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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2019 23:44:04 GMT -5
When I went to the comic shop nearest me to look for the new Conan books, they didn't sell new comics any more. Only back issues. Here's what Chuck Rozanski, the founder of Mile High Comics has to say about new comics and the over-reliance of the modern comic shop on Diamond. icv2.com/articles/columns/view/43436/business-3x3-special-edition-chuck-rozanski-mile-high-comicsHere's an excerpt: 2019 IS 1974 AGAIN.
"The big topic of conversation we have these days is about life without new comics. Looking at the trend lines, the print runs declining… we just wonder when the point will come where critical mass is lost. I think that’s sort of the 800-pound gorilla that everyone has sitting on their shoulders that nobody talks about. Because nobody wants to be the first one to say, ‘Hey, this could all fall apart.’ When I bought Jason St., our giant, gigantic building, our plan right from the beginning was to turn it into a collectibles center that did not sell new comics. And I was beaten over the head by my staff to carry new books. And I guess on some level, I’m glad we did. But new comics in Jason St. are about 20, maybe 25 percent of our business. That’s up from about 10 percent last year, but only because we closed two smaller stores and a lot of those pull boxes pulled over to Jason.
"We run our business much more on the model that existed in 1974 when I opened my first store. We act as a secondary market for pop culture collectibles of all kinds—comic books, action figures, statues, trade paperbacks, posters, and so on. We seek to be the secondary market for pretty much anything you can name in the pop culture realm. That’s proved to be extremely successful for us. Our sales last month were up 51% month to month. I would question how many retailers can look at their business right now and say, ‘Oh, we’re up 50%!’ But that’s because everyone is clinging to a dead model.
"They are all trying to be Diamond Previews’ catalog outlet store. And they are taking the lazy man’s version of being a comic dealer, which is to just sit there and turn in order forms that other people have turned in to you.
"We’re selling waaaay more in terms of backstock than we are in new comics in the store. And the secondary market for toys, POP! figures, whatever, as long as you buy and have the space to display it—again, it comes back to space!—what I have proven with Jason St. is that you can be in a God-awful industrial area in the middle of nowhere and still become a destination for an entire city if you have enough cool shit.
"But the key is not to be just out there working… for… Diamond! I mean, if you’re working for Diamond all day long… my Diamond invoice used to be as high as $60,000 a week. Screeeeeeeeew that! That was moronic. And I am proud—proud!—to say that I have dropped that enormously and I’m working to drop that even more because I don’t want to be in that business. Now when you’re buying a $5 comic book and your cost is $2 and change, it’s worth 25 cents if you don’t sell it in 30 days. Your risk and your loss are enormous. We have to get away from this model.
"And I helped pioneer this model back when the direct market was first getting going, I’m the one who got Marvel to open their distribution back in 1979, 1980. All of that was premised on comic books that were 40 and 50 cents cover price, with a residual value of a buck as a back issue. There really was no risk if you didn’t sell them. No matter what, you’d make your money. Now today, back issues still sell for a buck, but your wholesale cost is more than double what your residual value is. This is idiotic.
"Almost every part of this economic model right now is bad. I am so glad that I put away 10 million back issues… and I don’t have to worry about it any more. I am really a hoarder. My greatest goal every day is to go to bed with more stuff that when I woke up that day. And it almost always works out. We acquire constantly. At Jason St., it’s not uncommon for us to acquire 15 collections in a day. Okay? Whether I sell them or not is highly irrelevant to me. I have to sell enough to cover the cost, I guess, but with 10 million books in stock, it’s not like I’m not going to have something to sell tomorrow. I could sell 1000 comics a day for 27 years and still have a lot to sell."
