CBR: Tilting at Windmills - May 20, 2011

[matthh]

This is where digital can legitimately come to the rescue. If you don't have to hold an inventory of weekly comics, you just let your customers choose what they want to buy, and you make the same margin to sell them that you do on print, then you'd be in much better shape right?

Comixology's solution (as opposed to Diamond's which still required physical books to be purchased) is the step in the right direction we've been waiting for. You can sell and get paid without ever having to take a risk on holding inventory on those books.

I haven't seen the economics yet, and I know there is open question about handling sales in the App Store vs. sales on a DM's Comixology site directly. But I think it is vital that retailers try and band together to force the right solution onto the marketplace. I'm rooting for you.

[Comcman]

Another great column, Brian.

Up until last month, I ordered every HC and GN than Marvel solicited. Last month, the Tomb of Dracula: Birth of Vampire one-shot came out with different art and story than was solicited. I'm sure at some point in a line in an email they announced that, but every person that asked me to hold it for them based on the original cover image decided to pass when it came out.

So to punish Marvel for that switcheroo, I decided to cut the amount I was out on those books that will never sell from my monthly order, which was due the next day. I got a little out of hand and actually cut over $400 just in graphic novels from my Marvel order. It felt really liberating. And now I realize that I don't have to order one of everything they publish. I doubt that was their plan.

I also like the TV show analogy. CBS wouldn't schedule all of their CSIs on one night. If someone didn't like CSI, they would skip their channel for the night. Why would Marvel ship all of their Avengers books one week (or DC shipping all 3 Green Lantern books next week)? Give people variety and a reason to come in every week. It really seems like they aren't even paying attention any longer. That's where its scary for me. If the publishers don't care when their stuff ships, what chance do we have?

[Kid Kyoto]

A question for Brian, what collections do you find are evergreens and which are one-offs that will only sell the week they come out?

I would expect that things like the Showcases and Essentials and Archives sell regularly (as long as they're about a major character) while anything collecting the monthly book is a one-off.

[Brian Hibbs]

I'd LOVE Brian's thoughts on this theory I have.

It is crazy and wrong.

(IMO!)

Why? Because it assumes two things that I doubt are true: that over-saturation in one segment of the market (Marvel superhero comics) automatically leads to less support of items outside that segment (you weren't specific, but let's say Movie adaptations from Dark Horse). That is not, at least in my experience, how things actually work.

The closest you could get is that said over-saturation can cause readers to leave THE HOBBY ITSELF, but then, by your theory, Marvel would suffer disproportionately.

The second reason it is, IMO, nuts is that it assumes that market share in the print space has ANY relationship to market share in a digital space. I see no evidence to think this is so.

Further, if you chase away the print readers that makes it HARDER to get them to buy digitally, doesn't it?

-B

[Brian Hibbs]

This is where digital can legitimately come to the rescue. If you don't have to hold an inventory of weekly comics, you just let your customers choose what they want to buy, and you make the same margin to sell them that you do on print, then you'd be in much better shape right?

I don't believe that readers are going to physically come into stores for digital items, nor that all but a very few will buy from "the local comics shop" website rather than directly from a publisher or an aggregator like comixology.

Also: the margins AREN'T the same :)

-B

[Brian Hibbs]

A question for Brian, what collections do you find are evergreens and which are one-offs that will only sell the week they come out?

I would expect that things like the Showcases and Essentials and Archives sell regularly (as long as they're about a major character) while anything collecting the monthly book is a one-off.

That's (really!) too broad of a question as stated to even begin to answer it.

There really aren't a lot of firm rules: WALKING DEAD is one of my most successful monthly periodicals, and ALSO incredibly crazily successful as a TP. I sell slightly more copies of AVENGERS as I do WD as a periodical, but I can barely give away copies of the collections.

Showcases and Essentials CAN turn OK, but a LOT of people are turned off by the B&W. I dropped MMW and Archives from stock 5+ years ago because they sold so slowly, they became an anchor on the backlist -- Amazon hasn't gutted GENERAL trade sales for us, but they sure have gutted $50+ books...

-B

[dfstell]

I don't think Marvel is actually trying to flood the market in order to bust their competitors. I don't think its naive or incorrect to say that Marvel knows the more diverse the market is, the larger the customer base will be and that means more potential customers for Marvel. So I don't think Marvel wants to bust other publishers who fill in the genres and niches that Marvel ignores or is not able to compete in.

Besides all the "bluster" that Marvel puts out about being better then DC, at the end of the day the industry is one big neighborhood in my opinion, and you actually don't want to see your neighbors lose their home due to a foreclosure..

Yeah....but.... If Marvel accepts that the DM is dying, that means that life is going to get extremely ugly in the short term because digital isn't nearly ready to take over if/when the DM crashes.

But, if the comics industry is headed into a bloodbath, Marvel would be smart to enter that on their terms and in the strongest possible position compared to their competition because they should then be in a better position to grow in the digital age.

