Comic Book Industry Troubles ?8519
 Collector
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yamada69 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Here is the text of my local comic store owner who was invited to the "State of the Industry" topic delivered in Charlotte last week at the @comicspro annual meeting. Great read!! http://comicsprogress.com/full-text-of-retailer-brian-hibbs-state-of-the-industry-speech/ |
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| Post 26 • IP flag post | ||
 I had no way of knowing that 9.8 graded copies signed by Adam Hughes weren't what you were looking for.
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drchaos private msg quote post Address this user | |
| If anything Disney and maybe DC will outsource comic creation and reduce their employees and offices. Why maintain expensive NYC office space when creators can work from anywhere including their homes? |
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| Post 27 • IP flag post | ||
 Suck it up, buttercup!!
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KatKomics private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @yamada69 - I think I realllly like your LCS owner!! "Listen to me, publishers: this behavior needs to stop! If you can’t sell enough copies of your comic to fit your business goals with one single cover, then you probably shouldn’t be publishing it in the first place!" Too many titles under one banner (how many Spidey books??) too many variants, too many multi title mass events timed too close to one another all with sh!t loads of variants all on stories that aren't all that good and only get reset or over written with the next event I'm not sure what the answer is but clearly the current actions are not it! |
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| Post 28 • IP flag post | ||
 If I could, I would. I swear.
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DrWatson private msg quote post Address this user | |
| If they went back to house style art, one title per property, and story lines that didn't suck, then they would see their way clear in no time. | ||
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Enelson private msg quote post Address this user | |
| If it finally does collapse, like so many of us long time readers have predicted/feared for years, it will be an example of an industry that learned NOTHING from previous failures. The constant reboots, the proliferation of titles, the onslaught of variants are all reasons that it might finally crash. The craziest thing- and I have said this so many times to people- is that comics should be more popular than ever with all of the movies and shows. Marvel and Dc are doing nothing to attract new readers. Every story is a part of a 6 part arc- so they can collect it in a trade. The entry level price of a comic continues to be at or near $5. Comics are not accessible to new readers and the current fanbase is only getting older. What new kid is reading a comic? My boys do, but that is obviously just because I do, and did at a young age. It really is a shame. I know the days of walking in and seeing a spinner rack are long gone, but they have to figure out how to get new readers if they want to survive. The other issue, and I think we have ALL been guilty of this at times is the speculator market is BACK! Go into a comic shop on Wednesday and tell me how many times you have seen new faces buying up copies of "old(insert character name her) #1" or getting the special limited edition variant of some other thing. I mean, look at Detective 1000- why have so many covers? Its crazy. I could rant about this forever. A couple of people have said this already- but get back to 1 title of each major character, and I bet it rights the ship. Right now they are just doubling down on bad ideas. |
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| Post 30 • IP flag post | ||
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poka private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @Enelson the reason TEC 1000 has so many covers is because how DC operates. | ||
| Post 31 • IP flag post | ||
 I'm good with splotches.
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Nuffsaid111 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Enelson EXACTLY!!! Quote: Originally Posted by DrWatson EXACTLY!!! |
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| Post 32 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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Maritimer private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Marvel's War of the Realms event, wow, talk about trying to flood the market. I buy and read Thor and that's all I'm going to do. The rest of it is just background noise. I've been collecting since the '60s and only buy and read what I like. Pretty simple plan. I've decided to keep doing that and spend a little extra on getting some favourites graded. If and when the industry collapses, I still have all my faves to fall back on. Cheers! | ||
| Post 33 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The industry has been struggling for decades. One problem is the elimination of competition among distributors in the late 90's. If a store is fed up with Diamond (the distributor), there is no alternative. One publisher told me that when Capital City folded, he expected his Diamond order to increase accordingly. That didn't happen. He simply lost all the sales. Diamond which had multiple distribution centers trimmed down to one or two. At one point they had to streamline to cut costs and they eliminated distribution for many of the small press publishers. When prices spiked to $3.99 and up for comics, I truly believe that was to save Diamond. It was just costing too much to distribute the lower volume titles. Increasing prices and eliminating variety just makes customers quit buying the product. They keep pumping out variant covers and rebooting series which again discourages people from collecting. Readers aren't enough to keep comics selling. Readers are fickle. Collectors are not. A collector will buy a comic just because of a number to keep their collection complete. I find modern comics to be a horrible value. They are overly decompressed as far as the story goes and they are over priced even if the stories weren't decompressed. Necessity is the mother of invention. Comics will always be around in some form or another, but whether that form is sufficient to make a profit is another matter entirely. I welcome the demise of the current structure. It provides nothing I want from comics. Whether anyone is smart enough to rebuild it better is another matter. If output drops too much, stores won't have enough product to keep the doors open. A new store did open in my area, but as I looked around and evaluated their inventory, I was skeptical as to whether they have enough product in the store to pay their bills from month to month. The owners have an initial input from their personal collections, but they need to be flipping inventory at a high rate to pay those bills. I don't see the volume being sold that needs to be sold. |
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| Post 34 • IP flag post | ||
 Ima gonna steal this and look for some occasion to use it!
