Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 14:02:10 GMT -5
Interview pt. 1 of 2
Pt.2 will be tomorrow on CBR
No Image Expo for him to give a keynote speech but he still offers his insight on the industry in this 2 part interview.
Some nuggets from it...
when asked about Image's growth (up about 1/2 % in both units and dollars) in relation to the rest of the industry...
so after years of growth, we are seeing a slowdown again it seems except Star Wars and Image books...
when asked about the top 1000 single issue sales (We Stand on Guard #1 was Image's highest seller and was at #124 on the list) and if Image wanted to focus on growing single issue sales...
I bolded the last line for emphasis. We've talked about it here in other threads before, but yeah we're seeing more and more diminishing returns on these relaunches, it's played itself out and the big 2 need to come up with something else in their playbook. Now if only more hardcore customers would speak with their wallets against this stuff, they might listen. I think there's a dull murmuring whisper in the background with the diminishing returns, but the stuff is still selling enough to perpetuate the practices.
On what he thought were surprises this past year and his general impression of the last year's worth of output form the industry as a whole...
Bold added by me for emphasis. It's Sturgeon's law in effect, 90% of the books out there are crap or worse bland as he puts it, and because of the sheer volume of output, it drowns out the 10% worth looking for and makes it harder for that stuff to stand out on the shelves and make its way into the hands of readers. Retailers have a limited cash flow and stocking things for long term sales when they have so much capital tied up just ordering enough of the shit-ton of books each week to sell the week of release makes it hard to give books time to find an audience and grow. Add in capital tied up in meeting incentives for variants and other such stuff that they flip to generate revenue to pay their weekly Diamond bills, and it's not surprising to see why it's so hard to find the good stuff on their for the customer who is browsing and not making destination purchases via pull lists. When you put the onus on the customer to know ahead of time what to buy instead of putting out product that has shelf appeal, you are limiting your audience Most consumers (and most people) are lazy, the more you make them work to get your product, the less people will get your product. Comic consumers have to do crazy amounts of work sorting through solicitations, hype, etc. to find the stuff they want to read and tell the retailer to order it just to get a chance to be able to buy it and read it and possibly like it. Right there is one of your biggest obstacles to growth of comic sales outside the hardcore audience. It's too hard to find product you might like without knowing ahead of time what you want to buy.
He then highlights a number of upcoming Image projects he is excited about-check the interview if you're interested.
The last bit though-here I will quote the question and the answer...
Amen. Someone sees what's happening in the larger scheme of things and sees where they need to find the new readers, and create a new generation of readers. Comics should not be tailored to us old farts who have been reading them for decades, a few books fine, but the thrust should be in putting out comics that will create the next generation of life-long readers. They won't do that by appealing to those of us who were kids in the 50s, 60s 70s 80s or even 90s. They will do it by creating books that appeals to kids and young adults today.
Someone in the industry seems to have a clue and some vision. Too bad Stephenson seems to be the exception, not the standard.
-M
Pt.2 will be tomorrow on CBR
No Image Expo for him to give a keynote speech but he still offers his insight on the industry in this 2 part interview.
Some nuggets from it...
when asked about Image's growth (up about 1/2 % in both units and dollars) in relation to the rest of the industry...
Beyond that, though, yeah, you do have to look at the rest of the industry to get the bigger picture. Aside from Marvel -- who enjoyed a huge bump last year thanks to Star Wars -- DC was down over 3 percent in dollars and over 5 percent in units. Dark Horse was down over a point in both dollars and units. IDW was down slightly in dollars, up a half a point in units, and so on. I'd say we more than held our own during 2015.
so after years of growth, we are seeing a slowdown again it seems except Star Wars and Image books...
when asked about the top 1000 single issue sales (We Stand on Guard #1 was Image's highest seller and was at #124 on the list) and if Image wanted to focus on growing single issue sales...
I think I'd go even further there, honestly -- the list you're referring to is dominated by Marvel and more specifically, by Marvel first issues. Over three quarters of the top 100 is Marvel, and of Marvel's total, nearly half are first issues and nearly half are Star Wars. It's also interesting to look at "Bravest Warriors" #1 and "Orphan Black" #1 in the top five, without a single other issue from either series in Diamond's top 1,000. "We Stand On Guard" #1 may be our highest entry at #124, but all six issues of that miniseries made the chart, and I think that best underscores where we're at right now. If you combine that with our strong performance on the trade paperbacks and graphic novels chart, it becomes even clearer. Image is interested in readers. The practice of releasing new number one after new number one simply is not creating new readers, it's not growing the market, it's admitting that the books in question aren't successful enough to continue without being constantly relaunched, and the long-term result is that it diminishes enthusiasm amongst readers and damages the medium.Do we want to build our single issues sales? Of course we do, but we're not going to do it with retailer exclusive covers or pressuring accounts to qualify for outrageous incentives, we're not going to do it by inflating our numbers through Loot Crate variants and we're not going to do it by playing the relaunch/reboot/renumber game. I mean -- by all indications, DC's going to go that route again this year, and going back to the market share for 2015, I guarantee you it's not because they ended last year on a high note. Dropping 5 percent in units -- that's a sign there's something wrong, and the grim reality there is that it's going to take more than a slew of new number ones to make things better. What's the point of advertising a line's rebirth, when these superhero universes are reborn every few years? First, it was just a case of killing of characters and resurrecting them, now it's whole universes, again and again and again, and it's just leading everyone down a dead end road.
