Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Books in
Once again it's convention season,
As usual the bulk of attention goes to the majors, what they're doing and what in turn they'll be doing to the characters, but likewise as usual that's not the major story.
Neither is the news that Wildstorm will be picking up the rights to the Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises, but we're getting close. For one thing, it proves there's definitely a niche market for horror comics out there, or Fangoria wouldn't have decided to go into the comic book business and Fox Atomic (partnered with HarperCollins) wouldn't be producing graphic novels based on The Hills Have Eyes movies.
So, what does any of that have to do with us? You guessed it; the major story (as I see it anyway) is more and more people are going to be producing more and more comic material that has less and less to do with us and our core menu of super-hero pamphleteering.
Take First Second Books, an imprint of the major publisher Holtzbrinck. They've been good enough to send me both their catalog with their impressive first wave of titles to free samples (always the best way to worm your way into the heart of a retailer) and I've been impressed with that I've seen. But if Dark Star actually orders copies of their titles, it's not likely it'll be in any great numbers -- and we definitely won't be getting their entire line.
Because regardless of the books, they're definitely intended for a niche market, and it's not ours; Dark Star sells all kinds of graphic novels to all sorts of people (I just sold a volume of Little Lulu to a heavy accented Indian woman and had a nice chat about the popularity of Tintin in America; she has a friend who was named after the character), but it we can't carry everything (to invoke comedian Steven Wright, where would we put it?). To succeed, First Second is going to have to rely on where their niche lives; the major chain book stores, and the thing is, I think they've a better than average chance of doing just that.
I don't think it's sunk in just how much the world of comics has fundamentally changed in the last twenty years. This week we had comic book news appearing in TV Guide before it hit the fan press (the first art from Joss Whedon's upcoming Buffy Season Eight comic from Dark Horse. And not only is Rapper D appearing at San Diego to promote his Public Enemy comic, the Senior News Editor of Publishers Weekly will be there on a panel on The 911 Report comic book adaptation (something we have to assume will sell much better 'on the outside' than with us).
Having gone through it once before I have flashbacks that somebody out there will actually try start another super-hero universe. Well, somebody has; Michael Davis, one of the creators of Milestone, has started the Guardian line. Like Milestone, it will feature strong African-American heroes and a multi-cultural cast, but instead of relying on the Direst Sales market, its primary distribution will take place in black churches and bookstores. Milestone is and was a decade a head of its time (it's only now DC is seriously doing something about becoming more multi-cultural) and I'm thrilled comics like these will finally get a chance to reach an audience better able to appreciate them.
This column is supposed to be about selling comic books, so as I see it this is (you guessed it) an opportunity to make more money from more people, not a problem. Comic book shops can continue to be increasing irrelevant in the middle of this comic boom that seems to be touching every aspect of our society and go on serving the needs of a very specific niche. Or we take advantage of what's being laid in front of us on a golden platter. I have some ideas how we can do just that; I'll write about them next week.
* the subtitle of this column comes from a quote from the animated movie Yellow Submarine; I'll put my nerd credentials up against anyone's, anytime, anywhere.
