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Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

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Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Old 04-20-20, 07:39 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Outrage!

Its obvious DC is releasing some C level books just to get something out there ans saving their best titles for Diamond. Also Diamond shut down and not a word about what there plan was after that. So DC starts looking into their own thing instead of waiting for Diamond and now they are the bad guys. Of course the news of this and Diamond hoping to open mid to late May hits the same day, but again why were they expected to wait?

Hibbs should get out of the business anyway. He comes off as the typical old angry comic shop owner. A couple of months ago he was telling people to fuck off for wanting a copy of Hell Arisen #3, cause they may flip it. Well make a sale in your store, or flip it yourself.

My LCS is still open and doing curbside, so its whatever to me. I'll just buy whatever lands in my box, whenever.

Last edited by stingermck; 04-20-20 at 08:00 AM.
Old 04-20-20, 10:55 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

More generally, I've heard similar style rants/venting offline back in the late-1990s and the early 2000s, from folks who run small bookshops. Back then, their biggest complaint was almost always about being shut out by their suppliers/distributors and not being able to get new inventory in a "fair and timely" manner. The other major complaint was being undercut by the then-giants like Borders and Barnes & Noble. (If I had guess what happened, it was most likely Borders + B&N buying new titles in huge quantities with very little leftover for the small mom & pop book retailers on the release date).

As time went on over the 2000s decade, their complaints shifted to the high volume book dealers and/or liquidators on amazon, ebay, etc ... gobbling up supply and undercutting everyone.
Old 04-20-20, 11:04 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

The strangest complaint I ever heard was from someone who was in the used book business, where their supply of books came from buying up stuff at local book fairs and thrift shops (such as goodwill, etc ...) in huge quantities at 25 cents a pop (or less). Basically used books resold for $1 or higher, via their online bookstore operation (ie. third party amazon dealer, ebay, etc ...).

Apparently this used book dealer's biggest complaint, was arriving at a charity book fair which was opened an hour or two earlier than the "advertised" time of operation. They would rant about it being "unfair" to them.

Old 04-20-20, 12:29 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

I talked to my store, they are going to wait on Diamond. They would make it work if there was a demand for the titles DC is offering, but so far not really.
Old 04-20-20, 02:04 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Another take:

Jesse James "Under Attack For Selling Comics"
Posted on April 20, 2020 | by Rich Johnston

Jesse James Criscione is the owner of Jesse James Comics of Glendale, Arizona. As a store that dropped Diamond Comics as a distributor at the beginning of last year, he started the Comic Book Shopping Network. As a result of all this, he has a rather unique take on the current changes in comic book distribution, especially the take by Brian Hibbs that informed pretty much everything we were talking about this weekend. Jesse writes (and passed to Bleeding Cool) the following;

"So, here is my take on one of my Closest friends in their Industry post. We as LCS owners have FAILED our customers in so many ways. We have let our EGOS get in the way of taking care of them. We have made so many people happy over the decades on selling them comics. In their time of need. WE as stores owners have FAILED to use the opportunities before us to continue to do that. WE have FAILED to unite in any shape or form a sizable relevant group for the good and future of our industry."

"Recently, many of us have come under attack for SELLING comics. No matter what our state rules said. WE found a way to sell our customers comics. No matter how much we work to better our Great industry The Old Guard would rather pounce on progressive store owners and tell the public what we do is wrong or unfair. I have watched LCS owners make decision on not taking care of their customers and telling them why they shouldn't support a Publisher for moving forward. Customers want their books and not the political side of it. They don't care where you get it from."

"So today. I no longer can look backwards for my customers. I can only look forward with my friends and LCS's that want to do something NOW. The rest of you LCS owners can take your NEGATIVITY and remember the good old days. Today, the new LCS are taking care of their customers and really, just really, have no more time for you and your post. I have been on an island by myself before in this industry. Now, I sit on a island with so many good friends who just want to sell comics to customers around the world. We will find a way and will always offer to help others to do so, as well."

