Gossip: DC Comics, Abandoning Comic Shops and Comic Cons?

[DevilBat66]

C-RL gets it.

[Vordan]

Personally I don't mind this as I haven't been to a comic shop in 2 years, but realistically, why would DC do this if they are still making monthly comics? Have sales for digital comics grown enough this year to where this would make sense for them?

The thought is they won’t be making monthly comics for much longer, or at least not floppies. Digital will probably still follow the monthly format, but no more physical printings of floppies.

[superduperman]

Personally I don't mind this as I haven't been to a comic shop in 2 years, but realistically, why would DC do this if they are still making monthly comics? Have sales for digital comics grown enough this year to where this would make sense for them?

You're assuming it IS DC. The more likely explanation is that it's AT&T top down management. They don't want a print division. Or they didn't buy Warners for one anyway. Which means they could just phase comics out altogether if they conclude that it costs too much to maintain them.

[scary harpy]

You're assuming it IS DC. The more likely explanation is that it's AT&T top down management. They don't want a print division. Or they didn't buy Warners for one anyway. Which means they could just phase comics out altogether if they conclude that it costs too much to maintain them.

And it probably does.

[Digifiend]

I still think the future they're gonna pursue is digital first/ DC Universe Infinite service as far as serialization goes, with Black Label prestige stories as their main focus for the Direct Market. Less we forget Three Jokers has sold 300,000 + copies and is poised to be DC's biggest selling miniseries in a long time, and it's really not set in continuity like your monthly issue of Batman is.

This has already started, there was actually a Digital First book in the newly released February solicits. It's called Truth and Justice and is a team-up book starring Vixen.

AT&T should just sell all of DC to Netflix or Amazon. It’s clear they view the comics as a waste and they also don’t appear to have much of a clue on the movies side either. AT&T is hemorrhaging money, they should be able to pull in at least a billion if they sold DC.

What about CBS? If DC were sold to anyone but them, it would cripple The CW (which is co-owned by CBS and Warner, hence the name), due to the loss of the Arrowverse.

[captchuck]

I don't think publications that don't contain complete stories make sense. Paying 5 bucks for a tiny portion of a story is pretty expensive.

[kingaliencracker]

I haven't seen this addressed yet. However, if DC abandons the direct market that would force the few comic book stores left to close, essentially forcing Marvel's hand to follow DC's suit.

This has major ramifications across the board. Disney has more or less allowed Marvel to continue as-is because of the IPs and because it's still making a profit, albeit a small one. If they don't have anywhere to put Marvel Comics then Disney will stop the publishing division too.

[Badou]

Well, there may always be a way for the collectors' market to continue.

Clothing manufacturers sometimes make limited edition sneakers or jackets that sell to speculators and collectors for lots of money.

That isn't the comics division though. The merchandise related products are handled by a different part of the company from the comics, and the money generated from the merch side isn't going to flow into the comic division. I mean DC already does a lot of limited edition merch and things related to their comic characters because THAT is where the real value of these comic properties is because comics is a very niche market compared to the billions in revenue the IPs make selling merch, toys, clothing, and everything else non comic book related.

The point is that you can't abandon the mass market and JUST produce for the niche market -- especially if you are part of a multibillion dollar conglomerate with huge overhead.

Waners can still sell specialty DC Comics via mail, on Amazon, or at their theme parks and any Warner Studios stores that still exist, but the focus for these characters should always have been the mass market and keeping their IP highly visible.

I think that as comics storytelling started to grow up, the powers that be at DC and Marvel preferred the Direct Market because there was less public scrutiny there. It allowed DC to take risks in storytelling that they wouldn't be able to on the newsstand. It allowed DC to be under the radar as far as their Warner corporate overlords were concerned, and that's the way Kahn and Levitz wanted it.

The positive effect is that we got a lot of great comics and the Vertigo line that we wouldn't otherwise have gotten, but the negative effect is that the market kept shrinking and shrinking, and once the movies started to hit big, the corporate overlords weren't willing to keep ignoring their valuable IP. This would have happened even without the AT&T merger as Warners was looking to DC for new movie ideas when their Harry Potter franchise was over.

I think we as comics fans just need to get over this undying devotion to the LCS market that's on its last legs and just be happy that AT&T still wants to be in publishing. They're putting a lot of resources and money into expanding the bookstore market, and this will be an overall good thing for our comics characters.

