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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2015 0:05:36 GMT -5
Oh how times have changed-
From an editorial response to a letter in the letter column of Warlord #71, cover dated July 1983...in response to an inquiry about Warlord team ups with DC heroes, in particular Batman...
Maybe someone needs to get the powers that be at DC/Warner to read this. Better yet, someone should get the people ordering and buying the books to read this and understand it.
-M
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Post by Action Ace on Dec 1, 2015 0:38:22 GMT -5
since we don't have a 32 years ago thread...
DC COMICS April 1983
* denotes comics bought by 13 year old me back in the day in one of my last months as a frequent comic buyer
I own these
Action Comics #545*
Adventure Comics #501
All-Star Squadron #23*
Batman #361
Brave and the Bold #200
Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #17*
DC Comics Presents #59 *
DC Comics Presents Annual #2
Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #9
Detective Comics #528
Flash #323
Green Lantern #166
Justice League of America #216*
Legion of Super-Heroes #301 *
New Adventures of Superboy #43
New Teen Titans #33
Superman #385*
Wonder Woman #305
World's Finest #293*
18 superhero/ 1 humor (it could be argued that DC Comics Presents #59 with Ambush Bug running amok makes that ratio 17/2)
now for the ones I had/ have no interest...
Amethyst #3
Arak #23
Arion #9
Blackhawk #260
Camelot 3000 #6
Fury of Firestorm #14
GI Combat #255
Green Arrow #3
House of Mystery (featuring I... Vampire) #318
Jonah Hex #74
Night Force #12
Omega Men #4
Ronin #1
Saga of Swamp Thing #15
Sgt. Rock #378
Warlord #71
2 super hero (and probably my two least favorite super heroes at DC)/ 14 something else
For January 2016, it will be 26/26 in the superhero column.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 1, 2015 0:51:51 GMT -5
since we don't have a 32 years ago thread... DC COMICS April 1983 * denotes comics bought by 13 year old me back in the day in one of my last months as a frequent comic buyer I own these Action Comics #545* Adventure Comics #501 All-Star Squadron #23* Batman #361 Brave and the Bold #200 Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #17* DC Comics Presents #59 * DC Comics Presents Annual #2 Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #9 Detective Comics #528 Flash #323 Green Lantern #166 Justice League of America #216* Legion of Super-Heroes #301 * New Adventures of Superboy #43 New Teen Titans #33 Superman #385* Wonder Woman #305 World's Finest #293* 18 superhero/ 1 humor (it could be argued that DC Comics Presents #59 with Ambush Bug running amok makes that ratio 17/2) now for the ones I had/ have no interest... Amethyst #3 Arak #23 Arion #9 Blackhawk #260 Camelot 3000 #6 Fury of Firestorm #14 GI Combat #255 Green Arrow #3 House of Mystery (featuring I... Vampire) #318 Jonah Hex #74 Night Force #12 Omega Men #4 Ronin #1 Saga of Swamp Thing #15 Sgt. Rock #378 Warlord #71 2 super hero (and probably my two least favorite super heroes at DC)/ 14 something else For January 2016, it will be 26/26 in the superhero column. In '83 my family was too broke for me to buy comics (I didn't start buying comics again until '84-'85 when I was old enough to earn money outside the household. Looking at the listing and what I have now, my 14 year old self in '83 would have bought... Batman Brave & Bold Detective Flash GL JLA New Teen Titans so 7/19 on what you would have bought and Amethyst Arak Arion Green Arrow House of Mystery Jonah Hex Night Force Omega Men Ronin Swamp Thing Sgt. Rock Warlord so 12/16 you wouldn't have gotten. So offering a diverse line up helped them. For January it will be 0/26 in the super-hero column and the only thing I might get from them is a Vertigo title or two. If they offered more diverse books, they would get more of my money. So for every you there is buying it all, there's a lot more me these days not buying any, hence their constant shrinking market share and sales attrition on their numbers. There might have been a few of their super-hero books I kept buying, but they kept interfering with the story I was reading with stupid stuff intended to get me to buy the entire line to follow a story I was already reading, or to buy issues that had nothing to do with the story I was reading (hello Sept events)but were in place of what I had been buying. If any publisher gives me an all or nothing ultimatum, I will take nothing every single time. Let me find what I like and pick and choose, I will likely find something I want. Keep interrupting what I am buying with line wide stuff, you lose me. Every single time. I can easily find stuff I like form other publishers or buy old back issues featuring your characters where I can pick and choose. Either way, you're not getting my money because of your all or nothing approach and lack of diverse offerings. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2015 18:31:14 GMT -5
