How to elevate a Nobody to the A list...

[Ascended]

The New Age stuff apparently had strong trade pre-orders as well, and those surpassed a lot of the established big names. With newer IP's like this I think you have to look beyond the direct market and see how the books are doing in other formats, where the newer fans seem to gravitate to; digital and trade and all that. I have no idea how these books did digitally, but I do know the direct market isnt the sole indicator of success it used to be. If it was, books like Ms. Marvel never would've lasted.

I agree that removing the artists so early was a mistake, though it didn't surprise me; those books were never likely to make it in the direct market and names like Reis and Daniels and Rocafort pull bigger page rates than the other guys (reducing the profit margins) and are always in high demand for bigger, higher selling titles.

And I think it would've worked a bit better if they had included the New Age heroes in Metal itself, with a role in the narrative and not just a single panel at the end. It was smart to spin the line out of such a big Event, but they should've been involved in the story in some capacity; that would've served as a great way to increase reader interest and introduce us all to the characters.

I dont think the release schedule was a huge problem though. It took a few months for all those books to start, and if DC had waited much longer any hype Metal had managed to bring to the New Age line would've faded completely.

Really, I can't find much that DC did wrong with that line at all. Lots of marketing, strong creators, diverse casts, all spinning out of a big Event.....new characters and initiatives like that are always a risk that'll fail 99.99% of the time but I feel like DC did as good a job with their risk management as they could.

[Aahz]

The New Age stuff apparently had strong trade pre-orders as well, and those surpassed a lot of the established big names. With newer IP's like this I think you have to look beyond the direct market and see how the books are doing in other formats, where the newer fans seem to gravitate to; digital and trade and all that.

When one off the main selling points of the new IP are established big name creators, I don't think that it will have a mostly new audience.
These creators are mostly only a "big name" for old fans, while for a new fan those names will not mean much.

[Ascended]

When one off the main selling points of the new IP are established big name creators, I don't think that it will have a mostly new audience.
These creators are mostly only a "big name" for old fans, while for a new fan those names will not mean much.

The big name creators would, in theory, help make the books appeal to us established fans, while the properties themselves would (again in theory) appeal to new fans or established fans looking for something different than the usual fare (or a Marvel book published by someone other than Marvel, in NA's case).

Bit of market segmentation, that's all. Didn't mean to imply the model they used was supposed to appeal to new fans only.

[Aahz]

My point is just if they go for a strategy that is supposed to get old fans interested, than I think that a poor performance on the direct market is a clear indication that that didn't worked out.

Appart from this most of the New Age of Heros Books are afaik allready cancelled, so digital sales and trade sales were very likely not high enough to make up for the poor performance on the direct market.

[Ascended]

My point is just if they go for a strategy that is supposed to get old fans interested, than I think that a poor performance on the direct market is a clear indication that that didn't worked out.

Ah, okay we're on the same page now.

Oh, yeah the books totally failed in the direct market, meaning the established fans didn't get on board. Not the only goal the line had, nor the only demographic, but I don't think it could be argued that New Age succeeded in the DM. Even without the A-list artists, the books still had A-list writers and a big marketing push to pay for; I can't believe it turned a viable profit after those expenses.

Appart from this most of the New Age of Heros Books are afaik allready cancelled, so digital sales and trade sales were very likely not high enough to make up for the poor performance on the direct market.

Also true. Shame, the books were all quality (of what I tried anyway), but I don't think many of us expected anything different. How many initiatives like this have we seen in the modern era? At best you find one book out of the whole group that'll last for a good run or two.

I'm not saying the line was successful, if that's what you thought. Im just saying I think DC handled things just about as well as they could have. I don't think the line failed because of any mistake on DC's part; it just didn't catch on, which is always a risk in industries like this. There's no proven formula for what'll resonate with the audience. >shrug<