Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Mary Alice Wilson's Dark Star Comics in
Last week I wrote about the latest impending head-on collision between DC and Marvel, 52/One Year Later vs. Civil War/Annihilation, and was told by several people the war was already over. They suggested I 'look at the numbers' on ICv2's very own Top 300 Comics for March; I did and it's true - there are only six DC titles among the top twenty comics. Their conclusion: Marvel has already won, DC lost, so nah-nah-nah-nah.
But I'll go these folks one better - Marvel will always win, as long as they keep grinding out so many unnecessary titles.
First, a little history; Atlas (formerly Timely, soon to be Marvel) was once a company well known for its ability to jump on the bandwagon of every hot genre and pump out lots of titles on the subject before it got cold. But in 1957 publisher Martin Goodman switched to the Independent News magazine distributor owned by its rival DC Comics, who only allowed them to publish a limited number of titles per month.
In the early 1960s that number was eight comics per month, which is why The Mighty Thor made his first appearance in Journey into Mystery #83 instead of Thor #1. It's also why titles like Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish were converted from mild monster books into 'split' super-hero titles featuring two heroes (Captain America and Iron Man, The Hulk and The Submariner respectively), each of whom could have easily have carried a series of their own.
Marvel quickly became powerful enough to make a better distribution deal for itself and expanded, but I don't think they've ever forgiven this humiliation and now have this mission statement apparently hardwired into their corporate DNA, expand as much as possible as often as possible, even when it leads far from their core 'menu' (Conan to Care Bears, Beavis & Butthead to Barbie).
Even a bunch of mediocre selling comics which can't survive six months are successful enough at soaking up money a customer might spend on some other publisher's titles.
Marvel's secret weapon against DC has long been that the sameness of its product created a brand identity that fostered brand loyalty that produced Marvel Zombies, this being
someone who if given a chance will get Marvel Zombies over Walking Dead (ignoring the fact both are written by the same guy and the first 'inspired' the second).
Producing more material than the market can bear is at least one of the reasons our industry has been cursed with a series of booms and busts. Trying to drive your competition out of business by out-producing them might have been a viable business strategy in the 1940's, but not today, not when the Direct Sales market is essentially a closed system. There are only so many readers who only have so much money.
At Dark Star we have Marvel fans, DC fans and fans capable of negotiating the fence if they see something greener on the other side. Marvel and DC (they're also quite capable of overextending themselves--I was there for the DC Implosion) can produce as many comics as they want, but ultimately their readers can only buy so many, leaving retailers stuck with a lot of unsold and unsellable comics. OK, accepting a certain amount of risk is part and parcel of the whole direct sales deal, still...
Last time I also wrote about policing the comic racks, removing leftovers from finished titles to make room for new ones. I'm sure it's pretty much the same at your store; we see if we have enough to make a complete set, then bag and board the rest. But at Dark Star our back issues boxes are literally groaning with comics unlikely to ever see the light of day again. Maybe I'm just being negative, but I find it highly unlikely someone will ever come through our door desperate to buy a copy of Son of Vulcan #3 and will be unconcerned we don't have copies of a #1, #2 or #4.
Now, combine that one comic by a dozen and you'll get an idea of what we're facing every week, every month, every year.
I know I've ridden this particular hobby horse a time too often, but wouldn't it be more sensible, for us and for them, for Marvel and DC, instead of releasing so many new series and mini-series, producing one or two sustainable series. Something that they're willing to commit to not for six months or a year, but several years, and announce that up front to instill some consumer confidence for an unknown title.
Something along the line of Marvels old 'split' books; heck, make it a flipbook, charge $3.99 and call it Amazing Adventures. Put Nextwave in the front, Sable & Fortune in the back and a Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius strip in the middle. Give readers an Internet option to vote on their favorite feature; if one doesn't work, replace it with something else. And if the whole title isn't selling as well as expected, don't cancel it, change everything.
And maybe somebody would actually be interested in buying the back issues.