The doom of the comic book industry has always been a fun topic piece for bloggers, retailers, and industry pundits alike. While a certain amount of dread should certainly be felt considering low sale numbers, stale creative ruts, and an overall horrible economy that seems a little less forgiving to the medium than it has in previous economic downturns, something can still be said for the overall fortitude of this industry. There have been plenty of opportunities for the business side of the comic world to die and yet it’s still going, like a gimpy Wolverine who still hasn’t learned when to duck and is more than happy to act as a meat shield. 

Which isn’t to say with all the current problems that it will necessarily survive, but there is a certain heartiness we can rely on in the meantime. Still, improvements need to be made and so far it doesn’t feel like any worthwhile measures are being enacted for the benefit of the industry as a whole. Complaints and ideas (often leaning more on editorial decisions) fly left and right on the blog-o-sphere, which makes them all the more easy to ignore as the complaints of fanboys. Retailers may get a little more respect, but the big companies are going to do what they want to do and follow the money where it tells them to go. I’m mostly stating all this to underline that I have no expectations that anyone will ever really look at what I say on this little blog which might get a few hundred views here and there, and that’s still a generous number. Still, I have nearly 20 years of comic retail under my belt and plenty of customers bending my ear every day, so I’d like to say I can offer a little bit of insight that might actually be worth a few cents. 

There are plenty of things to focus on when talking about the great vast beast we call the comic industry, but to start off with I think the key item that we need to focus on if we want to save and improve this business and expose more people to the medium is the current publishing model. This could mean a few different things, but what I’m trying to get at is the fork in the road we are currently stalling on; how the hell do we balance between the single issue format, the digital format, and the collected format? 

To catch up readers unfamiliar with the choices and the problems arising from them, here’s a brief crash course:

1. The single issue format is the longest existing format and is still embraced by many as the format of choice. Weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, or more sparsely published periodicals ranging from an average of 22-48 pages of content. The print runs have been dwindling over the past few years, causing many to cite the great circulation drop of newspapers and to call for a switch in format. The other main problem is just how damned expensive single comics have gotten over the past year, the current cheapest price being $2.50 while the average has settled at $3.99. DC Comics has pushed through a price drop to an average of $2.99 per title to be implemented in Jan 2011, a change that Marvel Comics has decided to follow up on as well despite some clumsy announcements and false starts. The main allure of this format tends to be the tactile experience and nostalgic factors combined with a collectors mindset and the hope of a longterm investment that other formats don’t share. 

2. The trade paperback or graphic novel format, an alternative to floppy single issue periodicals that offers easier storage and availability. The driving force of this format is the ability to capture new readers in chain bookstores such as Barnes & Nobles and Borders and to expand that reader base with less difficulty. 

3. The digital comic format, the bold new frontier for the technically savvy that promises easy access, easy storage, and new experiments in storytelling if only we could figure out how. Seriously, just posting a page from a printed-on-paper comic online isn’t a groundbreaking approach to a new media, but that’s a whole different rant. The online format holds a lot of promise that needs to be mined, and currently it’s small publishers that knows how to take advantage.

So we have these three formats and we have some options. We can embrace them all or we can abandon a few, or we can do what we are currently doing which is SCREWING UP ALL THREE OF THEM. A couple examples to give you the gist of the problems.

In regard to floppy comics, the current print runs in comparison to the 1940's-70's are pitiful to say the least. I don’t have any numbers on hand, but if you do a google search you’ll come across a crapton of bloggers who do. The exact numbers and what they mean is not the point. We can analyze them to see the minutia of readership whims, but we would be focusing on the wrong problem. You have to look at the history of the format and the context of the format per decade. The short of it is this; comics were meant to be disposable pleasures. Comics were cheaply produced and were cheap to purchase. They were never meant to last long and were never meant to be investments. As time moved on, the collector mentality was introduced and all these comics were becoming more and more difficult to find, hence their values increasing. This in turn spurned publishers to try to capitalize on the speculator movement, and this is why the industry nearly died in the ‘90's. The popping of the speculator bubble of the ‘90's should be viewed as a body trying to expel toxins out of its system. Single issue comics were never meant to be worth anything, and the back-issue collector market should be thought of as an entirely different organism. The publishing industry should not react to this different market, as closely related as they are, and should in turn maintain a publishing model that doesn’t change with the desires of a speculator market. If publishers wish to capitalize on new sales and increased revenue, the opportunity has now been offered to them in the form of new formats and media options. Explorations in these alternative options mean we can re-adapt a new methodology to publishing single issue floppy comics, something I will come back to before the end of this post.

