>Marvel Senior Vice President — Print, Sales & Marketing David Gabriel told them, through a number of conversations, that competitors’ move to $2.99 across their line (and still being kept for the twice-monthly titles from April) has taken money off the table. That other companies’ sales may be up, but not by enough to combat the reduced income, and the extra expense of printing, distributing, and selling the extra copies.
>Added to that, the introduction of three months of returnable comics, has seen retailers order high, sell fewer than anyone expected, while delaying repayments to retailers who return stripped covers, effectively causing a cashflow crisis, and reducing retailers ability to order enough comics across the board, affecting everyone. And Marvel’s overprint was there to help retailers have enough comics in stock to get them through this difficult time.
>I am told that this caused considering eyeball rolling amongst retailers. One very prominent retailer told me,
>"Most retailers in the room groaned audibly at the less than subtle jab at DC, though he never mentioned their name he was clearly of the belief that they were the problem.
>>I am told that this caused considering eyeball rolling amongst retailers. One very prominent retailer told me, >>"Most retailers in the room groaned audibly at the less than subtle jab at DC GOOD Nobody's buying your shit excuses anymore. We're onto you, assholes.
Brandon King
>And Marvel’s overprint was there to help retailers have enough comics in stock to get them through this difficult time.
Are they fucking serious?
Bentley Johnson
No, they do not have a point
Levi Evans
Marvel is never right
Levi Thomas
Wait, that quote being used in this context is weird to me
Is the guy he is quoting saying that most people believe DC is the problem, or is he saying that most people groaned because Gabriel was talking shit about DC and that they (the retailers) are getting tired of Marvel?
Jace Hill
...
Jack Torres
>implying DC doesn't sell more than they get returned
Someone wanna bring up the screencaps from le Irish comic shop owner?
Matthew Mitchell
The title is dumb lol. Liefeld posted it yesterday without reading the story it's so bad (and because he's been shilling for Marvel lately).
The story pretty much says they don't have a point besides one jackass that can't sell batman or do math.
Nathaniel Russell
The second.
Owen Nelson
>Marvel’s overprint was there to help retailers have enough comics in stock to get them through this difficult time Why doesn't Marvel drop the comics and publish joke books?
Hunter Hill
Liefeld is shilling to Marvel to see if he can get another book now that Thunderbolts was cancelled.
Nolan Barnes
He could always draw a new T'bolts one; who would notice the difference at this point?
Nicholas Peterson
So what Marvel is saying is that because DC is meeting middle-ground with retailers, that's a bad thing for the comics industry and for Marvel. Is that what I'm getting here?
Robert Stewart
Death To Marvel
Aaron Campbell
>The most successful company with the most market share and brand recognition is salty that its competitors are edging in on its turf with a strategy with it's sticking donkey turd up its nose What the fuck does Marvel want, a fucking monopoly? What about a little accountability?
At this point I almost want Marvel to keep blaming DC, if only it'll help sink Marvel into the ground further
Lucas Morales
>When we flood the market with shit, we're "helping" Fits right in with Marvel's politics honestly. The simultaneous, "You're an asshole for doing this," and "I can do it because YOU got away with it."
Joseph Long
>Marvel’s overprint was there to help retailers have enough comics in stock to get them through this difficult time.
I'm sure all those Mosaic and Champions copies flew off the shelves.
Xavier Bell
>What the fuck does Marvel want, a fucking monopoly? Yes. >What about a little accountability? This is a Disney company, are you serious?
Luis Sanchez
Someone please tell me how this pitiful company manged to survive all these years?
Kevin Morgan
X-MEN
Joseph Morgan
Coasting off the goodwill of 20th century Marvel. I stopped following seriously around Disassembled/House of M and won't take them seriously again until Bendis and Amanat are gone
Kevin Russell
x-men (which they killed because of movie), spiderman (which they killed because spiteful old man about his divorce is spiteful) and movies (which the hype from them will probably start to fade away after infinity war)
David Hernandez
Basically.