I do agree that the mass market should have been DC's focus all along, but DC abandoned the mass market when they abandoned kids and nearly every creator wanted to copy Allen Moore or a Frank Miller in writing more adult stories with these children's characters and wanting to subvert expectations. A DC has made amends the last few years in trying to win back that young market when you look at their OGNs and things, but in many ways creators are sill chasing the ghosts of Moore or a Miller even now with their stories it feels like. It caused generations of kids to not really grow up reading superhero comics and narrowed DC's market more and more over time. I'm not saying it didn't produce some good stories, but it came at a cost. Also there were major shifts from the 80s to now as well with entertainment. Decades ago comics didn't have as many competitors taking up people's attention. Such as video games, the internet, manga, and any movies or TV show on demand. It doesn't make as much sense now to pay $4 or $5 for 20 pages of a single comic issue that has ads, probably inconsistent art, and maybe even needs another issue of a different series to understand what is even going on in it. It isn't really a model that ingratiates itself to new young readers.

I mean I'm not worried about the comic character's themselves. Most will have value beyond the comics because they are an IP a DC/WB can mine for content indefinitely, but I don't know if the superhero comic market can really survive as it is without the traditional floppy market. They are just so reliant on it and the model of the direct market for their revenue. Maybe I'll be wrong and the superhero trade market will rebound and many new series can start selling 50-100K for a new volume, but I don't know. When you look at DC's trade sales it is typically the same old 30+year old stories that are at the top or near the top of the charts like a Watchmen, Killing Joke, Year One, V for Vendetta, or a TDKR while new things aren't pushing the medium forward.

[Holt]

This has major ramifications across the board. Disney has more or less allowed Marvel to continue as-is because of the IPs and because it's still making a profit, albeit a small one. If they don't have anywhere to put Marvel Comics then Disney will stop the publishing division too.

Marvel just signed a massive deal with Scholastic to publish graphic novels based on their characters. If nothing else the Marvel IP would likely continue to see print in that manner and possibly digital.

[Robanker]

If true, welcome to the darkest timeline, boys and girls.

[seismic-2]

Since both Disney and ATT are profusely bleeding red ink these days, we may be in the early stages of a transition in the comics industry from "The Big Two" to "The Big One", where that "One" is Scholastic.

[Robanker]

Since both Disney and ATT are profusely bleeding red ink these days, we may be in the early stages of a transition in the comics industry from "The Big Two" to "The Big One", where that "One" is Scholastic.

Neither of them is giving up Batman/Spider-Man lunchboxes because of a tight year.

[ohfellow]

This has already started, there was actually a Digital First book in the newly released February solicits. It's called Truth and Justice and is a team-up book starring Vixen.

When I read what you wrote, at first I thought "Huh, actually soliciting a digital comic? That's new, and that's helpful." But no, I it's just the solicitation of the print comic, meaning it's a true "Digital First" - this is the print edition, so it will collect 2 digital installments that will come out a month (or 2 months?) earlier. Like Batman Adventures Continues and so many others over the years.

It is interesting that DC still has revealed no plans to release the digital "DCeased: Hope at World's End," Injustice Year Zero," or "Harley Quinn Black + White + Red" in monthly format. It looks to me like the decision to release them as digital-only, along with the decision to conclude a number of monthlies in digital-only format, may not have been a sign of the future, but just an ill-considered choice at a time of extreme uncertainty last spring.

After all, doesn't it seem strange that Man-Bat, of all things, has appeared on the schedule starting in February? That looked like another victim of the spring shutdown, but now it will be printed. Which is -- weird! Do they expect Man-Bat to be a big seller? Where are the hordes of Man-Bat fans clamoring for this? With all the good books being recently cancelled, publishing Man-Bat seems like a reckless thing to do. But continuing to print Metal Men has also been strange - perhaps DiDio negotiated for that, as a point of pride, in his exit package.

The Harley Quinn digital was intended for print, surely - the Amazon listing for the TPB originally stated that it collected issues 1-7, but it now reads 1-14 (which is the number of digital installments). There was no connection between stories in the series, so maybe collecting them 2 per book would never have made sense. The others may be released in TPB too eventually.

[Citizen Kane]

AT&T should just sell all of DC to Netflix or Amazon. It’s clear they view the comics as a waste and they also don’t appear to have much of a clue on the movies side either. AT&T is hemorrhaging money, they should be able to pull in at least a billion if they sold DC.

Literally the two worst companies they could sell too. Honestly, DC's best option creatively would be to go independent again after a major restructuring of their internal vision.

[Holt]

Neither of them is giving up Batman/Spider-Man lunchboxes because of a tight year.

Merchandise sales have nothing to do with who is actually publishing the comics. DC's plan in the 80s was to license out the comic production to Marvel while they sat back and continued to collect those sweet licensing checks from Batman and Superman toys.