Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics!

CBR just posted the new comics sales chart for May, and because I'm weird this is an exciting thing for me.  Here's what I discovered while crunching the numbers.


The Hat Is About Out Of Rabbits

Well, we were told by the Marvel brass that the world had been allowed to breathe long enough, and that we were all secretly dying for another Can't Miss Change Everything Forever Super Event.

Uh huh.

Fear Itself does top the chart at # 1, but it's under 100,000 units.  Flashpoint is # 2, but also obviously under 100,000 units.  It wasn't that long ago that New Avengers could eclipse that just by being New Avengers.  The magicians at the Big 2 keep going for the same tricks over and over and over and over again, and the numbers tell the story - the hat is about out of rabbits.

Nobody cares any more.  Nobody could possibly care any more.  These Can't Misses are already known frauds.  Brevoort's talking about next year's Big Thing in the summer.  Flashpoint is around not because it's awesome, but because something needed to create the Big Thing in September, and those things will exist only to promise the Next Big Thing.  (Something "Dark", if the early press is to be believed)

It's all a sham, there's never any narrative money in the account, and I think May's sales numbers are demonstrating that the powers that be had better start looking at another hat.  Because empty hype just aint cutting it any more.

Movie Bumps Are Bullshit

Speaking of hats empty of rabbits, can we finally now put to bed forever the idea that every comic movie needs 1,000 junk titles on the racks?  Mighty Thor # 2 is 31,598 issues from last month, or 38.5%.  Thank Christ we gave that mass of movie civilians a "clear jumping on point".  whew!  That was a close one, huh?

Just like the army of civilians that didn't want Iron Man: Legacy, and the army of civilians that couldn't wait to ignore Wolverine: Weapon X.  Just in case you weren't paying attention, they're both gone.  Give it up.  Please, please...just give it up.

Captain America: 1st Vengeance clocks in twice on a double ship for 13,689 and 12,116 copies.  Wow, really capitalizing on the movie buzz there.  How about Cap: Hail Hydra checking in at an embarrassing 9,637 units?  What is the point of that?  Are you going to make it back with the 800 copies of the trade paperback you'll sell later?  Good luck with that.

Let me assure you that Marvel will in no way learn anything from this, by the way.   When the Avengers movie hits, do expect a glut of material that will literally drive civilians away from the comic racks.  Don't believe me?  Let me show you how it's done.


Walking Dead Is A Golden God

Walking Dead # 85 sits like a shining beacon of hope in the 40th position.  It sold 5,622 more issues than it did last month.  Think about that for just a moment.

In a down market and a crushing economy, a fucking black and white indy horror book is up 17.61% month-to-month.  There's no television show on right now spiking that, no new DVD release, no creative shake-up, no new # 1, and to fully up the ante let's acknowledge that Walking Dead is also on the same day digital plan.  If our worst fears were correct, digital should be eating into the print book's numbers.

It's up 5,622 issues this month.

Why is that?  Because Kirkman knows what nobody at Marvel or DC know - keep it simple, stupid.  Walking Dead comes in a lot of sizes.  You've got six issue trades, 12 issue hardcovers, phone book sized compendiums.  But it's the same product.

There are no spin-offs, no re-numbering gambits, no re-boots, no bullshit.  Here's an ass kicker of a story every month that you can follow and understand.  Sound good?  Good.  See you next month!

Where do I start?  I don't know, how about at # 1?  Cool.  Then keep reading.  Is anybody out there paying attention?  Marvel thinks the world wants 11 Captain America books because a movie is coming out.  Wrong.  It wants ONE.  Walking Dead is a golden god, it's handing out all the answers, and nobody is noticing.  Pity.  But you know, we'll definitely have four Lantern books coming out, so we've got that going for us.

Butcher Baker Spiked Hard

Let's talk about stuff that isn't so goddamn depressing, like Joe Casey's Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker.  Issue # 3 landed at position 210, which isn't that impressive.  But it's up almost 1,300 issues, or 25.48%, and that is impressive!

Image had a few books with increases this month.  Carbon Grey took on a few more readers.  Green Wake added some.  This is encouraging.  Nobody gains 1,300 copies at issue # 3.  And for the record, this is all word-of-mouth, and Butcher deserves it.  I get more out of the back matter of that comic than I do in the meat of most other comics.

Don't be afraid to join the party, is what I'm saying.


Kids Books Are Ramping Up

Another positive trend for Mays chart - "all ages" titles trending upwards.  Nothing extraordinary, mind you.  But in an age when everything goes down month-to-month, even a one copy increase puts you way ahead of the competition.

It wasn't specific to any one publisher, brand, or genre, either, which is extra promising.  All of these titles saw increases from April:  Sonic, Scooby Doo, Young Justice, Batman Brave/Bold, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Tiny Titans. 

I don't know what to attribute this to - Free Comic Book Day, maybe?  I saw a lot of kids at my local shops for FCBD.  Maybe this is a trend, and shops were filling re-orders for May after the first weekend saw some new blood asking for copies of their favorite characters?

I don't know what did it, but it's damn promising, in its own small way.  We need some more Tiny Titans, so that someday we can poison them all with Crossed.  Yeah, baby!

- Ryan

The Curse Is Upon Us!

Justice League: now with 100% less America!

There's an old Chinese curse that goes:

"May you live in interesting times."

For comic book fans, that curse has certainly come home.  For better or worse, and usually for the goddamn worse, the comics industry does not lack for drama.  Things are happening.  The whole ship might be impersonating the Edmund Fitzgerald.  It's kinda scary, it's often frustrating, and sometimes it's exciting to be around the tumult.

DC is taking a stab at the brass ring (or maybe just a new lease lease on life) with some global scale changes to their entire publishing line.  Pretty sure Geoff Johns and Jim Lee were going to announce this stuff on June 11, but the comics fan base acts like the most petulant of 9 year-olds, demanding to know what they're getting for Christmas four months beforehand, picking the lock on their parents closet to find out if the parents won't spill.