DC is terrible because they're actively looking out for the retailers. The fact that DC was holding onto the cash that retailers would receive back from any stock they couldn't sell prevented them from spending it on the super-high demand Marvel comics. True Believers everywhere would have been deprived of their amazing Marvel comics if they didn't step in and generously donate additional comics (10% free in January!).
DC truly is a shit company.
Camden Stewart
You didn't post the lone pro-Marvel retort, OP:
>But this may be one of self-selecting group of retailers who wanted to contact me. Other people’s mileage may vary.
>Such as Dennis Barger, of Quickstop Comics/Wonderworld Comics in Detroit
>Batman #48 cost $2, cover $3.99 order twenty sold 16 $40 cost $66 collected $26 profit Batman#16 cost $1.50, cover $2.99 order twenty sold 16 $30 cost $48 collected $12 profit
>Ok twice monthly!!! $24 profit, still $2 less monthly profit on DCs best selling book…to pay employees, pay rent, feed family, try new Indy books that might sell better. But how the hell is double monthly still equally the same lower market share D.C. has been showing???
>Less titles, same low sales numbers and twice monthly. I think if you divide D.C.’s monthly market share in half it shows the real answer. Selling the same or lower overall, twice a month at a lower price.
>Selling the same or lower overall, twice a month at a lower price.
>Personally I think many of the pro-DC retailers are trying to self-assure themselves that backing the the latest desperate attempt was “fruitful” but the numbers don’t lie, you can’t self-affirm “alternate truths” you tell yourself.
>David does have a point that D.C.’s bait of 2.99 to lure back fans left money on the table for retailers.
Robert Ward
Why is DC so shit, bros?
Gabriel Ward
Why are you still a payed shill?
Marvel is the most garbage company in the history. It's only about marketing and greed, nothing else. They want a monopoly, because is what their rodent's company boss commands. DC actually cares for the readership, while trying to make affordable to the people that may not have money to have them, instead of having 4.99 $ price for each book. DC fights for the comic book readers, even those that don't have money, Marvel is only for the profit. If you want every book costing 4.99 $, then or you are an idiot, or you have a lot of dollars in your pocket to spend.
Jose Lee
Because they actually care about retailers, those heartless scum.
Logan Myers
You can't help but be shit when you go up against the greatest company on Earth.
Ryan Peterson
>I Can't Infer Sarcasm: The Post
Christopher Jones
Such a good elitist nazist opinion .
William Green
Marvel should just stick to making movies and tv shows these days
Jose Robinson
>arguing who has damaged the industry more while being the consumer you get collectively fucked by comic book houses, diamond and retailers
Company war fags are the true retards of this board. You guys make furries look good.
Asher Mitchell
>DCasuals in a nutshell
Lincoln Kelly
Marvel shills and drones with IQ level of a rat, thinking that they are funny and ironic. It suits you, considering your company's ethics.
Jaxon Morgan
And DC should just stick to being irrelevant garbage.
Samuel Phillips
>Marvel starts losing >HUURRR DURRR COMPANY WARS FAGGOTS RREEE
Robert Roberts
Wow, you earned your payment. I hope that it's worthy of your afford.
Caleb Turner
They're not edging into Marvel, though.
What he's describing is that DC basically defrauded retailers with a phony sale-or-return scam where they got high orders for "free" comics - the retailers keeping the variants they actually want, selling as many comics as they usually would, and not having to deal with the waste orders since they can send them back.
On the face of it, that's great for DC and Marvel - it gives DC an idea of how much they're actually selling to consumers without the clutter caused by retailer incentives (which is a problem for all publishers), and it shouldn't have made a difference to Marvel as retailers were ordering free, returnable comics.
The thing is, sale-or-return is a very well-established model, but you almost never pay up-front, either cover or retailer price - you pay a deposit, which is a fraction of cover price, varies according to order size, and is part-or-whole returnable depending on how many copies you actually sell. Given the low-selling figures of comics generally, probably only part in this case.
