Didio And Lee On The Fate Of Imprints And How DC Looks At Sales

[Agent Z]

DiDio explained that, on the whole, DC’s periodical sales have been “strong” for a number of different reasons, but two in particular. For one, the publisher’s downsized the overall number of titles it’s producing in order to focus on the creative energies going into those series. DiDio also cited mature Black Label and new, hit books like Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo’s Teen Titans: Raven that are directly aimed at younger audiences as other examples of places where DC’s seen growth.

Some of the biggest problems plaguing the industry’s ability to push new ongoing, flagship titles, DiDio continued, is the approach publishers have taken to artificially goose sales through time-honored, but not necessarily beloved comics publisher traditions:

"Where my concern comes from is more about the overreliance on nostalgia, speculator marketing, variant covers, and a lot of things that seem to be driving numbers in sales to give the appearance of a healthy industry, but it’s not built on the ongoing success of the individual titles in order to keep those numbers successful and maintained. If we’re creating these artificial highs on a continual basis, if something pulls that apart, does it break the infrastructure overall, and how do we change these buying patterns in that fashion to build something that is a more healthy business going forward?"

For all his optimism, Lee echoed DiDio’s honesty and pragmatism while speaking about the fact that DC’s digital sales have been a complicated puzzle to solve. While people aren’t buying individual issues digitally the way they might traditional comic books, digital subscriptions have been up. That might initially seem like a good thing, but digital subscriptions are having an impact on individual sales. That dynamic, Lee said, is something DC’s still trying to figure out:

I think it’s discouraging in general because everyone talks about digital being the future. If there’s anything that should continue to grow year-in, year-out, it should be that channel. The fact that it’s kind of plateaued and we’ve hit a wall speaks to a lot of different things. We need to reinvent what we’re doing digitally. The subscription service that we’re doing on the DC Universe platform is part of that. We just have to get better at marketing to people that know our characters, love our characters, but aren’t buying comics.

Read the rest here.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/dc-comics-to...rin-1837070776

[Lee Stone]

Nostalgia... Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen...

Speculator Marketing... The Bat/Cat Wedding, Batpenis, Heroes in Crisis...

Variant Covers... Harley Quinn, line-wide variant themes, pretty much all that Jim Lee does these days...

There must be two Didios in there.

[Johnny]

Nostalgia... Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen...

Speculator Marketing... The Bat/Cat Wedding, Batpenis, Heroes in Crisis...

Variant Covers... Harley Quinn, line-wide variant themes, pretty much all that Jim Lee does these days...

There must be two Didios in there.

The Trinity were created 2 decades before Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Are they nostalgia too? The JSA and the Legion are coming back and everyone seems to be excited about it. Is that also supposed to be a nostalgia act. What about the Doom Patrol? Popular characters are popular characters, as long as there's fan demand for them they will be around in some capacity.

[Lee Stone]

The Trinity were created 2 decades before Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Are they nostalgia too? The JSA and the Legion are coming back and everyone seems to be excited about it. Is that also supposed to be a nostalgia act. What about the Doom Patrol? Popular characters are popular characters, as long as there's fan demand for them they will be around in some capacity.

I'm just calling out the ones that Didio in particular appears to have nostalgia for.

His comments above sound like an Earth-3 Didio commenting about the Earth-1 Didio's comics. LOL.

Ironically, nostalgia doesn't seem to become a problem until Wally West, Wolfman's Titans, Legion, JLI and the JSA start getting involved. Then nostalgia is a 'bad thing'.

[Vampire Savior]

I wonder how long this company will go before AT&T more or less wipes them out. People have been talking about doom and gloom for a while,yes, but with this change in ownership, I can actually see it happening this time around. I guess because we can actually watch DC folding in on itself, and I'm sure that's mostly to do with AT&T not being terribly interested in the comics publishing business. The only thing of real value to them are the IPs. This comics literature doesn't do anything for them.

[Aahz]

Ironically, nostalgia doesn't seem to become a problem until Wally West, Wolfman's Titans, Legion, JLI and the JSA start getting involved. Then nostalgia is a 'bad thing'.

I think the problem that Didio sees, is the lack of success of their new charcters.

I mean just look at "New Age of Heros". They had lots of their big name creators involved with these books, but the only book that had somewhat decent sales was Terrifcs, which was the only book featuring established characters.

And basically all the new characters that had at least some success, were legacy characters or otherwise part of bigger franchise.

[BohemiaDrinker]

Didio doesn't get to complain about nostalgia.

[sbp1972]

I don't know that the "New Age of Heroes" can be blamed on the new characters. Most of their big name creators lasted 2-3 issues, best case. That was a creative, editorial, and planning disaster. The Jim Lee book had him for what, 1 and 1/4 issues?

[Lee Stone]

I think the problem that Didio sees, is the lack of success of their new charcters.

I mean just look at "New Age of Heros". They had lots of their big name creators involved with these books, but the only book that had somewhat decent sales was Terrifcs, which was the only book featuring established characters.

And basically all the new characters that had at least some success, were legacy characters or otherwise part of bigger franchise.

