Image is "different" in the sense that the creators themselves are in complete charge of whether or not their books sell, and if they don't, there's no one else to blame. All Image "owns" is the Image "I" and the name itself

Valiant is "Marvel" done correctly for a more modern era, same with IDW in terms of it's licensed properties

Marvel and DC put their eggs in the big name brand characters now because that's what sells. It's not lack of faith in the other characters, it's lack of sales. Retailers don't order them, end customers don't buy them. If Black Knight was moving 50K units each month, it would have stuck around, but when your top tier characters barely move 50K units a month, there is no room for a mid-tier character because it doesn't sell enough to maintain profitability.

Likewise, you may like Valiant and think they are doing it right, but their best selling titles barely crack the 10K threshold, so the market is not responding to what they are doing at a level that will allow for growth or even long term viability.

It's not publishers that need to change, it's consumers. If second tier characters can't generate enough interest or revenue to sell 20K units 2-3 months into a run, then they are not viable in the marketplace. If people would buy them, Marvel and DC would be happy to make them and make money, but they can't make money if people don't buy them, and they don't. They only spend money on books that "matter" i.e. top tier characters and events. Until the consumer base changes their buying habits, Marvel and DC aren't going to modify their publishing slate. Point a finger at them all you want, there's 3 more pointing back at the retailers and consumer base who determines what sells and what doesn't.

-M

MRP, I'd say that it's both the fault of the publishers and the consumers, namely due to the outrageous price points of almost $5 that's probably going to only increase over time. In this economy where no one seems willing to budge or give people a break, it doesn't particularly instill confidence in people to try something "new and different" in favor of "what works"

This is why I think new series fair far better in the trade paperback market

The price point is an issue, but one thing to remember the publisher only gets $1 of that $4 cover price. Diamond buys it from the publisher for $1, sells it to retailers for $2 and retailers sell it for $4 minus whatever discount they offer to pull customers. There has to be profit at every level of distribution and each issue makes very little for the publishers.

The biggest cause of the cover price is the fact comics are a niche market and suffer the negative effects of economy of scale. If more copies were selling, they would cause less per copy to produce (printing is especially harsh in this matter) and they could make less per copy and still generate enough revenue to be viable because there would be higher volumes of units producing revenue. But the comic buying market is a niche market. Niche product prices are always more than mass market products of a similar nature because of the economy of scale. The problem is that people refuse to accept that comics are now a niche market. Fans/current customers won't accept the kind of changes it would take to allow comics to become a mass market product again. Super-heroes are certainly a mass market product now, but the iteration of them as a product called a comic book is not. The average comic book moves about 20K units (if you only count big 2 the average moves up a little bit but not much). In a country with a population of over 250 million people, comics can't move 25K units on average, i.e. less than .01% of the population buys a copy of the average comic book in the U.S. And that is inflated because not every copy sold form Diamond to a retailer winds up in the hands of an end customer either.

Comics aren't going to get cheaper unless more people will buy them. More people won't buy them because they are too expensive. That's why niche markets keep getting smaller. It happens with hobby products all the time. Unless they can somehow break through to the mass market (it does happen rarely, but oftentimes those breakthroughe are more fads than long term sustainable products). Comics had a very long run as a mass market product, but then they insulated themselves as a specialty product sold only in destination shops, and had a long rung as a viable product in that format-however, that has run its course as the general model for product purchase has changed around the industry and they haven't kept up with the times (digital comics notwithstanding-they added the format but not the business and pricing structure necessary to be competitive with non-niche or even other niche products in that format).

Again, if comics were selling more, they would be cheaper. They don't sell more. Who's fault is that? Maybe the publishers, but only because they are making the decision to maintain the formats, frequencies, etc. that the core hardcore audience wants so as not to lose them. The publishers are not blameless for certain, but it is the peccadilloes of that hardcore audience and their refusal to accept change to the formats and frequencies of the way they consume their super-hero comics that is at the heart of the issue.

In business it's evolve or die. Comic book publishing is a business. The rest of the publishing business has evolved around them to adapt to cultural and market shifts. The comic publishing business maintains its dinosaur formats and frequencies because that's what the remnant of their once much larger customer base demands to keep purchasing what products they produce. The time when they needed to change is in the rear view window. Now they have to play catch up if they are going to change, and the remaining audience is too small and the thing they had to sell (super-hero stories that appeal to the masses) has taken off in other media so the mass market may not see a need for the comics themselves to get what they want.

