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Comic Store In Your Future – Cutting Right Back

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here.

Recently there has been more of a focus on the state of the direct market. What retailers and others feel about the direct market and the changes they would like to see. DC's Dan DiDio in a meeting with ComicsPRO talked about some changes already taking place. Bleeding Cool wrote about his meeting with ComicsPRO.

Then it was followed up another article. Part of the article was this:

"First there as what DC co-publisher Dan DiDio said in the meeting at ComicsPRO, confirmed by a number of other sources, including that the DC direct market line was being cut by 10-15%.

Then there was what he meant to say, that the 10-15% cut was already factored into the current publishing line, and was offset by the Zoom/Ink imprints and the Giant Sized books – and that the Walmart-exclusive line was ending, to be replaced with new 100-page comics available everywhere."

I do feel that the various comic publishers need to trim their output to the direct market. As a comic book store owner I would say that would be great. For years I have been saying less can be more.

So why haven't the various publishers cut back? I would assume due to the worry of being the company that does cut back while other rival publishers do not. Meaning if DC made deep cuts to their line it could end up growing the market more for only Marvel. Marvel's output is not slowing down. How many War of the Realms titles is Marvel going to put out? How many Spider-Man titles? I wrote a previous column about ordering from the various companies and Marvel does worry me. They love first issues and variant covers along with mining out a characters popularity as quickly as possible until the mine is empty.

Marvel has learned nothing over the years. Black Panther is now well known thanks to his movie. His current comic series most likely will be cancelled this year. Marvel killed interest by trying to have three Black Panther titles at once. Which ended with three cancelled Black Panther titles.

After reading about DC, I then read on Newsarama that in June that Black Cat will get her own ongoing series. I am a big Black Cat fan. She was in one of the first Amazing Spider-Man comics that I read as a kid. I would love to see a good creative team on a Black Cat series that would last 25 issues at least. Marvel's "ongoing" series more often than not does not make it that long. The current Black Widow series is only on its second issue and is selling terrible for us. If Black Widow makes it up to double digits I will be surprised. The hype for Black Cat in the article is this: "The launch of Black Cat comes on the heels of the character's key role in the blockbuster Marvel's Spider-Man PlayStation 4 game and a series of appearances in the Amazing Spider-Man comic book series." In my mind that is pretty weak hype. Black Widow has been in various Marvel movies for years and still is unable to sell, being in a PlayStation 4 game and some issues of Amazing Spider-man is not going to make it sell. At least another Solo ongoing series has not been announced by Marvel.

The comments on Newsarama are telling. Multiple people saying Black Cat won't really have an ongoing series, it will be a miniseries because Marvel will cancel it or renumber it. Which after years of doing so people know it is most likely very true. Which makes people think twice about buying a comic from Marvel.

Then I read on Bleeding Cool that Deadpool is going to end with issue 15. Which though not announced yet, means after issue 15, a new first issue for Deadpool by Marvel will come out. Which is not helping the market.

I would like DC's focus to be more on titles that sell well. No Sasquatch Detective one shots for $7.99. If DC truly focuses on just having titles that sell and are profitable for comic stores they could be the new golden publisher.

The announcement of the ending of exclusive comics from Walmart making them available to order through comic stores is a mixed blessing for me. I will be able to order them from Diamond in the future which means no more trips to Walmart to get issues for my customers who want them. The down side is I will not be able to return them if they do not sell. Which I never did, though it was nice to have that option. The other downside is will regular comic customers care? Meaning a lot of comic customers had no idea Walmart was selling exclusive comics and now that comic stores will be able to will they even want them due to already missing out? Will people that are getting them still want to get them when they become easier to get? The Walmart issues were a big deal with the original first issues being hard to get at first in some areas. The first Walmart Giant of Teen Titans was selling online for double digits when it was first released, a quick look now at online sales and there are ones going unsold for cover price and the shipping cost. Currently the Walmart Exclusive Superman Giant issue 7 is in demand due to the controversy of many deaths of Lois Lane in the short story. Other Walmart exclusives not so much.

Did having these exclusive comics at Walmart result in any new comic book readers? Is there a comic store out there that can say that did indeed happen?

This paragraph in the first mentioned Bleeding Cool article:

"Bleeding Cool has previously noted how different creators have fiefdoms within DC Comics and it seems that DiDio feels the same, wanting a greater connective tissue between comic books at DC Comics and wanting creators to work well together."

I agree that the various creators should work well with one another. They are working on established characters that are not theirs so people will get a chance to read their work. Meaning if the creator had their own large enough following they would have their own comic property they created themselves. They work for a company to get paid and have an audience for their work.

A bunch of different creators doing a bunch of different takes on the same characters or character confuses readers. Continuity not mattering hurts sales. Having a crossover means a publisher is milking out continuity by trying to get readership to read as much of a crossover as possible. Then afterwards saying continuity does not matter because we do not want to bother the writers who we pay with it is weak. Get higher standards. Continuity between issues can be as simple as having Lois Lane reading a newspaper and various headlines are about what is happening in other titles. Basically, Easter eggs and something that might get people interested in other titles. Nothing taking away from the main story.

This paragraph I do understand:

"DiDio acknowledged unrest regarding the comics industry right now, but asked comic book retailers not to share their complaints about DC Comics – or others – with their customers. Rather, to hold themselves to a higher standard than the fans."

Keeping silent does not do any good. I am not going silently into the night. I know the internet is full of hate and complaints from people that will never buy a comic though still complain about comics and that does no good. Though complaining about a publisher or a comic in one's store is bad form. As someone who was a customer walking into another store before owning one I do remember the owner and someone else just badmouthing to no end a writer and comic he was writing at the time. That comic was the one I was looking to buy. I just turned around and left. Negativity is a turn off for customers. As I have said before I am not a Spawn fan, though that should not matter at all as the store owner. We have a group of people that collect Spawn and enjoy it and that is all that matters. Saying I do not like Spawn to my customers that are buying it would be just foolish and rude. With such a large amount of comics being published currently there should be plenty of material people will enjoy and of course with all the books available there will be some that people do not like. Not everyone will agree on everything. Variety is the spice of life. That said making a lot of fans happy will result in a lot of people buying comics which in turn makes comic store owners happy.

Make me happy comic publishers. Comtact me here and let me know what you're up to: rodmancomics@aol.com

Comic Store In Your Future – Cutting Right Back


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Rod LambertiAbout Rod Lamberti

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