Sponsored by Battle Quest Comics
By Brian Hibbs
After DC decided to pull out of Diamond, one of the most broken things in the comics industry that resulted was losing our ability to actually see the size and shape of the market – without centralized sales, all sales charts vanished. I know that it’s mostly data nerds like me that care much about this, but it seems self-evident that if we can’t see what is happening, both within individual publishers, as well as the market as a whole, it becomes nearly impossible to objectively judge “success” or “failure” with little other than micro-accounts of individual stores, or anecdotal thoughts.
What anecdote tells me is that “more stores that I know” have closed in the first half of 2024, and more stores are threatening to have to close in the next few months, than in any time I have known since the crash of ’93 – that’s a horribly small dataset for measuring things, I know! – including stores from smart people that I really respect, like Carr D’Angelo who has closed storefront operations of his Earth-2 comics in Sherman Oaks. And one paragraph he wrote really speaks directly to the moment I think the comics market finds itself in right now:
Wholesale discounts are smaller. Shipping is higher. The distribution system has fractured and because each vendor processes data differently, it takes longer to order and restock product. We’re making less on each comic sold than we did ten years ago. Further, publishers are also feeling the pinch. They have cut back incentive programs that helped us grow readership, and tightened print runs to the point they can’t meet demand when a title is a hit.
This seems exactly right to me. Earth-2 is an Eisner-winning store, with an owner who sat on the Board of Directors for ComicsPRO for many years, and he’s found a difficult time in sustaining his storefront operations. Economically, I agree that periodical comics are at a real tipping point at this moment, because here is the reality: the decreasing gross margins on periodical comics, coupled with the shift in risk as virtually every publisher moves to focus on “collectors” over “readers”, means that having to split time and energy between three different ordering systems (Diamond, Penguin Random House, and Lunar) that are essentially incompatible means that the core business of selling periodical comics has shifted, for most stores, to being an essentially break-even proposition – even when you’re firing on all cylinders.
This is a significant problem, because the entire math of the Direct Market is absolutely predicated on the production of serializations to offset and amortize the intensive page-rate creation costs (relative to circulations), in order to not only make it so that the eventual collected edition is reasonably affordable, but also so that marketing and awareness of the work has been generated when the book format comes out. Generally speaking, the best-selling collected editions are the ones who built their audience and their market awareness over the course of serialization. Without successful serialization, the impetus to (and rewards from!) stocking and supporting collected editions of that same work is significantly diminished.
(The “Bookstore model” of publishing – paying out advances to creators that appear to, increasingly, not earn out on the backend depends on successful authors to effectively underwrite the poorer selling ones – is one that developed from prose books, but works significantly worse for comics because the physical production demands of making comics are wildly higher than writing prose, let alone that the printing costs for full color work are meaningfully higher than B&W prose books, printed on generally low quality paper. This yields whole tranches of creators working in comics for less than minimum wage in “the book market”, when you divide the math out. I also know multiple creators unable to get any meaningful advance today, which leads many to turn to the “crowdfunding model” which, for most creators, only yields overpriced comics that could not be commercially viable as retail products that then primarily sell to audiences that can be potentially measured by hundreds of readers, not thousands)
As near as I can tell (although we don’t have sales charts any longer!), the largest DM publishers are in a really bad position right now. At DC comics, for example, they’re about to try and “relaunch” their line with “Absolute DC” – but this is less than two years after they just relaunched their line with “Dawn of DC”. While the ComicHub reporting pool of 125+ stores is, I think, too small to say much meaningful about the entire market, ICv2 reports that DC has dropped to under 50% of Marvel’s marketshare. A healthy(ier) market has them roughly neck-in-neck. [Additionally, overall sales in DM stores were down 8% in 2023 within these reporting stores].
Certainly some of this is from DC bumbling “Dawn of DC” by interrupting it just as it was getting going with the line-wide (and terrible, creatively) “Knight Terrors” crossover, but I strongly believe that another enormous part of it was DC’s ill-considered decision to radically increase the number of variant covers released on each title, putting a “cardstock” cover on those (while simultaneously lowering the print quality of the “A” cover to what is known as “self-cover”) and raising the price on those cardstocks by a dollar.
