CBR: Pipeline - Jun 7, 2011

[CBR News]

Augie rounds up his thoughts on the big DC Comics news of the past week. Are their digital comics good enough? Is this just the DC Ultimate Universe or a potential "Watchmen" #1? Plus, more!


Full article here.

[dfstell]

Another great article Augie....

One thing I'd add to your bit about DRM and the possibility that one of these comic services goes away at some point, leaving us without the comics that we paid for....

I think this is a good reason to buy digital comics from the publishers own apps rather than Comixology, iVerse, Graphic-ly or any of the others.

Marvel, DC and Image all use the Comixology app for their engine. I could imagine those publishers designing their own engine for the app in the future, but I can't imagine that they wouldn't honor the purchase of titles on the app when it had Comixology's engine.

Even though there is currently reciprocity between the Marvel app and the Comixology app on Marvel purchases, I think it'd be more likely that if Comixology went away for Marvel to not honor purchases of Marvel titles on the Comixology app.

There are no guarantees, of course, but it seems like a safer way to proceed. Not to mention that I'm sure the publisher gets a larger piece of the sale when it is their own app.

[Trey]

comics are not a commodity, like apples and oranges and turnips.

They are an artistic expression of the creators. They have value. Pricing them at .99 cents destroys that value. I don't want casual readers in the club!!! Talk about watering down a product. Everything will read like a hollywood film, step by step, cliche by cliche, so Cletus from South Dakota can understand what's what and who's who.

For me personally, it doesn't matter if 12 year old kids aren't into comics.

[malephoenix]

comics are not a commodity, like apples and oranges and turnips.

They are an artistic expression of the creators. They have value. Pricing them at .99 cents destroys that value. I don't want casual readers in the club!!! Talk about watering down a product. Everything will read like a hollywood film, step by step, cliche by cliche, so Cletus from South Dakota can understand what's what and who's who.

That's not different from what's happening now. Maybe it should be, but it's not. (Although I don't get what's different about Cletus from South Dakota or Maximillion from California or Leslie B from New York.)

For me personally, it doesn't matter if 12 year old kids aren't into comics.

Which is totally cool because it's all good to be self aware. I would personally rather new readers get interested, b/c I'll miss comics as they keep trending downward as they are. Eventually, some that I like will get cut.

[the_speedball]

They are an artistic expression of the creators. They have value. Pricing them at .99 cents destroys that value.

Price and value aren't the same. Techdirt puts it nicely:

"Price isn't determined by value -- it's determined by the intersection of supply and demand. Value plays into that, by determining what the demand part is. That is, if I value widget X at $10, then I'd be willing to pay anything less than $10 for it. If the intersection of supply and demand prices widget X at $5, it doesn't mean that I value it at $5, but it does make it likely that I'll buy it. The same is true if the market prices it at $0. It doesn't mean I place a $0 value on it. It just means it's worth getting at that price, since it's below what I value it at."

[Lou7]

I started reading comics when Superman #75 came out,and after that, I was interested in comics. I also started with Batman #488, my first Bat book and I wasn't confused. I didn't need a # 1 issue to know where to start. But times change and the comics industry assumes that without a # 1 issue, everyone will be lost.
I think that it's beyond crazy to launch 52 books in one month, but what do I know ?
By the way, really good article !!!

[SMARTASS8]

It strikes me that what DC is doing here is exactly what people were afraid Marvel was going to do a decade ago: "Ultimatizing" their universe. Replace everything with less continuity, younger characters, new costumes, etc. Publish them in as many formats as possible to attract new readers. Modernize the works. Blame everything on Bill Jemas if it fails

Except for maybe the "younger characters", Marvel has already done that. There is no real reason for the Ultimate Universe since 616 is already lacking continuity, full of new costumes, and is published in a ton of different formats(especially when a new movie is coming out). Other than the new costumes & an overload of new releases, I don't think DC is doing anything remotely like Marvel. If anything, they are doing what they did in the 80's after Crisis(with an eye on movie-ready costumes).

[bsmithy]

what a cynical article. It's almost like Tom Breevort wrote all the twitter feeds and informed the content and tone of the article itself.

This is a bold move, and could be fun. The existence of Animal Man #1 and Frankenstein #1 is pretty exciting IMO, especially since they're both from Jeff Lemire.

[uthor]

comics are not a commodity, like apples and oranges and turnips.

They are an artistic expression of the creators. They have value. Pricing them at .99 cents destroys that value. I don't want casual readers in the club!!! Talk about watering down a product. Everything will read like a hollywood film, step by step, cliche by cliche, so Cletus from South Dakota can understand what's what and who's who.

For me personally, it doesn't matter if 12 year old kids aren't into comics.

Congrats on being an elitist fanboi.

[ConnHawk]

"Looking again at DC's first creative team listings for their new #1 and can't help but thinking, "Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.""