It should have been a break for retailers - a few months of low-cost ordering, only paying up for those comics that they couldn't actually prove they sold. Instead it seems they did get conned - whether you agree with Marvel or not, that's not how sale-or-return is supposed to work. No retailer has that kind of money up front, so either DC's deposit prices were too high and they were too sluggish paying back (lawsuits to follow), or they said from the start the payment would be the usual method, but with full refunds for unsold copies, which is the retard way of doing it. There's no benefit to a producer in bankrupting the supply chain unless they've got a serious alternative supply chain to reach the consumer - DC doesn't have that. No publisher has that.
I'm sure Marvel's overshipping (which, oddly, hasn't shown up in January's figures) is causing eye-rolling, but let's not get ahead of ourselves: DC fucked up.
Jeremiah Gutierrez
>Marvel blames DC rather than admit mistakes. >Actual retailers save a giant Marvel shill laugh at him. >B-but... Marvel's right! Fuck DC! Gabriel, please. It's always someone else's fault, isn't it?
Samuel Bailey
Okay, who are you really? Brevoort? Spencer? Dennis Barger? An intern?
Oliver Howard
everyone,at least the characters would look dynamic if rob drew it
Ethan Kelly
Man, are you always the same guy in every thread about Marvel overshipping giving excuses? Are you Gabriel or Spencer? What are you gaining?
Also...
>I'm sure Marvel's overshipping (which, oddly, hasn't shown up in January's figures) This is WRONG. You're a moron. Look:
Squirrel-Girl sold, according to Diamond, 17,569 units, but made less money than Shade: The Changing Girl, that sold ~13,500 and cost the same. Wich means that ~4,000 units were overshipped. FOUR THOUSAND. You can see examples like that over various books.
So, explain to me, how it hasn't shown up, how DC was the one that fucked up and how overshipping 4,000 units of fucking Squirrel-Girl will help retailers. I'm waiting.
Juan Murphy
>So, explain to me, how it hasn't shown up, how DC was the one that fucked up and how overshipping 4,000 units of fucking Squirrel-Girl will help retailers. I'm waiting.
He won't, he'll just refuse to answer and then wait for the next thread to peddle his bullshit and then run away when called out. Again.
Josiah Brown
Could have been more considering the prices of the books and how much worse it did.
Jordan Wilson
I know.
This guy has to be a Marvel intern, the alternative is too sad to be true.
Blake Richardson
Funny how we throw around the word Marvel intern with impunity and we all believe it because it just might actually be true After finding out Scientologists post on Sup Forums to defend Scientology, I guess nowhere is too low to shill
>Bleeding Cool ran a report from ComicsPRO, sourced from several retailers, who talked about an address from Marvel SVP David Gabriel regarding poor industry response of late and where the blame lay – and of negative retailer response in the room. We also sourced a response from retailer Dennis Barger who supported Gabriel’s statements.
Jace Reyes
>Here is another view from Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics,
>"Wow, I am so glad I did not go to the Comic Pro event. So Marvel, you had a few bad months. And you blame DC. Which I understand. Competition will do that to you. But to blame their return program? That’s just rude."
>"And what the heck example was that with Batman? Bi-weekly Batman means twice the profits per month than if it was just monthly."
>"I can only speak for my store. My small little store that has been around for only 6 years. Starting last year Marvel sales dropped here. And they kept dropping. As I previously stated Now Occupy Avengers, New Hawkeye, Mosaic, Slapstick, Solo, Foolkiller, are given a run by Valiant titles. My diehard Marvel fans are the ones that buy them. Which make no mistake I am glad they do. Valiant has I would say a lot less money than Marvel. I picked up another Valiant customer a few days ago. Currently, I seem unable to pick up any new Marvel customers."
>"How come I still over order? I thought I might have ordered low on Bullseye and Kingpin. Daredevil is on T.V. right? That should help. I was wrong. I was still too high even though it wasn’t that much to start with. After years of Marvel selling at a higher range, I still had the habit of well its Marvel it should sell. I do want people that come in off the street to have the chance to buy any Marvel title. But that thought process has been kicking my butt. I keep wanting the Marvel customers that were buying Marvel to come back. My latest Diamond order is pretty dang small for Marvel. Yet I still keep trying to go over the order trying to guess does it need to be less? Has the Marvel bleed-out stopped?"
