incredibledave
05-24-2010, 06:23 AM
Hey guys, had a few thoughts which I though Earl might be interested in, and hey maybe someone else will be as well.
If the average person walks into an average comic shop today they will probably see 9 Batman Titles, 6 Superman Titles (one of which is called 'Superman/Batman'), 2 (soon to be 3) Green Lantern titles, probably 4 Avengers titles, 3 or more Spider-man titles, 4 or so X-men titles, 1 or 2 X-men mini series, and then you have a bunch of books with either 'The Heroic Age' (for marvel) or 'Brightest Day' (for DC) banners over the top.
Ok, fair enough, there are several things that could explain that. However, if that readers looks closer they'll notice that the smaller publishers are in on it as well.
Vertigo (technically DC but work with me) has 2 Fables series and a mini at the moment (I think), Dynamite has 5 Green Hornet titles planned, Image usually has a Invincible mini coming out at the same time as the main title, and Dark Horse print a bunch of Star Wars titles as well as Hellboy and BPRD usually coming out at the same time (which are related).
The first obvious question one should ask is 'Who is really interested in that many Green Hornet comics?'. This article http://ifanboy.com/content/articles/Is_the_Market_Saturated__Or_Are_You_Just_Happy_to_See_Me_ outlined that publishers want to own a LINE of comics rather than several independent titles. All art reasons aside, having a line of Green Hornet comics would make collectors more likely to try and collect all the Green Hornet titles and the Green Hornet seems like a pretty important guy.
Alright, if you buy that explanation that explains why Image, Dark Horse and Dynamite (and other) would want to own a line of comics, but if you think about it doesnt exactly why DC and Marvel try to turn ideas like Avengers and Batman into a line of comics.
"Hold up incredibledave, what the hell are you talking about?" you may ask. "You just explained why publishers want a line of comics, more comics = character seems more important = more sales. Surely more Batman comics means more total comics sold?". Hold on now, I've got more.
The reasons I believe the rules are different for Marvel and DC is because they are both more than just comic publishers. Lets try an example, DC (and Time Warner which own DC) own the rights to the character Batman and make money from each Batman comic sold. But they also make money for each pair of underwear, socks, lunchboxes, backpacks, costumes, birthday party plates, dvd collections of cartoons, dvds of blockbuster films and blocker-buster films themselves involving Batman. And the money they make from all that other stuff is SOOO much more than they make from the comics.
"Yeah, so what? They make money from other stuff with Batman, still doesn't explain why they wouldnt want to use the best approach to get the most out of the comics" Ok, heres my idea, I believe that DC and Marvel would better suited in the long (long, long, long) run by instead using the resources that went to those extra Batman comics (shipping, advertising, paper, ink, editors, pencillers, inkers, colourists, writers) into introducing and pushing lesser-known properties.
Another examples. Marvel stops printing 4 Avengers titles and cuts it down to just one. Sales take a hit. Avengers movie is still in the works which is going to make a ridiculous amount of money. Marvel instead put out 3 books revolving around the Runaways (The Runaways are a bunch of new characters which were very interesting (in my opinion) which had a very very good opening and were well received by fans), Runaways may sell really well, it may not, but the potential for a new franchise (which means more underwear, cartoons and movies) is raised which may make Marvel more money in the long term.
Obviously this makes no sense as far as making an impact on the month to month sales. But DC and Marvel should be less concerned about month to month sales and more concerned about running out of intellectual property. After they make the Avengers movie where do Marvel go from their as far as movies are concerned? I could maybe see movies for Ant-man, Deadpool and a few more sequels/reboots but how much more do they really have? They could dip into Icon stuff but that only has Powers (and soon Casanova and Scarlet)
You could make an argument that they should try and promote books based on what movies are going to come out. But movies dont impact the sales of comics that much and the big 2 (at least DC) know this. "Batman R.I.P" is a storyline that came out during the time of TDK and is pretty much the opposite of that film (half way through the story Batman becomes a drug-addled hobo who thinks the city is talking to him (this storyline was awesome btw))
Or maybe DC and Marvel just think that the ideas behind all 9 of their Batman titles and all 4 of their Avengers titles are so rich that they just have to share them with the world....