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Post by terryallenuk on Jul 5, 2019 14:54:45 GMT -5
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Post by Jason Aiken on Jul 5, 2019 18:22:07 GMT -5
Interesting. I had no idea Diamond had its own book distributor, let alone all Image Comics graphic novels go through them before anyone can buy them on Amazon and Barnes and Noble included. That's nuts they were all sold through Diamond Books.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2019 10:57:30 GMT -5
Dan Didio is kinda disappointed at the popularity of the Facsimile Editions reprinting old comics from 30/40 years ago - according to this article at Newsarama Didio wants fans to pick up more of the new stuff “We do these Facsimile Editions where we reprint older issues of comics including all the old ads and stuff…and in some cases these are selling more than the new comics with these characters. People are more interested in buying the stories from 30 or 40 years ago than the contemporary stories, and that’s a failure on us,"
Dan Didio. Link: www.newsarama.com/46103-dc-co-publisher-expresses-frustration-with-popular-facsimile-editions.html
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Post by Jason Aiken on Jul 21, 2019 12:49:08 GMT -5
Dan Didio is kinda disappointed at the popularity of the Facsimile Editions reprinting old comics from 30/40 years ago - according to this article at Newsarama Didio wants fans to pick up more of the new stuff “We do these Facsimile Editions where we reprint older issues of comics including all the old ads and stuff…and in some cases these are selling more than the new comics with these characters. People are more interested in buying the stories from 30 or 40 years ago than the contemporary stories, and that’s a failure on us,"
Dan Didio. Link: www.newsarama.com/46103-dc-co-publisher-expresses-frustration-with-popular-facsimile-editions.htmlDidio's termination is long overdue. I've been calling for it for a decade now.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Aug 8, 2019 22:38:36 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2019 0:14:42 GMT -5
I think the real problem with digital sales is that it relies too much on the existing customer base - I'd imagine, most customers are usually collectors that want to get rid of all those boxes they've accumulated over the years or old collectors that have sold their collection. Or former collectors that live too far from a comic shop.
It's hard enough trying to find new customers for the physical comics.
But, with digital comics, they work as an animatic without a timeline. Again, I'd imagine, to a new customer digital comics are not as engaging as an animation or video game based on the same characters.
For now, they'll have to be published alongside the physical books.
It'd be nice to get some of the actual sales figures on digital.
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Post by johnnypt on Aug 9, 2019 6:28:41 GMT -5
When i read these stories, first thing that went through my mind was people WANT to read that old material and don’t want to read what you’re putting out now. This will lead to absolutely no reflection on their part regarding their current output and more castigating of the audience they ostensibly want to spend money on their product Not sure how Marvel is doing digital but I see a whole lot more outreach on their part.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2019 0:34:54 GMT -5
Found this article a couple of days ago. I dunno, this is no real surprise, anyways here's the article below by Rob Salkowitz at Forbes. Is extinction near for comic-book superheroes? New publishing data suggests reader tastes are changing.MARVEL/DISNEY
Surprising New Data Shows Comic Readers Are Leaving Superheroes Behindwww.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2019/10/08/surprising-new-data-shows-comic-readers-are-leaving-superheroes-behind/?fbclid=IwAR1XUn8fErQsUtcVyAw9Mnu6QxNV9itvcLkuQYQf8Jz_qnfu0bB83pjMYXo#35be23aa4d68A day after New York Comic Con put an exclamation mark on the media dominance that superheroes exert over today’s entertainment and popular culture, data was shared in a private industry conference indicating that a massive shift in the comics publishing industry has reached a tipping point. For the first time that anyone can remember, superheroes are being outsold in their native medium – American comic books and graphic novels – by other kinds of content, notably kid-oriented fare and Japanese (or Japanese-inspired) manga.
The sales trends behind this shift were laid out by longtime industry analyst Milton Griepp at a conference organized by his company ICv2 (disclosure: I am a contributor to ICv2 and participated in the conference), held at Pace University in downtown New York. ICv2, in conjunction with metrics site Comichron, gathers market data on the North American comics industry, tracking sales of periodicals, trade books (aka “graphic novels,”) and download-to-own digital comics.
Sizing the market for comics has become a complicated process. After comic books vanished from newsstands in the early 1980s, nearly all periodical comic books were sold through a network of independently-owned retail comic shops. The comics are distributed through a single firm, Diamond, in an arrangement known as the “direct market.” Because this inventory is non-returnable, the number of copies ordered and shipped to comic stores are counted as sales, even if they do not sell through to customers at retail.