In regard to the trade paperback/graphic novel format, the industry is doing surprisingly better in capitalizing and promoting this format. We’ve experience a golden age of reprinting this past year, partially in thanks to Fantagraphics and IDW going back and forth with amazingly priced and designed collections. Even Marvel and DC have brought us some great books I never thought we would see printed, all in the drive to get more exposure through chain bookstores such as Barnes & Nobles. The main problems I see these days are in marketing and packaging, but those have little to do with the big picture I’m trying to get to in this post. The one problem that does affect the topic at hand is that particular elements of the industry are pressing comic retailers to carry more of this format, which means we have to compete against chain stores like Barnes & Noble and in many scenarios comic stores will lose in that fight. The TP/GN format should be seen more as a tool by the publishers in this industry to better expand readership, and to do this the marketing for TPs/GNs should be as an entryway to the medium in larger bookstores and as a supplemental sales tool in comic stores. This means that the floppy single format should be considered the main unique draw of a comic store and that publishers need to rethink how to make the single issue format profitable, accessible, and a gateway to other formats.

In regard to the digital format, both Marvel and DC don’t know what the hell they should be doing with this bright shiny new toy and if they aren’t careful they probably will find a way to break it. The main example I cite is the release of the Invincible Iron Man Annual earlier this year. To sum it up, the issue was being released in print and in digital format the exact same day. All right, interesting way to test the market. The problem is if Marvel released the digital format at a cheaper price than the printed comic they would have had a backlash from retailers. Essentially going the pussy route, they instead split the comic into three chapters that you had to buy separately and when the cost was combined was a dollar more expensive than the printed format. Why would you even why? It didn’t occur to you to just release them at the same price and to compare the sales numbers to see what was preferred? Basically, neither major publishing company has found a good way to push their online material.

There’s a crowd there, and there is the possibility of growing that crowd, but you need just the right hook for it and forcing retailers to be a middle man is not the way. And trust me, you involve Diamond Comics in this scenario, things are going to get worse before they get better and yes, the appropriate mental imagery for that was indeed Chief Wiggum getting caught in the hot dog machine.

All of these formats have problems and strengths. There are a few possible options that we can approach the health issues of the industry with, the first being to choose a format and going with it. The one I like though is to take all three formats and create of triangle publishing model that utilizes their strengths to make each one stronger. Follow along and please, if you see something that just doesn’t make sense or I’m just talking crazy out of my ass, please just tell me what can be done to fix these ideas because all I want to do is make this industry stand on it’s legs with a little bit of pride and not this constant Chicken Little attitude. 

Single issue comics were never meant to be collectible. They were meant to be disposable. Modern comics will never be worth any significant return without there being a few more world wars and a major paper shortage. Your Youngblood #1 will only be worth money for its value as kindling. Your Spawn #1 will be the toilet paper of a dystopian society. Hell, your Spawn #1 is the toilet paper of today. All your new comics with the shiny glossy pages? THEY WILL OUTLAST YOU. There is a reason all those comics printed on newsprint are worth money and that is because it is damn tough to find any that have survived in good shape. So here is what I propose. If we reduce the cost of manufacturing, we reduce the cost of risk. If we reduce the cost of manufacturing, we can reduce the retail cost. If we reduce the retail cost, we can increase interest. And if you increase the interest, you can increase the possibility of advertising and cross-sales. Put a note on the first page in every comic telling people that hey, if you like what you see here and want it on nicer paper with nicer coloring, there is a version available of it now to download at $3.99 or you can wait for the trade paperback for $14.99. Use the single issue floppy comic as an advertising tool to aim people towards the more lucrative formats of bound collections and digital comics. Utilize the $1.00 sampler ashcan model ( hell you can charge us $2 an issue, it would still be an improvement over current prices) and recreate the entire format, turning it into a marketing tool and decreasing the cost of production.

The side benifit? Collectors can still collect them and their back-market value is essentially guaranteed because there will be less pristine copies a decade from now. You know why Amazing Spider-Man #300, the first appearance of Venom, is actually worth some major cash still? Because it is a BITCH to find a clean copy. That sucker was printed on newsprint and I bet you if it was on glossy the back market value would be $50-100 less since it would be easier to come by a copy in good shape.

So now we’ve created an inexpensive marketing tool that not only makes fanboys and collectors happy, but it maintains and strengthens a unique prestige that benefits comic stores. We have a format that almost no one else wants, and hey guess what, your kids can actually afford them again. You see what I just did there? One giant big ass stone killed an entire flock of birds. Now we just have to worry about the other two formats.