Also...once the DM crashes and the only LCSs are big successful ones like Midtown and there are no LCSs in large parts of the country, then Marvel doesn't have to worry about offending the DM with day-date releases and whatever price they want. At that point they can say, "Hey guys, we stuck with you for as long as we could, but currently 75% of our customers do not live within 30 miles of a LCS and we've gotta sell product. We have no choice but to do day-date releases."

Just saying.... That's what I'd do if I were them and were faced with this scenario.

[QCCBob]

The problem is easy to identify. Marvel and DC (and Diamond, as well) believe that comics are DOOMED and because of that, they look for the next great hope. Where things get sticky is why sales drop and the lack of personal responsibility for their share in that drop. Bad books don't sell as TPBs either nor will they sell as downloads. There clearly appears to be no real consideration of sales figures beyond a set level and that's a huge problem.

Take a book like X-Men Legacy... The loss of over 50% in sales since Carey took over is apparently meaningless to Marvel as long as the sales don't drop below 25K. As a retailer watching a book go from sales around 100 to sales around 23, I can safely state there is a SERIOUS problem with the book. Yet, Marvel doesn't care, they just put out another X-Men book. Unfortunately, that one sells around 27, so then they bring back Astonishing which is hitting around 15. While I'm looking at three titles that don't equal the old one, Marvel is picking up production costs on three books to make what one did??? How can this make sense and how can they keep doing it?

And don't even get me started on the flood of titles... Why these dimwits are so invested in winning market share that they can play Russian Roulette with the industry still amazes me...

[QCCBob]

But I think it is vital that retailers try and band together to force the right solution onto the marketplace. I'm rooting for you.

What a fascinating viewpoint. We should band together and force people to buy digital downloads because according to you, it's the 'right solution'.

#1) If it's the right solution, wouldn't people figure it out without force?

#2) If the content doesn't change, exactly in the same manner that TPBs were the 'right solution' and failed miserably, downloads won't save the day either.

#3) It remains to me to be the biggest joke ever that we live in a world where Amazon and Ebay have almost destroyed the DM because people don't have to leave the comfort of their home to get comics and TPBs, yet people think that selling downloads from a store that you take home will save the day.

[DownInAHole]

Slightly off topic but I would be interested to know what retailers think of the recent phenomenon of double shipping titles. I believe it was in January that Marvel were proud to announce that they listened to readers and retailers and would be publishing fewer titles per month but at the same time many titles (I would guess between 1/4 and 1/3 of the superhero line) are now shipping two issues per month. For retailers is this good, bad or no different than a single issue shipping per month? As a customer I don't like it as it forces me to cut back in order to afford the books I really want. I've already dropped Thor and Iron Man and with Amazing Spider-Man becoming a $3.99/22 story page book it will be dropped starting in August. I don't understand the logic. They can publish ten issues of one title in a month but that doesn't mean that consumers have the money to buy that many issues. Cuts need to be made in order to pay for those extra issues, aren't they only hurting themselves?

[Brian Hibbs]

Bad books don't sell as TPBs either nor will they sell as downloads.

Several people in this industry need this tattooed on their hand or something.

Take a book like X-Men Legacy... The loss of over 50% in sales since Carey took over

I don't think it's Carey -- I think it is the TITLE. "Legacy" sounds like a reprint/flashback/non-continuity title.

The "problem" with the new adjective-less-X-Men title was they started with a story about stupid fucking vampires -- what does that have to do with the X-Men?

The "problem" with Astonishing is the only reason it existed in the first place was to be WHEDON'S book. Replacing him with Ellis is one thing, but after that there's only 4 or 5 other writers that sell on the basis of their name alone. Marvel constantly mistakes "writer starting to get a buzz" for "writer therefore sells comics automatically, irrespective of the specific characters/content"

While I'm looking at three titles that don't equal the old one, Marvel is picking up production costs on three books to make what one did??? How can this make sense and how can they keep doing it?

That question has been asked since at least 1976 and the launch of SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. Production costs of 2x, final sales of 1.7x (or whatever), x=AMAZING SPIDER-MAN sales; and it has only gotten more lopsided in the last 35 years.

-B

[Fuzman]

This reminds me of an article with Quesada many, many, moons ago where he was talking about Spider-man comics. And how there were like 5 or 6 monthly Spidey titles and one thing he planned to do was scale that back because of, well everything listed in the article. And then they actually did that. It lasted, a year? Maybe more, maybe less. So it seems to me that they tried publishing less crap and from a business end, it just didn't work.

I still don't see why they don't advertise in areas that aren't just comic book related. Even if it's too much, you can't tell me that a combined marvel/dc/other comapny ad initiative just to "read comics" wouldn't help the industry.

[matthh]

Hey Bob. I should have said 'advocate' for the solution and the folks I mean to advocate with are the publishers, not the consumers.

Some quick context: I love digital comics because a few years ago my wife asked me to move my 4 longboxes from the living room to storage in the garage. Once they were more inaccessible, I decided to move to trades. I used to love coming in to Experience or Isotope and buying hardcovers. I paid the extra 20-40% my local store charged (vs. Amazon) because I *VALUED* the service they provide by being my local shop. However, eventually my bookshelves filled up. So, now I buy digital comics so I don't have to worry about storing/accessing them, and I get to read titles on a monthly basis. Now, back to the key issue...