I bolded the last line for emphasis. We've talked about it here in other threads before, but yeah we're seeing more and more diminishing returns on these relaunches, it's played itself out and the big 2 need to come up with something else in their playbook. Now if only more hardcore customers would speak with their wallets against this stuff, they might listen. I think there's a dull murmuring whisper in the background with the diminishing returns, but the stuff is still selling enough to perpetuate the practices.
On what he thought were surprises this past year and his general impression of the last year's worth of output form the industry as a whole...
In terms of the industry as a whole… not a lot really. I mean, I'm not going to claim we don't have our share of misses along with the hits, or that there aren't things Image can do better -- but looking at the vast majority of comics that came out in 2015, it was just a pretty dull year. I don't think Star Wars was much of a surprise. Nostalgia is a powerful drug, and given the kind of talent involved, it would have only been surprising if those books hadn't done well. The fact that Star Wars is bolstering Marvel to such a great degree is more interesting to me than the actual comics, though, and I think that's one of the biggest problems with comics as a whole right now. Talking about comics and analyzing the industry has, by and large, become more interesting than a lot of the work being generated. And I know, there are going to be people out there with pitchforks saying that I'm claiming there aren't any good comics -- that is not what I'm saying. There are always good comics. There's too much great talent in this business for there not to be good comics, but I think the genuinely exciting new work is obscured somewhat by the sheer same-as-it-ever-was of it all. It's like the bland leading the bland, and there's just so much out there, it's hard to sort the good from the bad. I was talking to someone the other day who mentioned browsing new titles on comiXology and just how bland much of it was, the sameness of it all, and this was like the umpteenth person to voice that opinion to me. There's definitely a kind of malaise that's set in over the last year or so.
Bold added by me for emphasis. It's Sturgeon's law in effect, 90% of the books out there are crap or worse bland as he puts it, and because of the sheer volume of output, it drowns out the 10% worth looking for and makes it harder for that stuff to stand out on the shelves and make its way into the hands of readers. Retailers have a limited cash flow and stocking things for long term sales when they have so much capital tied up just ordering enough of the shit-ton of books each week to sell the week of release makes it hard to give books time to find an audience and grow. Add in capital tied up in meeting incentives for variants and other such stuff that they flip to generate revenue to pay their weekly Diamond bills, and it's not surprising to see why it's so hard to find the good stuff on their for the customer who is browsing and not making destination purchases via pull lists. When you put the onus on the customer to know ahead of time what to buy instead of putting out product that has shelf appeal, you are limiting your audience Most consumers (and most people) are lazy, the more you make them work to get your product, the less people will get your product. Comic consumers have to do crazy amounts of work sorting through solicitations, hype, etc. to find the stuff they want to read and tell the retailer to order it just to get a chance to be able to buy it and read it and possibly like it. Right there is one of your biggest obstacles to growth of comic sales outside the hardcore audience. It's too hard to find product you might like without knowing ahead of time what you want to buy.
He then highlights a number of upcoming Image projects he is excited about-check the interview if you're interested.
The last bit though-here I will quote the question and the answer...
Q: There has been an uptick in more young adult books at Image recently; "Paper Girls," "Monstress," "No Mercy" and "Plutona" all fit in the YA umbrella. In what ways is Image continuing to target this audience? Given that "Camp Midnight" and "Oddly Normal" are Image's FCBD offerings this years, how much is reaching even younger -- all-ages -- readers a priority?
A: It needs to be a priority for the Direct Market as a whole, I think, but yeah, it's something we talk about a lot here in the office. The Image staff is really passionate about expanding into that market -- our sales and marketing heads Corey Murphy and Kat Salazar especially -- and their enthusiasm for YA and all-ages material is pretty infectious. Beyond that, though, it's a growing part of not just the Direct Market, but the book market as a whole. Comics are a growing part of the book market, which is impressive given how other things are shrinking there, but even more so, there's a growing appetite for good all-ages and YA content. I think that's something Direct Market retailers could benefit from paying more attention to really, because there is most definitely money in that banana stand.
A: It needs to be a priority for the Direct Market as a whole, I think, but yeah, it's something we talk about a lot here in the office. The Image staff is really passionate about expanding into that market -- our sales and marketing heads Corey Murphy and Kat Salazar especially -- and their enthusiasm for YA and all-ages material is pretty infectious. Beyond that, though, it's a growing part of not just the Direct Market, but the book market as a whole. Comics are a growing part of the book market, which is impressive given how other things are shrinking there, but even more so, there's a growing appetite for good all-ages and YA content. I think that's something Direct Market retailers could benefit from paying more attention to really, because there is most definitely money in that banana stand.
Amen. Someone sees what's happening in the larger scheme of things and sees where they need to find the new readers, and create a new generation of readers. Comics should not be tailored to us old farts who have been reading them for decades, a few books fine, but the thrust should be in putting out comics that will create the next generation of life-long readers. They won't do that by appealing to those of us who were kids in the 50s, 60s 70s 80s or even 90s. They will do it by creating books that appeals to kids and young adults today.
Someone in the industry seems to have a clue and some vision. Too bad Stephenson seems to be the exception, not the standard.
-M
