August direct Market sales: Marvel has only one series in the top 10

[Xelossik]

DebkoX:

Marvel have an extremely stupid company plan:

They had best sales for 5 years.... Maybe this is not so stupid as You think?

Make a series
Make it good
Reboot it ten issues in

Example please?

Constant creative changes

why this is bad?

Reboot

relaunch....

[Prof. Warren]

Marvel have an extremely stupid company plan:

Make a series
Make it good
Reboot it ten issues in
Hike the price up as high as can be
Fail to justify the prices
Stupid events
Constant creative changes
Cancel
Reboot

"High the price up as high as can be?"

Marvel's prices are in line with what other comic companies charge. Their average issue is $3.99. Not outrageous.

"Fail to justify the prices?"

Marvel is a business that has many costs to cover - from paper and printing to creator fees and so on. As noted, their cover prices are not beyond the industry standard. There's nothing for them to "justify." DC pricing their books at $2.99 is a sales strategy. They're going low to attract customers. It's not because they can afford to maintain that cover price indefinitely. They will go back up in time. And I think selling at $2.99 will ultimately hurt them because readers are going to come to feel that they should never pay more than that for DC. DC is only giving readers a false impression about how much they can really afford to charge for their comics.

"Stupid events?"

That would be a matter of opinion, of course, and DC is certainly not exempt from "stupid events" of their own.

"Constant creative changes"

A few posts up I listed a few of the very lengthy runs that creators have had on recent Marvel books. So "constant creative changes" isn't as much a thing as some would like to make it out to be.

"Cancel. Reboot."

Cancelling books and relaunching them is nothing specific to Marvel and nothing new to the industry. After all, DC is having great success with that at the moment so don't expect any company to give up on that strategy any time soon.

[DebkoX]

"High the price up as high as can be?"

Marvel's prices are in line with what other comic companies charge. Their average issue is $3.99. Not outrageous.

"Fail to justify the prices?"

Marvel is a business that has many costs to cover - from paper and printing to creator fees and so on. As noted, their cover prices are not beyond the industry standard. There's nothing for them to "justify." DC pricing their books at $2.99 is a sales strategy. They're going low to attract customers. It's not because they can afford to maintain that cover price indefinitely. They will go back up in time. And I think selling at $2.99 will ultimately hurt them because readers are going to come to feel that they should never pay more than that for DC. DC is only giving readers a false impression about how much they can really afford to charge for their comics.

"Stupid events?"

That would be a matter of opinion, of course, and DC is certainly not exempt from "stupid events" of their own.

"Constant creative changes"

A few posts up I listed a few of the very lengthy runs that creators have had on recent Marvel books. So "constant creative changes" isn't as much a thing as some would like to make it out to be.

"Cancel. Reboot."

Cancelling books and relaunching them is nothing specific to Marvel and nothing new to the industry. After all, DC is having great success with that at the moment so don't expect any company to give up on that strategy any time soon.

I've seen some five dollar titles from Marvel.

The quality of some of their books really doesn't justify the cost, but that is really subjective.

Marvel events are far too frequent and repetitive.

[Prof. Warren]

I've seen some five dollar titles from Marvel.

Yes, when there's extra content. That's not unusual. DC does the same on oversized books - like All-Star Batman - as well.

[America]

Marvel is pushing more and more for $4.99 titles while DC has dropped and seen an increase in sales because of it.

Didn't think anybody would actually try to contest that. Just a few years ago a $4.99 book was rare, and now its pretty commonplace at Marvel. Anybody whose been around the industry a while can tell you the point of that is to try and acclimate the customers to the idea of paying that much and then make a linewide price hike. To contest that only suggests that you're new.

As for me, if Marvel hikes their titles to $4.99, I'm done. That's an outrageous price and they will lose me as a customer.

[Cloudman]

Marvel is pushing more and more for $4.99 titles while DC has dropped and seen an increase in sales because of it.

Didn't think anybody would actually try to contest that. Just a few years ago a $4.99 book was rare, and now its pretty commonplace at Marvel. Anybody whose been around the industry a while can tell you the point of that is to try and acclimate the customers to the idea of paying that much and then make a linewide price hike. To contest that only suggests that you're new.

As for me, if Marvel hikes their titles to $4.99, I'm done. That's an outrageous price and they will lose me as a customer.

I agree thoroughly. They did this before with the $3.99 price point, and they'll do it again with $4.99. They justify the current load of $4.99 books with (usually rubbish) 'extra content', and eventually they'll drop the content and leave the price.

[America]

I agree thoroughly. They did this before with the $3.99 price point, and they'll do it again with $4.99. They justify the current load of $4.99 books with (usually rubbish) 'extra content', and eventually they'll drop the content and leave the price.

Even a few years ago, the extra content was a meaningful and substantial addition to the narrative.

Now it's usually garbage, ranging from advertisements to other books to pointless additions.

Even in the instance where there is an actual addition to ongoing narrative, the length has dropped.

Cheap is as cheap does and Marvel is the epitome of cheap.

[Galerion]

Marvel is pushing more and more for $4.99 titles while DC has dropped and seen an increase in sales because of it.

Justice League vs Suicide Squad will be $4.99 as is All-Star Batman.

[DebkoX]

Marvel is pushing more and more for $4.99 titles while DC has dropped and seen an increase in sales because of it.

Didn't think anybody would actually try to contest that. Just a few years ago a $4.99 book was rare, and now its pretty commonplace at Marvel. Anybody whose been around the industry a while can tell you the point of that is to try and acclimate the customers to the idea of paying that much and then make a linewide price hike. To contest that only suggests that you're new.

As for me, if Marvel hikes their titles to $4.99, I'm done. That's an outrageous price and they will lose me as a customer.

Can't help but agree, comics shouldn't be a luxury.

[Supernature]

Justice League vs Suicide Squad will be $4.99 as is All-Star Batman.

They are 40 pages of content.

Every regular comic DC publishes is $2.99.

[DebkoX]

DebkoX:

They had best sales for 5 years.... Maybe this is not so stupid as You think?


Example please?


why this is bad?


relaunch....

This may not be so accurate but:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hea...aunched-909345

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/07/...ing-character/

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2...eries/6303495/

http://community.comicbookresources....-Relaunch-Good

At least three or four reboots/relaunches within two years.

[DebkoX]

ANAD Marvel came only *one* year ago, and already we have something new with Marvel NOW. For me, its just too much change.

[DebkoX]

Using WIKIpedia as a source (may be unreliable), I've found that in 2014 Marvel had:

Six events/crossovers - in 2014, it says crossovers so of course not all are major events

SEVEN this year alone

And before anyone bashes, I prefer Marvel over DC.

[Anduinel]

"High the price up as high as can be?"

Marvel's prices are in line with what other comic companies charge. Their average issue is $3.99. Not outrageous.

The $4 comic is more or less standard now, but Marvel was the one who lead the push and other publishers eventually inched up, since it seemed that market would bear the price hike. Heck, DC had "holding the line at $2.99" as a sales point for a while.

[hedgehogvampire]

Can't help but agree, comics shouldn't be a luxury.

I agree with this. There are a lot of Marvel comics that I do want or get into but I can't because it'll just be to much, but luckily I do have Marvel Unlimited so I could read those comics a few months later.

ANAD Marvel came only *one* year ago, and already we have something new with Marvel NOW. For me, its just too much change.

Thats kind of how I feel too. I'm just starting reading a lot of the ANAD line up and I'm enjoying what I'm reading but now they are going to do an other reboot/shake up thing so soon. Its a little much.