Big Bang did their weekly sales roundup and got particularly heated about the $10 Deadpool issue. Other retailers are reporting the same. Are they right, Sup Forums?
>Let's talk about DEADPOOL #31. First, some context. The previous issue, #30, was $9.99. Yes. The regular issue of a comic series was a tenner. And what have we said over and over again about these over sized, stupidly priced issues? This is not a new thing. It always happens. There's numbers out there. Hell, I'm looking at numbers right here! #30 of DEADPOOL led to 25% of our DEADPOOL pull lists cancelling it.. #31 sold 30% less than #29. DEADPOOL practically stopped selling from the shelf and it's almost all pre-orders now. Maybe we're an outlier? Maybe every other single comics retailer we know is an outlier too? v]Maybe there's a magical shop out there that sells more DEADPOOLs the more expensive they are? Maybe there's a proper explanation for why Marvel keeps doing this? Well, one that it's not greed, obviously. Why, why, WHY are you killing your readership?! Why are you imposing stupid prices on books that are parts of a regular series?! Every other shop we know complains about the same. Everyone else is saying their DEADPOOL sales are now SHIT.
Are they right Sup Forums?
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>And you know why? Cause Marvel was greedy. Same reason BLACK PANTHER died. Because someone saw something that worked and decided to run it to the ground. Our DEADPOOL sales are now a third of what they were at the last #1. Same creative team! Not a single person that dropped that book mentioned the creators or the stories. Everyone that did it was about the price hikes. This is not a slam on the creators or the editors. We know these guys work their asses off to give you the best book they can. But somewhere above them, there's someone looking at readers like [handsqueezinglemon.gif] And that's Marvel's problem. Not diversity issues, not artists don't sell, not appalling marketing (although, jesus...) The problem is that Marvel don't respect their readers. They're revenue streams now, and nothing more. And revenue streams are to be squeezed as much as possible. As many ways as possible. Don't get me wrong, EVERYONE is in this to make money! DC, Image, us, the other shops, everyone! But the same way a customer knows when a shop is taking the piss and they decide to stop shopping there, they're seeing that in Marvel.
Did it have more content to justify that price?
>But the same way a customer knows when a shop is taking the piss and they decide to stop shopping there, they're seeing that in Marvel. And it takes a lot, A LOT, for some people to cancel those books. And guess what, the last couple of years are that "a lot". It's not that Marvel alienated their core audience. It's that they took them for granted. Unfortunately, like in any other relationship, both sides have to work for it. And here, Marvel keeps dropping the ball. Man, I wish I wasn't like this. I wish I could come up here and say EVERYONE IS AWESOME! But I can't. Because this is my livelihood. And John's. And JP's. And Danielle's. All the creators we know. And all the retailers we know. This is not a hobby for us. This is our life. And when such an important part of your life keeps screwing up, you tell them. And I KNOW no one at Marvel gives a rat's ass about what we have to say over here in Ireland, but screw it. We'll keep on saying it. Marvel... you're screwing up. Get your shit together for all of us.
Comics are a dying industry.
It was 80 pages long
Well, they didn't go on a rant JUST because of Deadpool. Most everything Marvel is dying on their shelves apparently. Secret Empire #3 sold out, but after they massively slashed orders. They say it's selling less than X-Men Blue and Gold but twice what CA:SR is doing. #3 apparently sold less than half the last issue of CWII.
I mean, I guess I assumed SE would do something since it's a DC 5th week. But with the Flash pushed to this spot and the WW Annual doing great I guess not.
What do you mean "are they"? They gave raw numbers. There's nothing to debate.
There was a post yesterday where someone addressed the idea that "comics are dying" and point out that comics are ALREADY dead. In the early direct market era X-Men alone sold 750,000 each month, and that's just for regular average everyday plain normal nothing-out-of-the-ordinary non-"enhanced" issues. Now there aren't even that many people reading comics combined.
That seems fine then
>There was a post yesterday where someone addressed the idea that "comics are dying" and point out that comics are ALREADY dead. In the early direct market era X-Men alone sold 750,000 each month, and that's just for regular average everyday plain normal nothing-out-of-the-ordinary non-"enhanced" issues. Now there aren't even that many people reading comics combined.
WE ZOMBIES NOW LADS.
But yeah, it's a fucking joke that they haven't been able to translate their movie audience in the millions to a single book reader
It doesn't help that the movies and comics are nothing like each other
This is from Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
>80 pages of Redditpool
Not even worth it.
make em cheaper.
>Marvel tries to destroy the industry every 20 years
REMINDER THAT THIS IS HOW MARVEL USED TO THINK
THIS USED TO BE THEIR PUBLIC MISSION STATEMENT/POLICIES
>Woooooooooow it's $10?!
>How dare they charge $10 for an 80-page special issue!
What the fuck are you doing, going on garbage websites like that OP?
What counts as dead? Comics just seem as the most niche of niche hobbies.
