Retailing & Marketing

How Sony, Ikea and DC Comics approach marketing to women. Hint: only one of these companies actually tried.

Over at TCJ, Patrick Rosenkrantz interviews four of comics finest indie retailers:, Meltdown, Desert Island, Quimby's, and Counter Media. Although Rosenkrantz warns not to take this snapshot as more than that -- he pointedly offers "no pie charts" -- it's stall a valuable look at four stores that are passionate about their business and how they survive.

As the fallout from the Dark Horse digital initiative continues to blow like a glowing cloud over the internet, one other digital initiative has been trashed pretty thoroughly by a bunch of retailers in public and private: comiXology's digital storefronts. The rollout of terms was poorly handled and pissed off a lot of retailers with fears that it was just a front for comiXology to get their customer information. Perhaps in light of this, comiXology has just made a lengthy release about the program's first few months with news that money has been paid out early and at a lower minimum payment. Also a new TOS perhaps more to the liking of retailers will be released, along with other improvements. And the retailers that did use it have called it a big success. 100 stores -- listed below -- are taking part in the program. So -- consider this a new sales pitch: "Take a look at me now."

Responding to last week's Dark Horse vs the retailers controversy over the price of Dark Horse's simultaneous digital release, writer Brian Wood has summed up the very hard rock and very rocky hard place that we all find ourselves in. While acknowledging that no one wants to see their local comics shop go under, he says for creators, it is a rough time with big question marks everywhere:

I don't know about you, but when the holidays come around and the relatives want a cheap-ish gift, I usually send them some links to Marvel Essential volumes on Amazon. They're relatively inexpensive, my relatives don't have to figure out where the comic shop is (in rural areas, this can be an issue) and they like the thickness of the volumes when they wrap them. Imagine my shock Thursday night as I was online and noting the massive amount of Essential volumes that were out of stock. Marvel's inability/unwillingness to keep tpbs in print has been a hot button topic in recent months, but this is a bit beyond anything I would have expected. This doesn't mean Diamond doesn't have some copies in the warehouse for the DM, but my experience with Amazon has been if they think it will take a few weeks to restock, you'll see a 4-6 weeks to ship notation and they'll take your order. Here's a list of major Essential series, how many volumes are out and then the ones where the only purchase option on 12/1 were the "used & new" 3rd party resellers. I'm not listing Dazzler/Ant-Man/Human Torch.

Over at the Books-A-Million website, on the magazines page, DC's "New 52" is being highlighted. "Action Comics," "Justice League" and "Batgirl" are rotating in the middle slot at the top of the page, sandwiched between magazines like "Vogue" and Maxim. At the bottom of the page, filed under "special interests" are Batman, Action, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Detective, Supergirl, Green Lantern Corps and Batman & Robin.

I'm in Iowa for the holidays, so I thought I'd drop in to the local (brand new) Books-A-Million and see what kind of comics they had after they joined Barnes & Noble in removing the boycotting the 100 DC graphic novels made exclusive to the Kindle. There were a lot more Marvel books there than DC and, of course, no Grant Morrison Batman or Batman: Hush or... uh, oh. What's that on the shelf?

So, this got me wondering... what other comics shops out there are offering specials tomorrow on Black Friday? If you're a retailer, comment below! If you're a customer, give a shout-out to your favorite store!

DC's sales and marketing meastros John Rood and Bob Wayne give their post-game interview over in a two-part interviews at ICv2, so instead of Andrea Kremer they get Milton Greipp. Rood isn't hiding the sports metaphor in talking about who, how and how many of the New 52 sold and who bought it.

Are comics coming back? What's coming back? Or is it a new thing? Does anyone really know?

Thwipster, the "Groupon for comics" has added an all-ages section. So far the offerings include The New Brighton Archeological Society, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and a Tron & Sark Kubrick Two-Pack -- but they'll be making them a regular feature.

New York Comic Con kicked off with a retailer breakfast sponsored by Diamond. Held in the Galleria room, it looked great -- and the bacon was surprisingly crisp -- but with an all-glass ceiling and walls it was hard to see or hear the speakers and their slides.