PhantomStranger

I think it's mostly excitement about DC Rebirth. I was seriously contemplating getting back into monthly comics after reading a few of the number ones. I plan to pick up most of the Rebirth trades when they come out.

fujishig

Brian Hibbs has a rebuttal to the article posted in the OP, from the retailer side. Apparently comic book resources doesn't have columns anymore so he moved to comicsbeat:

http://www.comicsbeat.com/tilting-at...out-nighthawk/

I didn't realize that most DC comics are a full dollar cheaper than the average Marvel title.

PhantomStranger

He makes some interesting points about the death of newsstand comics delivery I hadn't heard before. The mob was heavily into it and the industry wanted to stop dealing with them. Also the death of local mom 'n pop drug stores killed the number of outlets as corporate chains took the market over.

mrhan

Another one....

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/09/...ve-bankruptcy/

fujishig

If you read a lot of the comments on these articles, a lot of people feel that Marvel is losing people by focusing on side characters and charging four bucks a pop for them. But that is exactly what diversity is, so you don't end up with everything just related to Spider-man and Batman, etc.

That Champions number is insane, though, apparently because of a huge Scholastic order that is no doubt returnable. But if it can interest even a few kids... Heck I ordered it in last month's order.

stingermck

Lol Rich is such a dip shit. I cant tell if he is insulting or praising DC here. "DC is creatively bankrupt and Marvel is diversified blah blah." No, DC has finally found what works for them.

fujishig

The question is, how long is it gonna work? I do hope it gives Marvel a wake up call on the price of their books, though. I also think the absence of anything X related has something to do with it too. But we'll see, before new 52 I was the biggest DC fanboy around, and I hope they do great things (or at least well enough that I can get a decent Legion book again).

PhantomStranger

Marvel is little more than a vanity press now for Disney's movie division. I don't think Disney cares much about Marvel Comic's actual profitability. Throw in and print as many diverse characters as possible, to give the movie division cover when they make the Mandarin something else.

resinrats

Maybe Marvel & DC should try to get their comics into newsstands, drugstores, & other mainstream stores again. Just to see if it works. If it doesn't then stop it in a year. Maybe not send out the entire selection of monthly books but the books of the most prominent heroes that kids would be familiar with. Probably characters that were featured in films/shows.

Grocery stores would be the idea place to put a spinner. Everyone has to go to grocery stores. Many of the ones around here have a decent magazine section so its not like they couldn't find a spot for some comics. Walmarts would also be ideal. Pretty much everyone goes there.

When I was younger, my city had 1 comic store and it was way out of the way. I might convince my family to take a trip there ever 2 months. Thankfully, comics were still everywhere so I could go to the bookstore in the mall (B Dalton I think - remember those?). Even the drug store in my tiny little two carried comics. I really just got Transformers and GIJoe monthly so I could always get issues.

There was the boom of comic stores were most malls had one but now a days, we are back to the comic stores being few and far between. In my city, there are a couple but they are not located near the big mall/retail centers. If I relied on getting rides, it would again be an out of the way, once in awhile trip to one.

PhantomStranger

I get the feeling the industry will have to change up its current model as the print side shrinks.

I think we'll see things like trades collecting 3-4 issues much quicker than we get these days. In fact, that may become the floppy of the future. Individual issues may go away.

kodave

It's bad enough it's hard to get a complete story with modern decompressed writing in a 5 to 6 issue trade, especially when issues are down to 20 or less pages per issue.

This uptick in 4 issue trades is alarming to a trade waiter like me. I don't know how single issue readers do it.

If trades continue to shrink, I will just discontinue buying normal trades and hold out for premium trades like complete collections, deluxe editions, omnibuses, etc. And if the publishers never put out those premium trades, then I'll either read digitally one of these days, or just not read their product at all.

fujishig

Marvel started doing this years ago with the four issue collections, I remember picking up Peter David's X Factor and when I realized this was happening, I stopped cold turkey. And all of their worthwhile stuff gets collected again and again: usually a small hardcover when the run is hot (and you're really dumb if you buy these because they will eventually drop it), softcovers, larger collections, then an omnibus if it's any good. If it's not good or worthwhile, oh well who cares? It's like they've conditioned me to wait and wait and wait, and if you do that, people will move on or lose interest.

As long as they have a devoted fanbase addicted to monthly buying, that will remain the norm because they can milk the fanbase with new number ones and alternate covers and whatever, and despite the complaining the fans will eat it. The fanbase won't grow that way, but the money is still coming in.

As far as getting comic racks back in grocery stores... How? Just take a gigantic loss and pay the grocery stores through the nose with full returnability? There are comics in Toys R Us, in Walmarts, etc., and I bet they barely move the needle.