>shelling out your shekels
kek
But the readers are just going to waste all that extra money on something Not Marvel, user.
>$10, 80 page special
i bet it had 60 pages of inferior art and stories
Like food or Internet?
So what? If they buy other books then retailers do better and that keeps them in business which benefits Marvel's long term sales.
>3
>blocked on Twitter for criticism
lel
You know that Marvel is fucked when even that used car salesman made more sense than they do now.
Well you do need to lose weight and get out more. So really, Marvel's doing you a favor. Make Mine Marvel!
>But yeah, it's a fucking joke that they haven't been able to translate their movie audience in the millions to a single book reader
This is truly mindboggling. I look at something like DC Superhero Girls outselling most Marvel trades and just shake my head. They are leaving so much money on the table. There should be at least 10k normies a year saying "maybe I should buy this Avengers collection from Amazon?" but it just doesn't happen. Makes no sense.
Because normies don't give a fuck about comic Batman, or comic Avengers, or comic Superman, or comic anyone. They give a fuck about movie Batman/Avengers/etc or cartoon Batman/Avengers/etc or TV show Batman/Avengers/etc. The sooner Sup Forums realises Marvel and DC are just IP farms for Disney and Time Warner, the better it'll be for everyone
This is not actually true though. DC put out a Batman vs Superman collection and it still sold 45k when the movie came out with zero effort. I'm sure WW collections will do well this year too. Walking Dead is fucking huge in bookstores as well. Killing Joke had a 70k increase from the previous year because it got an adaption. Normies will buy comics.
For some reason Marvel is the only publisher who fails to capitalize on this. They did have Deadpool trades do ok for them but they don't get a truly strong bump like other companies.
Then why are comics increasingly mediocre compared to the derived content?
Maybe because the movie and comic sections were split up to keep Pearlmutter's hands of the Disney dosh. So the comics division became short-sighted and doesn't see a reason to promote money they don't get?
I just want to point out that the Power Rangers annual was $8, didn't surprise fuck anyone with the cost, and it was fucking good somehow
>#30 of DEADPOOL led to 25% of our DEADPOOL pull lists cancelling it
holy shit!
Should've been "Make Marvel Mine" instead, where they listen to readers and give them what THEY want. Whoops!
>shelling out your shekels
No wonder Sup Forums likes Stan the Man.
Based Stan Lee still talks like this. He's glad there are other comic companies out there. One of his favorite creators is Mobius (could be even his favorite), so he supports other companies doing stuff
Guys, I am facepalming here, and I have been for quite some time.
Movies don't turn people into readers. Period. It doesn't work for prose adaptions- unless it's a kids' IP. Kids are the only one's who actually read.
Why the fuck does everyone think seeing a cape movie is going to encorage tv watching adults to suddenly become readers, when over a decade and a half of school conditioning failed to do it?
It is straight up retarded.
Have you read the book Die Hard is based on?
No, you haven't
Get a fucking grip.
45k aint shit. What is that in terms of actual revenue for the company? Well under 100k I bet. It is effectively zero.
It worked for Walking Dead.
Actually the movies made me start reading and buying comics. I read a bit before but mostly from the library and only the adult graphic novel selection. It was a combination of the MCU and EMH that got me interested in superheroes, well superheroes other than the X-men cause I liked those from the 90s cartoon but never bought those comics anyway.
now I'm drifting back to indi comics but still have some DC books on a pull list. and I'm collecting some 80s DC books.
>45k
>compared to the 10s of millions that watched a movie
They couldn't even transfer 0.1% of the audience
Yeah, sort of the same story Bamham Arkham City got me reading comics. Started collecting the classics, began branching out into the newer comics, and have started to go back. At least current Batman is pretty okay now. Rebirth fixed a lot.
Lightning in a bottle, leading nowhere.
Movies didn't get me started on comics, cartoons did. But movies keep me coming back after every time I drop them.
Also that guy is retarded, any time a book is made into a successful movie, sales fucking spike for the book, it usually gets a TP or MM reprint with the movie poster as the cover and they ain't printing that shit for giggles
t. Former bookstore employee
I haven't bought Marvel in years. Is this practice - making an expensive annual/special part of the regular issue cycle so obsessive fucks have to buy it - a common thing now? Although since I guess Marvel relaunches so much it's understandable they see #30 as a huge enough milestone issue for an expensive special.
>The problem is that Marvel don't respect their readers. They're revenue streams now, and nothing more. And revenue streams are to be squeezed as much as possible. As many ways as possible.
This is true.
Hey now, there's still origami.
Wasn't Deadpool 25 oversized and ten bux too? Why was 30 oversized?
Every 20+ 5K (where K is a positive integer) issue of mainline marvel is oversized to get the big bucks
>Kids are the only one's who actually read.
Kids these days I swear, why can't they just watch television like we did in the 50s?
