Retailing & Marketing

Traditionally, digital comics have been to comics retailers what kryptonite was to Superman -- something to be feared and avoided. And DC's Bob Wayne has been in the forefront of keeping retailers happy, to the point of shutting down many initiatives over the years that might have ruffled their feathers and caused them to order fewer DC Comics.

Industry analysis site ICv2 has just released a new industry report card for Q1 '11, and while sales were a bit patchy, it wasn't a disaster. This article contains links to a bunch of category analyses, but perhaps the most interesting is that non-Big Two, non-superhero titles are beginning to take up a bigger part of the market share:

Because that last item was a little gloomy, here's Anita Olin's story of how she got into reading comics, from tis month's Sequential Tart:

Do successful comic book movies create new comics readers? As the "Watchmen Principle" demonstrates, when a movie is based on a finite graphic novel or series, the answer is yes. When it is based on an ongoing 50 year saga the results are not so clear. CBR's Greg Hatcher chanced upon a display of bagged comics at his CostCo which showed that Marvel had put together a product that seemed to be aimed at people who liked THOR and wanted to know where to go next: A photo-cover of hunky Chris Hemsworth as Thor graced the front of the package and an assortment of alluring titles lurked beneath.

Free Comic Book Day founder Joe Field looks back on this year's event (no permalinks) with some numbers:

Filmmaker Anthony Desiato became so fascinated by the social scene at the local comic shop that he decided to make a documentary about it. "My Comic Shop DocumentARy" (SIC) explores Alternate Realities Comics in Scarsdale, NY and its owner, Steve Oto.

As we peruse the Google comics scanner, one warhorse is the "local comics shop profile." Here's a puzzling one from Maryland that examines how Gotham Comics in Westminster is hoping this summer's superhero movies boost the bottom line:

If you didn't get enough of '90s style hairdos in yesterday video epic, via Very Fine / Near Mint, another classic '90s video of a retailer roundtable on the cable access show The Chronic Rift. Three NYC-area retailers discuss advance reorders and the impending marriage of Superman. Of the stores mentioned, only Hanley's of Staten Island is still around.

By all accounts, it was one of the biggest Free Comic Book Days yet, with most stores reporting "sell-outs" early on and crowds and -- importantly -- SALES that rivaled their biggest days ever. It was also a media event as over 200 news stories show.

Discount coupon sites are all the rage, with Groupon headed for a $20 billion dollar public offering and Facebook and Google trying to get in on that action. But why should nerds be left out of the fun? The recently-launched Thwipster aims to be the Groupon for nerds, according to founder and CEO Lance Sells, with GNs, action figures, artists sketchbooks, webcomics and more available.

It looks like bookstores are getting so eager for new product categories that they are actually going back to the periodical market. Barnes & Noble, the still-standing book chain, is adding comics racks to its product mix, apparently in advance of this summer's comic book movie heavy slate. Bleeding Cool has an internal memo on the matter:

For a while now Marvel has been hyping a storyline called "The Death of Spider-Man" in Ultimate Spider-Man, with a denoument due in June. Well, this morning the NY Post broke the story and told everyone what was going to happen: