Last Wednesday BOOM! Studios released the first issue of North Wind by David DiGilio and Alex Cal, both in comic shops and for free at MySpace Comic Books. Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for BOOM!, answered some questions I had about the MySpace promotion.
JK: If you could, walk me through the events that led to North Wind being put up on MySpace. Did they contact you, or did you contact them?
Chip: Sam Humphries, the man that is behind MySpace Comic Books, is a long-time friend. Before I was at BOOM! and was just one of their published writers, I did the deal with Sam to put a preview of the first issue of my comic, Left on Mission, on MySpace last May. Since I came over to BOOM! full time, we had been talking about what we could do together in 2008 and then suddenly, we find ourselves discussing different ideas at the BOOM! holiday party and there was creator David DiGilio at the party, and we just looked at each other and viola, that was that.
North Wind is just a great book. DiGilio really took to comics like a duck to water. Alex Cal the artist is going to be a superstar. It’s just such a great book, I really wanted to do something for it that stood out. As for the rationale behind the simultaneous release, well, there is tons of data out there showing that sales increase when you offer a product online for free. CrossGen had great success with this back in the day with their “Comics on the Web” initiative. The Heroes HC that DC just put out is all available online for free. I just saw some estimates of something like 26,000 copies sold — and this is on a book that costs $29.99 and all the material is available for free! And then there’s the bootlegging that is so rampant these days, and still overall sales of comics have still increased.
So regardless, people want to own this stuff. They want to hold it in their hands. They want to read it the car. They want to turn the pages. The physical artifact has value.
JK: What were you guys hoping to achieve?
Chip: We really wanted to increase product awareness and, of course, increase sales of North Wind. North Wind creator David DiGilio had an incredibly popular blog on TVGuide.com when his TV show Traveler was on ABC, and I really wanted to try to get to that audience and get them into the stores. I couldn’t think of a better way to do this than a simultaneous release of North Wind on MySpace at the same time the physical comic hits store shelves.
JK: It’s been a week since North Wind #1 was put up on MySpace. How is it doing? Do you know how many people have downloaded it so far?
Chip: It’s been going great. I couldn’t be happier. BOOM! commissioned a trailer to go along with this promotion and the trailer received 5,000 hits in two days over the weekend on MySpaceTV. I can’t divulge exact numbers on the downloads of the comic or the views, but suffice it to say, the numbers are very, very good.
JK: And how is it doing in shops?
Chip: People are selling out. This will be our most collectible book ever.
JK: How did retailers react when they found out you were putting the book out on the ‘net for free?
Chip: We have had a tremendous response. A shop down the street from us has already sold through 75 percent of their order. Marcus King at Titan Games in Battle Creek Michigan had never even heard of BOOM! and he certainly hadn’t ordered any North Wind, but when he heard about the promotion last Wednesday, he decided to get 12 copies. He got his copies on Monday and sold nine of them that same day. I am hearing stories like that from all over the country. Obviously there are some retailers who don’t like this promotion, and we have certainly heard from them. But I think the proof will be in the pudding.
I’d like to stress that we don’t make any money on North Wind if it doesn’t sell in the direct market. That is why when the next issue of North Wind comes out online we will be putting up links to retailers that have a MySpace page. So if you are a retailer and want to participate, email me here at myspace@boom-studios.com with your MySpace URL, store name and location and we will put you on the list.
JK: Why did you choose North Wind, rather than one of BOOM!’s other books? You guys publish (or will publish) several licensed titles that might have more name recognition, like the Godfather or Warhammer …
Chip: It’s the right promotion for the right product. DiGilio has a rabid fan following because of his TV show Traveler. People are hungry for his next creation, and North Wind is it. The voraciousness of his online fans from his blog made this the perfect promotion for this book. It doesn’t hurt that North Wind a beautiful book that is sharply written with incredible art, I knew people would respond to it.
JK: Have you heard from anyone who has downloaded the comic? Is it attracting folks who wouldn’t normally visit a comic shop?
Chip: One of my favorite comments was this one, and I would like to quote it in full:
Wow I haven’t read a comic book in probably 35+ years and I really liked this one. I’m excited to find out what happends next! I’d buy this issue now if I was told where to purchase it and I’m encouraged to look up others you have written. Great job and thanks for reminding me how much fun comic books can be even to a old guy 50+…Thank You
Posted by § © Ø Ý Ý ! £ on Saturday, January 05, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Of course, I messaged this guy personally and pointed him to the Comic Ship Locator. Which is awesome. What else is great is that people are getting new customers through this promotion and those customers are not only buying North Wind, but also other comics. And that couldn’t make me happier. Okay, you got me. It would make me a bit happier if all they bought were BOOM! titles, but you can’t have it all.
JK: Any plans yet to do something similar with your other titles?
Chip: We’ll see. This promotion really just came together at the right time, the right place, with the right comic and the right creator. We have four more issues that will be coming out in stores and online. So talk to me again in five months.
JK: What else do you guys have planned this year?
