Marvel Comics blabbery

I have the suspicion someone noticed that sales go up for an issue #1, then diminish a little, and in the face of lower sales the proclamation was to put "#1" on as many things as possible

even the series that aren't getting renumbered have had a "#1" somewhere on the cover lately, whether it's an indicator an event is over, new creative team, etc

it's impressive this isn't the dumbest thing about marvel's sales tactics

the other thing that blows my mind is the lack of cross-sales. the "agents of shield" tv show is still running, they've put analogues of the characters in a comics series, and I've never seen any "follow the further adventure of Agent May this month in the comic!" promos. ever!

The synergy between the Marvel media divisions is...lacking, generally speaking. But I'm happy to blame any and all tv-related shortcomings on Jeph Loeb.

the other thing that blows my mind is the lack of cross-sales. the "agents of shield" tv show is still running, they've put analogues of the characters in a comics series, and I've never seen any "follow the further adventure of Agent May this month in the comic!" promos. ever!

Srsly -- almost everyone has an iPad; millions of ppl must be fans of the Marvel movies & TV shows who have never read a comic... I'd think Marvel would be pushing the h-e-l-l out of the comics. This is their big chance to expand the readership, right? But it's like someone has done the math and figured it's not worth trying. If new readers are coming in, where do they come from? How are comics marketed these days... do kids just stumble on them, or get initiated by older friends / family members? I have no idea.

G. Willow Wilson mentioned something key in that linked article - the direct comics market/Marvel/DC etc. generally ignore the huge rise of YA/teen/female-oriented comics, similar to manga a while back. At my local library, Raina Telgemeier's books are very popular. Another source is, frankly, tons of licensed stuff from TV and movie properties like LEGO, Batman, Star Wars, etc., and Marvel is cashing in on the kids' MCU tie-ins like Guardians and Avengers AFAICT, though I don't know the sales numbers.

The iPad thing is a conundrum because Marvel doesn't think digital comics sales count as comics sales. Even day-of, same price as in the store sales. I think it's out of solidarity with the direct market store owners and some sort of notion that those are the sales that "count" but it's ridiculous. They supposedly don't count digital when it comes to deciding which series to continue or collect in trade paperback, only paper monthlies.

Which makes even less sense when it comes to the licensed cartoons, because nearly every one of my friends' kids has access to a tablet of some sort and a kid wanting to read more Spider-Man adventures after watching the show seems like a win

holy crap that is eye-burningly stupid

Yeah, we're probably looking at an impending implosion of the marketplace on par with the music industry's inability to recognize the ways in which technology adulterates consumption.

All else aside, selling digital comics for the same price as the floppies is batshit. And unsustainable, I would think.

marvel's digital all-you-can-eat subscription is the one smart thing they're doing better than anyone else in the industry but yeah their (and basically everyone's) handling of e-comics is a disaster.

Could be very wrong but I've got a vague feeling that they don't want to advertise their comics after the tv shows because people might be grossed out and think "ewww, I'll watch a show based on them but I'm not going near that shit".

Yeah, you could be very wrong.

I had heard Marvel doesn't show its logo at the start of Legion because they didn't want viewers to pre-judge the show. That's a very different thing obviously but I just think maybe some viewers would find the comics offputting.
Does DC advertise their comics?

No, I see that. People like superheroes but think they're above the comics, or just aren't interested. Loads of people at my work office talked about GotG and Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, but they were still a bit "Oho! A Children's Comic Book!" when I was reading Black Widow or something.

Which is fair! I like Expanse but I get bored reading sci-fi.

Also there is the larger problem that comic book covers and panels look kind of shitty and cheap and silly - on TV in a way that, say, animation doesn't.

people might be grossed out and think "ewww, I'll watch a show based on them but I'm not going near that shit".

If these people exist, they're presumably not in the audience for the comics in the first place?

Well if they're advertised after the tv shows they'll see them.

I'm going to need you to try that again.

???

You joking about a tv show based on literal shit? Like turds, feces?

You have lost me and that's fine.

But, anyway. If there's people who will see an ad after a TV show - and have presumably enjoyed it - and have the reaction you've described, then these aren't lost sales, are they? These are people who were never going to pick up the comic in the first place.

bottom line is that marvel cares about 1)movies, 2)television, 3)merch, 798,453) comics

I hear what Chuck's saying, and I'm not sure that physical comics are ever going to lose their unpleasant sheen - but selling an app with the same characters and similar writing should be doable.

Andrew- Maybe but I thought it's a possibility that a portion of the audience will be so embarrassed by the comics advert that they'll be put off the show. That would probably be a very small number but maybe that's what marvel would be scared of. Their comics cramping the style of the tv shows.

