How can the Walking Dead TV Show Make Such A Difference in Sales But Avengers Not?

[finfangfool]

I'd have to agree with Kees, it's not about easy-to-read continuity or getting to know characters from the show (you can get to know the Avengers much better by reading their comics too, and on the flip-side the show has already gone away from the comic storyline and will likely continue to do so). It's about people who are comfortable reading superhero comics, and people who aren't. If you're OK with physically perfect people with goofy names and concepts clad in spandex fighting villains similarly goofily named and clad then you've probably been reading superhero comics already and don't need to be drawn to the trades. If you happen to like Horror movies on the other hand, and zombie movies in particular, hearing about a way you can enjoy a zombie movie that goes on and on and on would seem like a cool and unusal thing. It's more likely to draw someone into reading comics in general than the Avengers would be because it's not about superheroes (which is the genre most associated with comic books), and people are unlikely to be aware comics like the Walking Dead exist.

[Iangould]

Not to disagree, with the general theory, but Infinity Gauntlet has been collected forever and was reissued as recently as a few years ago along with the Rebirth of Thanos Arc from Silver Surfer.

I was thinking about your "collection" point though when the "Crossing" omnibus was just published. Now, I don't expect new fans to drop $100 bucks on an omnibus, but the Avengers have not had a ton of mega stories that are well suited to collection AND involve the core team from the movies.

The fact of the matter is that the Avengers roster has been incredibly fluid over the years and Cap, Thor and Iron Man have rarely been on the team together. Then, movie goers have no idea who Vision and Scarlet Witch are and they are probably the two characters who appeared in the most Avengers stories prior to 2004.

It's easy to be wise after the event but if Marvel had had an "Avengers Season One" trade in stores for the movie release together with two or three trades worth of "Avengers Assemble" they would probably have sold a bunch more books.

[Chiasm]

The Walking Dead show made people who already read comics aware of the book. Comic readers knew who and what the Avengers were about before the movie came out.

This too. I started reading the Walking Dead because of the TV show but I was already a comic book reader. I imagine the majority of the "new" readers were like me and in some of our cases the addition of Walking Dead may have come at the subtraction of other titles. So the movie / TV show didn't really create a new reader, it just caused a shuffling of deck chairs on the S.S. Comic Book Industry Titanic.

[Chiasm]

A real interesting question would be do the movies cause an increase in torrent downloads of monthly comics because lets be honest, in todays world given how difficult the industry has made it to actually go and buy a comic, illegal downloading is going to be the mostly likely avenue of sampling teens are going to take. Sure they could buy it digitally but they could also buy their music digitally and that doesn't happen as much as illegal downloading either.

[RolandJP]

ALSO option 3.

Walking dead fans are more friendly than Marvel (big Comic company) fans.

they look at new readers like..."Hey welcome aboard" as does the Hunger Games, Games of thrones and other Audiences.

The big 2 fans look at new readers...as dumb..and unknowledgeable. And when they want something new..they get shouted down and told to take their characters and get to the back of the line till the a-listers are finished.

Walking dead has a community of fans...we have a lynch mob!

[RDMacQ]

A real interesting question would be do the movies cause an increase in torrent downloads of monthly comics because lets be honest, in todays world given how difficult the industry has made it to actually go and buy a comic, illegal downloading is going to be the mostly likely avenue of sampling teens are going to take. Sure they could buy it digitally but they could also buy their music digitally and that doesn't happen as much as illegal downloading either.

There's going to be a black market for everything.

Yes, people are more likely to download music illegally than buy it online. The same thing could happen with comics.

So why not circumvent the system entirely, and make the comics free for all fans? Allow the entire library to be downloaded or viewed from Marvel's site. And if people want new comics, set up a sponsor program that allows people to get comics early with special content than everyone else if they are willing to pay for it.

Yeah, I know, there are probably dozens if not hundreds of things wrong with that sort of thing. But it might be something to consider.

[Rasputin9977]

Cause zombies are the fad right now.

[Hulk_Is]

Are people going to even care about Walking Dead after awhile?

[StoneGold]

I can imagine the person not giving that much of a crap and being able to acknowledge that the comic can offer a different depiction than the movie.

But if you're going down that route, I'd say that if they only knew Cap from the movies, they also might be in for a shock if they picked up Captain America #254.

Not really. Cap killed the hell out of a couple of them HYDRA agents. Like the one he threw through the prop of that plane?


For that matter, it's not like there wasn't a scene where it was leaked that Zola had informed on the Skull when he hadn't. I'm pretty sure thems be against the rules.

[RDMacQ]

Are people going to even care about Walking Dead after awhile?

Why wouldn't they? It seems to have gathered quite a following.

[Lancerman]

Well you see comics are a niche market. Very little has been proven in the last decade to be capable of bringing in new readers. However that niche is dominated by Marvel and DC. The vast majority of current comic fans buy from those two publishers and are aware of what they put out. Not every comic fan was aware of Walking Dead till the show hit. Then a decent size of those unaware people became informed and chose to check out the book. While everyone who reads comics knows the Avengers is a pubilshed title (or titles) and therefore most comic fans already know whether or not they want to buy it.

[dupont2005]

Are people going to even care about Walking Dead after awhile?

Well, like everything outside the big two, the story will eventually end and people will find something new to do. Sopranos was great, but six seasons was sufficient.

[king mob]

Seriously this isn't a dig. My friend just asked me but I had no answer.

It's not just Avengers it's Transformers and Batman too.

You can pick up the Walking Dead comic and find out what's going on pretty easily, and the trades are a decent affordable price, not to mention you're getting a pretty good comic. You can pick up an Avengers comic and you get stuck in a maze of characters and their continuity, not to mention you're getting some utter dross.

So simply put it's all about quality and accessibility.

[king mob]

If the Avengers movie had been based on a fairly well-known and easily packaged comics story, it's likely sales of that would have gone up as well.

When the Tim Burton Batman film came out, DC found themselves selling out of anything with Batman in it. I was working for a distributor at the time and we couldn't keep up with the sheer demand for Batman comics.

Why?

DC at that time made sure their main Batman titles were easily accessible, so you picked up a Batman or Detective and you might only have to pick up the previous issue to find out what was going on rather than a dozen previous issues and a trade, plus that appearance of that character in a title which was under-ordered by everyone.

DC eventually fucked things up but during about the 18 months around that first Batman film they got things right and Marvel haven't. They had a huge hype round the Avengers and failed to make it pay into sales to the extent it could have.

[Kees_L]

I'd have to agree with Kees, it's not about easy-to-read continuity ...

That's not quite what I was saying 'though, I was trying to say that perhaps a zombie book might still convey appeal to potential new readers, whereas the Avengers or Batman will have been biggest and greatest in the 1950s or 60s or 70s or 80s.
And youthful fans don't want that.
They wanna own the books, they wanna feel like the books were made for them specifically. That's why typical mainstream superhero comics are not as big anymore, Batman or Kirby/Lee stuff was made for kids who are 40 to 70 years old now. Liefeld was something in the 90s. Or Jim Lee. Wolverine or the Punisher. That won't ever be as big as it was, or only if it would convey some blistering newness to it. It's past it, not likely to be garnering instant mass appeal from out of nowhere.

Honestly, Marvel and DC should come out with something newer, like Transgender Black Gay White person or something, Socialist Girl, Apologetic Cowboy, Amateur God (The One And Only) - trademark Kees L, and quickly. Although it will be far more likely that different publishers will be making it I'd say. Far more likely.