Literally nothing has changed since the 80's in the way they do business. It has been the same and will continue to be the same. The falling sales do not matter because they pull out all the gimmicks like the ones the OP article is complaining about to make their results look OK.
Because of the people who are in charge and the people who will succeed them, NOTHING will change the way Marvel operates short of a sales drop so bad that even gimmicks can make it look good, and for that to happen, everyone else's sales would basically have to go down exactly the same way.
Stan was still saying this stuff even when the suits had completely taken over. There's a whole level of corporate that we never see or hear anything about. Stan, and other EICs or CCOs, are the link between the creators/fans and the executives. Their job is to please the executives while assuring the creators and fans everything is OK.
Your lifehood is the cancer of the american comocs industry
You have to go.
This is why Marvel is jumping into the Scholastic Book Fair
They did. Just in countries that do not use the direct market.
Ie. everywhere but the usa
It's almost as if a monopoly distribution method is bad for the industry.
Oh please, you think disney can't abandon Diamond whenever they wish to? Marvel doesn't want to
>But somewhere above them, there's someone looking at readers like [handsqueezinglemon.gif]
fucking Ike
Then why don't they? It's horrible for their business.
Aren't they publishing digests to be sold outside comic shops, like Archie?
They actually teamed up with Archie to do it, because Archie has that model down. I think the first one was supposed to come out this month.
Sure sales spike for the book- but does that mean more people are reading books all the time.
Nah.
t.another former bookstore employee.
Diamond has nothing to do with anything other than the direct market. If Marvel wanted to distribute comics to corner stores, book stores, whatever, they could. They don't want to.
>My regular issue, which is already steeply priced, has three extra, low quality issues attached. Its price is now tripled.
Yeah, I love paying put the ass for mediocre content.
It comes out this Wednesday for comic book stores. It looks good, half is classic Spider-Man stories, the other half is more modern stuff from the Marvel Age books they did about a decade ago.
It will probably be at grocery stores/etc. in another week or two. The next issue is Avengers focus and due out in two months.
Could this be Marvel's future? No more new stories, only reprints.
They'll try to crash the industry again first
I kind of think so.
They could just stop producing and start marketing and curating. It isn't like there is a lack of content in the back list.
Disney doesn't care about comics. The comics featuring their own ips are all farmed out to Fanta, for example. I was a little surprised they bothered to bring Star Wars in house.
yyyyyyyyyyyyyy859rrrrfffffffffffffffff856
Marvel's done it a few times. The first couple times it was a special and sold amazingly so they started doing it with regular ongoings and started tanking their sales as people started cancelling their pulls.
DC actually makes more money off the trade market than floppies
Dc has had 80 pages specials for 7.99
not to mention the DC Universe Rebirth special
These kinda things are usually annuals, or specials that are aside from the regular series so if you don't have the money for it, you can continue with the regular issues. Making an oversized regular issue will make people who can't afford it drop the book altogether, even if the price makes sense content-wise.
That's why it's important to have a good offer on trades/graphic novels. That's where you get all the casual interest money, and that's where DC is miles ahead of Marvel.
t. Marvel shill
It's one thing if they had one $9.99 issue for a series. But for Deadpool, they had four $9.99 issues last year, and the one the retailer was complaining about is the fifth one Marvel's done for the Deadpool ongoing.
That's because DC Superhero Girls is REALLY good
>Because someone saw something that worked and decided to run it to the ground
Multiple store owners have pointed this shit out multiple times. Marble's jew owner and his beancounters only look at this quarter's sales numbers and ignore the long tail.
So an issue that sells for $10 like the Spider-Man or Deadpool oversized issues are "a win" because they boosted sales short term ... the fact that they lose people from their long term sales ( cancelled off of pull list ) just doesn't seem to register with them.
comicsbeat.com
>I’ve been selling comics long enough to remember the “Marvel Zombie” – the guys who were buying Marvel’s entire output (and loving it). Even at the height of the “Sandman” salad days for my main store, when we were a significant prototype of “the Vertigo store”, we had always had scores of “Zombies” shopping here (and we loved them for it!), but the tribe has been hunted to extinction by Marvel’s own sales practices. First the “Marvel Zombie” started to fracture into families – becoming “Avengers Zombies” or “X-Men Zombies” – then it descended further down into character-driven purchasing as they expanded your line, not just by title count, but also by frequency-of-release as well as by overall-cost-to-collect. It isn’t merely that there are never fewer than six “Avengers”-titled books going on at a single time (February 2017 brought “Avengers”, “Avengers point one”, “Great Lake Avengers”, “Occupy Avengers”, “Uncanny Avengers” and “US Avengers”, sheesh – the best-seller was about 40k copies, yuck!) – but that Marvel prices each of them at $4 (minimum), and tries to publish as many titles as it possibly can at 16-18 times a year.
yikes
Jesus, How horrifying!
>there are never fewer than six “Avengers”-titled books going on at a single time
marvel the company sucks