Nathan Price
>"Marvel if you truly think my store’s money was tied up by DC then you are wrong. I have too many first issues of Foolkiller, Mockingbird 1, Nighthawk’s series, Solo 1, Mighty Captain Marvel 1, and more on hand. Mockingbird, Nighthawk, Solo, and more are in the dollar bin still untouched. Amazing Spider-man even over the last few issues is bleeding readership badly. Marvel actually tied up my money. The overships? Sold that one extra Mosaic that was sent to us. Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora, and more? Not one of any of the other extra copies were sold. Free Comic Book Day extras here we come. So I was either originally correct on my ordering or had too much to begin with."
>"And when I say Marvel tied up my money that means money was lost. There were no returns. No chance to get any money back."
>"I say this only because I want Marvel to get back their A game. Give us the kick butt comics they were known for. Like the first Uncanny X-Force. When I first opened that was the number one team book from any publisher here. Readership was excited. I enjoyed the book also. I have only been open over 6 years. In that time forgotten titles like Generation Hope have been cancelled. The current “stealth” cancellations do not help. Such as what was done to Red Wolf, Starbrand and Nightmask, and all the others that weren’t even worth enough to the publisher to announce they were cancelling them. It confuses the people that actually were reading the books. No thanks for reading, just as we are too proud to announce we had to cancel a title."
>"Again I want to sell as many comics as possible. I would love to sell hundreds of each Marvel title."
Julian Bell
>"One of the many things I have learned over the years is I have limited influence over what sells. Meaning a product has to be viewed as wanted by the consumer. My store is like a movie theater. You want (well most do) a clean business and a staff that is there for you. If a new Star Wars movie is coming out then business is most likely good for a movie theater. If the movie theater takes a gamble and has Yoga Hosers then odds are quite a bit less that business was good."
>"For instance, at times people come in and ask what is the highest selling title currently. The first All Star Batman story arc was the answer not too long ago, now Flash is the current answer. People actually pick up the title because they are selling. No one in the whole time I have been open has come in and asked what is your lowest or lower selling titles. I have had people in the past ask about titles such as Avengers after seeing the Avengers movie either on blue ray or at the movie theater. But they were over whelmed by all the Avenger titles. Avengers, Avengers World, Uncanny Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers want your money, and so on. If there had just been one Avengers title it would have been an easy sale and a chance to get new people into comics. Instead they walked out because they felt overwhelmed by all the choices."
>"Make no mistake I like second string characters. I cheer on the underdog. But the underdog title shouldn’t be one that when I read in Previews it is coming out I, along with my follow retailers, wonder if it will be cancelled by issue 6. Such as Man-Thing."
Parker Reed
>"You want a second or third string character to sell, then put some talent on the book that can sell it."
>"I will put it all out there. I did not turn away Marvel fans by not having their product for sale. I will be truthful. If that had been the case I would have had a lot more money on hand. If DC hadn’t had Rebirth, it would have been very painful sales wise."
>"So please don’t be butthurt over DC having returns. What next? DC’s Rebirth was responsible for Marvel buying Heroes World Distribution Co in 1994?"
>"And Marvel I say this with all seriousness. I hope you beat DC sales wise instore again while DC stays or grows in sales. Why? Because that means your making me and hopefully my follow retailers money again."
Michael Bell
>DC basically defrauded retailers >lawsuits to follow >DC fucked up I hope this is Spencer shilling because if so pic related
Lincoln Brown
Wasn't that guys math completely wrong? Maybe there are other factors to consider if a store is not having a good time if the owner can't do the math right
Mason Powell
I need to get this straight and you can screencap this because this seems retard as fuck! Isn't this really a 2x2,99 vs 1x2,99 with Marvel shit-tier mentality?
He buys 40 Batman issues - 20 from issue A and 20 from issue B - for 1.50$ and a profit of 1,49$ ea
Lets say he doesn't sell all 40 issues, so far he can return those to DC and get back the money for the order right? I think that changed so he cannot return those anymore is that it?
Because having a profit for the comics he sells while also getting the money for those who don't sell seems pretty good for me. What is he complaining?
