“We’ve had a lot of internal discussions about how to put the emphasis back on periodicals.”
That was really the only particularly relevant piece of information that came out of the fan-creator love-fest that is the DC Nation Panel at C2E2 yesterday.
(I mean—seriously! Even the fan who stood up to the mike to deride James Robinson’s creative abortion Justice League: Cry For Justice was won over by Robinson’s dubious excuse that he “always planned” for the gore-covered ending of the book and that in the DC Universe apparently you have to blow up a city and rebuild it from the ground up in order to give it character. I mean, really, James? I seem to remember back in the day someone could take a fairly blasé place like Opal City and make it really sing just by fabricating a backstory and a sense of shared identity and civic pride in the characters who lived there. I guess there’s nobody like that at DC anymore. Note to creators: Not every community can be Coast City…and in fact, after Bludhaven, Montevideo and now Star City, we really don’t need any more DC cities to try.)
Anyway, I’m getting off-topic. It seems to me that Dan DiDio and Jim Lee’s determination that, even in the face of eReaders and a burgeoning trade market (my girlfriend works for Barnes & Noble and has told me several times that while most sections in the store are sinking as people warm to eReaders and just generally buy less in our crappy economy, the comics/graphic novels/manga section is consistently growing not just at her store, but at the numerous stores where she’s been called to assist in the last six months.), DC needs to focus its energies on shifting the focus to periodicals seems a little dated and more than a touch naïve. Do they really think that they can manage the way their customers choose to enjoy their product, sheerly by force of will? Let’s ask the music industry how well that’s worked out for them in the last decade or so.
It does, though, paint a pretty distinct picture of their company. Even at a time when mainstream retailers are accounting for an increasing amount of revenue (those guys don’t stock many floppies, by the way) and the New York Times is finally recognizing graphic novels with their own bestseller list, they want to convince everyone that there’s “something special” about holding that 32-page floppy in your hand. But the phrase “shifting the focus back to periodicals,” along with the phrases “The Return of Barry Allen” and “Fear of a Black Firestorm” suggest to me a company which has ceased trying to court new, young customers and has resigned itself to the conclusion that their target demographic is Geoff Johns and James Robinson: white, immersed in pop culture, young in the corporate sense but quickly aging in the biological and decades behind what’s new and cool when it comes to their personal tastes. These are the guys who still resent John Byrne’s Man of Steel as a slap in the face to the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity of their youth.
This is hardly a surprise; the promotions of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee fairly cemented in my mind the idea that the company was not interested in exploring editorial, creative or distribution directions into which they weren’t already fairly entrenched. They’re going to continue pimping the same five creators until their hands fall off or enough of their stories fail to sell that the whole company has to be radically reconfigured—a move that will be much harder to pull off now that they’ve installed a pair of co-publishers, one of whom is an ideologue (Johns—it honestly seems to me that Lee is just trying to help the company, and/or in it for the paycheck).
Personally, I’ve got nothing against the floppies. I read most of my books that way, and the only ones I pick up in trade are the ones that I fell badly behind while reading and/or didn’t start buying until a trade or two had already been in print. But almost everyone I know in the industry has been talking for some time about how the writing is on the wall for most floppies (nobody seriously thinks that Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or Archie will ever go trade-exclusive). I’m not sure how a few higher-ups, whose point-of-view seems very narrow, can expect to change what has been broadly perceived as The Future Of Comics.
April 16th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Amazing. From Jim Lee’s tone deaf continuation of DC Comics’ stance on going digital to this continued effort to not only resist change but try to forcibly push them back to how they used to be (I’m talking product format, not creative content), I don’t think I could be more disappointed with them if they fired everyone and replaced them with Luddites.
April 16th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Why stop at that? Forget the monthly issue waiting. Go back to the 3-panel daily newspaper strip.
April 16th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
>They’re going to continue pimping the same five creators
is better than Marvel who only have Bendis alone
April 16th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
@ Ravager: Jason Aaron, Matt fraction, Ed Brubaker, Andy Diggle, Mark Millar, Jeph Loeb and many others would all like to have a word with you…
April 16th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
This whole discussion really depends on the context of the quote.