So DC's latest ploy-original sketches on blank covers inside the HArley Black book polybagged variants. BCDC won't comment but 2 have surfaced this week. Sketchcards in polybagged comics or trading card packs in the 90s all over again it seems. I can just picture bigtime retailers with lots of copies putting pinholes in polybags to see if they got one now. While in theory, it's cool for a random fan to get such a thing, the reality of the way the market works mean these will be hoarded and sniffed out by big retailers now that they know they are out there, and put up on ebay before they ever hit the shelves. Or maybe I am just too cynical these days. I used to be so hopeful about the industry. -M |
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Post by Action Ace on Dec 3, 2015 21:05:46 GMT -5
Or maybe I am just too cynical these days. I used to be so hopeful about the industry. -M When was that? 1988? |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2015 21:15:28 GMT -5
Or maybe I am just too cynical these days. I used to be so hopeful about the industry. -M When was that? 1988? I was hopeful about the industry into the early 2000s, the growth or trades, experimentation with content and format were making things look on the upswing, the proliferation of genres and growth of quality indy books, small press, etc. offered variety, and the excesses of the 90s speculation boom and the Image boys stranglehold on the style of comics seemed to be a distant memory...then came a new wave of variant covers, the big 2 shedding fringe books and different genres to focus on core super-heroes, the adaptation of rigid house styles, tentpole comics and all sorts of things that screamed we learned nothing from the failures of the past and the comic buying pulic swallowing all that castor oil down like it was ice cream and shouting please sir can we have some more...and hope uttered its death rattle. I still see some hope in the industry as a whole, but its not coming from the big 2. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 4, 2015 12:32:21 GMT -5
I think the industry is doing pretty well right now, actually... the 'idea' of comics is probably more popular than ever before, even is sales don't quite reflect it.
I agree that variant covers and renumbering schemes are bad news, but I think that stuff will die off after not too much longer... it's not like that stuff holds its value at all.
I think the secret sketch covers are more a treat than a outrageous marketing ploy... if it was the latter, they'd be crying it from the rooftops, rather than doing it and not mentioning it.
Or, it could be a test, to see if people are into it (after all, lots of action figures are in packs where you don't know what you'd getting these days), and NEXT TIME they'll market the crap out of it... that'd make me a bit sad.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 4, 2015 13:51:47 GMT -5
I still see some hoe in the industry as a whole, but its not coming from the big 2. -M Is it just me or does this sound smutty to anybody else? Cei-U! I summon the out-of-context humor! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 16:06:31 GMT -5
I think the industry is doing pretty well right now, actually... the 'idea' of comics is probably more popular than ever before, even is sales don't quite reflect it. I agree that variant covers and renumbering schemes are bad news, but I think that stuff will die off after not too much longer... it's not like that stuff holds its value at all. I think the secret sketch covers are more a treat than a outrageous marketing ploy... if it was the latter, they'd be crying it from the rooftops, rather than doing it and not mentioning it. Or, it could be a test, to see if people are into it (after all, lots of action figures are in packs where you don't know what you'd getting these days), and NEXT TIME they'll market the crap out of it... that'd make me a bit sad. Those variants and renumbering account for about a third of all comic sales (the typical drop off from issues that have variants to ones that don't and drops from first to 4th issue sales of series), so I don't see them going away anytime soon as I don't see publishers kissing away 33% of their sales, unless retailers stop ordering them and they aren't seeing any slowdown in demand for them so they won't until long after demand has disappeared. And they are not shouting it out loud as a marketing ploy as BC noted because there are laws against that kind of lottery reward system in a lot of states if you advertise it. I still see some hoe in the industry as a whole, but its not coming from the big 2. -M Is it just me or does this sound smutty to anybody else? Cei-U! I summon the out-of-context humor! I am the king of typos. Long may I rule.  -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 4, 2015 20:08:46 GMT -5
Just because gimmicks are 1/3 of sales doesn't mean sales would go down 33% if they stopped them...I think alot of people with pull lists have a budget, and pretty much spend to it. I think the main effect of the marketing nonsense is that there's this huge division between the top few books and the rest.... I'd like to think if they cut it out sales would be a more gradual slope between titles, but overall would be in the same neighborhood.