It seems that Marvel is more cancerous than DC! Don't LCS need to fill X number of orders of Y Book to get the Variant Covers of successful book? Meaning that LCS need to pay shipments orders from books they cannot sell all? Yeck Marvel even gives free comics just to fuck up Diamond numbers
Am I missing something?
Ethan Rivera
That's what numerous people are pointing out, yes.
Mason Walker
>Wasn't that guys math completely wrong?
Yes because he claims >Batman #48 cost $2, cover $3.99 order twenty sold 16 $40 cost $66 collected $26 profit Batman#16 cost $1.50, cover $2.99 order twenty sold 16 $30 cost $48 collected $12 profit
Batman #16 is a $18 profit, not $12.
And then
>Ok twice monthly!!! $24 profit, still $2 less monthly profit on DCs best selling book…
Twice monthly means it's $36, not $24, and that's $10 more monthly profit on Batman, not $2 less.
Ryan Roberts
...
Zachary Diaz
Hey Marvel! Maybe if you tell Bendis to put more content in a single issue before jacking it up to $6, people wouldn't feel ripped off!
Austin Parker
The guy can't do basic math or sell fucking Batman, no wonder he is doing badly.
He is lucky, though. Marvel will give him 30 extra units of Slapstick and Mosaic, this will counterbalance DC fuck ups and save his LCS.
Joseph Perez
I know you are being sarcastic as fuck but is there a list to what was really overshipped?
Because:
a) giving free copies of high seller seems stupid to do - you are giving free money away b) giving free copies of shit sellers seems jews doing what they do best and really but really cancerous to LCS
Colton Myers
For October, November and December there was chatter between retailers as to what Marvel overshipped them on. Hawkeye, Great Lakes Avengers, Mosaic, etc. There's a list floating around somewhere. For January, Marvel just said fuck it and sent 10% extra on everything.
ICV2: The price on Civil War II #1 was high, relative to standard pricing. How are you making those decisions and what are you seeing in terms of price resistance?
David Gabriel: We make a concerted effort to look at the books every month and try to pinpoint books that if we were to increase their page count and give more value and increase the price, is that going to hurt the sales, and is that going to hurt the retailer. We literally do that the week we’re working on the catalogue.
ICV2: Do you feel that example (Civil War II #1) was successful?
Gabriel: I think that one was very successful in terms of sell-through. I know people like to think that’s our plan always now. We do #1s, so we’re going to do them on everything. I think $4.99 is a good price. I think $5.99 was also a result of Brian [Michael Bendis] had a larger story to tell that he wanted to get out in one issue. There’s a lot of that. Editors will come in say so-in-so wants to make an issue triple-sized one month because his story is so big. And we say, that’s not a good idea, because when you look at the curve of sales, then we won’t do it. But if there’s something that we can get behind and market and promote, it does very well. For whatever reason, Deadpool at $9.99 sells phenomenally well. And the editor groans when we say we should do another one in a couple of months, because they do very well. They almost double in sales from the regular $3.99 issue.
Jason Thompson
fuck off marvel I'll drop Nova the only title Im getting from you guys to pay for the DC shift to 3.99 on batman beyond, red hood and super sons
Jason King
THEY STOPPED BEING RETURNABLE AT ISSUE SIX
fucking disgusting. God forbid a comic shop makes big orders without fear of having huge back stock nobody wants to fucking buy.
my LCS hardly makes money from comics. its MTG and Board Games with 40k and X-wing War Games in distant 3rd.
and Diamond treats them like shit. Sometimes they don't even have some of the week's books that they ordered.
You may as well just get a fucking trip at this point. Your really desperate attempts to paint Rebirth as a failure are as regular as clockwork. Which Marvel guy are you? My money would be on Spencer or Liefeld.
Mason Davis
He's the one with copypastas about why DC always flops, even if it makes a trillion every hour..
Brandon Torres
Making books returnable is a sign of confidence in your product, Marvel. If you were so convinced people want to read books like Mockingbird and Hellcat you'd put your money where your mouth is instead of keeping them alive past their expiration dates with blatant shenannigans.