Mark Waid:  not interested in my opinion

It's gross, it's embarrassing, and I guess I'm a part of it, so shame on me as well.  If I had a vote, I'd vote for everyone and everything to keep their mouths shut until the thing, whatever it actually is, hits in September.  This is simply not an option in 2011.  You can blame Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool if you like, but he never put a gun to your head to click.

Anywho.  DC is changing in September, and the information that I find most interesting came in a letter Bob Wayne sent out to the comics retailing community.  I'm just going to go with the letter as presented, and then make comments where I feel appropriate.  Sorry, Mark Waid.

To our comics retail partners,

In the time I've worked at DC Comics, I've witnessed any number of industry defining moments.  But today, I bring you what is perhaps the biggest news to date.

Many of you have heard rumors that DC Comics has been working on a big publishing initiative for later this year.  This is indeed an historic time for us as, come this September, we are relaunching the entire DC Universe line of comic books with all new first issues, 52 of them to be exact.

OK, that's pretty big, and this is exactly what we were hoping and fearing.  Some are comparing this move to Marvels "Heroes Reborn" launch, but really, this move by DC makes that look like small potatoes.  Heroes Reborn was about a half dozen books - this is everything.

My principle concern on this front has been Detective Comics and Action Comics.  Wayne hasn't specifically stated that these titles are re-setting or going away, but that's what "the entire line" sounds like to me.  Until I get final confirmation, though, I will not scale the bell tower with a rifle.

I suppose if you're re-booting the whole works, it doesn't make any logical sense to keep a couple grandfathered back.  As the move is constructed, they really have no choice but to flush 70+ years of history in the name of regaining market share, which sadly is what this is all about.  Desperate measures for interesting times and all that.

My hope is that if DC can't continue Detective and Action marching forward, they simply let it go away.  If the tradition mattered, there would be no re-boot.  If the re-boot matters, calling a Batman book Detective Comics is a giant, obvious mistake.  Same for calling a Superman book Action Comics.  If we're saying goodbye to the past and hello to exciting and new, put the old dames to bed, I say.  Call it something new and different, so that a retailer can rack it and I can find it on the shelf.

If I see a Detective Comics # 1 in September, I'm going to squawk about it, is the point.

Honestly, I think the closest comparison to what DC is doing is Jim Shooter's (alleged) plan to wipe the slate clean in 1986 and go with the New Universe.  Shooter denies he ever considered the idea, but Doug Moench and several other folks working for the House of Ideas at the time say that he was completely set to stop publishing Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, the whole works in favor of Spitfire & the Troubleshooters.  Legend has it that it was that proposed move that staged the palace coup that ultimately ousted Shooter.  He tells it differently, of course.  But I digress.

The point is that this is potentially the biggest shakeup in the history of comics.  I don't know what age we're in now, but it seems probable to me that history will mark Flashpoint as the beginning of an as yet unnamed epoch.  For reals.

 In addition, the new # 1s will introduce readers to more modern, diverse DC Universe, with some character variations in appearance, origin and age.  All stories will be grounded in each character's legend- but will relate to real world situations, interactions, tragedy and triumph.

Now I'm starting to worry, because most of that either doesn't make sense or sounds counter-productive.  I've never understood the diversity "problem", frankly.  The truth is that I don't know what goes on in the hallowed halls of DC comics.  If there are creators coming to editorial with pitches and story arc ideas that include gay Korean women and the brass at DC are saying to creators "That's a great idea, but can you make it a white guy?", then there's a problem.  Does anybody really believe that's the case?  Anybody?  I don't think even Valerie D'Orazio believes that.

Don't ever read this

Want to know what a comic book built on modern diversity looks like?  It looks like the JLA/99 series, which has all the right people in all the right colors spouting incredulous corn syrupy nonsense about all the right religions.  It's insipid, it's insincere, and it's offensively haughty.

JLA/ 99 is an atrocity, because legislated Pharisee morality is neither interesting nor transformative.  It's not a story.

Tell fucking stories.  That's it.  Now, if DC wants to put out a call and say "Listen, whatever you think we wanted before, I'm just telling you now, there are no limitations.  Any race, any sex, any creed, if it's a strong idea, I want you to pitch it."  That I approve entirely.  That involves no limitations.  Mandating "diversity", if that's the plan, is limiting, and that will not produce good stories.

I don't know that I'm love with an editorial push toward "real world" connections, and I can promise you that Tim Callahan is not.

Costume, origin, and age changes do not make for better stories.  Better stories make for better stories.  Not exciting.  And what exactly does it mean to have wholesale changes that are grounded in each character's legend?  That's contradictory nonsense.  I'm avoiding histrionics for now, though, because we still don't understand the shot yet, and I expect we will not until Flashpoint # 5 hits at the end of August. But everything in that last paragraph is a bit disconcerting.

This epic event will kick off on Wednesday, August 31st with the debut of a brand new JUSTICE LEAGUE #1, which pairs Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, together for the first time.  (Yes, this is the same week as FLASHPOINT # 5)

Couple of things.  First off, somebody get Geoff Johns a Red Bull or something.  By my count, he's doing scripts for a Green Lantern team book, and the Aquaman series, and Justice League (no more America, thank you very much) after Flashpoint, and he's acting as Chief Creative Officer?  Somethings got to give somewhere.  To be fair, I still enjoy his work on Green Lantern, I don't notice notice any significant decline in his work.  Yet.  I worry for that kid, though.  That's not burning the candle at both ends, that is throwing it into the mouth of the volcano.

Also, a little troubling that we're already backing off the "Flashpoint # 5 is the only DC title shipping the last week of August" stance.  Are we making this stuff up as we go along, guys?  Scary.  We'd like to at least pretend that the conductor knows where this train is going.

We think our current fans will be excited by this evolution, and that it will make jumping into the story extremely accessible to first-time readers - giving them a chance to discover DC's characters and stories.

We are positioning ourselves to tell the most innovative stories with our characters to allow fans to see them from a new angle.  We have taken great care in maintaining continuity where most important, but fans will see a new approach to our storytelling.

Some of the characters will have new origins, while others will undergo minor changes.  Our characters are always being updated; however, this is the first time all of our characters will be presented in a new way all at once.

