At the Diamond Retailers lunch, DC announced a major move to boost their non-superhero lines by making issues from Vertigo, Mad, and the kids line fully returnable. A similar move helped the New 52 catch hold as retailers were able to take a risk-free move on issues 2 and 3 of the relaunches.

This time, DC is making issues 1-3 of their new Vertigo titles fully returnable, as well as books from the kids line—including Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Teen Titans GO! and the new Beware the Batman book. In addition, MAD Magazine will be made fully returnable. Bob Wayne noted that often sales of MAD were dependent on the cover parody—”Superman sells better than Mike and Molly,” he said.

This is a pretty interesting move—full returnability is a powerful sales tool, and DC is applying it to their “alternative” and “myopic” lines even as many are suggesting that interest in the New 52 has stagnated.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Interesting.
    I suspect with MAD and Johnny DC, those titles sell mostly via newsstand, where titles are fully returnable. A few thousand more copies via Diamond won’t make much of a dent, and might actually increase sales.

    DC should couple this with a co-op program, like they do with the Batman and Superman books during a movie. If they really want to claim the shelf space, offer subsidized shelving and signage for kids comics in comics shops. (Similar to what Marvel did with cash registers.)

    Offer the digests and the comics. Because otherwise, the future for DC’s kids books is for IDW and Capstone to license those books and produce new material that sells better than what DC currently markets, as well as reprint and republish the backlist.

    http://www.capstonepub.com/product/9781434288301

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