"When this all settles. These customers will remember. Those, that took care of them through their time of need. HOWEVER, they will remember MORE. Those who chose to give them Negativity and Zero Comic Book Therapy. We are in a world of NOW. There is no more hiding in forums or secret groups. You can choose to be a better LCS owner for your customers today. You can make this Industries come back, the GREATEST of all time. Fight the Good fight!"
James response was to this post:

Jen King

Something has been bothering me. I feel like instead of being positive people in our industry, we have so many people being verbally negative. Many of them are verbally shaming other retailers for doing business completely within the law and following all safety standards. Some of it approaches bullying in its tone. We need to come together and support each other.

We are all over the country/ world and are in different states of closure. Because some shops can’t be open does not mean that it isn’t safe and fair for others to be. For those of you able to operate safely and provide for your families and staffs, do that.

I was never upset that the rest of the comic industry went on while the world stood still for my shop and so many others for months after Harvey. One of the reasons was because we supported each other. Those that could fundraise, did.
I will forever be grateful for all of those that reached out to offer help. Let’s try and focus on what we CAN do instead of what we can’t.

Last edited by stingermck; 04-20-20 at 02:10 PM.
Old 04-20-20, 04:23 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

This pandemic shutdown is a horrific situation for the comics industry.

The comics industry/direct market is a system that sells time-sensitive collectibles to consumers via a national network of independently-owned small businesses,

It's a literal rock and a hard place.

The longer the shutdown (both national, and of Diamond) lasts, the more shops will be shut down permanently. On the other hand, if distribution kicks in too soon, before the majority of these shops will be able to reopen, then there are going to be a lot of shops (and, thus, readers) left out in the cold.

Now, let's say the industry (publishers and distribution) is able to restart in Mid-May, but only 50% are able to reopen. Those other 50% of stores won't be able re-open until mid-July. Those stores and readers will lose out on two months-worth of product; or the stores and readers will be flooded with two months of comics in order to "catch up" with the other stores that have been open since May. And that is if the two months worth of catch-up books are even available.
Old 04-21-20, 07:30 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

DC is doubling down on their bullshit. Most stores won't be open on May 5th and most won't use the 2 new distributors.

Old 04-21-20, 11:21 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

This move by DC is so weird; they're basically using two mail-order retailers to trickle out a couple of lower-tier series (Dreaming and Daphne Byrne) one week, and one mid-tier series the next. Most stores probably sell less than ten copies of Dreaming and Daphne Byrne, so it's probably not worth the trouble of ordering them through DCBS and Midtown once they figure in shipping.

These aren't exactly going to do much for any retailer's bottom line, and at the volume they're probably going to sell at and the ill-will they'll generate among retailers means doing this is probably more trouble than its worth.

I'm really not sure what they're playing at. Trying to clear out some existing inventory before distribution kicks back into gear?
Old 04-22-20, 01:17 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

I haven't read comics in a few years but I'd take DCBS over any LCS I've ever been to.
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Old 04-22-20, 04:24 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
This move by DC is so weird; they're basically using two mail-order retailers to trickle out a couple of lower-tier series (Dreaming and Daphne Byrne) one week, and one mid-tier series the next. Most stores probably sell less than ten copies of Dreaming and Daphne Byrne, so it's probably not worth the trouble of ordering them through DCBS and Midtown once they figure in shipping.

These aren't exactly going to do much for any retailer's bottom line, and at the volume they're probably going to sell at and the ill-will they'll generate among retailers means doing this is probably more trouble than its worth.

I'm really not sure what they're playing at. Trying to clear out some existing inventory before distribution kicks back into gear?
I believe it's an experiment in breaking Diamond's monopoly. The industry should have addressed the issue years ago, but it's just not healthy as we can see for one company to control your entire distribution. Remember, DC has experimented placing product in Walmart over the past couple years. It's always good for a company to have multiple back-up plans.
Old 04-22-20, 04:44 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

The stores bitch about any kind of discount for digital new releases, but DCBS is giving you 30% off new releases most of the time. So how does a discount on a digital copy that doesn't serve the collectors hurt them, but giving the same exact product they are trying to sell at only 2/3 of the price not. The local comic shops are great but they hamstring the industry. The industry has to evolve and be affordable. Young people aren't going to spend $4 on something that is a ten minute read. For $8 I can buy a Stephen King 800 page paperback and read that for a month. The industry needs to push forward with affordable digital content. If Apple had listened to the record stores, we wouldn't have affordable digital music. Most of the music stores now serve collectors with vinyl. That is what the lcbs should be serving is the collectors who want the paper. They shouldn't be dictating and bringing the industry down. They are not the future of the business because there are less of them every year, yet they still have the same power to keep the digital prices artificially high for new release comics.
Old 04-22-20, 05:35 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

I can sort of defend Diamond's monopoly on DM distribution just on the basis that the DM is such a small pond. The simple fact is that there aren't a lot of shops out there, and the volume of product is so low that I don't know if it's possible to have the infrastructure to support multiple distributors. I mean, you look at Marvel and DC, and their comics typically sell well under 50,000 units each. You might have one or two titles that hit 100,000; then the rest of the top-20 will sell over 50,000, and after that they start falling into the 20 and 30,000s. And other publishers are lucky to break 10,000.

It's also easy to point a finger at Diamond, but Marvel completely ratfucked the industry two decades ago when they decided to self-distribute and bought Heroes World. They killed off all of the non-Diamond distributors and half of the shops in of fell swoop.
Old 04-22-20, 05:46 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by RonG617
The stores bitch about any kind of discount for digital new releases, but DCBS is giving you 30% off new releases most of the time. So how does a discount on a digital copy that doesn't serve the collectors hurt them, but giving the same exact product they are trying to sell at only 2/3 of the price not. The local comic shops are great but they hamstring the industry. The industry has to evolve and be affordable. Young people aren't going to spend $4 on something that is a ten minute read. For $8 I can buy a Stephen King 800 page paperback and read that for a month. The industry needs to push forward with affordable digital content. If Apple had listened to the record stores, we wouldn't have affordable digital music. Most of the music stores now serve collectors with vinyl. That is what the lcbs should be serving is the collectors who want the paper. They shouldn't be dictating and bringing the industry down. They are not the future of the business because there are less of them every year, yet they still have the same power to keep the digital prices artificially high for new release comics.
Do you really think the music industry is better off now that nobody buys physical records anymore (besides hardcore collectors)? It's better for the consumer, certainly, just like streaming is better for the consumer, I'd argue that it's not that great for the industry itself. Now another issue is that music piracy was running rampant and there needed to be a way to make legal ownership (or accessibility) easy enough and cheap enough to dissuade people (which is a similar problem comics have)

Similarly, DCBS and digital discounts are great for the consumer. I'm not going to lie, I love DCBS's (and InStockTrade's) prices. I love amazon's prices on a lot of trades. But I can absolutely understand the trepidation for comic book stores that these guys who are eating their lunch are going to distribute. On a small scale, for a small number of books, sure, I don't think DC is acting in bad faith here, I don't think anyone is. But as a replacement for Diamond? I don't think so.

Maybe physical comics do need to die, but I'm also not sure digital is mature enough to take over, or pay the bills for the creators, same with going to only trades.
Old 04-23-20, 01:40 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Marvel and DC both know that killing off the physical comic market cripples the industry likely for good. Digital comic book sales have been around awhile now and are no panacea in maintaining the industry's current revenues/profits. Digital is basically a completely separate market with no collector appeal. Collectors make up a majority of the existing customer base. Given those economic issues, only the top properties like Batman and Spider-Man could support all-digital distribution. Everything else would disappear or go the route of ultra-low-budget web comics.

That is why the companies are trying to preserve the direct market as best they can in these trying times.
Old 04-23-20, 04:32 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

The physical stores don't want digital to take off and they force the publishers to keep the prices artificially high this hurting the digital market and not allowing it to expand as it should. The problem is, that even with the publisher help comic stores are slowly dying. Going in a store on new release day and count how many kids are in there as opposed to 30-40 year old men. I still believe that the industry will survive and thrive with a cheap enough digital price and strategy to attract the kids to the medium and the stores catering to the older collectors. The young people for the most part don't want anything physical. Blu-ray, cd's/vinyl, books are mostly purchased by older people. Newspapers are dying and so are magazines. It's a digital world and the comic industry is one of the last to admit it.
Old 04-23-20, 08:08 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

I don't really see the current model of charging per issue would take off in digital. People are too used to the AYCE model of Netflix and Spotify.