This is another one of those confusing things that I've promised myself not to get upset about until I see the product.  I just don't understand how it's possible to "maintain continuity where most important."  Who decides what's important, and it sounds like they're only going to muck with certain characters, which doesn't make sense to me unless the DC Universe post Flashpoint is an amalgamation of different worlds?  Like I said, I don't know, so I'm not going to get worked about yet, but it sounds like nonsense doublespeak.

As for the first time readers and the jumping on, and all that rhetoric that I'm just completely weary of, whatever.  I'll believe it when I see it.  In terms of taking market share from Marvel with the existing fan base,  I think this is a ballsy and interesting ploy.  In terms of growing the pie, I haven't seen a viable plan for that yet.

Dan DiDio, Bob Harras, and Eddie Berganza have been working diligently to pull together some of the best creative teams in the industry.  Over 50 new costumes will debut in September, many updated and designed by Jim Lee, ensuring that the updated images appeal to the current generation of readers.

Hey...nice jacket

I laughed out loud when I read that last bit.  You mean like the current generation of readers fell in love with that Wonder Woman costume he designed?  Funny.  To repeat an earlier point, new costumes do not make better stories.  New costumes make for new action figures, for sure.  Congratulations on that.

I'm more interested in the best creative teams in the industry bit.  We'll have to wait and see on that, as all of the teams in question are under a strict gag order not to talk about any of it.  And yet, here we are 11 days before the big announcement was supposed to pop talking about everything any way, so I'm not sure why we bother at this point.

The publication of JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 will also launch digital day-and-date for all ongoing superhero comic book titles - an industry first.

WOW.  Talk about burying your lead!  Of all the announcements that have been or will be made about characters, costumes, and continuity, this one slams them all.  Day and date digital for all ongoings.  We're FINALLY going to find out if the revolution is real, folks.

There's a lot more we need to know on the issue.  What's the price point?  What's the application?  Where will it be available?  What involvement with the physical retailers, if any?  How does this connect with Diamond's digital plan, if it does at all?

We just don't know.

On Wednesday, June 1st, this initiative is expected to be announced in a nationwide feature article, and we're hopeful the news will be picked up my media outlets around the world.  Throughout the month we'll reveal more details of our plans with articles in both the mainstream and comics press and on June 13th the Diamond catalog solicitations for all of the September titles will be released, followed by the June 29th street date of the print version of Previews.

Well, today is June 1, and I don't know what nationwide feature article Wayne is referring to.  Everything I'm seeing is pulled straight off the DC Source blog.

DC Comics will support this initiative with an innovative mix of publicity, promotional efforts and retailer incentives designed to maximize your opportunity to increase your DC sales.  We will discuss additional details of these incentives when we get closer to solicitation later in June.

We'lll be updating you more through email as September nears.  But today, I hope your (sic) share our enthusiasm for this historic news!

Do I share Bob Wayne's enthusiasm?  No.  I'm cautiously optimistic.  My prediction is that DC will take market share from Marvel in September, even if they only publish the 52 main books.  Something tells me that there will be more than that available.

I just know that it takes more than an "S" belt buckle on Superman's costume to mean anything long term.  Grant Morrison writing a Superman book - now that sounds promising.  I'm hearing a lot of hype, and you know what?  Hype isn't all bad.  When the top selling book on the Diamond chart is sitting at about 70,000, we need some goddamn hype.

But for this to be meaningful in the long term, I don't want to hear about costume changes or diversity.  I want to hear about the stories that we'll remember 70 years from now.  You want to kill Action Comics?  Fine.  What's coming out in September that our grandchildren will look back on as the stories that started it all?  I guess that's going to the Canterbury Cricket, right?

- Ryan

Flash Fact: The Property Is In Trouble

I get accused of pandering to DC these days, mostly because I do.  I pander strictly because "holding the line at $2.99" is one of the most refreshing and beneficial things I've seen in comics in the past decade.  It took brass balls, and it required a company with more than a month's worth of profits in mind.  That's rare and it should be commended, so I have been.  But they don't always get it right.  And sometimes they get it horribly wrong.

Most of the news I've been hearing out of C2E2 this weekend has been either depressing, infuriating, or both.  DCs news about The Flash ending with issue 12 was both.

It's a bad idea.  It's a bad idea for the book, for that character, for the retailers trying to sell Flash comics to their customers, and it's bad for the customers as well.  There's going to be a lot of people throwing their hands up in the air wondering just what the hell is going on with this character for the past five years.  And when DC goes to the next iteration of The Flash and discovers that this exasperation is costing them even more readers, and it absolutely will, DC is going to learn that it's a bad idea for DC, too.

To say that The Flash has been an unstable property over the past few years is to engage in the most extreme kind of understatement.  Let's take a brief tour through the character's history as an ongoing title and you'll see what I mean

Flash Vol 1:  105 - 350 (1959-1985)

Flash picks up where Showcase left off, which is how things were done back when comics sold in the millions.  If you wanted an audience, you didn't continuously reboot with a new # 1.  If you wanted credibility, you wanted a higher number that indicated you had been around for awhile and might actually be good.

The series chugged along just fine for more than 25 years, and only ended when Barry Allen met his demise in Crisis on Infinite Earths # 8.  This was back when parlor tricks meant something.  Yes, Barry ultimately came back.  It took about twenty years, though. 

Flash Vol 2:  0 - 230  (1987 - 2006)

Wally West takes on the mantle of The Flash, and this era provides some of the finest runs in the history of the character.  Maybe some of the finest runs in comics.

Mark Waid begins with issue # 62, and introduces Impulse with # 92.  He brings a consistent tone of fun, adventure, and building drama.  Geoff Johns begins making a name for himself when he takes the reigns with # 164.

This epoch doesn't last quite as long the original, but we're left with twenty years of Flash stories, most of them outstanding in quality before the wheels come off and the title limps to an inexplicable finish at issue 230.  Wally takes his family to another dimension for a bit after the Infinite Crisis mini.  Sure.

Flash Vol 3: Fastest Man Alive 1-13 (2006 - 2007)

Bart Allen takes over as The Flash.  For a whole 13 issues.  Just when the character is beginning to get slightly interesting, he is "killed" for approximately four or five minutes.

