Retailers Complain About Collapsing Marvel And DC Sales

[Of Atlantis]

Did they do anything to respond to the New 52, which also flamed out in just a few years? Marvel is not under any threat from DC.

Just a little event called AvX...

New 52 was actually a huge commercial success. And it forced Marvel to desperately regurgitate that event to take back market share.

[Raye]

The end of comics has been predicted for as long as I've been reading comics, which is close to forty years by now. And anyone familiar with the history of the medium will know that the industry has always been viewed by some as being on the brink of extinction. Given that, I tend not to take these sort of doom-saying predictions all that seriously. Yes, times are tough with digital and so on and so forth but every era has had its challenges. Comic fans and retailers are often the most miserable people, so hearing them bitch about everything that's wrong and how the industry is crashing is nothing new.

I was going to come here to say pretty much this. People have been crying doom about the comic industry dying for decades, hasn't happened yet, doubt it will now. And besides, the article would be more acurately titled "two retailers complain" which is hardly statistically significant. And what most people are REALLY complaining about is that Marvel and DC are pushing books that they specifically are not interested in. As long as those books sell, Marvel and DC will be fine in the long run, even if your particular desires are not being catered to. Superhero comics may see a downturn, but not like that spells the end of comics. paper comics may be seeing a downturn in favor of digital, just like every other print medium, but as long as the publishers adapt (and they have been, far more successfully than a lot of print mediums) they can survive that even if some stores don't. Not saying they are doing everything perfectly, but I don't think them fumbling some aspects of of a relaunch is all doom and gloom.

[Holt]

New 52 was actually a huge commercial success.

And then not too long after Marvel retook the market share, and DC's been trying to win back readers ever since. Marvel utterly dominated DC in the year end comic sales for 2015, so clearly in the long run the New 52 was no threat.

[lorddominicus85]

I'm also assuming that digital sales are low too. I'm not against digital, I see people with Ipads and nooks who still carry books around. I also think it has to do with the return on investment. A physical #1 in like 60 years being worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Modern day print comics will be worth MAYBE hundreds of dollars because Marvel and DC over produce the comics, you have a few hundred thousand number 1's then you have the variants, the variants of the variants and the variants of the variants variant. Comic collecting as a hobby in this day and age is about as worthless as it was in the 90's which is why I can buy the death of Superman for $50 right now instead of $1000. You can buy the regular cover graded New 52 Batman umber 1 for a few hundred bucks and it hasn't budged in price since it was released. I've collected comics for a number of years now and the one thing I know to be true is that every new number 1 for a series like Amazing Spiderman volume 4 or Uncanny Xmen volume 6 decreases in over all value because it's an easy book to come by and in 60 years time it will still be easier to find one of the 500,000 plus copies of Uncanny Xmen #1 Volume 6 than it is to find Uncanny Xmen #1 Volume 1. So in this day and age there is no return on investment in new books unless you spend the big dollars to purchase one of the extremely rare variant covers (something I have done for personal favorite character like Daken) and even then more often than not in five years time the book is worth less than it was when it was purchased (case in point my Daken first appearance 1/100 variant covered signed by his creator Daniel Way is not currently worth the $100 I paid for it).

I think a major problem with digital comics is advertisement for them. I used the WWE network as an example in another thread and I'm going to use it here. When they launched the WWE network they were unrelenting in their advertisement for it, even creating shirts to tout the price point of the network. I have never seen an add for comixology on tv or a move or in a comic book, I have never seen an advertisement for DC's digital subscription service or Marvels. The new generation of consumers is a tech savvy generation, they like video games they can play on their phones and ipads more than they do for xbox and playstation, they like to read books on their ipads and watch movies on their ipads, DC and Marvel are missing out on a huge opportunity by not promoting their digital download service. Yeah, sometimes they give away free digital downloads in a comic book but that's selling a service to someone who is already making the purchase for the comic in question. If you want to reach a new consumer put a promo package for your digital download service before Captain America Winter Soldier or Batman vs Superman and maybe the kids in the theater will walk out wanting to look into this.

[Jynx]

I'm also assuming that digital sales are higher honestly. The new generation seem to be only interested in things online, they do everything online, listen to music read and watch tv and shop. The older generation seems to like the nostalgia of the books the younger generation want it online so they have it quick and easy. The 2 comic stores near me never seem have younger people even enter it like they used to, that's according to the 2 owners I know.