Kindle wouldn't work if they were selling individual chapters of books for three or four dollars each, and likewise, the masses will reject a similar model for comic books. But comic book production is much more labor-intensive than writing novels... you have writers, pencilers, inkers, letterers, and colorists to consider, which makes the per page rate much higher than a novel.

So unless the industry can scale up to Netflix size, I'm not sure how going digital only would work from a financial perspective.
Old 04-23-20, 08:19 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

I've said it many times in this forum, but despite my kids loving superheroes (because of me), there are a dozen other things they'd rather do than read American comics. And to them, the comics are free, they have no idea how much they cost. Even if you drop the price to a buck an issue (which is often the case in comixology sales) kids won't bite.

Part of that, though, is how impenetrable American comics are (especially capes) for someone new. They consume manga like nothing, but it's largely easier to read and collect (and for my daughter there's more material that's interesting to her). And stuff like the Reina Telgemeier books which are bestsellers avoid the stigma of comics; the current comic industry couldn't convert to that kind of thing easily (though DC has made an excellent effort in the YA market recently).
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Old 04-24-20, 01:51 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/nigh...-distribution/

DC's upcoming slate, distributed by Midtown and DCBS:

4/28 release (Next week)
Batman #89 3rd Ptg
Batman Giant #4
Daphne Byrne #4 (OF 6) (MR)
Daph[hne Byrne #4 (of 6) Var Ed (MR)
Dreaming #20 (MR)
Nightwing #70 2nd Ptg

5/5 release Order deadline 04/27
Batman and the Outsiders #12
DC Super Stars Facsimile Edition #17
Flash #753
Green Lantern Season #23
Hawkman #23
House of Whispers #20
Joker/ Harley: Criminal Sanity #4 (of 9)
Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Graphic Novel
Batman – Detective Comics Vol. 3: Greetings from Gotham
Green Arrow: Year One – The Deluxe Edition
Shazam!: The World's Mightiest Mortal Vol. 2
Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex
Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld

5/12 release Order deadline 04/27
Harley Quinn #72
Justice League #44
Justice League Odyssey #20
Lois Lane (of 12) #10
Metal Men #6 (of 12)
Justice League Dark Vol. 3: The Witching War
Superman – Action Comics Vol. 2: Leviathan Rising
Superman – Action Comics Vol 3: Leviathan Hunt
Superman Smashes the Klan
Wonder Woman & the Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour
Adventures of Superman by George Perez

5/19 release Order deadline 04/27
DCeased: Unkillables #3 (of 3)
Dollhouse Family #6 (of 6)
Flash Giant #4
Plunge #3 (of 6)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (of 12)
Wonder Woman #755
Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 (3rd Print) (of 4)
Red Hood: Outlaw #45
5/19 collected editions Order deadline 05/05
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy HC
Nightwing: The Gray Son Legacy SC
Stargirl by Geoff Johns SC
The Flash by Mark Waid Book Seven SC

That's quite a backlog they're building up that will need to shipped out through Diamond to stores that didn't sign up for the distro scheme. I mean, that's like two dozen comic books and a bunch of GNs, HCs, and TPBs. They can't just dump all of those into stores on same day, can they? And it looks like they're holding off on that big Batman comic... #92, is it?

Also wonder if these books will be available "day and date" through Comixology.
Old 04-24-20, 08:13 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/nigh...-distribution/

DC's upcoming slate, distributed by Midtown and DCBS:

4/28 release (Next week)
Batman #89 3rd Ptg
Batman Giant #4
Daphne Byrne #4 (OF 6) (MR)
Daph[hne Byrne #4 (of 6) Var Ed (MR)
Dreaming #20 (MR)
Nightwing #70 2nd Ptg

[b]5/5 release Order deadline 04/27
Batman and the Outsiders #12
DC Super Stars Facsimile Edition #17
Flash #753
Green Lantern Season #23
Hawkman #23
House of Whispers #20
Joker/ Harley: Criminal Sanity #4 (of 9)
Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Graphic Novel
Batman – Detective Comics Vol. 3: Greetings from Gotham
Green Arrow: Year One – The Deluxe Edition
Shazam!: The World's Mightiest Mortal Vol. 2
Weird Western Tales: Jonah Hex
Young Justice Vol. 1: Gemworld

