Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics in Whippany, New Jersey saw Steve Bennett's column about attracting customers after the holidays (see 'Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--You Can Prepare For Everything') and presents his own ideas on how to promote sales in January:
I just read Steve Bennett's column where he invoked the use of three older characters to help jump-start sales during the yearly January/February slowdown. While I remember the three characters mentioned (in fact I had always had a soft spot in my heart for Anthro), these characters are obscure, if not almost totally forgotten today. They represent the kind of books that would be ordered in very minimal numbers by most retailers, and most probably, would sell even less, leaving retailers with too many untried and unsold copies. However, Steve's idea gave me one also and if he doesn't mind my piggybacking, I'd like to present my idea.
Marvel or DC (or both) could use the 5-week month to present a 6-part storyline combining characters that don't have current series going. Two books would ship the first week with a book per week to follow for the duration of the month. One or more of the characters should be well known and the other(s) could be more obscure. It would be imperative for the creative team to stretch themselves in order to create a unique and inventive story. Recycled storylines and cliches would doom the project. But if done well, here's the intriguing part:
To help promote sales, the even numbered issues would be free to both the consumer and the retailer (with retailers just paying for shipping as they normally would). You buy issue #1 and get #2 for FREE, buy #3 and get #4 for FREE and buy #5 and get #6 for FREE!! Since half the books are FREE, the publisher could even use all 5 weeks to produce a 10-part story with 1 paid issue and 1 FREE issue available EVERY WEEK in January. When the series is over, it would make a nice meaty TPB as well that if done truly well would lead to a lot of additional sales. This would be a 5-week event that would benefit everybody in the long-term.
Retailer orders would be mostly consistent since it would be absolutely necessary to order as many 'to sell' copies as FREE copies. Retailers might adjust orders up or down to sales as the month went on through the FOC program, but the publisher(s) could rightfully insist that orders match within each single week. This program would help show that Marvel or DC are willing to take some risk, not to mention lose some overall profit, in the name of making the industry more innovative and healthier to boot. Every retailer knows how hard it is to pay our November and December invoices due to the lack of revenue generating product in January and February. What a boost an idea like this could be!!
Lastly, if Marvel and DC could use January or February as 'catch-up months' for currently late titles, that would be an extra boost to retailers and a way to end some of the frustration felt by readers and collectors. How about it Marvel and DC? Image? Dark Horse? Everybody? Let's make January and February profitable, revenue-generating months - wouldn't that be nice for a change?
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
