How the Comics Industry Avoided a 2020 Implosion (hollywoodreporter.com) 43
While publishers and stores feared COVID-19 would be an extinction-level threat, the industry has proved more resilient than thought. From a report: In March, when COVID-19 hit the comic industry in earnest, many retailers and publishers feared it would be an apocalyptic event for the business. Stay-at-home orders shuttered stores, and shipments of new product ceased for several months when Diamond Comics Distributors hit pause. Stores have struggled to survive, and some have shuttered permanently. However, months after the comic book industry restarted -- accompanied by a publicity campaign proclaiming that the industry's "comeback will be bigger than [the] setback" -- there are multiple signs that comics has proven to be far stronger than anyone, including those inside the industry, expected in the face of an uncertain year. "The biggest surprise started during May and June, as we were allowed to reopen, comics started shipping again, and customers were slowly starting to come back to the shop. Customers were buying comics. A lot of comics," California retailer Ryan Higgins tells THR. With comic conventions canceled and people not taking vacations, many fans concentrated on making their collections more complete.
"Comic supplies sales skyrocketed right away as people took this time to clean up their collection," says Higgins. "New titles were selling better than we ever expected, graphic novel sales spiked, and back issues jumped dramatically in price and flew out the door just as fast. Sales during the summer and early fall months were just unbelievable." [...] A key metric for the health of the industry is how many comics stores are ordering. Those numbers are moving in the right direction. "March 2020 saw Diamond ship 5.9 million comics; September and October were both over 7 million copies each," writes analyst John Jackson Miller in an email to THR. "Those are both behind the equivalent months in 2019; October 2019, with the X-Men relaunch, was the fourth best month of the decade of the 2010s. But per release, the sales levels are improved, and as the number of releases continues to build back, you can see it fully catching up." As Higgins suggests, it's not just new titles that are seeing a bump; multiple publishers told THR that back orders for already released material still available directly from the publisher scaled up in the latter half of the year, as well.
"Comic supplies sales skyrocketed right away as people took this time to clean up their collection," says Higgins. "New titles were selling better than we ever expected, graphic novel sales spiked, and back issues jumped dramatically in price and flew out the door just as fast. Sales during the summer and early fall months were just unbelievable." [...] A key metric for the health of the industry is how many comics stores are ordering. Those numbers are moving in the right direction. "March 2020 saw Diamond ship 5.9 million comics; September and October were both over 7 million copies each," writes analyst John Jackson Miller in an email to THR. "Those are both behind the equivalent months in 2019; October 2019, with the X-Men relaunch, was the fourth best month of the decade of the 2010s. But per release, the sales levels are improved, and as the number of releases continues to build back, you can see it fully catching up." As Higgins suggests, it's not just new titles that are seeing a bump; multiple publishers told THR that back orders for already released material still available directly from the publisher scaled up in the latter half of the year, as well.
Comics could do even better... (Score:2, Informative)
Marvel criticised for new 'woke' superheroes called 'Snowflake' and 'Safespace' [independent.co.uk]
I AM NOT STARFIRE -- What? [lastmovieoutpost.com]
Gotham High [geekdad.com]
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Re:Comics could do even better... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Wokeman from planet California?
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Wokeman vs Florida Man: Panama Canal
Coming 2024! Staring Steve Carell and Nicolas Cage, with Dolph Lundgren, Anna Kendrick and special guest Steven Seagal.
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There is an inherent problem in there. SUPERHEROES and most definitely not politically correct in any way shape or form, those born to be better than the rest of us, we are worthless they are super. We can never achieve what the 'SPECIAL' people can, all a pack of bull puckey.
Super heroes as a concept is politically incorrect, it is socially unacceptable and at it's core is the ultimate in racism, those born to be special or made to be special and only they are special and the rest of us are nothing but id
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That's how they have done so well this year. They have created new characters to attract younger readers and better reflect the changing demographics of the English speaking world.
Those then act as a gateway to the older stuff that they reprint and make available online.
It's worked in the past for them too, particularly the various TV shows like Smallville. The current crop of "Arrowverse" shows like The Flash and Supergirl are doing very well too, and feature quite diverse casts.
Re:Comics could do even better... (Score:4, Insightful)
Will no one give a shout out to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?
In the seven year run, there's three or four white guys as main characters. The rest of the cast are quite diverse. But even better is that the diversity isn't plot points at all. They're just great characters that are extremely well written and cast.
And that's what younger people like. Diverse cast acting like real people, not stereotypes.
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The Fast & Furious movies deserve a lot of credit for that too. Lots of diverse characters but nothing is ever really made of it.
Not just racially diverse either, the DC TV shows have a lot of LGBT characters too. Again, little is made of it, it's just who they are and no big deal.
