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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 6, 2018 17:52:13 GMT -5
What I really think needs to happen is the comic companies need to capitalize on the movies before people are done with Superhero movies. How about a few issue to every movie goer that's a prequel of sorts, that offers issue #2 online for free, and a sub (either paper or online) at a discount? Once you get people thinking it's ok to READ comics, maybe they'll read more.
I can't tell you how many people equate comic books to the movies now to the extent that they call themselves 'superfans' of the character having never read an actual comic.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 6, 2018 18:23:20 GMT -5
I've honestly always wondered how comic shops manage to sell trades at retail when you can buy them all day long online for far less money. That explains why the brick and mortar stores are going down faster than the Titanic. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2018 23:31:44 GMT -5
What I really think needs to happen is the comic companies need to capitalize on the movies before people are done with Superhero movies. How about a few issue to every movie goer that's a prequel of sorts, that offers issue #2 online for free, and a sub (either paper or online) at a discount? Once you get people thinking it's ok to READ comics, maybe they'll read more. I can't tell you how many people equate comic books to the movies now to the extent that they call themselves 'superfans' of the character having never read an actual comic. Or realize after 17 years that ticket sales to movies are not going to translate into sales of monthly comics. They did giveaways with the early X-movies at the theatre, they did them with the early Raimi Spider-movies, and in 17 years the bump in sales of individual issues at comic shops everyone has been waiting for to happen hasn't come. That's a generation and a half of movie goers and still no sales bump to comics. If it hasn't happened yet, you can stop holding your breath for it to happen. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 7, 2018 21:10:11 GMT -5
I'm seem most of the Marvel movies in the theatres, and never seen any comics at any of them, so if they tried it, they didn't do a good job... there was one time a local store had a table that I vaguely recall, but nothing like what I'm picturing. It would be something you have to continue to nuture, not just a one time thing... and the key is to have comics in front of potential comics on a regular basis... you can't expect the customers to come to you all the time (which is what the direct market is)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2018 21:26:02 GMT -5
What I really think needs to happen is the comic companies need to capitalize on the movies before people are done with Superhero movies. How about a few issue to every movie goer that's a prequel of sorts, that offers issue #2 online for free, and a sub (either paper or online) at a discount? Once you get people thinking it's ok to READ comics, maybe they'll read more. I can't tell you how many people equate comic books to the movies now to the extent that they call themselves 'superfans' of the character having never read an actual comic. If they tried it for the early movies (and they did) and it doesn't work, how long do you keep throwing good money after bad before you concede it's not going to work? I mean the essence of stupidity (or insanity) is repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome. I knew folks who worked at the cinemas when they did it and they pissed and moaned about how many of those stupid X-Men and Spider-Man comics thay had to sweep up from the aisles after each showing and I am sure the execs pissed and moaned how much of their promotional money wound up in the trash after each showing too. One shop owner I was friends with spent a few hundred dollars buying an ad in the little flyer about upcoming movies our local theatre chain hands out at movies and makes available to pick up at the concession counter, so that his ad was in their advertising FCBD leading up to and during the release of Avengers in 2012. It gained him 1 new customer who came in having seen the ad and wanting to explore more about comics, and the guy only came to the shop twice before he got pissed at the owner because he wouldn't match Amazon prices on trades and decided to buy his trade online instead. My friend said it was the worst marketing money he ever spent. There literally thousands of copies of his ads, put into the hands of moviegoers, many of whom were there to see super-hero movies and it netted one new customer who didn't become a regular. Granted anecdotal evidence, but it's not like people haven't tried to exploit the movie connection to generate new customers, it's the great white hop of comicdom it seems, but it seems as practical as chasing a white whale on the open seas for all the good its done. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 7, 2018 21:32:53 GMT -5
I hear you, but I still think an actual co-ordinated marketing effort over time might have bourne some fruit..more so than one local store doing their own thing. Marketing execs say you have to expect 7 nos before you get a yes... maybe persistance would have been rewarded.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 7, 2018 21:39:32 GMT -5
I hear you, but I still think an actual co-ordinated marketing effort over time might have bourne some fruit..more so than one local store doing their own thing. Marketing execs say you have to expect 7 nos before you get a yes... maybe persistance would have been rewarded. I think hundreds of trashed copies of X-Men and Spidey comics on the floors of the theatres qualified a scordinated attempts resulting in failure and were more than 7 nos without any significant yes responses. There are some stories I have heard who claim to see an uptick in sales of trades related to movie releases from walk-in traffic, but none of them I have seen claim to see an uptick in monthly pamphlet sales or additions of pull-list customers in those sales spikes, just people coming in browsing, picking up a related trade or two then disappearing again. Going to see a movie for 2 hours and being interested in a character could lead to buying an occasional book featuring that character that provides a complete story experience like the movie did, but there's nothing in that movie experience that indicates a desire to buy into a regular habit of a never-ending series of story parts released in tiny installments once (or twice a month) each one coasting almost as much as a matinee's movie ticket. It's a totally different entertainment experience and I am not sure whty there is this white whale expectation that one will lead to the other with any measurable success. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2018 14:15:52 GMT -5
Hmm it appears DC has followed Marvel's lead form a few years back and is no longer available on the "newsstand" of Barnes & Noble. B&N it seems is still carrying single issues from Archie, Bongo, Titan, and a few others, but Marvel stopped selling singles there a couple years back and now it seems DC has followed suit as no DC books have been on sale there for a month or two now. For me, this is a step in the wrong direction despite whatever profit/loss the newsstand sales provided, but then again brick and mortar book stores are almost (if not more) of a niche market than actual comic shops (i.e. comic shops where I can buy single issues outnumber B&N here in the Miami valley about 20 to 1, so it is easier to find a comic shop than a B&N. But finding comics in places other than actual comic shops still opens up a door to different customer bases, even if they are small -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2018 14:20:20 GMT -5
To that end, I should note, in my visits to 2 different Five Below stores, they did have polybagged offerings of fairly recent back issues from Marvel and DC at 4-5 comics in a bag for $5 on pegs with all the other super-hero and Star Wars merchandise or on nearby endcaps. It was Marvel and DC books form 1-3 years ago in the bags. I know I got a lot of comics as a kid in polybag form bought at drug stores and supermarkets that didn't necessarily have new comics for sale, so I think this is a good thing, but with the longer form nature of comic storytelling today, I wonder how satisfying an intro those books will be. I mean I know some of the books I saw were issues of Batman Eternal-the weekly Batbook that had small chapters of a year long story told in its pages so there wa sno beginning or end available to the reader, but hey, it's something though.