[Tayswift]

It's just two people, and one of them points to Lois & Clark as a book that's generating the most excitement, when it hasn't made it into top 100 comics of the month since issue #2. A bit hard to take this seriously.

I'll wait for the January sales data to see if this is actually indicative of a problem across the board, and not just for a few comic shops.

clearlly it isn't, lot of comics shops owners saying the same.

And then not too long after Marvel retook the market share, and DC's been trying to win back readers ever since. Marvel utterly dominated DC in the year end comic sales for 2015, so clearly in the long run the New 52 was no threat.

pretty much. new 52 was a big failure

[Blue Reloaded]

clearlly it isn't, lot of comics shops owners saying the same.

The problem is that the article doesn't use anything but the anecdotal evidence from two people on an internet forum. Truth is, there could be a hundred variables affecting these stores from location, aging population, or income pressure due to local economies.

[DevilsGambit]

Did they do anything to respond to the New 52, which also flamed out in just a few years? Marvel is not under any threat from DC.



We don't know because that info isn't made public.

Overall sales are, and they aren't exactly moving tons. Unless its something that has been in the press like cap or thor.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Overall sales are, and they aren't exactly moving tons. Unless its something that has been in the press like cap or thor.

Captain America is not that great a digital seller. It makes it onto the first page with each new release, but it doesn't perform like Thor or Ms Marvel which trounce books that outsell them in print.

[batnbreakfast]

Which are also being wasted on main marvel titles like stupid rocket spin offs. Same thing with DC and the trillions of writer assigned to Batman related comics. Does anybody really need gotham academy?

It's not about needing. It's a great and different title. I don't buy anything Gotham related or Green Lantern single issues anymore but I keep buying GA floppies.

[Of Atlantis]

And then not too long after Marvel retook the market share, and DC's been trying to win back readers ever since. Marvel utterly dominated DC in the year end comic sales for 2015, so clearly in the long run the New 52 was no threat.

From a business perspective, I'm sure Marvel would rather not have their dominant market share not be disrupted at all. Keep in mind, they didn't "win" anything, they just recovered. They only "win" when all competition ceases to exist, but as long as it does, there will be potential for their dominant success to be challenged, even if temporary.

When Marvel looks at potential success, they don't look at flailing sales in their MU and think "it's okay because Star Wars is selling well", they think "We could be making a lot more money if both would sell well." A positive they can take away from Star Wars success is that they can afford to take creative risks in the MU and see what works and what doesn't before going back to whatever sold better.

Though by responding to these challenges with crap like AvX and constant relaunches, they sully their reputation, which may end up hurting them in the long run. Hoping the competition screws up worse is not a sound strategy.

[tg1982]

They need to stop the constant relaunches, company wide events that require a new status quo afterward to justify the event and short term, media grabbing moves.

On this we both agree. Remember when reaching the 50th issue used to be a big deal? Often times they were double issues to celebrate. Let alone the 100th issue. As for the events, it's hard to tell really good stories when every 6 months you gotta stop, and write 4-6 tie-in issues. I remember when events used to be a big deal, partly because they were once in a while, and not a seasonal thing.

I can understand why Marvel wants to try something new. We older fans aren't always going to be there forever and they need to attract and keep younger readers. But maybe this is too much too soon.

That's what I think...

We don't know because that info isn't made public.

Is there a reason that digital sales aren't made public? I always wondered.

[DevilsGambit]

Captain America is not that great a digital seller. It makes it onto the first page with each new release, but it doesn't perform like Thor or Ms Marvel which trounce books that outsell them in print.

What I meant was short term sales. Like the outrage around cap and thor sold a lot at the start.

[DevilsGambit]

And then not too long after Marvel retook the market share, and DC's been trying to win back readers ever since. Marvel utterly dominated DC in the year end comic sales for 2015, so clearly in the long run the New 52 was no threat.

Its hard for marvel not to control the market when they flood it.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

What I meant was short term sales. Like the outrage around cap and thor sold a lot at the start.

Thor continues to sell, it's not a case of short term sales.

Captain America sales dropped very quickly to their regular levels. It wasn't even outrage that helped that book, except for his #1 and Captain America #25, Sam's run as Cap has sold what a Captain America book usually sells.