Why do publishers spoil the endings of large storylines in mainstream media? Comics Alliance’s Laura Hudson asked Marvel’s Arune Singh, and to the surprise of no-one, the answer is “Because it works”:
We’ve seen huge results [in terms of sales]. We make sure to only attach this kind of promotion to our biggest books and those books invariably carry a much higher readership after the push than before the push. I think we can all agree the industry can use new readers and we’ve found these kinds of mainstream media pushes do just that, based on feedback from retailers– most recently with Fantastic Four #587 and the subsequent FF launch. More fans check out the books, retailers sell more copies and have high orders than before this promotion. That’s a winning situation for not just Marvel, but the whole industry– anything we can do to bring in and retain readers benefits us all. Going to a mainstream outlet is what will get lapsed readers and new potential readers to check out our books– we’re going to non comic fans where they get their news to make them aware of our big stories.
I’m always curious about how the demographics of these things breaks down. I’d love to know how many non-comics readers picked up Fantastic Four #587, and of them, how many went on to stay with the story as the series was relaunched as FF. Orders definitely rose overall with the death and relaunch, but was that from comic readers who weren’t previously reading that particular comic, or from readers new to comics?
There’s something important about the answer to that, I suspect; if Fantastic Four and FF are bringing in non readers and retaining them, can we then look at why that works when other comics haven’t, and then work out how to do it again? Is it merely that people need to be reminded that comics exist, or something more (I suspect Steve Epting)?
(Also, something else I’ve always wondered: Are there ever people who were planning to buy a comic, but didn’t, because the end was spoiled for them?)
June 28th, 2011 at 12:04 pm
Comic? No. Movie? Yes. Once I learned the big twist to The Crying Game, I lost interest (possibly unfairly).
And having heard about the scene at the end of the credits for GL, my interest has diminished even further. But I don’t know if that counts as spoiler since it’s really part of the plot.
June 28th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I doubt that the comics experience a flood of new readers when a big story breaks. The distribution system isn’t there to get too many extra copies into the hands of new customers. And if they do buy them, sales bear out the fact that anniversary/death issues get a brief increase that soon fades way. So it doesn’t build long-term sales success.
June 28th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
That doesn’t explain why they can’t spoil it in the news on Wednesday night after all the comics regulars have already gotten their copies, instead of Tuesday night. A normie isn’t going to care that he isn’t buying his copy on the official New Comics Day.
The only thing I can guess to explain this is that they’d rather normies buy copies than comics regulars, and if they waited until Wed. night, stores might be sold out already.
Or maybe it has something to do with news cycles and that news outlets will only run fluff pieces like “the Death of Spider-Man” on a Tuesday.
June 28th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
@Ben, because these days shops only order the number of copies they know they can sell, and while regular fans might miss out on that issue because of the press, those regular fans will also be around weeks later when the re-order arrives.
June 28th, 2011 at 2:25 pm
PR blasts like this never increase the total number of comic book readers. They never bring in people who don’t normally read comics. It doesn’t happen after movies, it doesn’t happen with this. They might buy the issue out of curiosity or as a speculator, but that’s it.
I’m just amazed that the Big Two don’t just acknowledge that these types of things are done as a way to get a quick burst of sales. Why pretend that it’s anything else, particularly when they’re not really doing anything else to expand the market?
June 28th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
What if it is true that comics are the introduction of cinema, as we see marvel
June 28th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
Juegoes,
Because a walrus need more learning to French dragon burlap moldy tabernacle.
June 29th, 2011 at 8:49 am
Let’s see, there was the hype when Spider-Man revealed his secret identity during the Civil War storyline and Joe Q. insisted that this was part of the continuity and wouldn’t magically disappear (which it did, one year later). Then Marvel made a lot of hay over the death of Captain America, who’s looking pretty robust these days. Did the publicity for this latest gimmick mention that the Spider-Man who died is a parallel universe Spider-Man?
June 29th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Notice how the sales spikes after every single one of these much-hyped “events” ALWAYS gets SMALLER? As James Van Hise points out, none of these “big changes” has stuck so far, so by introducing comics to new readers this way, Marvel is basically making them PRE-jaded right out of the starting gate.