PhantomStranger

DC is changing things up a bit for Rebirth. The trade paperbacks are coming out first before the presumed hardcovers. If you are someone waiting on Rebirth hardcovers, it could be a long time.

All I would ask Marvel and DC to do is place one spinner rack of trades in general retail stores like Walmart and Best Buy. I have no delusion that newsstand distribution is coming back in any form.

The exposure alone to new customers is worth it even if the idea isn't completely profitable. Chalk it up as an advertising expense.

Red Hood

DC Comics stopped doing newsstand edition for their books on August of last year, so now the big two are officially off the newsstand market.
http://blog.comichron.com/2018/02/en...nd-issues.html

Marvel has a digest book on the shelves every quarter but that is being released by Archie Comics. Other than that, both Marvel and DC have tried to sell books in 3-5 packs at places like Wal-Mart, Ollies and Five Below to mixed results.

Red Hood

I've been hearing and reading horror stories of many LCS around the US gouging prices on new books that came out today, like Immortal Hulk #15, Naomi #3, Avengers: No Road Home #6 and Venom #12 among others. Many of the stories say that these stores are keeping all the copies of these books behind the counter and selling them $5-$20 over the cover price. And these are the regular covers, not the variants. In an industry that is losing customers, it seems that these jackasses apparently want to lose them quicker for short term profits.

fujishig

Is there something special about these books?

Please don't tell me it's something stupid like this is the day Disney acquired Fox.

Red Hood

No. It mostly has to do with speculation about this issues acquiring value long term. The Hulk series has been hot as it's a great read and has been selling out almost everywhere. The Avengers book brings Conan to the team and the Marvel 616 universe. Naomi reveals more about the character's supporting cast origin. Venom reveals more about the controversial issue #11. Still, this is no reason for stores to be overpricing any of these books on release day. This is the type of shit that turns people away from LCS in general.

fujishig

That is stupid. That's also a dirty comic book store trick that's as old as collectibles themselves. If your store does this and doesn't sell new stuff (non exclusive) at cover price to their regular customers, it's time to find a new store.

Why So Blu?

I'd go digital just for that. Haven't stepped foot in a comic shop in almost 10 years.

PhantomStranger

That's been happening for decades. I've seen greedy shops hold back "hot" issues they under-ordered and then jack the price up beyond cover.

BobO'Link

Exactly! I'm happy to say the one store here never does such shady pricing. No matter how "hot" a book may be they charge cover price minus a 15% discount. Everyone gets that discount, file or not. What having a file gets you is a guaranteed copy. It's a small store so they generally order ~10% above file numbers. "Hot" titles could be sold out by the time you could get there so having a file protects against that fairly rare event.

Red Hood

I know and many of those stores closed for pulling that bullshit during the 80's and specially, the 90's. I remember a comic shop buying over a 1000 copies of X-Force #1, putting only 10 out and then the rest behind the counter and selling them between $10-$25 depending on what card was in the bag. For example, he would sell the ones with the Cable card for $25. I remember asking him what happened if he got stuck with the stock and he said it didn't matter because those books would sell for over $100 in a couple of years. Well, his store closed in less than 2 years after that and I remember that the other store who bought his remaining inventory got stuck with around 900 copies of X-Force #1.

Josh-da-man

I remember back in ‘91 when stores were selling copies of Superman #75 (Death of Superman) for $20 on the day it came out.

The problem is that we operate in a free market, and a collectibles market like comic books (or toys, or cards) thrives on speculation and scarcity. So when a retailer is sitting on a stack of books that are “hot” out of the gate, when he’s sitting on twenty copies of something and there are one hundred people lined up to buy it, he has a decision to make. I’m not saying it’s good or right or moral or ethical, but it’s the reality of the market.

Comics are marketed as and sold as collectibles. They aren’t like books or DVDs. If a new novel becomes “hot” and everyone wants it, the publisher will immediately go back to print to fulfill the demand, and it will soon be stacked on a table at the front of a Barnes & Noble. If the new issue of Immortal Hulk becomes a hot commodity, then Marvel may go back and do a second printing, but the audience that wants that book isn’t interested in just reading it, they’re also interested in the collectible aspect of owning a first printing.

fujishig

The problem is you don't see stores like Target jacking up the price of a "hot" toy during the Xmas rush, or retail stores scalping iphones or new consoles when they first come out and they're in demand. Now I have no problem if the comic store wants to set limits, or even if they want to hold back some stock for their regular customers (which I think is an awesome thing to do).

PhantomStranger

I remember one shop many years ago shorting me a couple of very hot issues from my monthly pull list. They claimed they didn't have enough issues to fill demand, but I always suspected the real reason was because they'd rather sell them at inflated mark-up than to me at regular price.