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

[Dr. Ellingham]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalk.../#e4aa7aa79b79

Good article, which corroborates DC's concern: propping up a dying distribution model and everything required to support it.

Seems like the direct market is now on notice, and will soon have an expiration date. And all the stuff DC and Marvel morphed their content into over the last 30 years - the stunts, the crossovers, the complex continuity and crowding of IPs - will go away, or evolve again.

In a few years the landscape will be sooo different. For sure DC will have a smaller publishing line.

[Vampire Savior]

I agree with the bolded part there.
I think what makes me take pause is that it's Didio saying it.

It's kinda like someone watching a house fire and screaming, 'OMG, my home is burning!' while throwing more wood onto the fire.

I'm waiting to see proof that he believes what he said.

The problem is similar to being addicted to a drug. If DiDio quits cold turkey, he will figuratively die. He realizes that, so the gimmicks keep continuing. Marvel and DC have gotten themselves into a spot where shameless gimmicks are a necessity for their survival.

[skyvolt2000]

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.

But the issue is once you get past them-what do you have left?

One of the stores I visit only orders a lot of those variants (ESPECIALLY first issues) because they have a LARGE segment who will buy those variants.
NO MATTER WHO IT IS ON THE COVER.

Remember New 52? Another store only ordered all first issues because ONE guy bought every one of them. Otherwise the one New 52 book they would NOT have ordered because NO ONE was interested was Grifter.

Dynamite and Zenescope LIVED off of variants. That is why they do so many.

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 thing is if you want those new readers-EVERYONE has to accept a nasty reality.
There are going to be books out there you don't like or understand why they are made.

Flooding the market with Batman books is not the solution.
What good is all these lines if you keep using the same 5-10 folks?
Tossing out New Age and leaving them to sink of swim with no support is not going to work.
Trashing folks you have in book like Heroes in Crisis is NOT going to work.

And folks can say (blank) sales. AND????????
John Cena and certain guys sold a lot of crap in the WWE and their ratings STINK.
5 folks held X-Men hostage and that lead to crappy stories that sunk them. Now things are looking up because someone put their foot down and said- no mare new folks-lets use WHAT WE HAVE in good to decent stories with no agendas towards those we don't care for.

FOr DC to work-they have to show EVERYONE matters. Now just pets or silver age guys. If Naomi is a big thing-she BETTER be around this time next year and the years following. If Aqualad is your LGBTQ project-make him matter. Make everyone matter not just who you like.

[DragonPiece]

Sorry to bump a week old thread, but why hasn't DC decided to go in on multiple variants and incentives like Marvel does? If you can't beat them, join them. I get Didio's take that it'll just be a illusion of how much the comic is actually selling, but at the end of the day, Marvel's tactics must be doing something right since their books continue still to sell more in general.

[cranger]

Sorry to bump a week old thread, but why hasn't DC decided to go in on multiple variants and incentives like Marvel does? If you can't beat them, join them. I get Didio's take that it'll just be a illusion of how much the comic is actually selling, but at the end of the day, Marvel's tactics must be doing something right since their books continue still to sell more in general.

The problem is that their books do not continue to sell more in general, that is after that New Number 1 with All Of The Variants hits issue 2, 3, 10, sales are gone. People can rip on DC all they want for Batman not selling 100K anymore, but show me a Marvel book at issue #76 selling that well. While these stunts might make sales look good in the short term they actually harm longer term sales because the sales are not due to interest in the story, and the next stunt they do competes for dollars that would otherwise go to ongoing sales.

[Vordan]

Sorry to bump a week old thread, but why hasn't DC decided to go in on multiple variants and incentives like Marvel does? If you can't beat them, join them. I get Didio's take that it'll just be a illusion of how much the comic is actually selling, but at the end of the day, Marvel's tactics must be doing something right since their books continue still to sell more in general.

It’s not healthy in the long run. They may very well end up going down that route though.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

Sorry to bump a week old thread, but why hasn't DC decided to go in on multiple variants and incentives like Marvel does? If you can't beat them, join them. I get Didio's take that it'll just be a illusion of how much the comic is actually selling, but at the end of the day, Marvel's tactics must be doing something right since their books continue still to sell more in general.

It's certainly not clear that Marvel is selling more when you take into consideration just how much stuff they're putting out. More importantly, though, even if Marvel's stunts are great for them short-term, they're undoubtedly harmful to them and for the whole industry in the long term. I have my issues with DC but their business and publishing practices are just so much better than Marvel's right now. There's only so much product you can put out before a large portion of it takes a hit creatively and there's only so much you can bilk your customers with multiple shipping, a thousand variants, cheap paper-stock and random $5 or $6 issues before they start to lose interest or outright rebel. I, for one, don't buy Marvel monthlies precisely because of these factors. I will check out some of their more acclaimed runs in HC when they are eventually collected that way but, otherwise, I prefer not to support such noxious business practices.