Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[Rich Johnston]

I don't recognize this person. Are they in the know?

Sometimes. Depends who they talk to.

[Clark_Kent]

a) what errors and b) I have spoken to comics creators who have confirmed that their titles are on hold.

The fact you personally don't see spelling/grammar/punctuation errors in your blog is the very reason you need an editor

[9th.]

There is unarguably a major disconnect between kids and mainstream U.S. comics...at least the stuff from Marvel and DC. While I don't hold it up as imperious market research, I've had the opportunity to ask plenty of manga loving kids why they love their favorite manga but won't touch Marvel and DC. It's the same medium, but the children clearly love one expression of it over the other. Being kids, they're often not the most analytic about things, and they often don't articulate themselves as detailed as some of us may like, but they essentially just like what they like.

I imagine the problem with Marvel and DC where kids are concerned is "all of the above." Everything that you see people criticize them and the industry in general for is the reason why kids don't like them. Or, even worse than "don't like them." Kids are totally apathetic to Marvel and DC Comics outside of liking some of the characters' movies. The comics are usually not even on their radar, even if the kids know they exist.

I feel like this needs to be discussed more, now it's probably just my experience but I've seen way more adults (20+) care about comics than actual children. They'd much rather read manga or watch anime. Idk how they do it but it's works.

[C_Miller]

I feel like this needs to be discussed more, now it's probably just my experience but I've seen way more adults (20+) care about comics than actual children. They'd much rather read manga or watch anime. Idk how they do it but it's works.

Manga is simply friendlier to new and younger readers. If I want to read Death Note or Full Metal Alchemist or Akira, I know exactly where to start. If I want to read Batman, there are several volume 1s and iterations of the character that really bog down people. If you go to the main comic book subreddit, there are probably at least half a dozen people asking where to start. Manga generally doesn't have that problem.

[Masterff]

Manga is simply friendlier to new and younger readers. If I want to read Death Note or Full Metal Alchemist or Akira, I know exactly where to start. If I want to read Batman, there are several volume 1s and iterations of the character that really bog down people. If you go to the main comic book subreddit, there are probably at least half a dozen people asking where to start. Manga generally doesn't have that problem.

Sorry, but WHY does this matter?

Yes there are some story arcs, BUT!!!! Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are three characters which you can read without knowing much about them.
Like "My own worst enemy" with Harvey Dent...you can read it even if you know almost nothing about Batman..

I personally believe that Nightwing, Titans, Wally, Conner, Impulse... need a push...

I personally see the Titans as MODERN INTERPRETATION of JL (more modern costumes, characters etc.).
Some people dont like Superman, because he is to "perfect" and so Conner with more attitude, being harsher etc. could be a good alternative. (Like the NEW52 Superman).

I really strictly believe that Anime-Readers could relate more to

Wally West than Barry Allen
Titans than JL
probably Conner than Clark

Bruce and Nightwing are close, since Bruce has the awesome villains and Batman is a "dark" comic.

[Vampire Savior]

Sorry, but WHY does this matter?

Because people become overwhelmed, confused, and intimidated. They don't know where to start. You could just tell them to jump in wherever, and that might work for some people, but it won't for a lot of others. They won't have any idea of what's going on, so they're not likely to be invested in what's going on, so they very well may lose interest or never even have interest. Some comics might pull some people in based on spectacle, but a lot of comics won't do that because there isn't enough spectacle in them, and besides, that won't work on a lot of people. They're going to want to understand things.

[Ascended]

I feel like this needs to be discussed more, now it's probably just my experience but I've seen way more adults (20+) care about comics than actual children. They'd much rather read manga or watch anime. Idk how they do it but it's works.

On top of being more accessible to a new reader, manga has superior distribution, and I believe that's a bigger asset to them than an easy jumping on point. Hard for kids to buy a comic when they have no idea where to go, and it involves a trip to a specific store to get them. But we've talked to death about the distribution side of things already in this thread.

I still maintain that if DC did seasonal OGN's, (season 1, season 2, etc) released through bookstores like BAM, their sales would be quite impressive. Of course, the content has to be shifted to appeal to a wider demographic than the current direct market too.

I'd love to tackle the marketing plan for such an initiative. Marketing is the best!

[Vampire Savior]

Distribution is a big thing, but there's definitely more to it than that. Months ago, I would go to my local library A LOT. and I would see kids often looking at manga. Along with the manga in the graphic novel section were American super hero comics, and I hardly ever, if ever, saw kids reading those, getting those, or even looking at those. I specifically took note of that and would even look for it some. It's anecdotal, but it seems to be in line with a lot of other people's experiences I've talked to, and also other experiences I've had regarding this subject.

Perhaps even the manga art style speaks more to them, generally. Maybe they like the smaller dimension size that the books usually come in. *shrug*

[Digifiend]

Comic Book Retailers Plans to Fix the Direct Market When It Returns
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/comi...en-it-returns/

[Vampire Savior]

Comic Book Retailers Plans to Fix the Direct Market When It Returns
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/comi...en-it-returns/

"Delay digital release"
"Delay trades"

I made a post a while back saying I didn't have anything against retailers, but more and more, I find that I do. They more or less just want to return things to how they were (extremely broken), while making some things easier on them. They hold the entire industry back with their backwards and broken practices. Or, rather, the publishers hold it back in catering to them. Interestingly, I think I would rather see things go down in flames than see it go back to how it was before this virus. That was horrible, and had been for years.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, those are bad ideas.