We’ve established (or I've decided, same difference) that the trade format is actually doing sort of ok on it’s own. By creating a marketing tool (the cheaper floppy comic), we’ve hopefully bolstered sales a bit as well. Now all the publishers have to do is refine their techniques. Certain reprints should be prioritized and we can certainly do a better job at formatting (I’M LOOKING AT YOU, MARVEL). Plus, pricing can be fixed a little, but otherwise, the format works as a gateway to new readers. Perhaps publishers can help retailers in as far as figuring out the best way to stock certain materials or by actually offering retailers incentives to promote the format with floppies, but otherwise the format itself is sound. On a side note, major props to Dark Horse because those guys know how to package and price collections, they know how to safely ship their product, and they know how to communicate and work with retailers. They simply are the best in the industry from a professional standpoint and they should be recognized as such.

The nice thing about digital comics is that we have an enormous online community of established webcomic creators to draw on for advice and talent. Everything about online comics offers the industry so many opportunities for expansion and experimentation that we would have to be friggin’ idiots to never utilize the format to it’s full potential. Then again the industry is full of friggin’ idiots and we’ve already screwed up the potential of online comics because if there is one thing that publishers in this industry can not comprehend it’s constructive competition. Before I even touch on that concept though and the giant tangent it will no doubt lead me to, what possible ways are there for us to utilize the digital format? I honestly have to do more research before I can give you a great answer, but here are a few ideas:

-How about we don’t charge people up the ass when there’s a decent chance they will just torrent the stuff for free?

-How about we don’t make atrociously stupid ‘motion comics’ that are essentially the regurgitated monstrosity babies of the Marvel cartoons of the ‘60's.

-How about we actually invent something new and worthwhile and take advantage of the infinite canvas. 

-Take advantage of the online comic publisher model. Give us something over time for free, utilize the traffic for exposure and advertising, and then poll your readers to get an idea of a possible print run. Print, make money, repeat, expand. 

Pulling back a bit, if it seems I’m being overly harsh towards the big two publishers (Marvel and DC), that’s because I am. I’m not going to pretend that the fans aren’t to blame for some aspects of these problems and indeed we do need to accept some responsibility. However, there is something we all need to realize and embrace. For better or worse, Marvel and DC are the unofficial ambassadors of the comic book medium to the general public and the world. Despite all the gains the medium and the industry has made towards self realization and shedding the ‘men-in-tights’ stereotypes and despite the little victories, the Pulitzer, the art galleries, the movies, we are still the redheaded stepchild. Especially when we try to point that stuff out because then we sound obnoxious as we try to prove the medium as a reputable alternative to other forms of literature. Instead of distancing ourselves from our colorful spandex clad power fantasies, we need to embrace and utilize them for the gain of the entire medium.  

Which is why we need Marvel and DC to stop acting like the kids in the schoolyard arguing over who gets the stolen lunch money from the little guys. Constructive competition. This means instead of getting X-Necrosha immediately after Blackest Night, we get something different. This means that the past three years of publishing of Batman and Captain America don’t mirror each other perfectly, from resurrected sidekicks, death, new people wearing the costumes, and even time-traveling resurrections.

Essentially, this means being innovative and not caring what the other company is doing because frankly your business should be your business, not what the other guy is doing. Ignoring editorial stupidity for the time being, I’m really not kidding. The industry sales charts prove that these two companies are the majority shareholders of the interest of comic book fans in general, and when the media actually cares to visit our little world it tends to be about a movie, a poorly executed gimmick (Hay you guys in the newspapers, we just killed Batman even though the writer himself essentially said he’s not dead, but we want you to say he’s dead cause lol we dunno, sales!), or about an issue of Action Comics #1 or Detective #27 selling for thousands of dollars therefore reinforcing the speculator mentality and pushing more poison through the veins of the industry.

We need you guys to take a stand and improve yourselves so the rest of the industry has a few guiding lights to help it actually survive. I know I’m asking for a lot, but y’know, money? It’s there for the taking. You just don’t have to be a douchbag about it.

To recap!

1. Make comics affordable, cut manufacturing cost, and utilize the single issue format to sell more copies of TPs/GNs and digital comics!

2. Think! Be innovative! Attempt to actually do something besides depending on Wolverine’s healing factor to absorb the brunt of the inevitable industry collapse!

3. Respect the men in tights, because as much as we might resent them, they are truly an American innovation and the bread and butter of an entire industry! Just make sure to try something different at least, cause y’know, people are starting to talk.

4. Bring back Thor the Mighty Avenger. Just sayin’, it would go a long way towards credibility, Marvel.

So yeah, a little ranty, but what do you think? Feasible business and publishing model to explore, or a whole bunch of unrealistic expectations?