-M
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Post by rberman on Jan 9, 2018 11:03:15 GMT -5
Speaking for me and my family:
1) I was born in 1971. From age 10-13, I read my cousin's stash of DC "52 pages for 25 cents" reprints and bought 12-20 titles a month, mostly Marvel with a litle DC. Then my spending moved on to music and computers. In the last ten years I've amassed a bookshelf full of Omnibus and TPB editions of old stuff I had in individual issues, old stuff I didn't get in the first place, and selected newer stuff. (most recent purchases: Morgan Richards' 12 issue run on Black Widow from 2004; all the Squirrel Girls by Ryan North) I live in a small town and mainly buy from Amazon, though when I'm in a bigger city, sometimes Books-A-Million has something. I will not even consider buying a fragile floppy that costs $4 for 22 pages, only tells a fragment of the story, and doesn't sit well on a bookshelf.
2) I got my 14 year old son some Tiny Titans compendia when he was younger. He enjoyed them well enough, but it never translated to reading other comics, even though he reads lots of YA fantasy and steampunk books. Recently he binge-watched the first season of the Riverdale TV show on Netflix, so I got him two issues of modern Archie floppies written by the TV writers to see what would happen. Nada. He also doesn't really have much interest in going to movie theatres; steaming TV and video games (the latter with Spotify streaming in the background) are his preferred entertainment. Also, watching other people play video games on YouTube is a thing.
3) My five year old made sure to bring his copy of Dog Man and Cat Kid in the car this morning while I was taking him to school. He and his two year old brother are also fans of Mo Willems' "Elephant and Piggie" hardback comics.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 9, 2018 16:05:23 GMT -5
To that end, I should note, in my visits to 2 different Five Below stores, they did have polybagged offerings of fairly recent back issues from Marvel and DC at 4-5 comics in a bag for $5 on pegs with all the other super-hero and Star Wars merchandise or on nearby endcaps. It was Marvel and DC books form 1-3 years ago in the bags. I know I got a lot of comics as a kid in polybag form bought at drug stores and supermarkets that didn't necessarily have new comics for sale, so I think this is a good thing, but with the longer form nature of comic storytelling today, I wonder how satisfying an intro those books will be. I mean I know some of the books I saw were issues of Batman Eternal-the weekly Batbook that had small chapters of a year long story told in its pages so there wa sno beginning or end available to the reader, but hey, it's something though. -M Yeah, you seem them at stores like Dollar Tree sometimes too.. some of them will have random bad 90s comics in them, too. I agree they should pick better, though... at least make it the first part of a story. I suspect it's just 5 below buying in bulk and tossing them in bags, though. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jan 9, 2018 16:08:05 GMT -5
It's interesting you call Mo Willems a comic. My kids all are big fans (as are me and the wife), and we even got a few signed at an event, where Mr. Willems was kinda enough to talk to my then 13-yo oldest daughter about writing for a couple minutes. Great guy, and super fun books. I wouldn't call them comics, though.. just children's books. I'm interested to see if other people do, though.
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Post by rberman on Jan 9, 2018 17:52:56 GMT -5
It's interesting you call Mo Willems a comic. My kids all are big fans (as are me and the wife), and we even got a few signed at an event, where Mr. Willems was kinda enough to talk to my then 13-yo oldest daughter about writing for a couple minutes. Great guy, and super fun books. I wouldn't call them comics, though.. just children's books. I'm interested to see if other people do, though. We're not conditioned to think of Mo Willems' work as comic books because of (1) their "emerging reader" level, (2) their hardback bindings, and (3) their marketing as children's books. But they are sequential art, with word balloons, motion lines, and everything. Same with the Dog Man series, which is aimed a grade or two above Elephant and Piggie. I forgot to mention that my 14 year old also enjoyed Bone a few years ago, so he hasn't had an entirely comic-less youth, but it didn't translate into an ongoing reading pattern for some reason. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 9, 2018 17:59:03 GMT -5
It's interesting you call Mo Willems a comic. My kids all are big fans (as are me and the wife), and we even got a few signed at an event, where Mr. Willems was kinda enough to talk to my then 13-yo oldest daughter about writing for a couple minutes. Great guy, and super fun books. I wouldn't call them comics, though.. just children's books. I'm interested to see if other people do, though. I had to look him up because I'm old and my kids are getting to that point. They look like funnybooks to me. My youngest was a big fan of the Wimpy Kid books when he was in grade school. Mixed prose and comics...but still essentially funnybooks. |
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Post by rberman on Jan 9, 2018 18:19:10 GMT -5
Judge for yourself; a typical two page spread:  |
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