September is Big Event month at DC Comics, and they crushed it this September as they usually do with their super lenticular covered Future’s End event which saw stand-alone stories set five years in the future of the DCU. These “random future” events usually disappoint me as I expect to see the Flash living with is brother in law and their two kids, and Poison Ivy running a plant shop, but then, that’s me. Anyway, Multiversity talked to a bunch of retailers about how the event did compared to last year’s Villain’s month which was allocated and ignited a frenzy as they say. Most retailers I’ve talked to say it was okay but not great and the Multiversity survey yielded similar thoughts. It is a sad time when a Batman butt selfie only does okay but these are the times we live in.
They followed up this piece with expanded interviews with retailers and there are quite a few interesting statements from Ralph DiBernardo of Jetpack Comics, Steve Anderson, of Third Eye Comics, Patrick Brower of Challengers and Gary Dills of Laughing Ogre Comics. I won’t excerpt their comments so just go read the whole thing.
The ongoing softness of stunts and events and growing reliance on variant covers is sure to ignite a new round of “Is the era of the event over?” tittle tattle. People have been saying this for about a decade and events are still here. But the “new reader” seems to be less interested in them. After all Saga sells like cray and has no events, spin-offs or tie-ins.
That said, I imagine some day there will be a Saga-Sex Criminal crossover and a whole new cohort will fall in love with the event and the cycle shall begin anew.
Hey, Chew/Revival had a crossover and it was really good (and sold better than their titles, I believe). IDW puts out a yearly crossover that sells more than the titles they are crossing over with. Events still work, just not at Civil War level.
That said, this was a dumb ‘event’ concept, because it was simply a bunch of ‘what ifs’, and those are a novelty to only a subset of comic fans.
I agree. Out of the nine I read only 1 really had any true story movement and that was Booster Gold since it gives hope that this bad experiment is coming to an end.
Never sell event books to new readers. One of the other shops in the area makes a habit of selling Crisis to people wanting to explore DC because “it has all the characters”, and the big problem with that? It has all the characters.
Take a customer’s temperature when they get to the shop, find out what they know, what they’re interested in (things that aren’t comics – they’re asking you because they DON’T KNOW WHAT COMICS THEY WANT), and how much they’re willing to do bonus homework (if any), and proceed from there.
“Me? Just bro-ing out in my cave with my Batmans…with the lights dim.”
-Scoliosis Batman
“Is the era of the event over?”
If only.
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