Graphic novels are sold in the direct market and also to trade book stores, with consumer sales tracked through the book industry standard system Bookscan, now owned and managed by media metrics firm The NPD Group. Together, about 90% of comics and graphic novels in North America are sold through book stores or comic stores, with 9% going through digital services like Amazon’s Kindle or the Amazon-owned comiXology, and about 1% sold on newsstands or through Kickstarter.
ICv2 has estimated the total value of this market at $1.095 billion in the US and Canada in 2018, up modestly from 2017’s $1.015 billion. North American Comic Sales through 2018, as calculated by ICv2 and ComicChronCOMICHRON/ICV2Typically, increases in the overall market are driven by the comic industry’s two largest companies, Marvel (owned by Disney), and DC (a part of AT&T’s WarnerMedia group), which both publish corporate-owned superhero comics almost exclusively and together account for about 80% of all comics sold through the direct market. But for the last several years, the trade book channel has become an increasingly significant driver of revenue, gaining double-digit year over year increases as comic store sales have declined. ICv2 estimates that bookstore sales accounted for $465M in 2018, compared to $510M in the direct market. When you add in the digital and other channels, direct market sales fell under 50% of the total for the first time since comic shops overtook newsstand distribution in the early 1980s. While comic shops tend to focus on longtime fans - often older readers who grew up on and collect superhero comics – mass-market bookstores sell to everyone, including younger readers and those outside of traditional comics fandom. Consequently, the books that are selling in bookstores are, generally, not superhero-oriented. According to Bookscan data shared at the conference, kid-oriented comics and graphic novels account for a whopping 41% of sell-through at bookstores; manga is 28%. Superhero content is less than 10%, down 9.6% year-over-year. US Comic and Graphic Novel share by Category, YTD 9/21/19, shared by NPD Group/Bookscan at ICv2 Conference, October 7, 2019.THE NPD GROUPThat trend away from capes and cowls is also starting to be reflected even within the more insular comic store market with the arrival of a more diverse audience with different tastes. ICv2 notes a massive shift in the past two years, with kid-oriented titles for readers age 6-18 up 20% in comic store sales and 39% in bookstores, manga up 41% in comics stores and 5% in bookstores, while superhero graphic novels (typically collections of previously-issued periodicals) fell 10% in bookstores and 15% in comic shops.
Though full-year 2019 data is not yet available, it’s clear that the popularity of younger-reader material has accelerated with the unprecedented success of Dav Pilkey’s latest Dog Man graphic novel (initial print run: 5 million) and YA graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier’s latest, Guts, rocketing to the top of the overall best seller list in its first week of release.
Meanwhile, despite the media dominance of superheroes on every screen, the superhero side of the publishing business has been mired in a slump, outside of a few isolated successes like Marvel’s new X-Men relaunch, sporadic DC releases like Doomsday Clock and landmark issues of long-running series.
As Griepp pointed out in his presentation, the sales of superhero-oriented trade books generally follow the trends of periodicals by about 12-18 months (the usual time it takes for publishers to issue collected editions of recent storylines), so those numbers are likely to be even worse when 2019 data is tabulated. Superhero-adjacent genres like horror and science fiction also saw a slump in trade sales with the declining popularity of longtime best-seller The Walking Dead and the breakout series Saga on a publishing hiatus.
Meanwhile, sales of Asian-style manga – already one of the decade’s fastest-growing content categories – have benefited from the availability of animated series on streaming networks like Hulu and Netflix. Another presenter at the conference, NPD Executive Director of Business Development Kristen McLean, shared data showing a clear correlation between binge-watching of popular anime series and subsequent purchase of related manga content.
When you put all that together, it paints a stark picture. Superheroes represent a declining share of the fastest-growing segments and channels of the comics market. They still dominate in single-issue sales in comic shops, but both single issues as a format and comic shops as a channel represent a much smaller and shrinking share of the overall market than has been the case in years’ past.
