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Aaron Smith
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Joined: 06 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 10461
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 9:50am | IP Logged | 1
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Yeah, Don. I know he has, but it still annoys me. Funny how the most human of the JLAers gets to be everywhere at once rather than the guys who can run fast enough to break the sound barrier or fly across the world in seconds or travel by power ring.
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Kevin Brown
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Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 8942
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | 2
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Even before fans got super-hung-up on continuity, Batman was everywhere. He had 2 solo titles (Batman and Detective), 2 team-up titles (Brave and the Bold and World's Finest), and he was in the JLA. And that's not including the short lived Batman Family and any other appearances in other titles. This was all pre-1985.
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Eric Smearman
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Joined: 02 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 5822
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | 3
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For awhile Batman was a JLAer as well as leader of the Outsiders.
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Aaron Smith
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 06 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 10461
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | 4
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Whether or not I think the reboot is a good idea, I have to wonder how they think all these new readers are going to know about this. Are they planning on making their comics more widely available in places other than comic shops again? Are they going to make use of the (possible) success of the Green Lantern movie to help with advertising? Sure it's fine that they're making all the issues available digitally, but who's going to know about it unless they're already following comics-related news? Yes, there was a USAToday article that was linked to earlier in this thread, but that was published months before this "event" is even supposed to happen. How does DC plan on spreading this news?
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Greg McPhee
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Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5088
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | 5
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Can we create a separate thread for this Siegel & Shuster discussion? Thanks. =================================================== Think all the relevant issues have been covered. So no need to. It was only a slight thread drift.
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Kip Lewis
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Joined: 01 March 2011
Posts: 2880
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | 6
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How do they plan to get the new readers? One of the articles I read
said they are planning a news release through news media when it
gets closer. Of course that assumes there is no "real" news to bury
this. But they will try this, as they did with new WW costume and few
other events, and history shows it does get a buzz going. (And CNN
owners own DC too, or is it one of the other news agencies, so that
guantees some coverage.)As far as releasing it in more places than just LCS or bookstores; I
suspect those days are by and large gone and nothing they do will
convince gas stations, walgreens and others to carry comics like in the
old days. Why would supermarket markets start selling comics when
all periodical sales are dropping due to online offers and comics are
telling everyone "buy us online!"?
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Tim Farnsworth
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Joined: 01 July 2010
Posts: 817
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | 7
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Kip, did you catch that all of DC's comics will also be released digitally on the same day they release in brick and mortar shops? This is how they'll potentially get new readers.
We'll see how the specifics pan out, but given the amazing sales on Kindles, Nooks, etc, it's certainly got possibilities. I think it's safe to say it's the largest, most comprehensive digital initiative in comic book history.
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Vinny Valenti
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Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8116
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | 8
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"Kip, did you catch that all of DC's comics will also be released digitally on the same day they release in brick and mortar shops? This is how they'll potentially get new readers."Not at the same exact price as the brick and mortar versions, they won't.
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Joe Zhang
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Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | 9
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It will be interesting to find out if DC is going to expand their target demographic or stick with the 30+ crowd.
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Aaron Smith
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Joined: 06 September 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 10461
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | 10
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I'm just wondering when they'll get the idea to use the movies to help the comics. Why not give away comics with movie ticket purchases for Green Lantern? It doesn't have to be a full-size 22 page issue, just a smaller version, a reprint or new story but something that a person can read and understand with no other reference required, something to encourage interest in the comics. Can it hurt? I don;t think so. Even if a very small percentage of those who see the movies were made to want to pick up a comic book it would help. Restarting titles and making them available online does no good without increasing awareness and a few news stories (even if it's not, as Kip pointed out, buried under real news) isn't going to cut it. Sales of novels increase when succesful movies are made from them, but everyone knows where to find novels. With comics being a little more under the radar, DC (and Marvel and others) really need to find a way to hit people over the head with the idea that there's more to these characters (whether we mean GL or Thor or whoever) than just the movie. I'm not in charge at Marvel or DC obviously, but if I was the first thing I'd think about doing was trying to reach the real world and not just the tiny niche market that comics have buried themselves in.
Edited by Aaron Smith on 05 June 2011 at 9:24pm
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Brad Krawchuk
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Joined: 19 June 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 5819
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | 11
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I agree about the online pricing being a huge factor.
I get a 25% discount at my LCS on comics. $2.99 - 25% = $2.24 plus tax.
Online, I would pay $2.99 plus tax. Already I'm paying more than a paper copy. With a paper copy, there are printing costs and shipping costs that just don't factor into an online copy. Who's getting that extra money? Plus, with a paper copy if I decide I don't want to keep the comic, I can trade it back in for anywhere from $.75 to cover price depending on how recent the issue is and whether it's in demand. Can I get money back for trade from an online copy? No!
So... why aren't the comics online priced more like $.99 or $1.50? Why do they also have to be cover price?
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Tim Farnsworth
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| Posted: 05 June 2011 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | 12
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As I understand it, the digital pricing drops by a dollar after four weeks. The obvious goal here is to ensure brick and mortar stores get primary support, which I think is smart at this point. The hope amongst digital proponents has always been to see numbers skyrocket, but I suspect the various experiments with digital over the last few years haven't been so successful that Marvel or DC is at all ready to walk away completely from the direct market.
It's possible, for instance, that in a world of smartphones, laptops and XBoxes, that there simply isn't a huge audience for comics anymore. Say DC went full day-and-date with comics for a buck and only managed to bring over the extant audience, killing the brick and mortar stores but without notable gains in readership. Same circulation numbers, a third the revenue gained. There'd really be no resurrecting the direct market at that point, and since there's no way of knowing how loyal readers would remain in the digital format (they might begin to drift away without the thrill of the Wednesday trip to the shop), they could be signing the death warrant on the entire industry.
I doubt it'd be so drastic as that, but unless digital gets successful FAST and REMAINS SO, it could still get catastrophic. I think they're smart to play it cautious. I also think they're likely to re-assess pricing rather quickly if they see a high enough number of people waiting that month to buy comics digitally after the dollar price drop.
Kurt Busiek's over at The Beat posting sensible things on the topic:
RIGHT HERE
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