Who among us holds the keys to the future? Who can guess what will happen tomorrow? Are they doomed to be the Cassandras of the world, or will they lead the charge in the revolution to come? The comics industry is heading towards a tipping point, spearheaded by massive changes at DC, in the direct market, and at Walmart, of all places. It’s been a big week with lots of huge headlines that could have enormous implications for the ways that you, the comics fan, buy and consume the stories you love to read. Could a “reborn” Batman #1 reach 1,000,000 issues sold? Could Tom King and Tim Seeley replace Scott Snyder as the kings of Batman as the book moves to a double shipping schedule? Is Walmart a positive force for the market? All this and more, on this week’s Podcorn Podcast.
Show Notes
01:23– Show starts here! Ad Hominid attacks! Pun intended!
04:30– Could the rebirthed Batman #1 reach 1,000,000 copies sold?
09:30– Could Loot Crate sales cannibalize an otherwise successful direct market launch?
15:55– Let’s figure out how to build a better comic book store!
23:10– Are we edging towards a tipping point in the market? For all the doomsday chanting and sidewalk prophesying, could we truly be nearing the era of digital and bookstore? Or perhaps, the rise of the “destination” comic book store/cafe?
32:30– Instead of launching one mega-hit series that grows its audience by 1000% compared to other books in the market, maybe we should shoot to grow the audience of every book by 10%?
36:30– Tom King is a star on the rise. Could we see a co-written King/Seeley Batman series when Snyder and Capullo step off? How do you build buzz for a new product?
44:30– Did DC underestimate the enormity of the response to #Rebirth? How much can you build off of one buzzword…such as “52,” for example?
55:00– DC’s partnering up with Hanna-Barbera to create some new comics! Flinstones, Scooby Doo, Wacky Races and more! What do we think of the relaunch? What’s our pitch for Scooby Doo? DC, are you listening?
1:13:00– Walmart recently announced that they were partnering up with Diamond Distributors to create devoted Graphic Novel and Comics sections for 50 of their stores, with the possibility of rolling out to 2000 stores nationwide. Good move? Amy Reeder joins us to discuss.
Shameless plug: Amy is selling some of her original pages right now, including the Radio City Chandelier spread from Rocket Girl #7 and the cover to the Supergirl issue that featured the debut of Bizzaro Girl!
Every Wednesday, I talk about comics with Brandon Montclare, writer of the hit Image series Rocket Girl and co-writer of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur series.
We gab about what we’re reading now, what books we consider classics (Brandon loves Dark Knight Strikes Again…), and the hottest gossip of the industry. Occasionally, the inimitable artist Amy Reeder (Rocket Girl, Batwoman) stops by. Check out our full show archive at podcornpodcast.com.
Intro/Outro music this week is Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days, off their album Madding Days.
Visit rocketgirl.nyc for swag from Brandon and Amy!
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Step 1) Modernize distribution so that data flows bottom up across the vertical from store to publisher and back to store
Step 2) Publishers realize that their audience is now the readers, not the stores, which means reworking their advertising/marketing
Step 3) Actually use the data from step 1 to help with step 2
Step 4) Profit
From the data I see Loot Create (all the geek boxes) provide no long term lift, there’s a next issue crash. The digital redemptions from the boxes I’m told is worse.
Walmart is horrible, best the industry stay away. They leave nothing but damage in everything they touch.
Reboots have become the crack cocaine of the comic book industry. When you have to relaunch your entire line every few years, something is wrong. Namely, the people in charge don’t know what they’re doing.
A. Make comics affordable. Go old school and do cheaper print runs on cheaper stock. Drop the price to 3 bucks or less.
B. Sell through Walmart and other mass market retailers. Sell them anywhere a retailer wants to put them on display.
C. Stop it with the endless variant covers. It does nothing to grow your market beyond the die hard fans.
D. Wipe the collectible mind set from your brain-this is for everyone: the artists, the writers, the publishers and the retailers. That is THEE WORST freaking thing to infect the entire industry.
E. Stop trying to impress the other publishers and start publishing stories that people want to read.
F. Remember how old you were when you started reading comics and publish more stories for the next gen readers.
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