Delay digital release - people will just go back to scanning physical books, so it won't solve piracy. And it'll anger people who want to read digitally legally.

Delay trades - more likely to make people not buy comics at all, people trade wait for a reason, it's not going to make everyone suddenly start buying the floppies.

[Citizen Kane]

Because people become overwhelmed, confused, and intimidated. They don't know where to start. You could just tell them to jump in wherever, and that might work for some people, but it won't for a lot of others. They won't have any idea of what's going on, so they're not likely to be invested in what's going on, so they very well may lose interest or never even have interest. Some comics might pull some people in based on spectacle, but a lot of comics won't do that because there isn't enough spectacle in them, and besides, that won't work on a lot of people. They're going to want to understand things.

If you want to talk about "intimidating" titles, many of the big manga titles have over a hundred issues or more, all centered around one central plot, for the most part. And no, it's not easy just to start from anywhere in a manga. You WILL be completely lost. Nowadays, you can jump into pretty much any arc in Batman or Superman and have a grasp on what's going on. There's hardly any overarching story line to be paying attention to.

[Ascended]

"Delay digital release"
"Delay trades"

I made a post a while back saying I didn't have anything against retailers, but more and more, I find that I do.

I mean, they're just trying to save their businesses. Hard to hold that against them, especially when they're the ones who will suffer when the direct market dies. Most publishers will move on to new distribution formats, and most customers will too. Retailers will be the ones who lose their small business. Them and their employees will be the ones joining the unemployment line, wondering how they'll feed their families.

And some of their ideas here have merit. All books being returnable? Sure. Publishers won't like it but it'll probably benefit the industry long term by encouraging retailers to take a few more risks in their orders, which will lead to at least some fans getting books they otherwise wouldn't have tried. I'm not sure how big a return anyone would see on this, since most LCS customers are established readers who, by and large, know what they're after, but it's definitely worth a try from what I understand. It'd suck for publishers in the short term but might make things more stable long term and remove some of the publisher's reliance on their biggest sellers to the exclusion of other products.

Flat rates on shipping? Sure? If there's enough rural retailers (or however distributors were calculating it) to make that worthwhile. That'll help make ordering riskier books more appealing to retailers, which could go well with the returnables. Though I'm not sure how this stuff was being calculated in the first place.

There's a few other things that might not be so bad. Focusing on kid-centric content to bring in new readers is obviously something we need. But do the retailers realize that a good chunk of the advertising for that is gonna have to come out of their own pocket? Publishers can advertise a new direct market kids line until their budget breaks, but if retailers don't make their stores highly visible on the local level, the parents of those kids we want reading will never know the shop is there.

Delaying trades and digital is just stupid, unless your concern is trade and digital taking your customers away. Awful choice for the industry as a whole, maybe good for retailers. But I'm not even sure it'd really help that much. Digital, as DC themselves said a while ago, is a different audience. It's not really taking a bite out of the direct market, unless we think that digital-only readers would switch to floppies because of a delayed release, and I don't think that would happen.

And releasing trades even later than they are now? I don't see that doing anything except costing publishers money. Us Wednesday Warriors who trade wait the odd book might switch to floppy if we had to wait longer for trades, but if we were interested in that book enough to get the floppy, we'd be doing so already. And I don't see Joe Average, who buys trades at Books A Million, going out of his way to the LCS because of this either.

More one-and-done stories is good, but I don't see it changing a whole lot. Fewer #1's is good. Marking clear jumping on points rather than doing a relaunch will help average out problems with speculators. Though I'm not really sure if speculators are still the problem they once were, or if it's actually good business to cut off that secondary (eBay) market. I don't know enough about the dynamic here to really say.

Generally I think these ideas would be terrible for the industry as a whole, and I'm not sure if retailers would actually see much in the way of real, meaningful gains. And if retailers cut the legs off digital and trade, are they really considering the extra strain that will put on publishers, which will then impact the retailers themselves?

[kjn]

Agreed with previous commenters. Several ideas would almost certainly make the direct market better, but I'm not sure the direct market can grow that much, either by adding retailers or by making existing retailers reach more customers. And some of the ideas—like delays of digital and trade releases—will most likely hurt any meaninful change of American comics publishing.

[Holt]

I feel like this needs to be discussed more, now it's probably just my experience but I've seen way more adults (20+) care about comics than actual children. They'd much rather read manga or watch anime. Idk how they do it but it's works.

As others have surely said, it's astonishingly easier to get into manga than Western superhero comics. There are some series that are popular enough to have spin-offs, but generally speaking you're usually only dealing with a single series that has clearly labelled sequential volumes to read. You don't have to worry about crossovers or reboots or relaunches or anything like that.

I saw a comment a few years ago that summed up the problem rather nicely. If you're a person who just saw a hit Marvel or DC film and want to start reading the trade paperbacks starring those characters, you're likely gonna find at least half a dozen different Volume 1s for them, and that's if there's any sort of numbering at all.

And of course, again, price is a huge factor as well. Your average manga collection is like half the price of a superhero trade despite often having more pages, and that's not even getting into the sheer ridiculousness of floppy prices. Adults with disposable income are more willing to pay 4-5 dollars for 20 pages of story, but that's a terrible value if you're a kid with limited money.