No twenty or better years of solid storytelling.  What we get is barely a year of stories nobody will remember, and it is now becoming confusing to figure out exactly what we're talking about when we're talking about The Flash.  It's becoming confusing for a customer to piece together where things fall in the reading order because we've now switched title names.  It's getting more difficult to rack Flash as a retailer as well.  It's about to get worse.  Much worse.

Flash Vol 4:  231 - 247 (2007-2009)

With Bart now "dead", DC decides to bring Wally back from his alternate dimension with All Flash # 1, and then pick back up the numbering from Flash Vol 2.  That's not confusing, is it?

Waid returns and tries to steer the title away from the gritty grit of Bart's death and into something more family friendly and lighthearted, mostly centered around Wally's children and the hijinx created by their burgeoning powers.  His new run is almost universally panned, and DC kills the title (though thankfully not The Flash himself) with # 247, for a total of 17 issues of that incarnation.  Better than the 13 issues that Fastest Man Alive "achieved", but not really good, either.  It's about to get worse.

Flash Vol 5:  1-12 (2010-2011)

Geoff Johns returns to the character and ties it into Brightest Day, but this book has now become a white hot mess.  Barry Allen is now Flash again, which means in the last five years, the book has had three different main characters, one of the runs is not named The Flash and fits in between #230 and # 231 of the Wally West Flash.  Now there's a new # 1, but it fits after # 247, not before it.

How could that be confusing to a civilian walking in off the street?

"I want to read The Flash."
"OK, do you want to read the Barry Allen Flash, the Wally West Flash, or the Bart Allen Flash?"
"I just want Flash."
"Well, if you want to start at the beginning, here's a black and white Showcase Flash, or if you want to know what's going on now, you can start with the Geoff Johns Flash and oh here's the Brightest Day mini that ties into it that came out of Blackest Night and - hey, where are you going!"
[customer walks out of store to go play Call of Duty]

This "run" sets the new Flash record by finishing in only 12 issues.



It's embarrassing to watch, and it's obvious to anyone with open eyes that as a business tactic, rebooting doesn't work.  The first two volumes run from 1959 - 2006.  The next THREE run from 2006-20011, and that's scary.  The property has been mismanaged terribly and DC just made it worse, not better.
 


- Ryan

Thor: The Mighty Offender part 2!

Every time I think it's just not going to be fun any more to rip into the stupidity of Marvel, they go ahead and Marvel us with a new level of stupidosity.  With the Kenneth Branagh Thor movie coming out in May, Marvel have decided to reboot Thor to a new # 1, and then continuing the numbering on their old series but changing the name!

You can't make this stuff up, folks.  I mean, what could possibly be confusing about that, right?  We're going to continue the numbering on our Thor book, but next issue completely change the name, the creative team, characters, and direction.  We will simultaneously have the same writer continue his thread of narrative on a different book.  On what planet does this make sense?  Only on planet Marvel.

It gets particularly laughable when you read the fine print of the CBR article I discovered this story in.  Their reason for the expansive switcheroo?  Because they're looking for an "easy to point to jumping on point for readers intrigued by the film".

This is so backwards on so many levels.  I still can't believe that anybody is still under the impression that there will be any new readers intrigued by the film, because we have no evidence that such a phenomenon exists.  Apparently, Marvel hasn't twigged onto this fact yet.

"A wave of civilians will be moved to check the book out, so a clear, clean entry point is always welcome," Fraction told Marvel's official website.  This is so galactically stupid I don't even know where to start.  I give Fraction a bit of a pass, because he's being a company man and what is he supposed to say?  This is a Marvel issue, not a Fraction issue.  But it's still really, really, stupid.

Stupid because clean entry point was gone a long time ago, because you've already rebooted the franchise too many times for that.  This will be go # 4 at a "main" Thor book, five if you count the original Journey Into Mystery series.

Clean entry point?  Forget that.  That cover may have a # 1 on it, but it will all be connected to the prior series that went before it, and doesn't need a re-numbering.  Clean entry point?  Yeah, that's why you decided to launch a second book, right?  To really clean things up for us.  Thanks, Marvel.

And how clean is that Mighty Thor going to be in the back issue bin?  Where do I rack it when the inevitable trade comes out?  Do I rack it alphabetically with the "M"s and hope that everybody knows it's connected to the Thor trades down the shelves a bit?  Do I rack it with the Thor trades, and if I do, do I rack it chronologically after the stuff that was published just before but alphabetically isn't the same?  It's a nightmare.  It's all a useless, confusing, unnecessary nightmare.  This is not clean and clear.  This is why civilians don't bother with us in the first place.

So let's get to that.  Where is this "wave" of civilians produced by the movie going to come from?  Oh, I know.  Maybe it's that wave of civilians who just leaped at the chance to pick up your clear, clean, Wolverine Weapon X # 1 entry point?  Yeah, Wolverine Origins came out, and they did avoid this book in droves, didn't they?  Oh yeah. That was a super good wave.  Book died after 16 issues so you could reboot.  Again.  Huh.

Oh wait, I know!  It's probably the wave of civilians that stampeded toward your clear, clean, Iron Man Legacy book right when Iron Man 2 hit!  Yeah, that was a good wave.  You're riding that wave all the way to the 12,000 copy mark!  Yeah, Iron Man Legacy # 9 just clocked in at 12,483 sold.  Its mother must be so proud to be the adoring center of that avalanche of civilian support.

It's an embarrassment at this point.  You want civilians to check out your book, MAKE ONE CAN'T MISS BOOK and then TELL PEOPLE OTHER THAN CURRENT COMICS READERS ABOUT IT.  You're going to have millions of eyes on the intellectual property, and not one of them will be told that there's comic books available in that theater.  

Don't take my word for it, by the way.  Go ask Robert Kirkman if making your product pure and graspable works.  Walking Dead is an empire because he made it simple to grab hold of, and compelling once you grab hold of it.  Bam!  That's it.  There's your magic.  Marvel is still trapped in this "Well, if one book is good, then five books are bestest!"

