Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I believe each book has something like 15 pages of new content. The rest are reprints from different eras.

I hope they are successful but DC is facing an uphill battle. I almost never see children checking out the card and games sections near the front of Walmarts. I can't even remember the last person I saw browsing the section.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I heard one person say their Walmart had them up front by checkout, which makes more sense to reach new customers. So like the Archie digest area in a grocery store.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

The card and games section IS up front by the checkout.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Sorry, I never go to Walmart so I should just not contribute to the discussion. :lol:

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Sure, that's the intent. But stores will up their numbers. Better than everyone just ignoring them and them not renewing the partnership.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Why are scalpers snatching these up for?

These are just kids magazines, right? What's so special about them?

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

It does have a first run story in addition to the reprints.

I mean people here are making special trips to pick them up. That's not exactly saving them for the kiddos... :)

BTW, for those who picked it up, what age range do you think it's appropriate for?

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Kids magazines? No, just regular comics where the average reader is what, 40? ;)

The new stories seem ok but nothing special so far, from the two I’ve read. And the reprints are all stuff from this century I believe.

So typical teen or so on the appropriate age I guess.

The exclusivity to Walmart for the new stories is leading to the speculation I imagine.

I love the idea that these will lead to new readers, but with four continued stories in each title each month, there needs to be a steady supply of each issue for new readers to stay aboard.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Appears they would have to flood the stores with these so they are less tempting to resellers. I was curious and checked eBay (don't need them myself) and there they are. Some don't make a ton of profit after fees, shipping (if free) and so forth.

I saw that coming because of the first run story and being only at Walmart.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I joyfully remember picking up DC 100 page Giants back in the 70's and they were essential to instilling a life-long love of comics in me. I was buying them off of newstands back then but still, this is great.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I've gone 4 straight days to the Wal-Mart Supercenters near my house and neither of them has put out these books. They still have some DC 4 pack releases from a year ago, but no new 100 page giants. Again, this shouldn't have been a limited release as it looks that it's been. DC has fucked up again!

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Bleeding Cool has an article up about these releases. They've almost certainly been deliberately short-printed, because issues are already going for well over cover price on eBay.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/07...hologies-ebay/

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I’ve now hit 7 Walmarts and only saw 4 total copies of 2 of the books. Thankfully, a good friend found the Superman book for me, and a Facebook comic group friend found Titans, so I think I’m good on all 4 now. Until 2 weeks from now when a couple issue #2s are released and the cycle begins anew.

Crappy rollout by DC, hopefully they can fix this mess by increasing print runs and reprinting issues 1.

From what I gather, they only printed 15,000 of each issue, 5 copies at 3000 stores.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Yeah, this has to be increased or done something about it. I'm extremely pissed of not finding them in 5 different Supercenter store. If anyone finds them, please let me know and I'll pay for cost, shipping and throw in something extra if you want.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I bought probably 90% of my comics at 7-11 back in the 70's and early 80's. It was great exposure for comics just to be near the front of the store so every kid who walked in saw them.

Since 7-11 dropped comics? Out of sight, out of mind.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

It’s crazy how different things are comic-wise between when I was a kid and now. A typical smallish home town of 30 stores had comics in 20 of them; every drugstore, grocery store, book store, convenience store, and more. Now a town that size is lucky to have one comic book store, and maybe some Archie digests at a grocery store or two.

I’m sure the comics industry would have preferred to stay in newstands, but pretty sure that proved impossible due to rising costs in multiple areas. I’ve never fully understood why the direct market had to be, articles I’ve read differ in the history and opinions, but pretty sure that genie will never fully fit back in the bottle.

I’m naive in the ways of business, but I’ve always thought that DC and Marvel should be putting comics front and center wherever they can, even if those books lose money. Maybe the fanbase wouldn’t have shrunk the 90% or whatever it has if even cheap newsprint reprints were in the public eye.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I'm not sure why anyone would be ticked at DC, I'm pretty sure Walmart does the ordering. It's not even in all stores.

Grocery stores and the like didn't want the spinner racks anymore. Even if they were fully returnable, they took up valuable retail space and didn't have profit margins. For instance, check out how much the magazine rack at your local grocery store has shrunk. They had to go to the direct market just to survive, I think. And this was before prices became absurd.