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IronMan private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @X51 It's new comic book sales that are closing comic book stores. Stores might be better off financially if no new comics were published. Every other retail outlet for periodicals and books is working on the ability to return unsold product. This keeps publishers from flooding the market with crap. Because if they do it ends up back in their laps. The direct distribution model saved comic publishers back in the 80's. And it wasn't a bad thing for comic book stores because there existed a healthy market for recent back issue sales. But now it is closing comic book stores. Because the publishers flood the market with poorly written titles, multiple covers. So 30 + years ago, publishers shifted most of the risk of printing books to comic book stores. Buy selling nearly all their output direct to comic book stores on a non-returnable basis. And it worked reasonably well for a few decades. But now publishers are running comic book stores out of business with the practices both of us and others have mentioned. So let us think about that..... the business model is to sell direct to comic book stores. But your publishing practices are greatly reducing the number of comic book stores in the country. I think we see a problem. |
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| Post 35 • IP flag post | ||
 I'll probably wake up constipated.
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Pre_Coder private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by IronMan And the publishers also see the problem. They are not stupid, although we think they are. There WILL be another comic bubble burst soon and the publishers are going to make damn sure they make all the $$$ they can before the explosion. Afterwards it will ALL be electronic media. Golden Age, Silver Age, and some Bronze will hold their ground. |
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| Post 36 • IP flag post | ||
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Collector
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Publishers are definitely killing the back issue market because they see it as a threat to their sales. The opposite is true. Healthy back issue sales encourage a store to order more aggressively. They don't have to worry about being stuck with dead stock if back issues can be sold. It provides a healthier cash flow and makes more money available to order new comics. Because of the publisher's marketing choices, new comic sales are the only thing keeping stores open. People aren't walking into stores with great collections to sell. They are taking their good stuff straight to eBay. New comics are the only thing bringing customers in on a weekly or monthly basis. Publishers need to go back to one monthly title for a character and only one cover. 30 covers on one comic makes it impossible for a collector to own a full set. Having one really cool rare cover means that only a small number of collectors can take pride in their collection being the best. Who shops for a Tesla and then gets happy settling for a Kia? Every collector wants the best. Nobody gets excited for mediocrity. Expecting me to buy the common cover as a compromise is an insult. I imagine I'll sell my collection some day and I'm not going to sit around saying... "Yeah, I only bought the common covers." That's not a good selling point. |
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| Post 37 • IP flag post | ||
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Verde private msg quote post Address this user | |
| That’s something I’ve noticed, why are so many variants? And if your not subbed to all these different stores, you’d never know of the exclusive covers you want. It’s kind of a “who do you know?” Situation. And why are there so many titles featuring the same Character/team? It’s wild! When those books fail, they don’t blame sales or writing, they blame the character associated with said title and get vaulted until the expected reboot after the summer event. It’s all so tiresome and overwhelming! | ||
| Post 38 • IP flag post | ||
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Wraith private msg quote post Address this user | |
| As others have said multiple comics that crossover stories for the one character is bad.. Its why I gave up in the 90s as I only had so much cash to spend in a month and hated that say maximum clonage had to be read across all four or five spiderman books month in month out at the time. I enjoyed the story, hated how many books had to buy. Now asm is fortnightly which is another gripe of mine.. I like to budget for 1 quality issue a month.. Not 2 rushed sub standard books.. Which asm really really feels like at the moment. So I dumped it from my pull again after having just really enjoyed the red goblin run and was hooked .. GG marvel |
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| Post 39 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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etapi65 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by X51 And this greatly devalues the "common" cover. Which disincentivizes readers or collector's to purchase the "mass" produced version. But that's where the money in printing is going to in the first place, the cover their making 10,000s of copies for. Personally, If I'm really into a title and it's on my pull list; I show up and suddenly there's a 1/100 version for $75.00 that I know, the simple fact exists, means what I'm about to buy for $2.99 (or $3.99) is destined for a $1.00 (or less bin) over the next year, you've just stopped me from buying either. I'm not dropping $75.00 on a variant cover just to speculate and I'm not keeping up with a monthly (fortnightly) where the product I'm buying has a built in de-valuation mechanism. instead, I'll just wait for the TPB. I don't really like/collect pops, action figures, cards, statues. But, I do like that hobby shops have an alternative cash flow and that's what I see heading out the door from non-comic collectors and kids. |
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| Post 40 • IP flag post | ||
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Collector
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Wraith private msg quote post Address this user | |