I'm just boggled that they don't consider digital revenue in their go no go assessments for ongoing series

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/books/marvel-comics-diversity-thor-hulk.html

<I>As Brian Hibbs, the owner of the two Comix Experience stores in San Francisco, said in an interview, Marvel has recently been experiencing a “massive sales slump” because of more basic factors: the frequent restarting of series with new No. 1 issues; fan fatigue over story lines that promise changes but fail to deliver; and the introduction of a deluge of new series. There is also the expense of comic collecting.</I>

Another interesting tidbit from that article: In February, Ms. Marvel, about Kamala Khan, a teenage Muslim girl living in Jersey City, sold an estimated 19,870 copies. It landed at 109 out of the top 300 comics for the month. But the series is known to be doing well digitally and with collected editions.

So not only does Marvel neglect to factor in digital sales (as discussed above), they also don't factor in TPB collections? And yet the "TV season" / story-arc format that they heavily favor for comics series these days, really lends itself to "waiting for the collection to come out." So they're shooting themselves in both feet.

it seems like i guess bc of the film contract marvel is dedicated to never putting out a good x-men comic ever again

I thought they were noting the book sales these days? Isn't that why 's Marvel was such a big success?

why MS Marvel is such a big success?

And yet the "TV season" / story-arc format that they heavily favor for comics series these days, really lends itself to "waiting for the collection to come out." So they're shooting themselves in both feet.

― morrisp, Friday, April 7, 2017 1:49 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This reminds me of another arena in which Marvel is flailing at the moment. Being the anal completest I am, I buy all of the MCU stuff when it's released on Blu-ray/DVD. Except Marvel has suddenly stopped issuing their shows on home video in the US. Thankfully, they're still available in region-free format from the UK, but...really?

tbh i can't shake irritation with the misrepresentation of David Gabriel's original comment, which seems to be a pretty clear "i will acknowledge that our valued retailers have told us that mouthbreathing gamergaters high on their own b.o. are blaming "diversity" but we're not really buying it."

i dunno maybe i've got it twisted

wasn't how i read it but maybe i wasn't paying attention.

Yeah, I also read his original comment as a sad observation about conservative comic book guys, not "Ok, we'll be back to all with the white guys you love soon, promise!!"

I take it back, I think the SHIELD tv show did have a short comics endorsement... in the form of a promotional tie-in with the tv show's sponsor of the time, Lexus (?!?)
http://marvel.com/comics/series/19061/lexus_presents_marvels_agents_of_shield_in_the_chase_2014

so there you have it, the consumer segment that likes comics tv shows and are potential Lexus buyers, that's the market

I guess I could go door-to-door selling GRIT subscriptions in a new Lexus....

I read comics and watch the show and drive a used Lexus and I still think this is a really bad tie-in.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/04/08/marvel-artist-ardian-syaf-hid-anti-christian-jewish-messages-weeks-x-men-comic/

Very very strange

Syaf's apparently been fired now?

Looks like. Marvel's initial promise of 'disciplinary action' was...unsatisfying. Glad they clarified.

More on this guy
https://coconuts.co/jakarta/news/officially-fired-marvel-indonesian-artist-ardian-syaf-officially-says-jews-offended-no-mercy/

When Jews are offended, there is no mercy,

and that's how you double down!

what a dickhead

Have some pity, the man's career is over now. I'm actually crying for his plight as I type.

first they came for the bigots, and I said nothing

It's almost like there's a countdown clock in situations like this for the progression from 'expresses regret for saying/doing something that resulted in termination' to 'expresses sentiment whose offensiveness blows the original offensive act out of the water'.

uh......: http://screenrant.com/captain-america-hydra-evil-explained/

there's someone on twitter who's been tweeting a lot about Marvel's inability to figure out how their editorial actions actually affect comic sales (it's going to be an article, I'll link it when it comes around) but has also been delving into how ineffective the Captain America storyline has been by its "we'll not just have it both ways, we'll have it all ways" philosophy

like Captain America is a villain but he's not racist or anything, and HYDRA is this ancient organization that had Nazis but they weren't really antisemitic, and the Sam Wilson stuff where it reflects contemporary politics but they fiercely deny anything is allegorical

secret empire sounds horrible and tbh I stopped reading anything Nick Spencer was writing, even in Marvel Unlimited

I know they're playing the long game with this and that there will probably be an ultimate reveal on par with the one in Secret Warriors (there are rumblings about big shake-ups with the impending Generations) but in terms of optics this was an unfortunate path to go down for more than a couple of months.

I'm sort of talking out of my ass, though, as I'm only caught up to just before Secret Wars atm.

i've been reading the cap stuff; it's near gibberish

that was the other reason I jumped off -- neither the single issues nor arcs are interesting or even intelligible in intent

Hickman had a tendency to make all his characters too terse and his plot arcs were jigsaw puzzle-like in that once you got to the end and all the pieces made a clear picture. The Capn stuff just actively turned me off after a couple issues

Dan Slott's whole Doc Ock Spider-Man switch at least had some heart