From an editorial perspective, creating comics that are so exciting people can’t possible wait should be a mandate. Not as practical reality, but rather as a philosophical outlook on the quality of the books.
Realistically, I’m a diehard print type of guy, but I believe 110% that every day a comic (particularly the pop entertainment ones) spends being NOT online is another day that today’s young readers find something else to entertain them, and the day is coming – probably sooner than we’d guess – when DC and Marvel’s characters are going to be media franchises with little or no connection to their publishing roots. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it sure as hell ain’t comics.
Also, personally, going on nearly ten years of life post-serial comics, if trades were eradicated and I HAD to buy monthlies, I could quite literally count the number of titles I’d read on one hand. Going to a shop every single week is a chore beyond all reason; does anybody really believe that you can build a readership by expecting such fanatical dedication?
April 16th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
I’m all for trying to put out a product that makes people say, “god damn it, I HAVE to go get the single issues every Wednesday because I just can’t wait!”
But when the retail reality says that:
* it is harder to get shelf space for a small profit margin product….
* DM retailers won’t be overbuying like they did in the “World Without Trades” in order to have back issues to sell for a long time….
* there’s a whole subset of customer that only reads trades…
…you are running your company irresponsibly if you keep trying to fight against the business reality you face.
So, if they meant this any other way than that “well, gosh golly, we plan on making super books you can’t wait to read” snow job, it’s just sad.
April 17th, 2010 at 12:09 am
Ravager: Marvel only has Bendis?
What about – Brubaker, Fraction, Van Lente, Parker, Gage, Slott, Pak?
April 17th, 2010 at 1:33 am
I like Mark’s list better than Artie’s (Loeb?!? Marvel can have him). I’m quite biased towards DC overall but it really seems like all they’ve got left lately is a weird tug-of-war between Johns and Morrison, with the former the obvious winner in terms of the line’s direction, and the latter perhaps the only one at the company who consistently makes good comics (and they just lost Rucka, too). Marvel’s current talent roster is quite enviable by comparison, in fact I’d take Mark’s list over Bendis generally speaking (not familiar with Gage though).
April 17th, 2010 at 6:17 am
I wonder in what way they’re putting an emphasis on periodicals… if it’s the highly optimistic “making each issue the best damned story it can be!” idea as suggested by Huxford, well, why the fuck haven’t they been doing that before? Why choose now to do/announce that, if that’s what they have been doing?
So, unless they haven’t been trying to make quality stories before now and are using that as a new business plan, then the only other way to put the emphasis on floppies is by hamstringing their collection formats. But that’s a retarded move and as much of as I don’t like Johns’s stories I don’t think he’s so in love with the 1970s as to pull something that dumb. Plus, does his position even affect the collection department? Wasn’t he promoted just for creative responsibilities?
April 17th, 2010 at 6:27 am
“Note to creators: Not every community can be Coast City…and in fact, after Bludhaven, Montevideo and now Star City, we really don’t need any more DC cities to try.”
Yeah. And Montevideo is a real-’verse city. Like Santa Barbara, which was a by-blow casualty when Old Coast City died.
That aside, we’ve had enough of this for a while. Especially after Doha(which was the capital of Qurac in the DCU instead of the real world’s Qatar) was nuked by Cheshire, and the whole nation of Vlatava got “cleansed” by the Spectre in the Corrigan years.
Anyway: Enough.
And if you’re right about this new/old strategy of “dancing with the one that brung ya”…I guess we’re being warned to give up all hope of new stories featuring the Milestone characters as well, then? Be a shame to invest all that cash and time only to file them away in cold storage.
April 17th, 2010 at 6:31 am
It’s really pretty simple – if DC wants to funnel its customers toward the single issues, and honestly believes that’s a viable way to run and grow their business – they should stop publishing collected editions.
They won’t do that, of course, because collected editions are big (and growing) part of their revenue stream. The reality of the marketplace in 2010 is that (a) publishers need to produce collected editions, and (b) the single issues cost too much to have much appeal to anyone other than existing collectors, and are a dead-end in terms of growing the readership.
Geez, I thought 1982 was pretty cool too, but it’s really amazing how focused DC is on re-creating it, both in terms of content and its business model.