Chip: Right now I am really excited about our new ongoing anthology Cthulhu Tales that will be coming out in March. Steve Niles is headlining and will be ushering in a new era of terror along with stories by Michael Alan Nelson and others. We just solicited the first issue of the Godfather Chronicles. This project is going to blow people’s minds. Salem is coming out from Wanted screenwriter Chris Morgan and co-writer Kevin Walsh, along with art by Comic Book Idol runner-up Wilfredo Torres, which will knock people’s socks off. More Potter’s Field from Mark Waid will be coming out later in the year. And a ton of surprises to come. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I think the cover is brilliantly illustrated and inspiring. Whomever the artist is should be hired for more work. Wow.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
How many retailers only ordered this for subs? That would be considered “selling out.” How many re-orders have been made? How many orders for #2 and #3 have been placed by the retailers? How many retailers threw a fit when they found out this was available for free after they had bought it from their supplier?
“We have had a tremendous response.” Notice he didn’t say “a positive response.”
“A shop down the street from us has already sold through 75 percent of their order.” Of how many copies that were stocked? 4? 10? 20? 100? Empty numbers without a context.
This is a spin story. Someone is hoping for the best, but not speaking with only the facts that put them in the best light
January 10th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Doubter, sounds like you’ve got an axe to grind here. Did Boom! turn down your submission or something?
He did actually give a specific example of a store ordering 12 and selling 9 the first day. What else do you want him to go? Give a store-by-store breakdown of all sales?
Do you seriously expect him to answer all the questions you pose in your comment? No one at any publisher would.
January 10th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Believer…
He wants us to believe this is doing incredibly well after how many days of sales on the retailers part? What evidence is he giving us that it is? Certainly he can’t give us ALL the retailers sales data, but he is giving us the ones that benefit the picture he wants us to receive. This is a sales pitch.
What about overall sales on the series?
This is premature hype. It’s advertising. It’s a company with a bad shipping record grabbing at whatever it can to try and generate interest.
Generating interest is by no means a bad thing, but this is not a good way to do it. It undercuts the retailers, who Boom! is dependent on for their money, and those same retailers are going to react in a bad way. It devalues the work of the creative team by making it free (which is an illusion, it is great work!).
If there is a larger plan for future product from Boom! in this, I hope it works, but this wasn’t a good way to do it. It’s hard to make a living on free stuff.
January 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I’m going to take a guess and say “Doubter” is an unhappy retailer.
I started reading the issue on myspace and then made the decision that I wanted to buy the issue. I’m lucky enough to live in a city with multiple comics stores. One of the two shops I usually go to each week had a link up there, the other did not. I went to the one that had the link, and snagged out of the last copies of Northwind in the store.
This is not a book that would have popped up on my radar if it wasn’t for the myspace promotion. Without it, the retailer would not have gotten my sale until maybe the buzz had built and the trade came out.
The notion that offering a work for free “devalues” its content sounds nice intellectually, but there’s no evidence to suggest that in the real world. Did Radiohead devalue their own work when they let their audience purchase “In Rainbows” for free? Sales would suggest otherwise.
The reality is that EVERY COMIC is available right now, for free. There are those of us who feel like there is no subsitute for the joys of legal ownership, and there are others who will steal the work.
Likewise, there are retailers who can embrace experiments like this and reap the benefits, and there are others who can act like the music industry pre-iTunes and lose my money.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Got the last one at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, it’s beautiful. Love all the Boom parties there.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Yeah, I can see where this would piss some retailers off, sure, and I can see where some people are going to just read this for free and never bother to pay a dime, true, and the comparison to Heroes rings a little false – I mean, we’re talking about a tie-in to a major network show that is beloved by fanboys…
BUT I can also see how this might work. Take me, for instance. I didn’t order North Wind from my friendly neighborhood dealer, and I bet he didn’t get any in, but after hearing about this I checked it out and, hey, it’s great.
Will I try to hunt down the first issue now? Sure will. Will I be ordering the subsequent issues? Yep. So there is one customer Boom gained through this thing.
Now is my story going to be representative of most who read it? Or even a good sized chunk of readers? Maybe not. OK, probably not.
But if even a few of them pick it up, it might be a worthwhile promotion.
Of course, I bought Heroes too.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Doubter: if you are a retailer, drop me an email if you get a chance: jkparkin@yahoo.com. I’m doing a round-up of retailer reactions to the promotion.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
the cover artist is my boy Andrew Huerta and i agree his stuff is incredible!! and he does need to get more gigs, chek out his stuff: http://ahuerta.deviantart.com/
January 12th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I think people see this for what it is: SPIN. I’m kind of sick of seeing press releases that say “sold out at the distributor!” when that could simply mean they printed to order on 1500 copies or something (not Boom’s numbers, but I’ve seen other small companies do that crap) Anyways, it’s pretty obviously just spin and PR. Spin that worked though, it’s being talked about.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I think it’s unfair that everyone’s jumping on Doubter for his comments. He doesn’t have to have an axe to grind OR be a retailer to point out the obivious; the article lacked facts. Yes a single example was provided but a few other keys bits of information were left out. This article was a bit about spin.
As for Heroes, that’s a really poor example. How many fans of the show actually knew the comic content was available online for free? Probably not many. As a store that sold over 100 copies of the book, we did so because WE promoted it.
Heck, I didn’t even know the entire contents of the book were available online for free.
Overall, it’s a spin article but there was one truth in it all; the proo will be in the pudding and I do hope BOOM succeeds with their efforts.