Comics Industry Postmortems and Predictions

Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston posted an interesting look back on comic book sales trends from 2010, as well as a few predictions about the comics industry in the new year.  "Interesting" might be a bit of a subjective term on this one, so I'll qualify it by saying that it's probably more interesting to those of us who read at least a half-dozen different comic book titles every month, from a variety of publishers.  For instance:

As the end of the year approached, the impossible happened and for December DC, buoyed by orders for David Finch’s The Dark Knight topped marketshare over Marvel in terms of dollars for the first time since Superman karked it, though Marvel still kept the title for individual comics sold.

See?  Interesting*!

$3.99

Thanks to Rich Johnson's Bleeding Cool for pointing this out.  Blogsite Wallet Pop ran an interesting post a few weeks ago about some interesting price changes that have occurred over the past ten years.  For instance, one daytime adult ticket at Disneyland has gone from $41 in 1999 to $72 in 2009, an increase of 75.61 percent.  A ticket to view the observation deck of the Empire State Building  has seen a whopping 400 percent increase over the past 10 years, going from just $4 in 1999 to $20 in 2009.  A six-pack of Budweiser has gone from $4.01 to $5.99, an increase of 49.38 percent (which makes sense, considering it's now an import).  iMac desktops have dropped in price by just over a third, from $1499 to $999.

But perhaps the most disturbing change on the list is that of the comic book.  In 1999, an issue of Superman would set you back $1.99.  In 2009, an issue from the same Superman series costs $3.99.  Meaning the price of your average comic book has gone up 100.5 percent over the past ten years.

The price of comics is a bit of a hot-button issue right now among readers, especially Marvel and DC's decision to go from charging $2.99 to $3.99 on the majority of their titles over the last year or so.  And what the two giant gorrilias of the comic book industry do, the smaller publishers (like Dark Horse, Image, and others) are forced to eventually do as well, raising their title pricepoints by 1/3.  Both companies have offered various heavy-handed excuses as to why charging an extra buck is essential, ranging from "it's just inflation, we're just trying to make the books profitable (which is bullshit)," to "hey, you guys seem to keep buying comics in record numbers regardless to the price, so we're gonna exploit that (which is also bullshit, but at least it's honest)."

The thing that kills me the most about the rise in price is the ridiculous attempts to justify the increase within the actual comic book by adding a four page preview of some upcoming event.  I would much rather save a buck an issue than read a silly little teaser of something I was either probably going to buy anyway or don't care about in the slightest.

I think there's a direct link between the price increase and lower sales on less popular (and generally better, writing-wise) books.  Marvel and DC don't realize that they're essentially feeding off themselves at this point.  Sure, they can squeeze another buck out of me for New Avengers or Green Lantern, but that just means I won't have the budget to try out or keep up with Agents of Atlas or Adventure Comics.  The price isn't worth the cost; hopefully they'll realize that before they send their readers to the poorhouses and all their decent titles to Comic Book Heaven.

Yeah, yeah...

Yesterday I said I'd post something of some merit.  In hindsight, that was a bit ambitious.  I'm working on two things right now, but neither are done.  So, you get one more day of fluff.

I haven't posted much about comics lately.  Anyone reading anything worth while?  How are you comic book fans liking "Darkest Night?"  Zombie-licious enough for you?

I just finished the full run of "100 Bullets" this morning before work.  It blew me away.  No pun intended.  Easily the best Crime Noir comic I've ever read.  It's given me a whole new appreciation for the creative team of Azzarello and Risso.  Next stop, "Batman:  Broken City."  Has anyone read that one?

"Advanced Common Sense" Episode Four

So, yeah.  I worked a ten-hour shift today.  That's a lot of flowers.  I don't really feel like writing anything at all, but nonetheless, I am committed.  So here's the latest episode of "Advanced Common Sense," hosted by comic book guru Tucker Stone.  It's better than the last episode, but still not quite as good as episode two.

Ehh, whaddayagon'do.  Enjoy.



By the way, the video doesn't seem to be centered within the box. You may have to click the video again and watch it on youtube to see it with the right side in its proper place. Sorry about that, I'm still trying to figure out some of the bells and whistles.

Make Mine Mar--err... Disney?

Oh hey, look! It’s my blog!