Examine your own playbook and recognize that it doesn't work, Marvel.  You're mindlessly running the same ineffective gambits, and you're flushing it all so that you can milk three extra nickels on that Thor # 1 before it slides directly back down to prior levels. 

And in the interim, what?  Don't tell me there's no harm done.  It's another opportunity not only flushed, but used to make things worse.  To make things more confusing.  To make it more difficult to find back issues later, and trades later, and figure out what to read in what order later.  To further dilute the brand.  To further ostracize what few curious civilians might actually be out there.

Wave of civilians. Ha. Clean, clear entry point.  HA!  If it weren't all so sad, I think I'd sprain something laughing.

- Ryan

Myth Conception: Digital Messiah!

Pocket God will not save us, kids

I hear a lot of talk about the inevitable rise of the Digital Messiah.  "It's taking over!  You can't stop it, you fossilized Luddite, the digital beast is the future!"  I really didn't mind this stuff when it first started heavy rotation....what...three years ago?  I didn't mind it then, because I was looking for a comics messiah (still am, incidentally) and the ideas weren't spread with a such a smug air.

But after listening to this noise for several years and noticing that the digital revolution has absolutely no traction in the real world, and no interest from real people, I'm ready to call digital comics what they are - ethanol.

Like ethanol, digital comics are an inferior product that nobody really wants.  Publicly, all the right people are touting the "advantages".  At this point, saying anything against digital comics is likely to earn you the wrath of the punditsphere.  If you don't recognize the inalienable right of digital to own the future, you're an anti-technology dinosaur nerd who just isn't evolved enough to grow past the printed page.  You're a flat earth troll in a post-Copernicus world, desperately clawing at the past and selfishly denying a digital future filled with four-color gum drops and sparkly unicorns.


The demonstrable truth is that digital comics are not the future, and will not save the medium.  The demonstrable truth is that nobody wants the damn things, or at least there's no evidence that significant numbers are willing to pay for them.  I don't know how to break this to y'all, but if the industry is to survive, we need somebody to actually pay for the comics they enjoy.


I remember ethanol.  I remember the smug satisfaction of its advocates demanding that our future be driven by corn gas.  To be fair, it wasn't a bad idea.  The principle - that we need a domestic and sustainable fuel to replace oil, was delicious.  The problem was that the product sucked, and nobody actually wanted the stuff.  In the end it turned out to be harmful to grocery prices, as way too much of that potentially useful corn got shifted away from food and into gas tanks.


None of that stopped the endless public clamoring for ethanol.  Mindlessly yammering about a hip concept is a good way to get elected, and an excellent method for showing folks within earshot what a progressive person you are.  And that's all digital comics are - narrative corn gas with some social cache, but no real traction in reality, and no discernible future traction, either.  Nobody wants them.


I know, I know, this all sounds like the mad ravings of a contrarian looking to stir the pot.  And I am a mad contrarian looking to stir the pot.  But if you examine some of the digital rhetoric, it isn't hard to see the cracks.  Let's start with a really vague and simple one.


Myth:  Digital comics are the future!


Truth:  Do you know anybody, even one person, and by person I mean person that currently spends money on comics, eager to switch to digital?  Let me answer that one for you - you don't.  Maybe if you live in Casper, Wyoming, and the nearest comic shop is several parsecs away, you're anticipating more mainstream comics going day and date.  It's far more likely that you've simply discovered DCB Service and are getting your books delivered to you dirt cheap.


It's easy to find a talking head in an interview, column, or blog to decree that five years from now, we won't remember what all that paper fuss was about.  It's exceptionally difficult to find a flesh human being actually thinking about making the switch from print to digital. 


Myth:  Oh, Ryan, you old dinosaur, you just don't understand.  The kids today don't share your fascination with paper, and grew up on computers.  Kids love digital comics!


Truth:  Oh, invisible devil's advocate, you just don't understand.  The kids today don't give a shit about comics in any format.  Most of them lack the attention span and discipline to read or write full words.  Reading comics is more work then reading full text, because you have interpret the images in conjunction with the available text, and you have to do a great deal of high order thinking between the gutters to connect panels in a meaningful way.  


I wish it weren't the case, but kids are simply not interested in comics.  They like games. They like movies. They like music, somewhat.  A handful of them may even enjoy some web comics...if they're available for free.  There is no data to suggest that significant numbers of people are interested in paying for digital comics.

Listen, digital comics are not new.  They've been around for years.  All kinds of cool and influential people have been telling us for years that they are the future.  So where's the model?  Where's the success story?  Where is the million selling digital comic book?

There isn't one.  It's possible, (highly unlikely, but possible) to get massive hits on a digital comic, if it's available for nothing.  But in all this time, in all the world, has there never been a talented creator telling a good story on the web?  Has everybody sucked? 


If there was an audience for digital comics, we would have already seen multiple hit books by now.  If the world was really bursting at the seems for the product, it's out there.  It's available in great reams, and surely in a world populated with endless forums and global word-of-mouth via social networking, we would have seen not one but many "lightning in a bottle" digital sensations.  Nobody wants them.  Don't take my word for it, just look at the best seller list.  There isn't one.  Nobody wants to buy digital comics.


Myth:  That's not true!  I just read that Pocket God sold more than 3 million copies!


Truth:  Don't talk to me about Pocket God.  That's a game.  There's a great deal of evidence to support the fact that kids are interested in spending money on games for their computers, phones, IPads.  There is zero evidence that kids are willing to part with cash to read digital comics.  Next!


Myth:   OK, what about that ICV2 research that says that the digital market increased ten fold in the past year while print comics took a dip?


Truth:   That's a point that deserves attention.  Digital comics did increase year over year.  It went from an estimated $500,000 in 2009 to $6M-$8M estimated in 2010.  Whatever.  Print comics did $310M in a down year, and that's 40 times the messiah.  


But that's not all.  What we're not factoring in yet is the $370M in trade sales directly generated by collecting the print comics.  A couple of those were OGNs, but that is almost entirely generated by monthly pamphlet print comics.  So now we're at $8M for the messiah vs. $680M for print comics. And that puts print comics as crushing the holy digital by 85 times the dollars.  Does that sound like the future?  