April 17th, 2010 at 6:44 am
This article was pretty good, but its a sad realization that they are slowly bringing almost everything back to before i was even born.
Historically i know who Barry Allen is but i dont KNOW who he is. Whatever, Marvel puts out their trades faster and thats how I get my fix.
April 17th, 2010 at 11:51 am
This is old news. DC has been stating this business plan for more than 3 years. Don’t believe me, go listen to the last 3 years worth of DC nation panels on iTunes.
the Tiki
April 17th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Good stuff, Russ.
To echo Russ, this statement is really sad when given DC refusal to go digital. Matt Fraction made an interesting point when the iPad launched – 700,000 sold that first weekend, 700,000 people who now have instant access to comics for free (not all of the comics are free, obviously, but enough to garner interest). Sure, you have to subtract the people that already read comics and the people who have no interest, but say 1% of those who bought iPads the first weekend discover comics — that’s 7,000 new readers without even trying.
What’s even stranger about this is that Vertigo is obviously making a push for OGNs while DC, a company with recognizable characters and a built-in fan base for those characters, seems to be ignore that aspect of the market.
April 17th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Take a single quote out of context, set up you own interpretation and then give reasons why it’s a bad idea.
What a waste of time.
April 17th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
What was the context, then, Greg? That seems like a pretty important thing to explain if you’re going to attack this column.
April 18th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Hey maybe if the sold their comics for $2 an issue it would make economic sense to not trade-wait. As it is I spend an average of $6-$8 less on a hardbound collection with no ads in it. Why on earth would I choose the 32 page floppies?
April 18th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
@ Carl Walker: i was just listing the “Marquee” names that (theoretically) sell books on name alone ~ I’d love Loeb to go back to DC (and if i was lucky take Millar with him). Just responding to
Ravagers ove-generalization with my own (and Parker’s my favorite)
@Tucknie: That’s a really good point. what exactly is the motivation to pay more for a “lesser” product (ads, only part of a story)
I’d be really curious to see what happened if they rolled back prices to $2.50 (that’s my personal magic comfort zone) I just will not pay $4 (even with my stores 20% discount) for a floppy.
April 19th, 2010 at 10:15 am
I agree. Here in Philly, I went to Atomic City Comics yesterday and spent nearly 40mins trying to decide what to buy; a lot of things seemed interesting, but none seemed worth the price of admission (save the new S.H.I.E.L.D. series). I’d like to read more comics, but with so many coming out the gate nowadays at $4, comics in general has stopped becoming an “impulse, fun” buy for me, and much more a deliberate purchase. As a result, I only bought 3-4 comics. It just doesn’t seem to make sense when I can get the trade.
April 20th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
DC’s a lost cause
April 21st, 2010 at 12:17 am
But isn’t DC launching a new series of original graphic novels based on Superman and Batman?
So… those who question the price of comics… what did you think of Unwritten #1? Since it only cost $1, and it had a great concept, I’m sure you bought a copy… (and if you were waiting for the trade, it only costs $9.99.)
Here’s what I think DC means:
1) They want to be #1 on the Diamond charts.
2) They publish as many comics as Marvel, but have a smaller share of the Direct Market.
3) It all starts with the comics. If the comics sell, then the graphic novel will sell even better. Perhaps what might have been a paperback will now be a hardcover.
4) DC will have digital comics in less than five years. Just as nobody makes a distinction now about DM-only and newsstand titles, soon the distiction of digital and floppy will be moot. DC cares about sales, and digital comics will drive sales of trades (and floppies, as BOOM! proved).
5) Comics died out on the newsstand a decade before magazines and newspapers did. Those 100K circulations will never return. Those readers are now digital. Just like back then, casual readers of digital comics might never set foot in a comics shop, but they might buy the book online.
6) Comics magazines pay the cost of production for the trade. Since the file is already digital, an online comic can pay those costs instead. Online tracking allows for precise advertising and marketing.
So I have to wait longer for a collection? Big deal. As long as it gets collected. And it will. The trade market is too big to ignore. I suspect that DC prints only comics titles it feels will sell in collected volumes. Meanwhile… there’s a pile of books I haven’t read yet. I can wait.
August 19th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Very educating story, saved your site for and hope to read more!