This kind of thinking, where the company leans more and more on “superfans” spending an increasing amount of money, unfortunately has knock-on effect of discouraging and confusing the more casual fan, be it actively (“I like this cover better, but it costs more money?”) or passively (“Wait, did I read this comic already?”) While short-term gains can certainly come from adding 20% or more to the cover price of the increasing number of cardstock variants, over the long run it chases the more casual readers away.
As I said, we don’t have charts, we only have anecdotes in the “post-DC-Betrayal” era, but I can provide my own anecdotes that raw circulations in my own store have gone nowhere but down for most “mainstream” (Marvel and DC) periodicals over the last decade. Where our top seller might have once been 50+ copies from either company, now we’re hailing as a success comics that sell just 30 copies. We are working harder than ever before to sell fewer copies.
Being utterly forced to deal with multiple distributors, who each have their own data structures, their own methods of doing things, their own biases – most of which are contradictory to their competitors – adds so much marginal time in working their systems, in tracking shipments, in correcting the inevitable problems each and every week, that almost all of the profit of selling periodical comics to readers has melted away. For all of the decades of complaining about the “monopoly” of Diamond Comics, I strongly believe that things are inherently worse for the majority of retailers because we have no choice but to split our time, attention, and treasure between three distributors, two of whom are still trying to figure out how the hell to do their jobs! Further, by having our buying power now split into three piles, neither the publisher nor the distributor has a good grasp on the size and shape of our businesses.
We’re in a world where basic things, fundamental to operating a comic book store – despite being based on decades of settled precedent that thousands of stores spent so much time advocating for – are having to be relitigated despite clear signs that these changes are measurably worse for stores. For one example, the time and timing of Final Order Cut Off dates relative to Initial Order deadlines. There were real reasons that the industry settled on the clear standards it did – and to chuck these things out in the face of multiple distributors does nothing but make our jobs more difficult, and significantly less profitable.
Or take street dates. We used to have a largely well-designed system where everyone received product at the same time, and products were put on sale uniformly, and when they weren’t there was a defined system that penalized people who abused the system and put out comics early. But today some distributors are sending comics as much as a week in advance, and stores, not seeing any visible penalties, are throwing comics out for sale the second they can, ruining the careful balance between competitors.
Marvel’s President, Dan Buckley was interviewed recently at ICv2, and said:
I also feel the direct market is in a much better place than most people think it is, but I will admit there’s some challenges there as we try to find our way out of the pandemic. We have to find a way to get people in the habit of going to the stores more: let’s get the Wednesday Warriors back.
I do think a lot of those people are still shopping in stores, but they’re not browsing as much. What we’re hearing is that people aren’t coming in every week. They’re coming in every two, three, four weeks, picking up their bundles.
We have to get them to start coming to the store more often, start browsing more often. Yes, we have to get new readers in there, but we have to get the ones that have been habitual readers, or are lapsed readers, to come into the stores more often than they are.
This analysis makes me crazy because Marvel is clearly the largest abuser of the system, pursuing plans and programs. This includes over-reliance on (only a partial list):
- title restarts
- increasing numbers of mini-series, while shrinking issue count to yield ridiculously thin collected editions
- sheer bulk of marginally salable variant covers
- over-production both by titles and character and so on
All of these directly help cause consumers to tune out, break their habits and buy by rote. Even if you somehow manage to produce “great” comics in a system finely tuned to the pursuit of trying to extract the most amount of cash from “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO); from obsessive-compulsive “gotta catch them all” behaviors; from over-production based on assumptions that customers will just follow along no matter what: those great comics get lost in the deluge of nonsense that pours through the system.
It reduces, if not outright eliminates, consumer confidence in your line.
It leaves us in a place where selling just 30 copies of a comic now seems like a “success”.
How do we get customers “coming in more often, browsing more often”? It would take a categorical change in the very ways in which Marvel publishes comics. This is the problem of excess: it works until it doesn’t, but the more excess you feed into the system, the harder it is to repair on the other side. Your economy is now built around things that are inherently unsustainable.
