INTRODUCTION

The comic book industry usually seems to be in some state of economic turmoil. Many critics and analysts who would offer their opinions of its current issues and possible future tend to offer portents of it’s coming collapse or possible evolution. Sometimes you get some advice and good observations, and sometimes you pretty much just get a lot of bitching and moaning. At the same time you have the head honchos over at both Marvel Comics (Joe Quesada) and DC Comics (Dan Didio) attempting communication with their fan base, and while I’ve read comments from both men that offer insight or at least some measure of similar concern over the problems we all seem to be seeing, I also usually read enough to leave me more frustrated.

What it feels like is that there is a major disconnect between a) the comic industry itself, or to be specific the publishers and distributors b) the fans and the level in which they actually understand how the industry works, and c) the retailers, the actual backbone of the industry. Many people would probably argue that the fans are the backbone, and I in no way mean to belittle the fact that without such a fervent amount of dedicated readers the industry would surely collapse. However, I always feel the need to point out that the retailer is the one on the front lines making sure the entire thing moves along and has some life blood pumping through it. Comic book retail is like guerilla warfare, and without the fighters out there to make sure that new product makes it from publisher to fan, there would be no industry as we know it today. This is not to say that retailers don’t screw up big time and in fact a number of major problems come from retailers either not doing their best to promote the medium or perhaps only doing their best to rip off the clientele.

It’s my hope that with this series of articles I can do a little bit more than bitch and moan about the problems of the industry, and that I might be able to bridge some of the communication gaps or at least identify them. I’m doubtful that too much can come from this, but it’s always preferable to have people know a little bit more about what they are talking about and if there is one constant that I have learned in this field it’s this: nobody really knows what the hell they are talking about.

I’ve spoken to retailers who don’t know how to recommend their stock to fans. I’ve spoken to publishers who don’t know what the fans actually seem to be interested in. I’ve spoken to fans who have no idea how we even order comics and that comics are generally not returnable (and yes, that sucks. A lot). I’ve spoken with distributors that frankly don’t even know where their ass is. I’ll be honest as well. I don’t know how the intricacies of marketing work, I don’t know a lot of the editorial trapfalls happening behind the scenes, and the regional sale differences between stores sure as hell mean I don’t know what will be successful in one area of the country versus another. So maybe I’ll learn a bunch along the way here as well, especially if we can develop a decent dialogue and readers decide to share and comment along the way.

Next Time: $3.99 a comic........seriously?

Pic via JoeD!