on something like THE FLASH would be to simply announce a brief hiatus in order to more strongly emphasize an upcoming storyline. Which would be just weird enough that the questions everyone would be asking would be "what's the upcoming storyline and what makes it big enough that it demands a hiatus precede it?!" But DC also had the other out of the ALL-FLASH comic; they could simply have solicited that in place of the regular book those months, and claimed it was because they felt ALL-FLASH - Mark Waid's grand, special return to the character that made him famous - was special enough that they didn't want to dilute attention to it.

There are ways...

- Grant

When DC's Secret Origins folded due to low sales, they had a double sized final issue!
How the times have changed.

(Of course the low sales that it had are probably the envy of every American comic book publisher these days. Heck, the sales numbers of the lowest selling Australian gardening magazine are the envy of American comic publishers these days).

[jcpetersen]

Not so much "ancient history", but commercial use of the Internet was not allowed until 1994. IIRC there were precious few webistes until 94 or 95 (I CAN look it up, but I'm feeling lazy).

Commercial use doesn't really matter.

There were people discussing comics on rec.arts.comics and other newsgroups by then. It obviously wasn't the force it is now, but we still got online and discussed things. ;)

[bartl]

Commercial use doesn't really matter.

There were people discussing comics on rec.arts.comics and other newsgroups by then. It obviously wasn't the force it is now, but we still got online and discussed things. ;)
I suspect that the comics group on Compuserve had more professionals on it, simply because of access.

And, of course, there was the lively comic book conference on the RIME network; there are several here who probably remember that....