If the average person walks into an average comic shop today they will probably see 9 Batman Titles, 6 Superman Titles (one of which is called 'Superman/Batman'), 2 (soon to be 3) Green Lantern titles, probably 4 Avengers titles, 3 or more Spider-man titles, 4 or so X-men titles, 1 or 2 X-men mini series, and then you have a bunch of books with either 'The Heroic Age' (for marvel) or 'Brightest Day' (for DC) banners over the top.
Ok, fair enough, there are several things that could explain that. However, if that readers looks closer they'll notice that the smaller publishers are in on it as well.
Vertigo (technically DC but work with me) has 2 Fables series and a mini at the moment (I think), Dynamite has 5 Green Hornet titles planned, Image usually has a Invincible mini coming out at the same time as the main title, and Dark Horse print a bunch of Star Wars titles as well as Hellboy and BPRD usually coming out at the same time (which are related).
The first obvious question one should ask is 'Who is really interested in that many Green Hornet comics?'. This article http://ifanboy.com/content/articles/Is_the_Market_Saturated__Or_Are_You_Just_Happy_to_See_Me_ outlined that publishers want to own a LINE of comics rather than several independent titles. All art reasons aside, having a line of Green Hornet comics would make collectors more likely to try and collect all the Green Hornet titles and the Green Hornet seems like a pretty important guy.
Alright, if you buy that explanation that explains why Image, Dark Horse and Dynamite (and other) would want to own a line of comics, but if you think about it doesnt exactly why DC and Marvel try to turn ideas like Avengers and Batman into a line of comics.
"Hold up incredibledave, what the hell are you talking about?" you may ask. "You just explained why publishers want a line of comics, more comics = character seems more important = more sales. Surely more Batman comics means more total comics sold?". Hold on now, I've got more.
The reasons I believe the rules are different for Marvel and DC is because they are both more than just comic publishers. Lets try an example, DC (and Time Warner which own DC) own the rights to the character Batman and make money from each Batman comic sold. But they also make money for each pair of underwear, socks, lunchboxes, backpacks, costumes, birthday party plates, dvd collections of cartoons, dvds of blockbuster films and blocker-buster films themselves involving Batman. And the money they make from all that other stuff is SOOO much more than they make from the comics.
"Yeah, so what? They make money from other stuff with Batman, still doesn't explain why they wouldnt want to use the best approach to get the most out of the comics" Ok, heres my idea, I believe that DC and Marvel would better suited in the long (long, long, long) run by instead using the resources that went to those extra Batman comics (shipping, advertising, paper, ink, editors, pencillers, inkers, colourists, writers) into introducing and pushing lesser-known properties.
Another examples. Marvel stops printing 4 Avengers titles and cuts it down to just one. Sales take a hit. Avengers movie is still in the works which is going to make a ridiculous amount of money. Marvel instead put out 3 books revolving around the Runaways (The Runaways are a bunch of new characters which were very interesting (in my opinion) which had a very very good opening and were well received by fans), Runaways may sell really well, it may not, but the potential for a new franchise (which means more underwear, cartoons and movies) is raised which may make Marvel more money in the long term.
Obviously this makes no sense as far as making an impact on the month to month sales. But DC and Marvel should be less concerned about month to month sales and more concerned about running out of intellectual property. After they make the Avengers movie where do Marvel go from their as far as movies are concerned? I could maybe see movies for Ant-man, Deadpool and a few more sequels/reboots but how much more do they really have? They could dip into Icon stuff but that only has Powers (and soon Casanova and Scarlet)
You could make an argument that they should try and promote books based on what movies are going to come out. But movies dont impact the sales of comics that much and the big 2 (at least DC) know this. "Batman R.I.P" is a storyline that came out during the time of TDK and is pretty much the opposite of that film (half way through the story Batman becomes a drug-addled hobo who thinks the city is talking to him (this storyline was awesome btw))
Or maybe DC and Marvel just think that the ideas behind all 9 of their Batman titles and all 4 of their Avengers titles are so rich that they just have to share them with the world....