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Post by Arthur Gordon Scratch on Dec 4, 2015 20:22:38 GMT -5
Just because gimmicks are 1/3 of sales doesn't mean sales would go down 33% if they stopped them...I think alot of people with pull lists have a budget, and pretty much spend to it. I think the main effect of the marketing nonsense is that there's this huge division between the top few books and the rest.... I'd like to think if they cut it out sales would be a more gradual slope between titles, but overall would be in the same neighborhood. Hmmm... From my perspective and the ones from my comic buyer friends, that's not true. OUr comics budget is highly flexible. I'm happy when there's less than 20 books a month I want to buy, but if there's 50, I'll manage, do some extra work or sell something to afford it if it's above my average budget. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2015 23:37:40 GMT -5
Just because gimmicks are 1/3 of sales doesn't mean sales would go down 33% if they stopped them...I think alot of people with pull lists have a budget, and pretty much spend to it. I think the main effect of the marketing nonsense is that there's this huge division between the top few books and the rest.... I'd like to think if they cut it out sales would be a more gradual slope between titles, but overall would be in the same neighborhood. It's retailer orders not customer sales that determine sales levels. Stop gimmicks and retailers cut back to just pull and shelf sales not incentives, and that's the level you see on issues w/o gimmicks, which is 1/3 less than gimmicks on average. DC sells to Diamond who sells to retailers. Sales to actual end custoemrs are an afterthought in this game, because once DC and Diamond sell them, it's game over non-returnable. Give retailers a resaon to order 1/3 less even though their customer sales won't drop, and they will. They order up for the variants they can sell to end customers, not order up to get more copies of books on hand. Cut the incventives, they cut orders and still keep the same level of sales to customers, just without the variants, but the net result is DC and Diamond sell 1/3 less books. Customers and their pull lists are almost irrelevant to retailer orders where variants and incentives are part of the equation. If I have 20 pulls for Flash and sell 5 shelf copies, I order 27. If there is a 1 in 25 variant and 1 in 50 variant, I order 50 if I can sell those 3 for a profit even though I only sell 25 copies of the book. Remove those variants, I order 27 copies not 50, that a big drop without 1 less customer with a pull list buying the book. And I am not going to order 20 more copies of something else to make the difference. I was never going to sell those 20 books but I was going to sell the variants. Without the variants to sell, there's no reason for me to spend the money on those 20 books. That's a net loss for DC without losing a single reader. -M |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 6, 2015 19:51:07 GMT -5
Is it just me, or is Dick Grayson EVERYWHERE since he's been dead. You've got his own book, Eternal, Titans Hunt, Midnighter, Starfire next month, I'm sure he'll be involved in Robin War... kinda crazy for a guy who by all reports was almost killed off.
Also, how does it make sense that a super-secret-supposed-to-be-dead spy wears a little badge with his initial on it? It hurts my brain every time i see it.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Dec 6, 2015 20:41:33 GMT -5
Is it just me, or is Dick Grayson EVERYWHERE since he's been dead. You've got his own book, Eternal, Titans Hunt, Midnighter, Starfire next month, I'm sure he'll be involved in Robin War... kinda crazy for a guy who by all reports was almost killed off. Also, how does it make sense that a super-secret-supposed-to-be-dead spy wears a little badge with his initial on it? It hurts my brain every time i see it. It doesn't seem that over the top, I always thought it was just a spiral and I had to break out an issue and really look at it to see the G. I mean, now that I've been made aware of it I can certainly see it...but it's not really viable in a way that is really in your face in the way that say Robin's R is or the crests of Batman and Superman.  And with the way hypnos works it's not as if anyone would really see it anyway. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2015 20:52:58 GMT -5
Is it just me, or is Dick Grayson EVERYWHERE since he's been dead. You've got his own book, Eternal, Titans Hunt, Midnighter, Starfire next month, I'm sure he'll be involved in Robin War... kinda crazy for a guy who by all reports was almost killed off. Also, how does it make sense that a super-secret-supposed-to-be-dead spy wears a little badge with his initial on it? It hurts my brain every time i see it. He's just taking tips form Batman, Wolverine and Spider-Man how to be everywhere all the time. It's a comic tradition! Persoanlly I think he's competing with Harley Quinn for face time now -M |
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