5/12 release Order deadline 04/27
Harley Quinn #72
Justice League #44
Justice League Odyssey #20
Lois Lane (of 12) #10
Metal Men #6 (of 12)
Justice League Dark Vol. 3: The Witching War
Superman – Action Comics Vol. 2: Leviathan Rising
Superman – Action Comics Vol 3: Leviathan Hunt
Superman Smashes the Klan
Wonder Woman & the Justice League Dark: The Witching Hour
Adventures of Superman by George Perez

5/19 release Order deadline 04/27
DCeased: Unkillables #3 (of 3)
Dollhouse Family #6 (of 6)
Flash Giant #4
Plunge #3 (of 6)
Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (of 12)
Wonder Woman #755
Year of the Villain: Hell Arisen #3 (3rd Print) (of 4)
Red Hood: Outlaw #45
5/19 collected editions Order deadline 05/05
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy HC
Nightwing: The Gray Son Legacy SC
Stargirl by Geoff Johns SC
The Flash by Mark Waid Book Seven SC

That's quite a backlog they're building up that will need to shipped out through Diamond to stores that didn't sign up for the distro scheme. I mean, that's like two dozen comic books and a bunch of GNs, HCs, and TPBs. They can't just dump all of those into stores on same day, can they? And it looks like they're holding off on that big Batman comic... #92, is it?

Also wonder if these books will be available "day and date" through Comixology.
Batman #92 is scheduled for June 5. What DC is doing is bullshit if the plan to dump all these books on week 1 when Diamond goes back to business. I doubt Diamond allows that too. The other thing that is Diamond won't also be able to enforce street date on any of these books since they have been already released. I don't get why they are doing this other than to try to "outsmart" Marvel by getting some market share when there is none. They are trying to do this with DCeased #3.
Old 04-25-20, 08:04 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

To no surprise, Heroescon was cancelled yesterday afternoon. They are giving refunds on a case by case scenario and honoring purchased passes for next year.
Old 04-26-20, 08:43 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by fujishig
Do you really think the music industry is better off now that nobody buys physical records anymore (besides hardcore collectors)? It's better for the consumer, certainly, just like streaming is better for the consumer, I'd argue that it's not that great for the industry itself. Now another issue is that music piracy was running rampant and there needed to be a way to make legal ownership (or accessibility) easy enough and cheap enough to dissuade people (which is a similar problem comics have)

Similarly, DCBS and digital discounts are great for the consumer. I'm not going to lie, I love DCBS's (and InStockTrade's) prices. I love amazon's prices on a lot of trades. But I can absolutely understand the trepidation for comic book stores that these guys who are eating their lunch are going to distribute. On a small scale, for a small number of books, sure, I don't think DC is acting in bad faith here, I don't think anyone is. But as a replacement for Diamond? I don't think so.

Maybe physical comics do need to die, but I'm also not sure digital is mature enough to take over, or pay the bills for the creators, same with going to only trades.
Maybe this whole thing will cause the comic industry to "right the ship", so to speak. For years now, we've been hearing the same complaints about the comic industry: too many books, too expensive, bad art and writing, renumbering every X years. This could give the industry a chance to take a step back, take stock of what they're putting out, and try to correct it. They probably won't, but one can hope.
Old 04-26-20, 06:04 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by RonG617
The physical stores don't want digital to take off and they force the publishers to keep the prices artificially high this hurting the digital market and not allowing it to expand as it should. The problem is, that even with the publisher help comic stores are slowly dying. Going in a store on new release day and count how many kids are in there as opposed to 30-40 year old men.
Originally Posted by fujishig
I've said it many times in this forum, but despite my kids loving superheroes (because of me), there are a dozen other things they'd rather do than read American comics. And to them, the comics are free, they have no idea how much they cost. Even if you drop the price to a buck an issue (which is often the case in comixology sales) kids won't bite. Part of that, though, is how impenetrable American comics are (especially capes) for someone new. They consume manga like nothing, but it's largely easier to read and collect (and for my daughter there's more material that's interesting to her).
Sadly, I have to agree with all of this. Kids & young adults these days aren't into buying comics (either floppies or CE's). A lot of this is obviously because there are so many other distractions, i.e. streaming movies & TV shows/video games/I-phones, etc.