Add to that that putting books front and center at a loss doesn't guarantee kids will pick them up. If anything they should print some cheaper newsprint trades with complete stories or something, similar to manga. But I think they tried that too.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Actually, it's DC's fault this time around. According to the people in the industry I have talked, Wal-Mart has been asking DC about putting more books in their "book and magazine section" and DC has slowly given them stuff. For example, they sent some trades about 2-3 years ago, before the Rebirth, to Supercenters. Then, about late 2016, early 2017, they filled the "collector's section" with 4-packs that included some new Rebirth stuff made specifically for War-Mart and some New 52 overstock. These 4-packs sold for $5 and apparently did well, so Wal-Mart asked for more and this is how these 100 page Giants came about. But Didio, along with the sales department, decided to make only print 15,000 in total of all 4 books and create this euphoria on purpose. This shortage was purposely made to create the stupid demand we are seeing now, similar as to how Nintendo has done with their products. And similar to how Nintendo has pissed customers, DC has done the same as 15,000 is basically nothing. These are basically printed as limited as store exclusive variants, with the difference that some of the content can't be found anywhere else. DC has fucked up, again.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

You have to remember that many comic book store owners are afraid of DC and Marvel even getting a small piece of distribution through general retailers. Walmart is easily the most feared because that would change the current economics of comic book retailers all across the country, even if they only started carrying two books a month or something.

Imagine Walmart carrying each issue of Batman and Detective Comics. That alone would pose a major threat to comic book stores, many of whom depend on the top sellers to stay in business.

This experiment is being watched closely by everyone in the industry.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

It might be a good thing for comic shops to go away.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

Aren't they kind of doing that already? Most of the ones in my city (that I knew of) have gone away. Not that I blame them, -it's a terrible business from my experience.
Mind you, I was no help. My friends and I pooled together and bought from various subscription services since The Eighties. I couldn't afford to pay retail.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

At the same time, my feeling is that they could have a symbiotic relationship.

When I was a kid, there were comic racks in lots of stores. My local grocery store, for example, had a spinning rack that held like 2 dozen comics. They stocked the flagship titles (Action Comics, Superman, Batman, Detective Comcs, Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-men, Adjective-Less X-men & Spider-Man, etc.) and that was it.

That was how I got into comics back then. I distinctly remember picking Death of Superman off that rack. As my love of the medium grew, I started to say things like "I like that Iron Man dude who was in Spider-Man this month, but they don't have his book here" and that ended up getting me to find my LCS and start buying there.

If Walmart carried, say half a dozen titles from both of the big two, anyone who wanted to read anything else would have to go elsewhere.

My biggest fear with comics is that it pretty much dies with this generation. Young people love the movies, but don't seem to care about the actual comics. Getting the books into a potential fan's hands is a win to me, and if Walmart can help do that, that's great. From there, they may expand their horizons past the magazine aisle into comic shops.

...Of course, nowadays it might just lead them to digital comics or the "free scans" piracy sites, and hurt comic shops more. We don't really know for sure.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

That is the hope for DC and Marvel. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason why DC is pushing this deal with Walmart. The companies know the readership is aging and new readers aren't coming in any great number.

I was really sure that the immense popularity of comic book superhero movies would help the industry and does seem to have arrested the decline, but it's not growing the industry. I guess it should be something that comics are one of the few print mediums not seeing the inevitable dip from digital competition.

Black Panther's comic book sales didn't benefit one bit from having the biggest grossing movie of the year. Popular movies just don't drive comic book sales anymore for whatever reason. The 1989 Batman movie is one of the main reasons for the massive collector's boom of the early 1990s.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

This is funny to me, in a way.
I got into comics because of the "newsstand" aka the spinner rack at drug stores, supermarkets, and 7-11s. It was only later when I found out about comic book stores that I stopped buying from the newsstand. This was around the time that comic book stores exclusives like adjectiveless Spider-man and X-Men were coming out. The newsstand didn't have as big a selection, had issues come out a month later, and didn't have variant covers (see Jim Lee's X-Men #1). Not to mention, back then, having a pristine collector's item issue was more important than getting a bent spine issue from the spinner rack.

Ironically I got back into comics when I saw Astonishing X-Men at 7-11. It was a newsstand special that had New Mutants on the reverse side. Anyway, it was pretty cool to stop at 7-11 on my lunch break and get a drink while reading a new X-Men comic. Plus, the first page caught up the reader on what was going on, and it was only like #4 in a new storyline, and not #839.
Good times.

I wish comics were once again sold in places like that. Comics are a great impulse buy. But the writing-for-the-trade stories are not fun.

Re: DC partners with Walmart
 

I went to Wal-Mart today and of course they were already sold out of them.