Here’s the thing: I truly think that a well-curated and much narrower line of Marvel comics (where they are publishing, say eight or less comics each week) would be potentially incredibly appealing to customers and I would expect those comics to be selling far far better than they do today, yielding more profit per effort, and selling more copies of backlist collections, as a result.
The problem is that making the needed categorical changes is going to have to yield at least one under-performing quarter (maybe two), and I don’t think that any corporately-controlled publisher is going to have much of a stomach for that.
But something has to be done, that much is clear. Marvel’s current working theory appears to be giving out free stuff (“Marvel Must Have”, or promo items, or overships of certain comics), none of which is unwelcome, but none of which even speaks to solving the core problem of “coming in more often, browsing more often”, or solving the retailer’s problems with margin and increased labor.
That’s where all publishers have to aim, and they have to take a “Physician, Heal Thyself” approach, in my opinion.
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Brian Hibbs has owned and operated Comix Experience in San Francisco since 1989, was a founding member of the Board of Directors of ComicsPRO, has sat on the Board of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and has been an Eisner Award judge. Feel free to e-mail him with any comments. You can purchase a collection of the first Tilting at Windmills (originally serialized in Comics Retailer magazine) published by IDW Publishing, as well as find an archive of pre-CBR installments right here.
Sponsored by Battle Quest Comics
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Usually I agree with you. But at DC they are already seeing a record year with Dollars solid. I work for Warner/Discovery and they are the only division in our portfolio that makes money. They have delivered record year after record year. Ever wonder why Mr. Zaslav barely touches the DC Division (publishing), besides relieving Pam of her job. Who I admit made some horrible moves on the business end. As she had no idea how the comic book business differs from the licensing world. What is amazing that the numbers would have even been better, if Jim didn’t have to battle with her on every project/title. The “screwy” Dynamite deal, blame Pam.
The expansion of the line is due to the need for more SKU’s for the large accounts. What is probably the biggest problem comic book stores face. The “Big Guns” and the discounts they offer, there are easily 10+ “stores” that offer 35% or better on their new titles.
DC Buyers tend to buy more titles then Marvel Buyers. So I do think the Large Mail Order Discounters tend to sell more DC overall (though not all, there are a couple MO Discounters that do very well with Marvel.
Also there are easily 300+ comic book store retailers that do discount, and most of these stores also do Mail Order. Usually they discount 20% to 35%. I know it is tough in some markets to do subscription discounts. But between the larger Mail Order sellers and the Medium Mail Order sellers . That is probably were your 20 pcs of a top selling title have gone.
@Johan I don’t know that I pay a lot of credibility to anonymous backstage analysis like this, and based on 35 years of business, I know for a fact that I don’t ascribe to your last paragraph (because Buckley’s quote is absolutely right — existing customers are coming in less and less, and when they do come in, they’re just buying their pull, and scurrying out. This is NOT the behavior of channel-crossing customers) but I could accept a premise that because DC (and, let’s be fair, most every publisher) is leaning super-hard into selling “exclusive” covers to individual retailers that are 200% or more of normal wholesale costs (but have virtually identical manufacturing costs) that their “profit” is up.
However, I think that the only actually worthwhile goal is one that increases your audience. I think it was Dan Didio that said “you can paper over sales drops by raising prices, but if you don’t get more readers, pretty soon you’re going to be selling 1,000 copies of a $10 comic”
There are potential audiences out there that are much much much larger than anything that Marvel and DC serves now, but they’ve made a conscious and calculated effort to sell more to the “super fan” than to the casual one; and I assure you it has cost them so much money (and good will) that it does nothing but make themselves weaker over time.
Otherwise, DC wouldn’t be trying to “relaunch” the universe less than two years after the last time
-B
Thanks for replying Brian. You are correct about the Super-Fan. A local store that does more business, doing mail order then selling in their store, they do 30% off and bag and board all books. A lot of the subscriber base, just does all Batman or all X-Men or all Superman, etc. There are Super-Fan’s that just buy one of every DC book or Marvel book.
Two years ago, what DC did really wasn’t a relaunch, as it happened over a very extended period of time. For that matter, the coming “relaunch” isn’t really a “relaunch” per se. It is more of a “Jumping On” point for new readers. Mr. Zaslav has been very happy with DC on the publishing end. He basically told Jim “to do whatever you want”. “You are the only division making me any money”. They would not be doubling the amount of monthly titles, if they weren’t. I do think more then 2/3 of the sales are coming from 10% of the accounts, because of the discount angle. The large comic book buyer’s that are out there, are naturally going to look for the best deal and service.