I started getting back into comic collecting around 2009, and ever since then my impression has been that those buying comics are doing it because of nostalgia. I.e., the hobby is largely dominated by older collectors (like me) who are primarily buying CE's of comics they have fond memories of reading when they were younger - or floppies that also remind them of said comics (X-men, Superman, Spider-man, etc.) - or both.

Last edited by TheDude; 04-27-20 at 10:21 PM.
Old 04-27-20, 02:26 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Younger audiences these days get their superhero fix through movies and cartoons, not comics. If I were running DC, there would be an animated Batman/Superman cartoon on the air every year focused at the tween and older audience. It's vital for growing the brand long term with children. I can't really blame kids. Comics are priced like collector's items these days and don't provide enough entertainment value for their price. When I was a kid, $20 would buy you a whole stack of Marvel and DC comics.

There's a serious argument to be made that Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s primed the country for Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy in the 2000s. That ended up grossing billions for the studio. This is the one negative of DC not running their own movie studio. Warner's theatrical division is too short-sighted to worry about the brand in 10-20 years.
Old 04-27-20, 03:05 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by PhantomStranger
Younger audiences these days get their superhero fix through movies and cartoons, not comics. If I were running DC, there would be an animated Batman/Superman cartoon on the air every year focused at the tween and older audience. It's vital for growing the brand long term with children. I can't really blame kids. Comics are priced like collector's items these days and don't provide enough entertainment value for their price. When I was a kid, $20 would buy you a whole stack of Marvel and DC comics.

There's a serious argument to be made that Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s primed the country for Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy in the 2000s. That ended up grossing billions for the studio. This is the one negative of DC not running their own movie studio. Warner's theatrical division is too short-sighted to worry about the brand in 10-20 years.
It doesn't help that even though they fall under the same company they are subject to the whims of Cartoon Network when it comes to general audience cartoons, and with one exception (Teen Titans Go) CN has screwed with them mercilessly. They tailored JLAction to the 15 minute format and CN never aired it consistently. And DC Universe (while it's still independent and not rolled up into Max) is clearly aiming for an older audience. So TT Go and whenever they decide to air Superhero Girls is all kids get, while Marvel has several shows on Disney XD and exposure on Disney +.

But like I said earlier, you just have to disguise DC stuff for a younger audience as "books" distributed by places like Scholastic to get them in schools. They've done this for the YA market but I haven't seen much for the younger audience.
Old 04-27-20, 07:30 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: An "Extinction Level Event" for the Direct Market

Originally Posted by fujishig
It doesn't help that even though they fall under the same company they are subject to the whims of Cartoon Network when it comes to general audience cartoons, and with one exception (Teen Titans Go) CN has screwed with them mercilessly. They tailored JLAction to the 15 minute format and CN never aired it consistently. And DC Universe (while it's still independent and not rolled up into Max) is clearly aiming for an older audience. So TT Go and whenever they decide to air Superhero Girls is all kids get, while Marvel has several shows on Disney XD and exposure on Disney +.

But like I said earlier, you just have to disguise DC stuff for a younger audience as "books" distributed by places like Scholastic to get them in schools. They've done this for the YA market but I haven't seen much for the younger audience.
It's very hard to get Scholastics deal though and they take a good piece of the pie when it comes to revenue from the books. I don't know if Marvel has ever worked with them but I don't know if they ever would now with Disney as their parent company.

I've always said that the issue here to bring kids is not only the content but more importantly, the price point. Comics are too expensive in general and parents aren't willing to spend $4 per book for something the kid is going to read in 10 minutes tops. A similar priced Scholastics book with over 100 pages will sound more financially feasible for a parent. Also, with no toy stores anymore, digital would be the easiest way to go for a parent. That's why digital single issue comic books need to be priced at $1.50 max.

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