Yeah...
Terrifics was the proper way to expand.
It's a tried and true method of growing a team or character's popularity.

Launching new books with zero lead-in, almost always fails. Especially in the modern age where there's so much competition.

In the old days, one of the tricks was to pair new characters with the established characters for a few years to develop a following. That was one of the benefits of books like JLA and Avengers. Take Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, throw in a Zatanna and just wait for readers to get used to her before adding someone else.
Then, by that time, she should be familiar enough to branch out in a mini-series or back-up series.

With New Age of Heroes, they should really check their perspective on things.
Instead of being butthurt that their personal creations didn't take off, they should be exploiting the Terrifics and focusing on it.
But they won't. Because it's not their baby.
They'll just let it tread water until it finally sinks and drowns.

[skyvolt2000]

I think the problem that Didio sees, is the lack of success of their new charcters.

I mean just look at "New Age of Heros". They had lots of their big name creators involved with these books, but the only book that had somewhat decent sales was Terrifcs, which was the only book featuring established characters.

And basically all the new characters that had at least some success, were legacy characters or otherwise part of bigger franchise.

And HOW Much of that is on HIM and his gang?

How many books got derailed by editors? How many fan favorites got the limbo, event death or wiped out of existence?
You want me to support new folks yet when I look at your history-it says don't expect much after that solo book or team book.

Lets take the class of Tim, Conner, Kyle, Bart, Cassie, Conor Hawke, Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown & the 1996 Titans.
Or the class of Jaime Reyes, Jason Rusch, Manhunter & Ryan Choi.
Lets go further-Guy, John Stewart, Cyborg, Kyle, Vixen, Bronze Tiger, Ice, Fire, Question, Ronnie Raymond, Titans as a WHOLE, Booster Gold, Legion, Ted Kord & Blue Devil.
How well have they fared since 2009? These folks were NOT failures. Fans did not reject them. Yet some of them represent the WORST or poorly received stories at DC since 2009.

So why would I get excited over folks who might suffer the same fates.

Folks are looking to the past because for many that is the only place to get a decent story with many of the above.
You can't cry about nostalgia when you are messing up the present and future. Which is very unfair many of the decent books DC has. Yet you can't trust leadership to get right.

Maybe Dc needs to follow Hickman's order at Marvel with the X-Men-no more NEW folks. Use who you already have and get them right.

[cranger]

I think the problem that Didio sees, is the lack of success of their new charcters.

I mean just look at "New Age of Heros". They had lots of their big name creators involved with these books, but the only book that had somewhat decent sales was Terrifcs, which was the only book featuring established characters.

And basically all the new characters that had at least some success, were legacy characters or otherwise part of bigger franchise.

I don't know if it is the lack of success of those, but I think what he thinks the problems are would be one reason for that lack of success.

I've read a lot of responses to this, but it seems most of the people who want to comment either have an issue with Dan Didio or feel he is attacking the variant/speculator crowd. Well, I don't care what people think of Dan, this comment could come from anyone and it would hold the same amount of truth. As for variants and speculators, I do not think he is wishing it went away, he is simply pointing out that the industry needs a stable core, and that core is ongoing monthly books, and for that to be stable it needs not to bleed readers issue after issue, or at least it needs to be able to grow readers to counter the loss, making the appearance of a stable readership.

The variants and the speculator revenue should not be turned away, but it has to be seen as a bonus, not something the industry needs to stay alive.

[MajorHoy]

. . . The JSA and the Legion are coming back and everyone seems to be excited about it . . .

Well, we don't know if "everyone" is excited, and we'll have to see how long DC lets that last. In the past, DC has continually mistreated the JSA, even when its sales numbers through Diamond were healthier than quite a few other titles that continued.

[Dred]

The Trinity were created 2 decades before Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Are they nostalgia too?

I get the point you're trying to make here, but the answer is yes. Even next generation characters like Wally and YJ are nostalgia at this point. The issue is the only reasonable way to move past all these older characters is to progress past them in storytelling, which is impossible with infinite reversion to a particular status quo and a particular set of nostalgia. Everything that was ever written in the past one point can be labeled nostalgia. The point being made here is not to complain about nostalgia ruining your industry when you run the company by prioritizing personal nostalgia.

[married guy]

I've always wondered about digital issues.
Why wouldn't you try something like having the issues read by voice actors?
Make it something different to encourage people to give it a whirl.
Hell, how many people would buy a digital Batman comic if DC had Kevin Conroy reading Batman's lines?
Mark Hamill reading lines for the Joker and Trickster.
Michael Ironside reading Darkseid?

I know, big names big costs. But it wouldn't take very long to read for 6 issues worth of lines.
Take advantage of the medium, they don't HAVE to be static when they're on the digital platform. Take advantage of it!

[kjn]

Nostalgia... Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen...

Speculator Marketing... The Bat/Cat Wedding, Batpenis, Heroes in Crisis...

Variant Covers... Harley Quinn, line-wide variant themes, pretty much all that Jim Lee does these days...

There must be two Didios in there.

I think there might be. Two economists who are trying to increase DC's markets long- and short-term, one fanboy with strong ideas on how they want DC's universe to look.