Your store is an unicorn, I have been there multiple times in my “work trips” over the last 25 years+, and your store is amazing for the simple fact, that it is a comic book store that has more of the “Indie Bookstore” feel. And it works, I have never walked out of your store without purchasing something. If I am remembering correctly, you never offered a discount, so I think your store has probably never attracted the “all-in” type of buyer? Right??
One man’s story of how his comic buying has evolved (if my story is a common one, it would add some context to your Crisis In The Direct Market narrative.
I am 55. I became a direct market customer in 1990 (at a lovely store in Kingston, NY. Wish I remembered the name.) I moved to San Francisco in 1994. In retrospect, I think the late 90s were the Golden Age of comic (and music/CD) retail. Living in The Haight neighborhood, there were 3 comic stores within a few blocks, and Brian’s store just down the hill. A mostly-DC guy, I found Brian’s store the best fit for me. At some point this century I moved my purchasing to a fine store on Irving St, who I am still with.
My purchase choices are generally creator-driven. As my favorite creators have died, retired, or otherwise ceased being published, my purchasing has pivoted from “new” content towards fancy reprints (Archives/Omnibi).
In the last five years 90% of my purchasing has been from an internet retailer offering 30-60% discounts.
I am a veteran DM customer. “My” store gets almost no money from me. I buy Previews there, Saga, and a few hardcovers there. And I order discounted Omnibi from the on-line retailer at 1 AM.
If people like me are numerous amongst the DM customer community…..
Realistically, a 22-page 4-dollar book that reads in 10 minutes tops is not a great proposition, entertainment-wise, compared to what else is available on the marketplace (Manga, games, streaming, social media cat videos). And will be less and less so. That so many people keep pushing this business model forward through sheer perseverance against all odds is truly remarkable. How long can it continue as-is ? No idea. After collecting comics for 20 years, I stopped buying floppies in the mid-90s and I’m not coming back. Even fancy collections I’m slowly moving away from, as DC starts new formats every now and then but never follows through to the end with any of them. Why American publishers haven’t switched to POD yet is beyond my understanding. Even the European model I’ve grown up with here in France, that some deem as a possible alternative to this, is slowly dying as prices rise while creators starve. That can’t go on forever, can it ?
@Johan: unless one owns the building, or lives in a state where minimum wage is just the Federal one, selling comics at 30% off with free bags and boards is a surefire way to marginalize one’s business. We don’t discount, and sell borgs for 60 cents each and we can barely make a profit on new comics. No store in the Bay Area is offering those kinds of deals because it isn’t mathematically possible. But IF those kinds of customers are bled away from brick and mortar storefronts then the hundreds of customers who want to shop and browse in their local community (let alone all of the thousands and thousands of casual customers!) simply won’t buy comics any more.
I will say as a retailer of long standing that MOST customers for sure want to browse, want a local community, want people to TALK TO about their purchases — the kinds of customers who buy from price first and foremost are almost always the “problem” customers for local stores.
In 1989 when I started, MOST customers were “all-in” (or close to it) buyers. We had dozens and dozens of “Marvel Zombies”, and I’ve discussed how the world used to be that these cats would buy ANYthing with a “M” on the cover — even like Star comics and things they otherwise would not have bought otherwise. But these customers, by and large, QUIT reading comics as the asks got larger and larger. I should know, I’d talk to them each and every week for years
“Dawn of DC” was ABSOLUTELY a relaunch — ANY time you start a new #1 you are relaunching in the hearts of customers. EVERY RENUMBERING IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO JUMP OFF. Far far more people ultimately jump off from these kinds of stunts than jump on.
As a former senior exec at DC, I am of the opinion that “Johan” is not what they pretend to be.
I’m puzzled by “Johan”’s ability to have insight into the P&Ls of all WBD divisions, something I never saw ONCE in my years at DC—they must be a high ranking finance exec to see this info. if so, then “Johan” is violating their terms of employment by revealing this info here on The Beat—a curious professional decision to say the least, especially for someone who would have to have survived MULTIPLE rounds of layoffs at this point.