I thought this was a great Tweet when I read it and could not agree more. On the one hand, I applaud DC for trying this, but on the other, I'm substantially underwhelmed by most of the titles and creative teams being announced. Voodoo? Really? Who is clamoring for that book, and does anyone think it will last beyond 8-9 issues? And do we need 10 Bat-books and 4 GL books? This too is disappointing.

With less than half of the announcements to go and no Jonah Hex or Secret Six (yet) I'm getting a little nervous with these marginal titles and characters being announced.

[matthew_lane]

I thought this was a great Tweet when I read it and could not agree more. On the one hand, I applaud DC for trying this, but on the other, I'm substantially underwhelmed by most of the titles and creative teams being announced. Voodoo? Really? Who is clamoring for that book, and does anyone think it will last beyond 8-9 issues? And do we need 10 Bat-books and 4 GL books? This too is disappointing.

Actually i think we are upto 5 GL books which even to me as a huge GL fan is 2, 2 many. But 12 bat books (including BoP which is a bat book as far as i'm concerned) is just crazy. I was hoping this relaunch was going to not suck, but the more i read about it, the more it looks like DC is intending on chaning its name to "Justice-Bats Comics."

Where are the good middle tier character books, more to the point where are the batbooks where not everyone is grimdark: You know like the awesome Batgirl series DC seems to have invalidated.

-M

[Lexor7]

Price and value aren't the same. Techdirt puts it nicely:

"Price isn't determined by value -- it's determined by the intersection of supply and demand. Value plays into that, by determining what the demand part is. That is, if I value widget X at $10, then I'd be willing to pay anything less than $10 for it. If the intersection of supply and demand prices widget X at $5, it doesn't mean that I value it at $5, but it does make it likely that I'll buy it. The same is true if the market prices it at $0. It doesn't mean I place a $0 value on it. It just means it's worth getting at that price, since it's below what I value it at."

WELL SAID! And let me add...this great industry once captured the hearts and imagination of millions and millions of readers every week. For a number of reasons that changed, and it became an inward focused business model continually looking to split the dollars of existing fans as many ways as possible across companies and titles and letting those readers who lapsed fall by the wayside. While this isn't the overall solution that will bring the medium roaring back, it's nice to see companies taking chances. Desperation can breed innovation and now's as good a time as any for the leading companies within this industry to get hungry and try new things. The biggest deal in all of this is day & date digitial. I'll be participating in both formats and shortly making my decision on how I want to read my comics every month.

[dancj]

comics are not a commodity, like apples and oranges and turnips.

They are an artistic expression of the creators. They have value. Pricing them at .99 cents destroys that value. I don't want casual readers in the club!!! Talk about watering down a product. Everything will read like a hollywood film, step by step, cliche by cliche, so Cletus from South Dakota can understand what's what and who's who.

For me personally, it doesn't matter if 12 year old kids aren't into comics.

Wow. That's just so shockingly wrong that it's hard to know how to argue.

[Colin7]

Wow. That's just so shockingly wrong that it's hard to know how to argue.

Agreed. And the way you argue it is that any business plan that does NOT address the issue of bringing in new readers is the death of the industry we all love to varying degrees.

[serpico71]

This is the DC that took GREEN LANTERN from abscurity and made him the #1 selling comic. THis is the DC that has BATMAN. This is the DC that resurrected BARRY ALLEN after 30 years. NOT the DC that killed him. This is Brian Azzarello, Scott Snyder, Paul Cornell, GRANT MORRISON, GEOFF JOHNS, GAIL SIMONE, Tony Bedard, David Finch - do I REALLY need to continue? To the snarky Marvel creators who think they have a hold of the top, and talk about Titanic sinking, THE INDUSTRY IS THE TITANIC, NOT DC, and MARVEL has always been part of the iceberg - right there with only a few high quality titles and massive amounts of filler dung to gather dust on my shelves.

I'm a retailer, I see all of the problems of 52#1's and all of the trades on my shelf that no longer matter, and the ones bearing down on me in a year, but something has to be done and DC is the one that stuck at 2.99 not driving away my customers with 3.99 across the board. DC has offered assistance in the transition, with incentives and refunds. ANd I THANK THEM.

Regarding the trades, this won't affect any of my Marvel, none of my VERTIGO - best sellers, and a Batman classic the Long Halloween and RIP, will always sell. The others, are fine.

Digital has been a big concern, but it is the future. I expect such minimal changes to Batman and Green Lantern, and awesome changes to those characters that needed them. NEW FRESH CHARACTERS, and a creative demand to GET IT RIGHT. This is historic in its boldness, historic in its necessity, and the future of this medium is in jeopardy. Thank you Marvel Comics for Captain America: Korvac Saga, Captain America: Hail Hydra, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: Man out of Time ETC ETC ETC, bulking up my orders with total crap that went straight to the dollar bin. WHy isn't anyone talking about THAT?

If this is to be done and be done right, Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, and Didio, and a host of brilliant writers and artists are putting their jobs and reputations on the line. And I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm supporting them. They will not disappoint. They have not disappointed for the most part, and big industry shaking events will help get the media and attention to attract new customers and keep this industry alive.