I hear the strategy they were going for with the "W" on West Coast Avengers, but at the same time, you had Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Man, and Web of Spider-Man concurrent (and sometimes even additional stuff at times like say Untold Tales of Spider-Man) which seemed to work just fine.

I agree, and even if someone hadn't heard of the title before and known to look in "W", most times do you really go to the comic book shop and just look at one display shelf?

On sale 25 years ago today:






I miss the Essential line.

No. I’m the same if in a CD store, DVD store, bookstore, etc.

I remember once going to my LCS to pick up G.I. Joe. It was the only book I planned to buy that month, but even when I picked it up, I still - well, curiosity got the better of me - I browsed some other shelves.

Seems like there’s some dumbing down at times. I heard a rumour once that, prior to the 90s, publishers didn’t publish many books about wrestling because some assumed wrestling fans were illiterate. While wrestling books did exist prior to the 90s, it seems it was only the Rock’s autobiography that really made wrestling books a thing. I’d also heard that some advertisers were reluctant to advertise during wrestling shows because of assumptions about fans (fans come in all shapes and sizes, and I’d wager most can read).

I’d heard rumours once that some UK publishers of annuals didn’t use the word “annual” because some assumed a minority of readers might not know what the word means.

If there is any truth in the above, the problem is with individuals making judgments about people’s literacy skills. And if it’s true that West Coast Avengers became Avengers West Coast because of assumptions about people not knowing where to find anything that began with a W, or because some people assumed folk would only look at one shelf, well that’s a little sad, I feel.

On the subject of the west coast, I think a location should always precede anything descriptive. If I was going to sell used cars, West Coast Automobiles would sound better than Automobiles West Coast. For any product, really. Just my view. Certainly, businesses in my city go for that, e.g Birmingham Indoor Market, or the Lichfield Tea Company (Tea Company Lichfield doesn’t sound as good).

The book part is true, except it was Mick Foley's book, which went to Number One, on the New York Times Bestseller List, that led to the explosion, not the Rock's.  Foley's was a great read and rightly praised, while the Rock's was obviously ghost written and had a stupid gimmick of switching between "reality" and being in character.  Foley wrote his own and spoke in his own voice.  He also did the audio, which was great.  However, publishers didn't feel there was much of a market for anything other than photo-centric books, because promoters kept kayfabe and the wrestlers weren't going to be honest.  There were assumptions about the audience not being big readers, rather than illiterate.  The same was true of NASCAR, until the first couple of books sold out.

Comic book publishers assumed that their audience turned over every 5 years or so and that did use to be true, as young kids discovered comics and older kids moved on to other things.  Then, fans became writers and artists and started catering more to fans  and more of them hung around longer.  Sadly, the by-product was the idea that little kids comics weren't valuable so why bother with them, which lost them the new audience.  It got worse when fans became retailers and wouldn't stock kids comics and were outright hostile to young kids in their stores, in more than a few cases I witnessed.

Branding is hardly an exact science and you are kind of comparing apples and oranges, in a couple of examples there.  With West Coast Avengers, the emphasis, regardless of how you configure the title, is on "Avengers."  That is what they are selling.  With West Coast Automobiles. you are emphasizing the "West Coast" brand.  Automobiles are generic, while West Coast is specific, but Avengers is the specific product in that situation, with West Coast being a descriptive modifier.  Personally, I think West Coast Avengers sounds better; but, since they never get around to saying what they are avenging, it's all a bit silly, anyway.  At least you knew the Defenders were defending something, and the X-Men were "Xavier's Men (sorry gals).  The Avengers were just called Avengers because Wasp thought it sounded cool and all of the guys wanted to date her, so they went along with it.