This week’s Busted Knuckles tackles DC and Marvel’s marketing approach. After examining such common complaints as the continuity-laden storylines, the narrow focus on direct marketing, Smith asks a rare question about the typical setting of both DC and Marvel superhero stories:
Marvel and DC Comics really need to stick their head out of the office once in a while and see that this is a huge planet outside the streets of New York.Not everything revolves around the Big Apple. Of course there are a few fictional cities like Gotham City, but that’s just New York with another suit of clothes. Both Marvel and DC love having blurbs in The New York Times. I believe it’s first and foremost an office ego stroke because it’s what’s important to them as locals. Yes, The New York Times is a world wide read paper, but if there’s no follow up then that’s just a one-night stand and not a long time relationship. In business you’re supposed to be in it for the long haul.
That New York Times article shouldn’t be the end; it should be the start. You take that and run as long and as far as you can. All the time you’re running with that you should be working on the next one to fly with.
As a writer and a marketing person I am amazed that there aren’t more stories and characters that take place more nationally and globally. Why can’t a story take place in North Dakota, Alabama, or Caldwell Idaho and have as much impact, drama and passion as one in New York? Sure, the writer is gonna have to work a little harder, but so what? Are we just collecting a check or are we gonna be really creative?
September 28th, 2006 at 8:58 am
I can see it for Marvel, but absolutely not for DC.
They’ve got one title set in New York, and that’s Nightwing, which is a recent thing, and one or two historic titles set there, the only one that’s quickly coming to my mind being New Teen Titans.
DC’s fictional cities are actually pretty rich. Look at St. Roch, or Opal, or even the current situation around Coast City. I think that’s something that’s always been one of DC’s strongest tools, its fictional cities. In some books they can become almost like a character in themselves.
And of course there’s Manchester, home of Impulse.
September 28th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Comics are primarily fantasy. Even the New York City in Marvel’s books isn’t the REAL New York City – its a fantastic version of the real city that even kids from the Midwest used to daydream about as if they lived there – even if it bore no real resemblence to their own cities or to the real NYC.
Moving a book to some major midwestern metropolis (Chicago, or St. Louis), really kinda misses the point. Kids on the coasts don’t want to daydream about St. Louis and kids in the Midwest don’t want to daydream about St. Louis – so who does that fantasy appeal to?
That’s also why it generally works for DC – the best cities in DC books tend to become characters themselves and they’re totally fictional entities – moving DC characters into real world cities always feels wrong. DC characters need their own Metropolis, Gotham, Central, or Opal to protect – not Las Vegas or Cleveland.
(OTOH – Beau’s observations about marketing are dead on. DC’s Batwoman coverage spilled out into our local papers here in Ohio for about a month after the NYT article ran, but that was it. Marvel’s big unmasking didn’t even show up in the local papers. Part of that was DC lucking into a slow news cycle, but still neither company seems to know how to get these things out to anyone more than the folks who are already reading.)
September 28th, 2006 at 10:21 am
I agree with both of the posters below, but I want to emphasize, for whatever reason, comics that aren’t set in a large metropolis on the east coast just don’t generally do that well.
This is especially true if the title is set in a smaller city or even a small town. I remember that when Azrael moved to a small town, it was the deathknell of both the series and the character.
The only character I can recall that had a successful run was Superboy in Smallville, and even that was in the silver age, when Smalleville was actually in upstate New York… right?
Besides I think Sean McKeever had it right in Gravity. If you want to be a movie star, you go to where movies are made, Hollywood. If you want to be a super-hero, you go to where all the really cool crimes happen, New York.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:52 am
I appreciate you honest and well thought our replies and comments on the various subjects of the column. That is always appreciated.
A part of my point on story location was interwoven with my main point on the advancement of a reader base, marketing to only the direct market and events…that point was limitation.
As a writer and a marketing person I feel limitation is a terrible shackel to have to wear. In the case of if you want to be a movie star then you have to go to Hollywood, I see your point ,but I don’t think it’s right to give into that limitation. Europe, Asia, Canada and many more countries have made huge strides in becoming film making spots. why not comics?
In a way that’s like saying to Dark Horse, Image, IDW and others to close up shop because if you aren’t in New York and working for Marvel or DC then why bother?
Sean has a large background in indy comics. I understand what he’s saying, but still telling people to give in or give up.
Any writer in any field of entertainment should really welcome the challange of putting their characters in a less traveled path. Fil, TV and books do it, why not comics.
Again, thank y’all so much for taking the time to read Busted Knuckles. Civil talks on subject we all enjoy is always a pleasure.
Your amigo,
Beau
September 28th, 2006 at 11:41 am
Setting Flying Friar in Copertino saw the mayor flying me and the wife out there to Southern Italy for a week. Worth thinking about…
September 28th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
It’s not just big-town VS small-town, it’s unexplored locations. Venice, Cairo, Budapest, London, Hong Kong…yeah, even if it’s only for a visit it’d be nice to see the Superheroes get out more.
As a long time direct market reader ask yourself if you are really happy with 90% of the product you buy or are you really just hoping that it will finally come back to what you used to enjoy so very much?
See, this is why outside of ultra-rare circumstances I always buy trades. They’re a neat little bundle and I can evaluate the quality of a series as a whole and whether I want to plunk down my money more easily.