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Comic Store in Your Future – Is Other Media Eclipsing Comics, Even at Comic Publishers?

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

I keep seeing advertising for various comic book movies and comic book TV shows. Nothing about comic books themselves, of course.

Our Daredevil comic sales were very low. The Netflix series when it first started did get a few people to check out his comic. After the first season on Netflix, Daredevil's comic sales dropped. Another Marvel title we carried that was getting outsold here in store by Sonic the Hedgehog, Dejah Thoris, XO Manowar, and other titles being published by much smaller publishers. I read more about Daredevil on Netflix than I did about Daredevil's comic series.

In all the hype for the Infinity War movie, I did not see in various articles or hear Marvel Studio's Kevin Feige mention anything about the comics the characters are based on.

I google Marvel Comics and then click on marvel.com. What is the first thing I see? An image from the upcoming movie of Captain Marvel. I feel like I have just been slapped in the face. It is Captain Marvel in her Mohawk uniform which has never been a hit for me. Then after a few seconds the website crashes on me. I keep trying the website and I keep seeing the image of Captain Marvel though I keep getting an"unexpected error" message that ends my Marvel.com viewing.

I then go back to google and type in DC Comics. I click on dccomics.com and the first thing I see? Donna Troy Debuts. The Donna Troy of the Titans web show. To the top right of that "A New Look at Atlantis". 25 new photos of the upcoming Aquaman movie. Under that, "Batman's Black Sheep" with an image of Batwoman. I confess I have no idea what it is about so I click on it.  It is about an actual comic, Red Hood Outlaw #29.

Scrolling down next to "Featured". Under that is an image of the web show Titans. To the right an image of the movie Aquaman with an advertisement after that.

Scrolling past that is Heroes in Crisis which is indeed about comics. Below that a few images of the covers of the comics coming out this week.

Further down is Who's Who, which is about the various DC comic characters. I do miss the comic Who's Who.

Next up is "Get to Know Robin". The Robin from the Titans web show.

Then the "news". Five articles are shown. Out of the five one is about comics. It is a link to the Red Hood Outlaw article from the top. The other four are of course are about other media.

I click on more news.

Now showing an article for the Aquaman movie, to the right Young Justice Outsiders cartoon which is at least something new non-comic wise. Yet another movie Aquaman article, and another article about Robin from the web series.

I then skim various comic news websites. Some have very little on actual comic news.

To be fair these last few months have been slow with actual comic related news. As I have stated before, Axel Alonso no longer being at Marvel as Editor in Chief has not lead to any noteworthy changes. If I hadn't read he was no longer with Marvel, I would think he was. He left back in 2017.

DC sadly had Geoff Johns exit as DC Entertainment President and Chief Creative Officer this year, leaving many feeling DC comics is going in a worse direction than when he had his title.

Years ago, as I have brought up before, Editor-In-Chief Joe Quesada compared Paul Levitz and DC Comics' handling of Batman and Superman to a porn star who can't get it up in the New York press. "They don't know what to do with them." He and Bill Jemas–while at Marvel–belittle DC for being a part of a bigger company and failing to capitalize on DC's merger with AOL Time Warner. For having such worldwide well-known characters, their comics are not selling more. Now, Joe just keeps quiet since Marvel has merged with Disney and they have done nothing to increase comic sales. The merger handed the Star Wars license to Marvel which should have been able to increase their sales and market share instead of just basically maintaining what they had. Disney, at times, seems unaware they have a comic publisher while farming out Spider-Man and Star Wars to IDW to make kid-friendly titles. While millions went to the movies to see Blade and Guardians of the Galaxy and know who these characters are, Marvel is unable to keep them from selling so low they have to cancel the titles.

Artist Rob Liefeld recently said that Marvel Comics let him know their budget for the X-Men comic line went up because of Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox, the company which had the film rights to the X-Men Universe.

"Here's the deal. Since the X-Men movies came out and Disney didn't have them, I don't know if you've ever paid attention, but Marvel kind of turned the volume down on the X-Men for almost 20 years, Now that they have them more, what was told to me was, Oh yeah. Our budgets on the X-Men books are back up to what they used to be because now we own them all.'" Liefeld said while at a panel at Wizard World Austin.

Basically saying what many thought to be true–the X Men comics were downgraded because Marvel did not own the movie rights.

Harry Potter's popularity grew thanks to the movies helping to increase sales on his books. The comic movies have a very limited bump for the actual comics themselves. What is needed? Maybe better P.R. Better marketing. Get more people involved that believe in comics. Something needs to change.

As I write this today and skim online websites, Facebook comic clubs, and so on, I notice most of the focus is on the Avengers teaser trailer. Not much on actual comics. It is like even comic fans like the movies more than the comics.

I do understand that there is more money to be made currently in movie and TV and other media so the publishers want to push it. Though in my mind, they are pushing comics out. When comic companies were all about comic publishing to me they seemed to have much more focus and higher quality books. Then Marvel and DC became about pushing out the movies. They became a part of something bigger. Something that seems not to care about publishing comics. As a comic fan, that is disappointing. Then as a store owner, we do have most of our sales thanks to comics so that is not the focus we want to see. That doesn't mean I do not push our other products. Heroclix, Magic the Gathering, role-playing games, and board games may not be our primary focus though I still push them and want them to sell them. Comic books seems to be eclipsed by the various businesses that they are now a part of.

Comic Store in Your Future – Is Other Media Eclipsing Comics, Even at Comic Publishers?


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Rod LambertiAbout Rod Lamberti

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