I am also curious what job “Johan” has at WBD that also involves “25 years” of travel to stores like Comix Experience, as well as having what purports to be detailed information about the purchasing habits of comic purchasers. I’m also curious how “Johan” claims to have these personal insights into the thoughts and actions of DC’s Publisher, who over the course of a decade plus is one of the most enigmatic and close lipped executives I have ever worked with.
I saw plenty of examples in my time at DC of individuals who projected their “insights” into larger tales of influence and importance. but if “Johan” wants to reveal some behind the scenes details about my 13 years at DC, I’d be happy to confirm them here and validate “Johan”’s other purported insights.
““Dawn of DC” was ABSOLUTELY a relaunch — ANY time you start a new #1 you are relaunching in the hearts of customers. EVERY RENUMBERING IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO JUMP OFF. Far far more people ultimately jump off from these kinds of stunts than jump on.”
So then what is happening in October, we agree?
“But these customers, by and large, QUIT reading comics as the asks got larger and larger. I should know, I’d talk to them each and every week for years”
Ageing out is more of the problem. The majority of newer buyers, anyone post 2000, grew up buying on the internet. So naturally “price” becomes the issue. So they look for the least expensive option or the one that makes most sense for them. The Big Book (Omni’s, etc) buyers, seem to nearly totally buy on the internet, because of the savings. I have a friend that has a record store, and yes , they have made a bit of a comeback. But with Target’s, Wal-Mart’s, Amazon, etc selling nearly at wholesale cost. He constantly has to price match, and looks at New Release’s as a way to get the customer in the door. And then he hopefully can sell them a pre-owned lp, were he makes a profit.
“I’m puzzled by “Johan”’s ability to have insight into the P&Ls of all WBD divisions”
One thing Mr. Zaslav is not shy about, is letting other division’s know what division’s are “making me money”
“survived MULTIPLE rounds of layoffs at this point”
I am not going anywhere, I am very secure in my employment.
“wants to reveal some behind the scenes details about my 13 years at DC”
Truthfully all of the “shop talk” revolves around the last 4+ years, so I have seen and heard your name mentioned, but that is about it, all good though.
One thing and having worked for Mr Zaslav as long as I have. DC publishing if not doing well , would not be avoiding any of the large layoff’s that have happened. Also DC would not be doubling the size of their output over the next 6 months. And finally , all of the recent talent signed (and many of them with exclusives) would not be happening.
Mr. Zaslav does not throw money at things that are not “making him money”. DC Comics is making him money and is one of his favorite divisions for that reason.
Sorry, “Johan”, I don’t buy a single word you said.
It’s sad when people build such rich fantasy lives. Tell Jim I said he’s still terrible at his job.
I don’t speak to Jim personally, but I will mention this in my “shop-talk” with my co-workers. And based on the “buzz” in SD last night, from what we have heard. Nearly 100% favorable response to the work Jim is doing.
Past 2 years DC has made some serious mis-steps: the 2 months when their comics were on hiatus (for Knight Terrors); no Superman title for 18 months; popular projects like JSA and Death of Lex Luthor continuously delayed; unpopular creative team on Batman.
I’m hoping with DC’s San Diego announcements things will improve. It’s smart to put Dan Mora on Superman and Justice League — he’s their best and fastest artist. Good to have Jeff Lemire on JSA — so it can release monthly. Mark Waid on Justice League is a no-brainer. Waid and Samnee on Batman and Robin Year One should sell great and make a nice collection. The Absolute Universe should be a kick — some of those titles look great.
I’m not a fan of Marvel’s publishing so many titles, and although I’m a Duck fan, the Disney variant covers don’t appeal at all. I’m saddened by Disney’s inability to package its ginormous back-catalog of Disney ducks and find an audience in the US. The most popular format for tweens is the half-letter manga size, but I don’t believe Disney even tried.
Marvel barely targets tweens for comics, despite Spider-man being super popular with that group. Why does Marvel always target age 50+ customers for superhero floppies when Dav Pilkey and Raina for tweens have been hot sellers for a decade?