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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 14 April 2013 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | 1
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I think the DSM, online comics and newstand can all be part of a thriving ecosystem for comics retailing. However, to get there the comics industry must move beyond comic book fans. Thanks to the Internet, we've become a calcified, quirky monoculture. We'll gorge on books we know we'll hate after we've read them, and we'll hate many other books sight unseen. We've got a very distinct, strange sense of what makes a good story; I imagine the latest issue of the X-Men or Avengers is as incomprehensible to the lay reader as kabuki theater. We may be what sustains the comics industry today, but we're also the reason it can never grow.
Edited by Joe Zhang on 14 April 2013 at 8:52pm
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Robert White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4560
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 4:59am | IP Logged | 2
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The newsstand is done for everybody, not just for comics.
Even if comics were still sold in newsstands and magazine
sections, who really looks at those anymore anyway? The
only reason I'm reading JB's IDW material, Saga, Sixth
Gun, etc, is because of digital services.
I actually prefer reading the new stuff digitally because
it's still in a "trial phase" for me as a reader. Will
this stuff stand the test of time? If so, I'll get a nice
hardcover trade collection one day. Kirby's Fourth World
and Bark's Disney comics? I had to have these in trade
format.
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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 6:56am | IP Logged | 3
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Problem with digital distribution is that this is a extremely crowded space, in the sense that the Comixology app is competing with thousands of other apps in the Apple app store or Google Play. There is little chance someone brand new comics will just happen to stumble upon Comixology on their mobile device, or on the Web. You really have to take the initiative to look for it.
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Robert White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4560
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 7:36am | IP Logged | 4
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I think potential fans are little more savvy than we give
them credit for. If I were new to comics, I'd simply type
in "getting into comics" or something in Google and from
there they'd almost instantly find out about comixology,
etc.
But that can be said about good music. You really have to
look for it, even on itunes, to find it.
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Clifford Boudreaux
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2012
Posts: 443
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 8:57am | IP Logged | 5
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Pretty much any market you go into is going to be crowded.
The newsstand is a crowded, which is why comics got pushed off it; the venders are merciless about not supporting anything which doesn't earn its space. The Direct Market is crowded, which is why so many shop owners don't buy extra copies of low-selling books; they simply can't afford to lose $1 on the hundreds of books desperate to be given a chance. Like the newsstand, they throw their money behind proven titles. In the book stores, comics managed to get a toe-hold into a very crowded market thanks to comic fans being among the best book customers; same reason why libraries love graphic novels.
The difference between those three markets and digital is the long tail. The well-financed companies are going to be the ones who buy up (or are given) the best virtual locations. Firing up the Amazon bookstore will put Batman and Spider-Man in front of your eyes rather than The High Ways, but it costs very little to keep a low-selling title in stock so a title can achieve break-out status instantly.
Apple and Amazon have already included comic readers into their devices, so buying a comic is as easy as owning an iPad or Fire and browsing iTunes or the Amazon Marketplace. The rest is just marketing, same as it ever was.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132657
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 9:06am | IP Logged | 6
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I think potential fans are little more savvy than we give them credit for. If I were new to comics, I'd simply type in "getting into comics" or something in Google and from there they'd almost instantly find out about comixology, etc.•• Hands up everyone who wants a new hobby that comes with homework assignments!
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Rick Senger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 9664
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 9:40am | IP Logged | 7
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I went in a big Barnes and Noble the other day and discovered a huge comics display... more than just a spinner rack and it was chock full of Marvel and DC as well as the usual Archie material handsomely arranged on a nice, substantial wood display. Archie shows up in grocery stores around here, though in reduced digest size. Archie still seems to be pretty readily available; do they employ the old fashioned distribution model which allows returns? I wonder what makes the publishers of Archie able to penetrate the old markets (or see the value of selling less profitable returnable product) that Marvel and DC don't.
As a kid 35 years ago I bought comics from drug stores, newsstands, grocery stores and airports regularly, but I also made visits every couple months to a big comic shop in the city an hour away because even back then the reliability of any of those other "impulse" outlets to get anything specific was low. But there needs to be some presence in the every day places, or how will kids discover comics that first time?
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Clifford Boudreaux
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2012
Posts: 443
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 10:59am | IP Logged | 8
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Archie still seems to be pretty readily available; do they employ the old fashioned distribution model which allows returns? I wonder what makes the publishers of Archie able to penetrate the old markets (or see the value of selling less profitable returnable product) that Marvel and DC don't.
The reality is they're doing horribly. Here's the link for their circulation figures again. In 2012, none of their digests cracked 50,000 in sales and only one monthly sold more than 15,000. They also pay for that sweet spot by the check-out and, from what I understand, that ain't cheap.
There's a reason for all the new art styles, gimmick events, super-hero revivals, video game tie-ins, and the like comic from Archie. Their core titles are in serious, serious trouble.
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4079
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 11:19am | IP Logged | 9
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I typed "comics" and "comic books" into Google, and the first page of results recommended several major publishers, who have links to digital downloads and "new to comics?" links on their home pages, as well as a list of the comic book shops that are nearest to my home and some of the biggest online comic shops. That seems to be really inviting to new readers when compared to the combination of the Direct Market and no newsstand sales that we've had since the early 1990s.
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14831
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 11:27am | IP Logged | 10
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Problem with digital distribution is that this is a extremely crowded space, in the sense that the Comixology app is competing with thousands of other apps in the Apple app store or Google Play. There is little chance someone brand new comics will just happen to stumble upon Comixology on their mobile device, or on the Web. You really have to take the initiative to look for it.
-----
If you type in "Comics" in the App Store, your first choice is the Comixology app. How much initiative does that require?
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 11:44am | IP Logged | 11
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If I type in "Superman comics" or "Batman comics", I get the DC app, which is powered by Comixology. My second choice is the Comixology app. If I type in "Spider-Man comics", I get the Marvel app, also powered by Comixology, with my second choice being the Comixology app.
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Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4565
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| Posted: 15 April 2013 at 11:52am | IP Logged | 12
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Rick Senger wrote:
| I wonder what makes the publishers of Archie able to penetrate the old markets (or see the value of selling less profitable returnable product) that Marvel and DC don't. |
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The reason Archie fought to stay in the mainstream market is that they couldn't have survived in the direct market only. On the whole, comic fans are not interested in Archie... their sales depend on casual readers. And for many years Archie was quite successful with their business model as the only mainstream-distributed comic left on the market.
But as Clifford notes, Archie is now facing the same problems with plummeting circulation that all periodicals are facing. I don't think there is any magazine out there that has managed to increase its circulation in the past five years, and few have been able to even maintain their existing numbers. The time for comics to try to return to mainstream distribution has passed.
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