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Re: Comics could do even better... (Score:4, Insightful)
Distribution is probably not up, but they are sneaking in sales with shady dealings. Shops are required to purchase some large stacks. These donâ(TM)t sale and the store eats the costs. A few places have some bargaining power, but ultimately they have been taxing comics that are doing well.
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If dear, it's only the 2nd and some snowflake was trolled by a contrary opinion.
If it upsets you that much it just be right.
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I notice you don't use numbers. This [youtube.com] guy disagrees with you and he uses them.
This [youtube.com] guy shares my take on things..
But the first guy can explain why the stories [youtube.com] and characters [youtube.com] are poor at best. Also on how they're doing, which isn't well. Numbers again.
Yeah... About that [bing.com].
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Try Comic Tropes on YouTube, he's done some balanced coverage and talked to actual people in the industry.
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Right, right, people who can't read and get their news from youtube influencers don't like all that hippy, girly, and ethnic stuff.
Why the fuck would spew a bunch of youtube links to slashdot?
If you want to share your love of Rick Astley, I might click. It's a great song.
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Comics could do even better if they stopped focusing on wokeness/diversity to the detriment of everything else
New Warriors vol. 6 appears to have been stealth-canceled by Marvel. Issue #1 was apparently completed. It never shipped. Issues #2 and #3 were never confirmed as part of Marvel's production pause in April, but never denied either. Marvel's own subscription listing for the series still says the first three issues are "coming soon". Here it is 2021 and there's been no sign of any of them. No news, just dead silence. You can still volunteer to give Marvel your money for them, but you'll probably never
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Someone always posts this under every comics discussion, but they never show that it's the actual problem. Snowflake and Safespace are dumb, but not any dumber than (say) the average 90s Edgy McEdge Face hero or poorly thought out X-men character. And pinning the decline on poorly written comics featuring a bunch of previously existing characters acting in inane, out of character ways with new, generic personalities, stupid dialogue and an ignorance of continuity would be nice, but Bendis Team Books and E
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Guardians of the Galaxy would be unknown to the general public if not for that moralizing, woke, silly, joyful movie.
X-Men movies wouldn't be popular, except that they turned Wolverine from a complete murderous a-hole into just a misunderstood, secretly sensitive, mildly abrasive cool nice guy.
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Dude, but they want my big money, too.
It's like with Gillette; the despicables have less spending power, and anyways they can't afford to switch brands without buying a lower quality product.
You'll still spend the same budget, but you'll buy collectibles and supplies instead of new comics. They won't lose your money.
Competition is mostly for new readers. And you can call it "wokeness" but I call it having a positive story that makes me feel good.
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Um, you might want to rethink that. They absolutely want your big (and small) money BUT
1) Gillette's products can easily be replaced with a similar quality product. I've done it, so have others. The same holds true for most companies/products. There's a reason companies spend so much on advertising.
2) Pretty sure the over 40 set still has more disposable income than those under, except where those under 40 are still living with their parents (ie, teens with allowances from their parents and "adults" that ha
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Gillette's products can easily be replaced with a similar quality product. I've done it, so have others.
LOL username checks out.
I'm assuming you mean you don't shave, and so "switched brands" very very easily.
It is true that there is a reason companies spend so much on advertising. Including Gillette, whose sales didn't go down from the controversy, but the other shaving brands owned by Proctor & Gamble did. That means that the same number of people who left Gillette, came to it fresh.
Plus, despicables tend to be low education, so even the ones who shave, most of them switched to Braun since it has a mach
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Lol. No, I went old school with a traditional razor with replaceable blades NOT made by Gillette. Screw the pink tax and the plastic waste. My legs and pits can handle it.
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I should also add that I don't care if their sales go down. I do care that I don't send them MY money by purchasing their products.
What? (Score:2)
I don't get where this presumption would have come from.
Amazon itself was founded on the notion that people buy books online.
Why on earth would people think that a lack of access to physical book stores would slow down book sales, during a stay-at-home pandemic, where people are looking for entertainment?
That's like a 20-year gap in expectations there.
But then it hit me... publishers. Okay - that checks out, they'd still have those expectations.
Ryan Fenton
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Perhaps they expected purely on-line access to movies and literature to grow, rather than comic book sales? Part of the fun of comic book sales is browsing the store. Flipping through books you wouldn't normally read, chatting with sales staff who know your tastes, and feeling inspired to spend some money on something not in your subscription list are all part of the experience.
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Perhaps they expected purely on-line access to movies and literature to grow, rather than comic book sales? Part of the fun of comic book sales is browsing the store. Flipping through books you wouldn't normally read, chatting with sales staff who know your tastes, and feeling inspired to spend some money on something not in your subscription list are all part of the experience.
That sounds an awful lot like the traditional experience of buying books pre-internet in general. Certainly browsing the store, flipping through books you wouldn't normally read and feeling inspire to spend money on something you hadn't previously considered. I guess subscription lists may be comic specific. Whether the staff know your tastes depends on how you choose to interact with them as well as how often you shop there.