Sorry for the hiatus of late, I just haven’t had the willpower to write more than the occasional facebook comment or maybe a topic or two on the new Ada forum, freshly arisen from the ashes of the AEN’s former Hey Martha community message board. I’ve been meaning to jump back on but just haven’t found the right motivating factor. If only something really big could happen, I thought. Some crazy occurrence that catches everyone off guard, like a giant robot being elected prime minister in Japan, a certain beleaguered GOP governor admitting to another extramarital affair with certain notorious lady moose hunter, or the acquisition of the largest comic book publisher in the U.S. by one of the biggest corporate behemoths in the world.

Cue inspiration. This morning Disney announced that it would be purchasing Marvel Entertainment in its entirety for a whopping $4 billion.

Jumpin’ Jeebus. This is huge. It’s easily the biggest news in the comics industry over the past decade. The House of Mouse will soon own the House of Ideas, the Bullpen, the film studios, and everything else even remotely associated with the Mighy Marvel brand.

Reaction to this news has been understandably mixed. Speculation popped up almost immediately, questioning how Disney’s ownership would affect Marvel’s creative process, if Disney characters would suddenly find themselves a part of the Marvel Universe (my favorite quote about the Disney/Marvel crosspollination came from my friend Sam: “If Donald Duck shows up in an issue of X-Men, I quit life.”), what would become of Marvel’s wildly successful film endeavors, and so on.

CBR has an updated version of the story now which covered a conference call made between Disney and its investors shortly after the Marvel news was announced. They have a bulleted list of some of the discussed issues, many of which were of particular interest to Marvel fans. Here are a handful of talking points directly from the article which I found particularly interesting:

-- Existing licensing and distribution deals should remain where they are.

-- Disney executives went to great lengths during the call to make the point that they don’t pretend to be more expert than Marvel is in handling their characters, citing the hands-off relationship Disney has had with Pixar since the acquisition of that studio. Disney said Marvel manages the properties from a business perspective very intelligently and trusts them to make the right decisions for these products for a long time to come.

-- Again, referencing the Pixar deal, Disney finds working as one company with Marvel removes friction and creates value that’s very compelling. Licensing offers very attractive opportunities, but nothing is better than being one. International expansion of Marvel properties through Disney was cited as a potential growth area.

--Cable channel Disney XD is currently running about 20 hours a week of Marvel content and Disney has been looking to license more Marvel content and this deal gives them that opportunity as well as the opportunity to expose these characters internationally.

--With regards to video game publishing, Disney praised Marvel’s licensing agreements with some of the best video game producers and publishers in the business and said moving forward they will consider what’s best for each individual property as each licensing deal comes up for renewal and that there would likely be a blend of licensed and self-produced/self-distributed titles.

--With respect to Paramount’s distribution deal with Marvel and the Iron Man franchise, Disney has every intention to respect the deal that’s in place, but noted that it’s in their best interest, overtime, to become the sole distributor of Marvel films.

--When asked if there was potential for cross-pollination between Marvel and Pixar, Disney said that Pixar’s John Lasseter has met with key Marvel creative executives recently and the group got “pretty excited, very fast.” Disney will look at all opportunities and thinks there are some exciting product that could come from this sort of partnership.

--Disney said this deal is expected to benefit Marvel’s retail efforts, being able to leverage Disney’s shelf space and relationships with major chains and distributors.

(There are a lot of other really interesting points mentioned in the article, I recommend it.)

At first glance, this looks to be a great deal for Marvel. If Disney does what it says, it’ll pretty much be a silent owner of Marvel like it is with Pixar, allowing the company to do its thing while giving it access to much more retail exposure. Existing film licensing deals will also be honored, so it looks like Marvel will retain their in-house production philosophy for the foreseeable future. And Marvel characters/property could even find its way onto the Happiest Place on Earth.

The only thing that I’m concerned with is what (if any) control Disney will have regarding Marvel’s content. Will the family-friendly corporate giant allow Marvel to continue publishing its adult-only MAX line? Will they look the other way when writer Peter David has two more well-established male superheroes locking lips? Will the House of Mouse strong-arm Marvel into establishing a more child-friendly worldview, alienating longtime readers? Will this mean a return of the dreaded Comics Code, or some other form of ridiculous censorship? Will there be tween musicals featuring Miley Cyrus as Kitty Pryde? These are the questions that will keep us fanboys gravely attentive as the situation progresses.