But that's not all.  How much of that digital pie is also generated by material made possible by previously printed material?  I'm sure some of that figure is purely digital books, but most of that money is comics available digitally that wouldn't be unless there was a profitable printed comic before it to subsidize it. I don't have the data to look at, but surely that's most of it.  


Myth:    Yeah, but Marvel went on record as saying that they were able to announce a price reduction on some books for 2011 because of their digital sales!


Truth:    Don't even get me started on that price reduction that Marvel lied about.  To bring it back on point, Marvel's digital sales are just gravy from their already profitable and printed comics.  They aren't really selling digital comics, they're selling reprints of popular print comics.  

If Marvel thought for one second they could make a nickel selling new digital material, they would do it in a heartbeat.  You'll notice they don't do that.  They have offered some new digital exclusive material available if you own a subscription.  But nobody is buying Marvel's DCU for that stuff.  They're going there for the archives.


Marvel doesn't produce new digital exclusive comics because again, nobody wants them, and they know that it won't be profitable.  The only market for digital comics are pundits trying to prove that they're cutting edge.  That's your market.  Real people don't buy them, and there's no evidence to suggest that they're changing their mind about that.  Digital comics are ethanol.


What I'm Not Saying
I'm not saying that I hate digital comics and that they have no place.  I'm not a Luddite or a purist, and I don't take offense at the fact that some comics are not printed on some form of wood pulp.  


Digital comics are an inferior product, not a useless one.  If you have no access to print books, digital will do in a pinch.  If I were an aspiring comic book creator, I can think of no better pitch than a web comic that demonstrates good storytelling ability.  I think that digital comics can be a profitable supplement to an already profitable print book.


There's nothing wrong with digital comic books, but their only advantage over print books is their remarkable ability to not take up physical space.  As a reading experience, which would seem sort of key in a reading material, they are inherently inferior.  There's nothing wrong with digital comic books, other than the fact that nobody is interested in buying them.  If offered at a dollar or less, I think that the digital segment could function as an excellent taste-testing feeder system to print.  Fine.


But on this planet, digital comics are not a future messiah.  Sorry! You can spout your ethanol chanting all you want, but I'm done listening or caring until someone can show me data that supports the concept.  Good luck with that.  If we want to save comics, we need to continue fostering ideas about how to drive civilian traffic toward the print books, books that actually have a paying audience. 


- Ryan





 

Myth Conception: Superhero Surplus!

Ron Marz wrote his latest weekly CBR column on the glut of superhero titles on the rack, and equates it with eating nothing but pizza every meal.  He is not alone in this assessment, and when you look at the new comics rack of your local comic shop, it feels natural to believe the industry has a superhero problem.

Ron Marz

My response?  Bull excrement.

My piece here is not an attempt call out Marz or lambaste his ideas, which make sense for the most part.  I get why he comes to the conclusions he does.  He's just wrong.  While it seems intuitive and has traction with highly regarded geniuses, the idea that comics' problems have anything to do with the number of superhero titles offered is demonstrably false.

What's interesting is that Marz has the antidote to his own false assumption buried in the argument:

"There are more good, diverse comics being published now than ever before. I firmly believe that. But in terms of copies sold, superheroes still rule the direct market roost. So we end up with a majority of what's published directed at a very narrow audience, and much less product directed at everyone else. Why is that? Are there too many superhero titles because that's what the existing audience demands of publishers? Or are there too many superhero titles because that's what publishers are forcing down the throats of the existing audience? Kind of a chicken-and-egg question, isn't it?"

 There are more good, diverse comics being published now than ever before.  That is the truth.  If the situation were that comics publisher stifled creativity or shelved new ideas in other genres, we would have a problem.  Particularly if the Big 2 were to stop trying to innovate or test different kinds of work, the medium could be artificially stunted.  But this is most demonstrably not the case.

Historical Fiction

Think about it carefully and ask yourself: what type of storytelling isn't readily available in comic book form?  I defy you to find one.  It's very easy to name off genres and find not one but a half dozen of every kind, whether you're interested in mysteries, horror, comedy, romance, biographies, period pieces, political thrillers, or westerns.  There are comics and in fact entire lines tailored to suit the tastes and needs of everyone from the youngest of new readers to the most sophisticated elite.

Are there a great many superhero titles on the racks?  Certainly.  But there is also Queen & Country, (black & white realistic spy book)and Fables, (modern fairy tales) and Beasts of Burden, (cute animals solving mysteries) and Age of Bronze,  (historical fiction about the Trojan War) and Jonah Hex, (straight John Wayne style gunslingin')and Scalped, (pure noir crime fiction) and Archie, still the king of teenaged romance and comedy.

NOT supehero fare

We have a comic currently being published at Image called Meta 4 in which an amnesiac astronaut is assisted in his search for self by a muscle-bound woman named Gasolina, and you mean to tell me that there isn't enough choice available?  I just saw on a comics rack recently a comic called The Saga of Rex, in which an adorable little fox is abducted by aliens and transported to the magical world of Edernia, where he befriends a quirky biomorph with a flying saucer.  And somebody wants to make a case that comics lack diversity???  It's nonsense.  Absolute nonsense.

But of course they don't sell.  They're always around, and nobody buys them.  Marz wonders if the cause is the audience or the publishers jamming things down our throats.  In point of fact it's the non-superhero titles that are jammed into holes that don't want them, and they fail time after time.  Where is that Minx line, any way?  It's gone.  Nobody wanted it, least of all the young women it courted.

So what's the problem, then?  If DC had created three of four Minx lines, would that have crowded the technicolor supers off the rack and made it fly?  I guess we'll never know, but I put the odds long against that.

ACME Novelty Libray Vol 20

Do the non-superhero titles suffer from lack of exposure?  I wonder if we could really make a case for that.  Ask yourself this: has any comic material in recent memory ever received as much love as Asterios Polyp?  I can't think of one, with the possible exception of the obligatory affection heaped annually upon Chris Ware and his ACME Novelty Library series.