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Comic book stores were more interactive with the staff than most book stores, throughout my life.
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon makes buying comics really hard.
A comic book may be a standalone edition, but more commonly, it's part of a larger storyline or a series. Now, to help new readers, periodically the larger continuing editions will "restart" by tying up one storyline arc and then starting a new one - usually once a year or every 6 months. This is so you don't have to have an entire run of all 1000-something issues of Action Comics to get the story - there are common jumping off points you can typically find still stocked and start from and not feel like you need to start from the beginning. These are known as ongoing series.
Then there are the mini-series, which are usually limited run comics - typically 4 issues long where an entire story starts and is wrapped up by the last (while 4 issue runs are common, 6 and 10 are sometimes used as well). Usually these are hard stop - once the run is over, the story is wrapped up. However, sometimes the run doesn't stop because it proves overly popular and goes from a miniseries to an ongoing.
To accommodate this, most comic stores actually let you "subscribe" to comics - you say you want the comic and it'll be saved for you to pick up. And for the customer, it's set and forget - you tell them you want to keep getting it and they'll order it in. Often these records are kept because occasionally series will pause - gaps of 2-3 months aren't unusual (especially when a series transitions to becoming an ongoing), and the comic store subscription will recognize that and handle it automatically with no effort on your part. (For comic shops, this is a semi-automated process in that the computer will recognize the series and automatically add it to the order).
Unfortunately, for Amazon, this is a completely manual process - you have to periodically order new issues and add them to your order constantly, so it's far from automated. It's silly, but it's something Amazon could work on.
The other thing is a comic store is literally a gathering place for people to discuss comic books. You'll find suggestions among the back catalog as well as a place to chat and discuss comic books. (Whoever said geeks and nerds were anti-social, has never seen them at a comic shop - even the most introverted suddenly break out in fervent debate). It's also a relatively safe space because even the outcast are welcomed (and given the variety today, there is something for everyone).
Of course, there is the DC issue, where DC split off and created their own distribution network for comics. This happened because Diamond decided to pause operations for a couple of months to help the locked down comic stores survive - it does no one any good to ship comic books to a closed store and demand money that hasn't come in. Of course, AT&T is losing money badly and needs to make their monthly interest payment, and thus DC is not pulling its weight. Since DC is owed money by Diamond and Diamond is not accepting issues because of the pause, they couldn't and got upset.
End result is DC is using two larger comic shops to handle distribution, which is causing strife in the industry. First, those comic shops don't have the shipping thing figured out - my comic shop complains about getting orders consistently weeks late. It also costs more because they still haven't figured out how to bundle shipments - so if your DC order contains more than one box of comics, you get charged a separate shipping fee and for international shipments, this gets expensive because brokers charge by the shipment, not the package, so clearing 5 boxes at once is far cheaper than clearing 5 boxes individually. It got so ridiculous that DC went back to Diamond to handle UK distribution of trade paperbacks as their distributors consistently could not get them shipped cheaply or reliably to the UK.
And let's not get started on conflicts of interest - DC special editions and other allocated stock will be allocated to favor the comic store attached to the distributor (oh yeah, they do online sales) so other comic shops barely get 1 or 2. You know, so the DC distributor store can scalp them and charge outrageous shipping - after all, why are you buying DC at your local comic store.
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I went for a walk yesterday and I passed a marijuana dispensary and a comic shop that are next door to each other. The comic shop was full, and the weed shop only had one customer.
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Anime and video games are selling loads this year, so my first thought reading this article was that it's the opposite of unexpected. I bet sci-fi novels and furries slinging yiff on Patreon got a boost too.
They were saved by COVID. (Score:2)
You had millions of people imprisoned in their homes (essentially).
And looking for diversion.
For those still caught in the clutches of the comics industry, thei became a truly captive audience.
And with the crap going on in the back-end distribution, I've never been so glad that I finally got fed up and dropped comics consumption.
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And with the crap going on in the back-end distribution, I've never been so glad that I finally got fed up and dropped comics consumption.
Sounds like you better mail order some comics, you're gonna be spending some quality time on the reading seat.
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Nope. None of the major publishers have anything I want to read anymore.
Nor do any of the smaller shops.
Gave up on comics as a medium about 8-10 years ago. Haven't looked back.
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Nope. None of the major publishers have anything I want to read anymore.
Nor do any of the smaller shops.
Gave up on comics as a medium about 8-10 years ago. Haven't looked back.
Your last claim refutes the first.
If you gave it up and never looked back, you have no idea what they have.
Not all comic makers... (Score:2)
DC going down to 34 titles per month [cosmicbook.news] starting in Marchr, from 96 I think it has been... and predictions I've seen say they may be going down even further, very soon.
Marvel still seems pretty strong though, and recently they've had some strong new Star Wars lines.
I cut HBO and was going to try replacing that with Marvel Unlimited for a while.