For you to say 'people don't have to leave the comfort of their home' or for Brian to say that he doesn't believe 'readers are going to physically come into stores for digital items' misses the point entirely. People like me *WANT* to go to the local comic shop every week, talk to the owners/other patrons, look around the store, and buy comics from them, we just want them in digital format instead of paper. It is that simple.

As it is, I am now in a self-imposed exile, where I can't go to my local comic shop. I refuse to walk around, enjoy all of the curated content presentation, good discussion, and great atmosphere, only to go to Comixology to buy the books. So, I feel like I can't go. AND IT BUMS ME OUT! But I'm not buying any more paper, so I'm trying to figure out how to buy the comics I want (in the form factor I want) from my local store.

Brian: I'm a little confused when you say 'rather than directly from a publisher or an aggregator like comixology' and that 'the margins AREN'T the same.' The main vendor I would think you'd use is Comixology, via their new digital storefront for DMs. Have they presented you with the margins? If they're only covering web-based purchases, that removes the 30% overhead to Apple, which could be used to pay DMs. Are things far enough along that you're having these kind of discussions? Are they even in the ballpark? How do you balance the upside of being able to sell any comics without having to carry inventory vs. a lower margin?

My fear is that they're way off. But I'm ready to stand up for our local shops. I want to band retailers/readers together to advocate for DM's fair share!

What a fascinating viewpoint. We should band together and force people to buy digital downloads because according to you, it's the 'right solution'.

#1) If it's the right solution, wouldn't people figure it out without force?

#2) If the content doesn't change, exactly in the same manner that TPBs were the 'right solution' and failed miserably, downloads won't save the day either.

#3) It remains to me to be the biggest joke ever that we live in a world where Amazon and Ebay have almost destroyed the DM because people don't have to leave the comfort of their home to get comics and TPBs, yet people think that selling downloads from a store that you take home will save the day.

[dfstell]

It is crazy and wrong.

(IMO!)

Why? Because it assumes two things that I doubt are true: that over-saturation in one segment of the market (Marvel superhero comics) automatically leads to less support of items outside that segment (you weren't specific, but let's say Movie adaptations from Dark Horse). That is not, at least in my experience, how things actually work.

The closest you could get is that said over-saturation can cause readers to leave THE HOBBY ITSELF, but then, by your theory, Marvel would suffer disproportionately.

The second reason it is, IMO, nuts is that it assumes that market share in the print space has ANY relationship to market share in a digital space. I see no evidence to think this is so.

Further, if you chase away the print readers that makes it HARDER to get them to buy digitally, doesn't it?

-B

Good point on the trade off between the marginal Marvel superhero title and something like a True Blood comic from IDW. You'd know better than I what retailers order, but I can accept that adding a title like Silver Surfer probably doesn't mean dropping True Blood for a retailer.

On the other point.....I'm mostly saying is that if the readers are leaving anyway in the DM and if Marvel has decided that there is no kind of product they can offer that would be anything other than a short term fix....then they might as well weaken the competition on the way down. If all the other publishers have to lay off 25% of their home office and editorial staff whereas Marvel gets to stay intact, they'll have a better chance to rule the digital world too. That isn't to say they will rule the digital world, but it would make it less likely that the other guys will.

My analogy is that if the Titanic is sinking, you could run around and stab a bunch of the other people so that they aren't trying to compete for places in the lifeboats.

[tonedeafgeoff]

I am a fellow retailer, in business in the LA area for over 30 years. And I have noticed more and more that we'll have one bill on the low side and then one week where every Green Lantern book, most of the Avengers come out, a few Batman books, etc. And the bill that week will literally be twice the bill for the week before. But the question is what can we do about it? How can we make Marvel/DC listen to us?

I don't feel that the trade paperbacks is as big a problem because it is very easy for me to just not order the new HC version of Fantastic Four book nobody asked for. If a customer wants it, I will gladly order it for them and make good profit. But I do find myself ordering less and less from the trade pages of the Diamond Previews.

The other problem that I feel really leads to bad trade sales is the lack of numbering on many Marvel and DC titles. If I have a customer that wants to catch up on Green Lantern via trades, they have to literally look at the back of every book to see what issues are in it, whereas with Walking Dead, every single trade is numbered, so if someone has bought the first 3 books, it is very easy for them to come in and buy book 4. I sell maybe 3 times as many Green Lantern single issues as Walking Dead. But when it comes to trades I sell 10 times as many Walking Dead trades. I'm sure some of this has to do with the clientele that enjoys Walking Dead likes the trade format better, but it would be naive to say it has nothing to do with an easy organization system. Also, take a wild guess at which trades I never run out of because it takes 30 seconds to do inventory, whereas with the other one I have to check it out of chronological order, usually in alphabetical, which mixes Neal Adams books with Geoff Johns books. So my question again, is how do we get Marvel and DC to listen?

-Geoff