Disney and AT&T are probably not losing too much sleep over this. The worldwide box office of a single, average-grossing superhero blockbuster feature is as large as the entire comics publishing industry, and the profits on mega-hits like Avengers: Endgame or Joker can buy and sell the entire book and periodical market several times over. Genre comic creators will see a bigger paycheck from an unexercised media option than they will from a best-selling comic book, and most artists on popular titles can earn more on commissions and sales of originals than they’ll get in royalties from reprints and trade collections.
Nevertheless, superheroes have been the dominant genre in American comics since the 1960s and are still the first thing a lot of people think of when they think of comics. Now that’s changing, the culmination of a decade-long market trend and a demographic shift in the audience for graphic literature. The change may not be obvious in the media culture for a while, but it’s coming soon to a bookshelf near you.
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Post by Von K on Oct 10, 2019 9:15:50 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that overview Hun.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2019 0:44:46 GMT -5
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson: “We Have No Sacred Cows” in Our Portfolio Rumors AT&T will sell DC Comics received serious bolstering when CEO Randall Stephenson declared no asset is a sacred cow during a call with investors.
Reports and rumors that WarnerMedia parent company AT&T might sell DC Comics once they review their assets were bolstered this week by the company itself. On its third-quarter conference call with investors, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, they went over a new three-year vision. During that call, CEO and Chairman of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, stated every business is subject to individual assessment and there are “no sacred cows” amongst corporate holdings: “We’re committed to an objective, diligent and disciplined process. We’ll analyze the merits of each of our businesses individually and as a part of the whole. But let me be clear, we have no sacred cows.”
Wanna read more? www.themix.net/2019/10/att-ceo-randall-stephenson-we-have-no-sacred-cows-in-our-portfolio/
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Post by lordyam on Oct 31, 2019 0:16:00 GMT -5
Not a surprise. Bob Harras (the current DC Editor in Chief) was head of Marvel just before it went to shit. Among other things he also keeps Scott Lobdell on the payroll despite him being a sexual predator. But in any case the issue is that competition is needed. If any one thing (be it a political party or whatever) has no competition than it will get corrupt and complacent. That's what happened with superhero comics. They got complacent and they resisted REAL change (characters never have their stories end unless there are REALLY special circumstances and they don't try new ideas as much). Now in fairness there are times when changes can be dumb (a lot of the attempts in the 90s were just shit) and some of the older stuff was good or had underlying good potential, but when you get down to it you evolve or you die/fade into irrelevance. Green Lantern REALLY got popular in comics after Geoff Johns revamps it and introduces new elements like the light emotion spectrum, the entities, the other corps and makes every event a chapter in an ongoing saga rather than just the next big event. Essentially Superheroes have been without competition for so long that they got sloppy and just kept using the same tired crap over and over again.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2019 1:35:15 GMT -5
Dan Didio is kinda disappointed at the popularity of the Facsimile Editions reprinting old comics from 30/40 years ago - according to this article at Newsarama Didio wants fans to pick up more of the new stuff “We do these Facsimile Editions where we reprint older issues of comics including all the old ads and stuff…and in some cases these are selling more than the new comics with these characters. People are more interested in buying the stories from 30 or 40 years ago than the contemporary stories, and that’s a failure on us,"
Dan Didio. Any idea if these Facsimile Editions feature recoloured artwork? ...... I dunno exactly how they reproduce these editions. The DC books looks good, they do no use glossy paper for the interiors like Marvel. Here's a look at a classic Neal Adams Batman issue. This is not the greatest video but it kinda gives you a rough idea of what the Facsimile Editions look like.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 12:15:31 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 8, 2019 12:36:11 GMT -5
This recent tweet by Orbital sounds a little more promising:
Orbital Comics
As you may have heard Orbital Comics will no longer be having new comics on the shelf, Allowing us to concentrate on our strengths such as back issues, our gallery, events etc. We are however still offering a standing order subscription service (call the shop for details)
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