Brayden Ward
>reading Batman Beyond comics so you admit you have no taste
Mason Gonzalez
Marvel will always fuck LCS even if it kills the industry, they just don't care. They will make money for relaunching #1s every 4 months with a Event every 3 months.
Just look at May solicitations: 5/6 Main-Event Books + 4 or 5 #1s Hope DC has a solid solicitation would love to see a big confrontation but still Marvel would give copies for free anyway to fuck Diamond numbers.
Kevin Smith
>Event every 3 months They'll never wait that long between events.
Christian Mitchell
Well they had almost 1 year without a event but goddamn it! From CWII with more than 25 tie-ins straight to MU and straight to Secret Empire.
At least for now SE seems to have less tie-ins with also minimal "Prelude" issues but Marvel also wants me to spend 55$ just to follow the main-story of the event in the first month...
Gabriel Clark
>straight to MU and straight to Secret Empire You're forgetting IvX and The Clone Conspiracy.
They have three events currently.
Noah Jones
Shit you right
Colton Scott
Why does Marvel bother to make comics or anything other than movies again?
Christopher Stewart
Honestly, I'd love a new series where Liefeld is given one hundred percent freedom to go crazy. He'd consider it completely serious and completely straight, but it would be a fantastic parody of comics' iron age to normal people.
Brody Walker
Cause the movie division is separate from the comics division
Nathaniel Hughes
But the former needs the latter to draw inspiration from.
Blake Watson
How terrible of a comic shop do you have to be to be bad at selling Batman? Good lord
Brayden Roberts
At this point the movies are the only things keeping them alive, once capeshit falls out of favour with the general public (as it will, no movie trend lasts forever) Marvel is done.
Wyatt Reed
Considering both Civil War and Age of Ultron were completely unlike their comic counterparts other than the title, that's not really true.
Nolan Morgan
They used the titles, which is already something. Also,
Gavin Diaz
Seriously. Even if it is King's batman (which I have enjoyed more than some here), you have to be doing something wrong to not be selling out of it
Liam Hall
>The title is dumb lol. Liefeld posted it yesterday without reading the story it's so bad (and because he's been shilling for Marvel lately). I had to check his twitter to see if this was true. It's hilarious that it is. It's kind of sad that he was pretty middle-ground about everyone until Deadpool was actually a success. Now he's going to bat for Marvel and trying to shit on DC at every opportunity now that casuals are giving him credit for making an amazing character that he actually need other people to make good.
Adrian Rivera
They have kicked DC's ass in sales for a while
Elijah Gutierrez
Heh, sure.
Tyler Roberts
They have 60 years of stories to draw inspiration from
Noah Wilson
sales and everything else
Blake Scott
You must be new. Marvel kicked DC's ass in sales before rebirth. comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2016/2016-02.html 1 year ago Marvel had 42% of the market share and 40% of the dollar share. DC couldn't crack 30% in either. Fuck, even last month marvel still holds 37% of the dollar share.
People are finally wising up to Marvel's bullshit but they doing pretty ok still financially.
>and everything else eh. I have been reading since a few months before the new 52 started and imo it has fluctuated. I have made a decision to not buy from either DC or Marvel for a little bit a couple times now
Juan Smith
The guy who runs my LCS actually has a response to that.
Way too long to post but it's a pretty thorough BTFOing of Marvel. Here's some excerpts though.
>To give you a point of reference for my store, as much as I like DC, Image has my top 3 bestsellers, which all sell 100 copies per month in my store (when they aren’t taking a break). Saga, Walking Dead and then Paper Girls are our three bestsellers, and the same goes for TPBs on those titles as well. We sold over 100 copies of Saga Volume 1 in our store last year and close to 500 total copies of Saga Volume 1 since it came out 4 years ago. In what’s probably not a coincidence, all three of these titles and most of our other bestsellers are also $2.99. We’ve never seen price resistance like we’re seeing right now and people refuse to try a new comic or event if it’s $4.99 or $5.99 for the first issue and I can’t blame them. I’ve even got a handful of customers that won’t even touch $3.99 books! The $9.99 issues of Deadpool have helped bring Deadpool to a six year sales low, after doing so incredibly well with last year’s Deadpool movie being the first comic movie in a while to really bring in a whole new crowd. Imagine that, people don’t want to pay $9.99 for a comic, even if it does have 100 pages.