| And YES for the insanity of a single issue with 40+ covers .. (I don't mind one or two variant covers from time to time mind you ) Yes. There are some who can splurge and get them all but it's basically only empowering those with boat loads of cash to get a complete run. For the rest of us, getting a complete set becomes impossible. so instead of thinking "oh there's an extra cover this month? Yeah ok I'll get it , it'll keep my set complete.. Here's an extra $5 for the month"... Its more like "how many covers for the same book this month? And they cost how much? And you can't even sell all them to me if you wanted to as half of them are exclusive to other stores? To hell with it, I'm not buying any... I should've given up this hobby years ago anyway " Everything should be just within reach to the masses to maintain interest.. New kid comes in off street."hey I want spiderman, that movie was great" "which spiderman? And which book of that particular spiderman? And what type of cover do you want? Do you really want a comic book, or are you looking for a volume" " whhhaaaat? .. I just wanted a spiderman comic.. This is crazy.. I don't know all that stuff you are talking about and I don't want to know.. Im outta here" |
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| Post 41 • IP flag post | ||
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BrianGreensnips private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by etapi65You make a good point. I still buy and read new comic books. I am a little hesitant to drop $4. or so on a book that I know I will never get my money back especially if I do not know much about the book. Sometimes a book catches my eye and I may put it on my pull list. I usually go to issue 10 and decide if it stays or if it gets dropped. |
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| Post 42 • IP flag post | ||
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michaelekrupp private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My motto is “buy what you read, read what you like”. Unfortunately for today’s publishers I like what I find in the discount boxes at shows way better than the $4 and up stuff that is being put out today. | ||
| Post 43 • IP flag post | ||
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Collector
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BrianGreensnips private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by michaelekruppI agree. I love finding some Bronze age books with some of my favorite writers and artists for $4-5 each.Some examples would be finding Chris Claremont and John Byrne Marvel Team Ups or Kirby books for that price, I never feel like I will regret what I buy. |
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| Post 44 • IP flag post | ||
 Forum Crier
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OGJackster private msg quote post Address this user | |
Seems like the latest gimmick is a spin on the multitude of variants already out there and they're calling them "SECRET VARIANTS". Not brand new I know but, becoming more prevalent. I'm hearing the one to get tomorrow is Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics #1. Check out the prices on e-bay. Here is the variant cover...  |
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| Post 45 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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moodswing private msg quote post Address this user | |
| If you order from an online store, can you get a secret variant? Or are the stores going to pull them and charge more? | ||
| Post 46 • IP flag post | ||
 Moderator
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Jesse_O private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @OGJackster I thought about preordering a Ziggy, but I opted on a different book. But I admit, I think that variant is pretty awesome!!! However, that's the kind of oddball stuff that attracts me. I'd take that over any Spider Gwen or Deadpool comic out there!! | ||
| Post 47 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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Drogio private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @moodswing I highly doubt you will get one if you order a regular issue. They’re onto these and likely pull and price them at market prices the moment they open the doors. You’ll have a better chance/odds finding on sitting on a shelf tomorrow. |
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| Post 48 • IP flag post | ||
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Collector
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moodswing private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Drogio Yeah no lcs so I am sol ha |
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| Post 49 • IP flag post | ||
 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I'm not sure how secret that is. Midtown has it listed as the regular 'A' cover. https://www.midtowncomics.com/store/dp.asp?PRID=1801177 There are two variants listed on Midtown, one with the Fantastic Four and one Skrulls variant (they've had a series of Skrulls variants across their titles), both of which are sold out. But the A is still available. |
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| Post 50 • IP flag post | ||
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Moderator
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Jesse_O private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @xkonk Take a closer look at the maps on the two covers pictured. | ||
| Post 51 • IP flag post | ||
 Collector
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willieCPA4646 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| With AT&T and the Warner Media merger being upheld at the Court of Appeals, AT&T and Time Warner announced a "Streamlining of Operations" (e.g: layoffs) [https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/04/warnermedia-reorganizes-its-leadership-team-after-att-acquisition.html]clickable text[/url]. "Layoffs expected as WarnerMedia reorganizes its leadership team after AT&T acquisition" Let's see how this announcement affects DC Comics. I suspect Dan DiDio knew this was coming, so DC cut their comics output in response. |
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| Post 52 • IP flag post | ||
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Collector
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Enelson private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by OGJackster Oh for f*cks sake...these variants just prove EVERYTHING we've been saying in this thread. They're trying to get sales for an anniversary book with classic characters that 85% of the current comic buying public haven't heard of...so what do they do, without a hint of irony or self awareness they serve up another "shitty" variant...  |
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| Post 53 • IP flag post | ||
 It was a one trick pony show but always hilarious.
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GAC private msg quote post Address this user | |
run for cover!! |
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| Post 54 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Jesse_O You know, I thought I had... I guess if someone wants to pay $30 for that, go nuts guys! |
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| Post 55 • IP flag post | ||
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