Look at Comic Book Resources recent "Top 100" comics of 2010, and notice how it is incredibly representative of the unpurchased indies and away from the standard superhero fare.  Ifanboy's 2010 "Book of the Year"?  Afrodisiac, Adhouse books.  I'm not suggesting that it wasn't an honest or worthy choice, but I know this - you don't demonstrate your expertise or "cool factor" by extolling the virtues of The New Avengers.  Comics propaganda, where it is exists, slants always toward the hip and path less taken.  And I'm fine with that, by the way.

Does anybody with even a passing interest in comics NOT know about Love & Rockets, or Joe Sacco, or Blankets?  Are these well kept secrets that a backwards industry is shoving into a dark corner to force superheros onto a duped clientele?  Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I really don't think so.

Top Seller at Comix Experience

Certainly comic shops could help themselves a little more.  These books don't sell partially because retailers often don't sell them.  Asterios Polyp did well at Comix Experience in San Francisco because owner Brian Hibbs knows his customers and sold them the book.  He knew the product, matched it with customers who could reasonably be expected to enjoy it, and physically put it in their hands.  He offered store credit on a return if they weren't satisfied.  If you aren't talking up the gold you're sitting on, you don't have a genre problem - you have a commitment to your business problem.

I don't know. Perhaps there are comic shops out there that only order the X-Men and Batman.  I believe that such a shop exists.  Even so, this has never stopped a trend in the past.  The history of comics has (until recently) been a story of changing tastes from comic strip reprints to superheroes, to crime comics, to horror comics, etc.  Even in the midst of the superhero domination, a cult sensation like a black-and-white book about mutated ninja turtles will take the country by storm, if the country feels so inclined.

And that was back before the age of the internet and forum chatter.  Can anybody imagine a comics readership secretly pining for a new genre, if only they knew it existed?  It's completely preposterous in a day where word-of-mouth advertising is literally instant and global.  The idea that there is this huge dormant population of comics fans who simply don't know there's a superhero alternative is so absurd in 2011, and so distracting from the real issue.

Not helping...at all

The real issue is that nobody seems inclined to visit a comic shop anymore.  And it isn't just that civilian would-be readers aren't going, but of course they aren't.  I doubt most civilians even understand that comic shops still exist.  Even as the intellectual properties of comics produce billions at the box office, you'd never understand that from watching those films, because they either can't or simply won't mention it.  The problem is that even the existing base of comics readers is dwindling. It's hard to sell even superhero comics these days.

There are lots of reasons for that, none of which have to do with the superhero genre.  I have heard a lot of pithy punditry from a variety of sources about how "guys in underwear bashing each other" just can't sustain interest.  One hears this from all corners; from the esoteric and grouchy Alan Moore to the affable everyman Jimmy Palmiotti.  I think that argument is weak and does not hold up to even casual scrutiny.

To boil superhero books down to "guys in underwear bashing each other" is to engage in the laziest of reductive thinking.  Does that sound like James Robinson's Star Man?  Not to me, it doesn't, or any other rational human. How about Irredeemable?  Is that just a guy in underwear bashing things, or is that an examination of power and trust gone wrong?

Neil Gaiman maintains that comics are a medium, not a genre.  It's an empty glass that you can fill with almost anything.  He is correct.  I maintain that you can also fill the superhero genre with almost anything, and the reason why I maintain that is because I'm living and reading it. 

The sublime Secret Six

Ron Marz claims that superhero comics are just an endless stream of pizza.  I wonder if he's still reading them.  Some of the trappings look similar, but Ed Brubaker's Captain America and Palmiotti & Gray's Power Girl scratch very different itches.  They don't do the same things, are not constituted with the same nutrients.  They're both superhero books.  Compare Gail Simone's Birds of Prey with Secret Six.  Not only the same genre, but the same writer!  Are you going to read those two titles and tell me that they're homogeneous?  They're on different planets in terms of tone, theme, audience, objective.

The bottom line is that I detect no predilection on the publisher's parts to slavishly follow the superhero formula.  There's no conspiracy to keep non-superhero titles off the stands.  Marz never directly implicates the publishers, but if it isn't implied, what's his thesis then...that the retailers are mucking it up, or the customers should want things they don't want?

No, there is no conspiracy.  Marvel, in particular, is only interested in collecting its next nickel.  If they can do that selling books about puppies, they will do that.  If they can earn two nickels publishing adaptations of the Rachel Ray show, they will switch to that.  We have superheroes because that's what we want right now, and when we want something else, we'll just buy more copies of what's already out there.  Because if you always wanted to read about alien abducted foxes....comics have you covered.

- Ryan

Numbers Game!

I went to ICV2 and looked at the November 2010 numbers as reported by Diamond to retailers.  I've been looking at them all day, actually, because I'm just wired differently.  For every Ryan Lee and John Mayo there's about 1,000 people who look at that string of Matrix code and say "what the hell's wrong with you...that's a big boring mess!"

Well, you're half right.  It is a mess.  But it isn't boring.  Here's some of the stories the data are telling me:

I'm about to bleed half my readers. Shit.

And the Pretty Poison Award goes to....
Uncanny X-Force, which topped last month's chart at 95,639 units.  This month # 2 drops all the way down to position # 18 and 56,518 units.  WOW.  You just hemorrhaged half your circulation.  That is what we in the industry call a "catch me, I'm falling" scenario.  All # 2s suffer, but that's insane.

Did you know that X-Force was selling in the 60,000s before the Marvel brain trust decided we needed reboot number 8,367?  How's that workin' out for ya, boys?  Brock Lesnar couldn't pull me off Marvel right now.

What's Grant Morrison Worth?
Apparently, about 10,000 buyers.  Batman & Robin # 16 checked in at position # 5 for 80,343 units, and the Paul Cornell scripted Batman & Robin # 17 went for 70,600 units. I expected a slightly bigger dip.

I'm all the way in. Ouch!

The Ol' Iron Cornholing
Unbeknownst to me when it shipped, Invincible Iron Man # 32 tip-toed up to the $3.99 price point.  What's awesome about that is the fact that I go on my show, get in front of a mic and loudly proclaim "I am not an idiot!  You cannot put stuff past me, you bastards!"  And then I have to have Nick point out that in fact I am an idiot, and the House of KY did in fact put stuff past me.