As I have pointed out before (and the op noted) there is growth in other areas of the comic industry-books like Walking Dead and Saga keep growing their audience-for different reasons to be sure, but both are growing the audience with a long term publishing plan with trades, hardcover collected deluxe editions, omnibus that allow those interested in the 1 story they are telling to catch up as the story moves along towards its ENDING. And both will have a complete story to sell that ha been told to capture future audiences and keep that story of interest to future consumers.

For the most part the stories that thrive in the market long term are either

1) stories that stand on their own with a beginning middle and end, no matter how long it took to tell the story initially, when it's done it's a whole thing

2) series of stories featuring the same characters but where each story is its own thing and doesn't require the other stories to be known o enjoy (the model for things like Asterix, Tintin, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, etc. that have sold over long windows of time) and each story has its own beginning middle and ENDING.

Attempting to sell a never-ending serial where you have to keep up with every part of it over an extended number of years goes against everything that makes stories enduring and a viable in the long term. And that's exactly what continuity obsessed-comic book super-hero-fans want, and publishers are in a limbo trying to maintain enough of that to pleas those niche fans and provide something that can endure and thrive in a mass audience-and in trying to please both they are failing. Comic books sites are filled with hardcore fans bitching about ignoring continuity, changes to characters, Marvel & DC not doing things right, etc. and mass audiences look (if they can even find somewhere that there is a comic book to look at) at the morass of confusing non-story episodic installments (remember stories have endings and most comic sagas are never-ending) and aren't sure where to start or if it will ever reach a satisfying ending and just say the hell with it I can get a story about that character I am interested in on television or in a movie instead.

It's not the super-hero itself that is past its prime. It's the product that is/was the super-hero comic book. The remaining consumer base for it is not large enough to allow it to thrive, but resistant to any changes to the product itself. Publishers are caught between retaining its core consumer base, or offering a product that appeals to a mass audience in a manner that can reach that audience. There is no middle ground really because you get products that please neither and reach only a small fraction of the potential audience-and that is where Marvel and DC are today. Trying to put a pretty bow to attract the mass audience (with jumping on points, #1s, Rebirths, All New All Different, etc. etc.) on products that really only reach and appeal to the niche audience that remains hoping that the mass audience will find its way into a comic shop after seeing a tv show or movie, when really since 2000 with the first X-Men movie, that hasn't been happening all that much and when they do find their way in they don't find a product that engages them enough to make them ongoing customers. Instead they buy a trade or two and maybe a key back issue with a first appearance of a character they like but they don't become regular purchasers of the ongoing comics because it's not a product format that has any appeal to the mass audience.

Who's at fault? Those that won't accept change and allow for a transition or those who won't make the changes choosing to forsake the tiny old audience for the potential (no guarantees) of a newer bigger customer base? I think current editorial and suits at the publishers are too invested in what was to make the change, so focus on rearranging the marketshare of what's left with publishing initiatives that they hope this time will work (even though the last what dozen or so haven't really maybe this time will be different right?) But that hardcore audience hasn't changed, they just keep hoping if they hold on long enough things will go back to that halycon way they remember it (though the reality is not what they remember only the rose-colored nostalgic tinted version of it) because it worked then. The problem, now is not then, and what worked then isn't viable in today's market, business climate and economic reality, and cultural context. There's enough blame to go around for certain, but while everyone is pointing fingers, no one is actually dong anything to find real workable solutions to capitalize on the unprecedented popularity of superheroes and bring new audiences to a comic book product that could cash in on that popularity.

-M

However there is a core among the base of merchants i.e. the comic shop owners, who view the publishers branching out beyond the direct market as a violation of their business relationship and a betrayal by the publishers that will result in them losing their business, and they push back and order less whenever they hear of something like Wal Mart carrying trades or what have you, so you also have to balance the risk of losing your current vendors as you seek out new markets. Retailers are the end customer for publishers. They are the ones ordering and buying the books. The sales numbers you see is how many retailers bought, not readers. What they do with the books really doesn't matter, if the retailers sell or get stuck with them, the publishers still sold them and got their money. The retailer is the gatekeeper to the reader, Diamond is the gatekeeper to the retailer. Any decision a publisher makes has repercussions on those gatekeepers and has to be taken into consideration unless they are going to forsake the entire direct market for something new.

-M

Fans have to understand the wallet speaks louder than anything they say or post. If they don't vote with their wallet nothing will change. This means not buying series you are not enjoying (even if it means <gasp> breaking your run of every issue of those characters back to 1963)-if you keep buying crap, they'll keep making crap to sell even if you bitch and moan about how bad it is and how you want something else, if you keep buying it you are offering no incentive to change. If you don't like what a publisher is offering, stop buying it. And buy the things you believe deserve support (even if they are not books that "matter" the way the term is used today). Buying habits shape the market because the market is so small.

-M