Blake Scott
>The bad news is that EVERY single Marvel title is down from a year ago in my store. Several customers dropped Marvel entirely as they put more faith (and money) into Rebirth, and others just stopped collecting comics as the Marvel Universe that’s around now isn’t aimed at them, but seems to be aimed at the Tumblr or Twitter crowd that never comes into any store that I’m aware of. I’m all for diversity, but not every replacement or legacy character can be as well received (or as well written) as Ms Marvel, Jane Foster or Squirrel Girl. I would really like to sell more Marvel Comics, as comics is the most important and biggest part of our sales, but right now, between overpriced comics at $4.99, $5.99 or even $9.99, Marvel has never been more out of touch with what fans and retailers would like to see from them.
>My key bit of advice to Marvel is this: “Fewer books, better books, cheaper books!” When Marvel was publishing 35 titles in the early 2000’s as they were coming out of their 1990’s coma, more than half of them were excellent. Alias, Supreme Power, JMS’ Amazing, so many great books! I’d rather sell a lot of 30 or 40 great books than a few each of a bunch of crappy ones that no one wants to read. When you’ve lost your core audience and haven’t done anything to bring in a new audience to actually purchase these books, there won’t be a comic industry for you to exploit in ten years at this rate. Marvel, please fix it before it gets any worse and think about the long term consequences of your actions before reaching for every possible short term dollar you can with all the ridiculous variants, events and gimmicks.
Tyler Long
>Give us the kick butt comics they were known for. Like the first Uncanny X-Force
Based Remender
>The current “stealth” cancellations do not help
This was something I was thinking about while looking at the Marvel solicits thread, why do Marvel never announce a series cancellation? Remember when Omega Men was originally cancelled with #7 and the huge fan uproar saved the book? If Marvel were upfront about cancellations the same might be done for some their better, lower selling books like Foolkiller.
Angel Ramirez
Well, most of their books are a joke right now, so
Xavier Scott
Aren't most of the "cancellations" just miniseries that were billed as ongoing since no one buys miniseries according to Marvel?
Jeremiah Rodriguez
I always find that idea kinda funny because i buy Migolaverse minis all the damn time when theyre coming out. A story arc is a story arc.... i guess people want to get invested in some sort of fandom instead of just reading a story and enjoying it.
Michael Fisher
To be fair, there's a pretty big difference between a story arc part of a huge universe with established characters that feeds into other existing stories and will be built upon later in the next arc compared to a true, self contained miniseries, like 5 issues of literal who Foolkiller who hasn't had a series in years and won't have another for even more years.
A big reason reason people like capes is the interconnectedness after all.
Luke Jones
Because Marvel isn't and has never been a comic company. They make their money through licensing their characters for toys and children's underwear. When Marvel and Toybiz merged, Perlmutter (the Toybiz CEO) took over, because the toy department was the most important.
They have survived because Marvel isn't above scummy business practices and corporate sabotage. Back in the 70s Marvel leaked that they were increasing page counts and keeping prices low to force DC to slash their line down and drop prices, which devastated the industry. Jim Shooter would harass DC employees and threaten that Marvel would buy DC and if they didn't do what he said they'd never work again. Marvel pumped out variant covers to pander to speculators and led to the Crash, then sold off their movie licences to survive. Marvel gave us Rob Liefeld. Marvel rewarded comic book stores if they destroyed DC event books.
The thing about Marvel is that they have no talent and produce nothing good, but make money through branding, so they can never fail. They intentionally cause damage to the industry so that they can kill their competition and be the ones left to pick up the pieces. As a company they are inarguably pure evil.
Juan Brooks
I saw an ABC sitcom tonight where two characters talked about how bad BvS was while standing in front of the posters for Zootopia, Jungle Book, Alice 2, and Finding Dory.
Tell me if you think Disney doesn't want a monopoly.