Apparently, others noticed the floor lamp inching its way into their rectum, because that issue took 40,978 orders, while issue # 31 at the $2.99 price point took 45,507 orders.  And that's pretty significant.

Only One Is Actually Fantastic
Jonathan Hickman's legendary and inspirational run of Fantastic Four continues with issue # 585 coming in at position # 36 and 37,740 units.  Next on the list is the very forgettable and marginal Generation Hope # 1 in position # 37 and 37,398 units.

How does that happen?  I guess that tastes vary, and people can like what they like, and can people can buy what they want to buy.  But how in the world can the most important and consistently best-executed book at Marvel sell an identical number of copies as a paper-doll mutant mini that nobody will even remember exists a year from now?  I don't know how that happens.  When we figure that out, we might have the answer to our troubles, though.

Mark Millar is Superior

Unstoppable Scottish Beast

Say what you want about the crazy Scottish git...he sells books.  He sells creator owned books, which is impossible.  Superior # 2 came in at # 42 for 34,688, and down only about 6,000 copies from the first issue.  Hard to explain how extraordinary that is.

Consider that you don't find Scarlet # 3 until you get down to position # 70 and about 25,000 units.  Brian Michael Bendis has some clout, friends, and Millar is killing him.  And Scarlet is a far superior product, if you'll pardon the pun.  If Brubaker had an issue of Incognito or Criminal out, I think we could expect to see that in the 10,000 copy range.  Which is just a long, boring way of stating the fact that Mark Millar is a unique and powerful beast.  And if one had access to his nail clippings, you should grind them into powder and create a potion, that one might imbibe his magical powers.

OK, the guy writes a comic book that shall remain nameless (*cough*Nemesis*cough*) where the villain somehow rigs a woman's womb to collapse if her brother's fetus is aborted from it.  And we all just take it, like nothing happened.  "oh yeah, rig a woman's womb to kill her if the incestuous fetus is aborted, yeah, I can see that.  It's Millar.  Whatever."  What???  What's wrong with us?  How do we let him get away with this shit?  He's magic.  That's it.  He's a magical Scottish creature which has cast a global spell on us.  Well played, sir!

I'm not this slutty inside.  Shit, that came out wrong.

People Will Still Pay For Boobs
Dynamite pushed out yet another Vampirella book, and on the show I questioned why.  Well, apparently because if you do that, then people will buy 29,215 copies, that's why.

That's an exceptionally strong performance, I would say.  So strong I don't quite believe it.  Either my thumb is just not on the pulse, or maybe something like Hastings went crazy on it?  I just have a hard time believing that an Eric Trautman (not saying anything against him, he's just not a household name at this point) penned Vampirella (#57) could outsell a Jonathan Hickman penned Astonishing Thor # 1, (#58) but it did.  Hooray for boobs, I guess.  What's extra odd is that inside the cover, this one isn't even a T&A book.  She's just a hard-ass chick who stole Wonder Woman's jacket. 

Morning Wood?
I was very curious to see where Morning Glories # 4 would land on the list. There's a lot of people like me who spend all day with a hard-on talking about this comic, but does any of that wood translate into sales growth?

I'm the best comic you aren't reading

Sort of.  Morning Glories # 4 hit the list at # 151 and 11,292 copies.  Which is exactly 34 more copies than it sold last month.  This is actually a big win, because pretty much nothing beats attrition these days, and simply avoiding a loss should be headline news.  It really seems like the audience for this book should be a LOT bigger than 11,000 copies, though, so it feels disappointing.

I guess the big test will come in say....March.  The first TPB hits in February, and we should see a spike right after that.  By the way, that trade will collect the first six issues for a suggested retail of $9.99.

Somebody at Marvel needs to be taking notes on this.  You don't sell a guy a car...you sell a guy 10 cars over a lifetime.  Morning Glories is awesome product.  Spencer knows that if he can just get people in the door, and they walk away feeling as though they've received value, he's got them.  That's where we need to be - in Morning Glories Town.

- Ryan

Where Are All These Cowboys & Aliens Coming From?

Once upon a time Scott Rosenberg mega-printed this book and literally paid retailers to "buy" it in a plot to artificially inflate sales numbers and land # 1 on the graphic novel charts.  His ultimate goal was to attract interest from movie studios and get a Cowboys & Aliens film made.

And it sort of worked.  He failed in getting his book listed as the # 1 graphic novel, which is just as well, since it was too small and belonged on the comic book side of the list any way.  He did succeed in garnering Hollywood's attention, because Iron Man's Jon Favreau is directing a Cowboys & Aliens movie starring Daniel Craig.

At one point there were stacks of this stuff selling for less than a dollar or simply being chucked in the trash.  Once word got around that Rosenberg's scheme was bearing fruit in the form of a major motion picture, folks started looking through those trash cans again looking for copies of the comic again.  That buzz resulted in a price spike, and I've sold multiple copies of Cowboys & Aliens for $30-$35.  Not bad for a book that supposedly retailed for less than $5 and was wildly available for free in refuse bins at one point.

The new twist is that Instocktrades suddenly has the book available for $1.50, and Amazon is listing a hardcover edition available in February, and new paperback edition available in May, although now that $5 book is suddenly carrying a suggested retail of $15.99.  I'm aware of the concept of inflation...but that's pretty gross.

Another weird twist is that the old listings for Cowboys & Aliens don't appear in a basic search for the title keywords, although they still exist if you dig with the ISBN.  As I type this, Amazon min for these listings are still in the $40+ range.

I don't know what Instocktrades got hold of - a discovered stack of the old books, a pile of the new ones?  Who can say?  And I don't think it makes sense to back up the truck and buy a pile of these, because obviously the supply is about to catch up to the demand and then some.

At the same time, they're selling the book at $1.50, so your risk is minimal.  You could snap up three of these for about the same price as a copy of a new Marvel comic.  It's possible you might be able to sneak one of these through for $30 on Ebay or Amazon, and that's a pretty darned good profit margin.  If you're thinking about putting in an Instocktrades order, it might be worth your while to add one to your cart.  At the very least, you're buying a book at more than 90% off what they'll be selling them for in your LCS come May.

- Ryan