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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 25 September 2020 at 6:58pm | IP Logged | 1 post reply

"Are you a writer or artist, Rebecca?"

I've been both, but arthritis limits my drawing ability now. I'm happy to see comics like I would like to see more of in Owly, Yam, Yoko Tsuno and Beanworld. I first loved the Disney Scamp and Chip N' Dale comics, and later their Ducks, Archie titles, and DC's Shazam, Plop and Supergirl (Schaffenberger) when I was little. I hope there will always be quality comics like those around. They are also a great foundation to a lifetime of reading. They do need to be imaginative and engaging, not just keeping a video game character viable or something with the same few stock plot situations. Think how many kids whose first comic might have been Sgt. Rock or Godzilla, House Of Mystery or Rom (for me it was Star Wars and to a lesser degree Battlestar Galactica that made me a regular Marvel buyer) and yet so often the fanpros in the bullpens would seem embarrassed by a lot of things simply for not being superheroes (Hembeck did a cartoon of his embarrassment of a girl seeing him with a Godzilla comic, I have to say Spider-Man would have meant nothing more to her, and something like The Punisher later on or Lobo a lot worse). Super characters in the 'universe' is mostly all the comic shop customer cares about. if it's not part of that it ceases to exist for them. I would often feel I was the only one buying 'Mazing Man or Meet Misty hoping against hope that they might stick around long enough for some non-collector kid to stumble across so they could enjoy something else in the comic book form.
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Adam Schulman
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Posted: 25 September 2020 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Oh man, Beanworld, that comic was a trip...
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 25 September 2020 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

Originally published in  Comic Buyers' Guide ,December 2006, "Oh So" letter page (Thank goodness for online OCR conversion which saved me from having to transcribe all this text!):

THE LONG TERM
Matthew Hawes, Comics Unlimited


For years, I have been discussing with anyone who would listen that the comic-book industry needs to look hard at changing the format of comic books. In order to get comics in the hands of more readers and in more retail outlets, drastic measures must be taken to ensure the market continues to endure in an ever-changing marketplace.

This weekend, I got in a copy of Wizard #179, noted its change in format, and thought, 'They seem to get it." The publication, until now, has been roughly the same dimensions as a Silver Age comic book. The new format is more of a magazine size, like Time. This convinced me that others may be thinking along the same line as I am thinking.

It's in the best interests of the comics industry to change all comics formats to match the dimensions and page count of a standard magazine. This serves a number of purposes. First, the larger size will allow comics to be displayed with any other magazines at bookstores, newsstands, grocery stores, and the like. Because of this, newsstand vendors will be more than likely to carry comics. Also, a lot of buying and selling is psychological. People who balk at paying $3 for a regular-sized comic book have no problem paying up to $8 for a magazine. It's the whole "bigger is better" mentality.

What I suggest is that a publisher, like Marvel, take three somewhat-related titles (say, Avengers, Captain America, and Iron Man) and combine them into a magazine with the same page count for each story that they would've had as a regular-size comic book. That is to say, roughly, the magazine would have about 74 pages of comic art and story. The remaining content could be filled with paid advertisements, pin-ups, and editorial content. The entire package could run about 100 pages, with a retail of around $7.99, more or less.

This would not be an "either/or" situation, in that the customer would have a choice between a magazine version and a comic-book version.

No, the change in format would have to be total and across the line. There would be protests from some quarters, but I think the market would ultimately accept it. And it would be nice if Marvel, DC, and others agreed to make the change and do so at the same time.

Changing the format would increase the likelihood of broadening the distribution of the product, which would then result in more exposure, leading to higher sales and increased readership in the long run. The perception among readers would be that they are getting more for their money. No creative teams would have to be displaced with this solution, either.

Perhaps the biggest change is that the creators would have to actually start meeting the deadlines again. It wouldn't do to have publishing held up because two out of three stories were not ready by the time the issue was due to be printed. Fill-in stories may be a way of taking care of some of those deadline issues, but, more importantly, publishers and the editors need to crack the whip and have the creators meet their deadlines. Never has the industry been more lax about putting out monthly periodicals on a monthly schedule than in these past 10 years.

It's a bold move, but the continued survival of this industry requires bold tactics. The biggest problems facing this industry today are distribution, pricing, late books, and marketing. The plan I propose would be a step forward in addressing those issues. The corporate world these days is way too shortsighted, and the comic-book industry is as guilty as any other industry. It's time we look forward and plan ahead with serious intent.

On another, somewhat unrelated, note: Am I the only person displeased with how comics publishers are making retailers and fans pay for product that was once the kind of stuff that was given away as promotional materials? I mean, sure, I can see comics like Batman: The 120 Adventure and the 25( comics Marvel was putting out a few years back, but I feel that publishers are starting to take advantage of the concept in a bad way these days.

Dark Horse published a "comic book" full of pin-ups to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and another publisher put out a "comic" that was barely more than sketches with Comics Buyer's Guide commentary, and both were sold to retailers to sell at a quarter apiece. Marvel just released a Civil War: Daily Bugle newspaper that retailed at 5Ost. Back in the '80s, all of these comics would have been distributed for free as promotional marketing materials. While the price point is not extravagant, I still feel that retailers and readers are being fleeced. More of the "let's get the money now, worry about the adverse effects later" mentality that is all too prevalent.

I hope the short-term mentality will go away at some point. I care deeply about this industry and want to see it survive for years to come.

----------

Maggie (Thompson):

Several years ago, there was a determined effort to market comics magazines on the newsstands. Such titles as Spectacular Spider-Man (#1. Jut 68), Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction (# I, Jan 75) and Tales of the Zombie (#1, Aug 73) were among the tryouts of such marketing. One of the longest-running projects was Savage Sword of Conan (Aug 74-Ju1 95). but most went quickly away.

Among the challenges: Staking out a spot on most newsstands for magazines containing fiction. (Seen a lot of those recently? The number is minuscule.) Without a place to rack an item, most stores won't bother in the first place.

 Another challenge: The blow of returns from newsstand distributors using affidavit statements to get credit for unsold copies. The problem of having to print four to sell one is what led to the evolution of comic-book distribution into the direct (no returns market in the first place. #1623

------

Let me state in respects to Maggie's response to my letter: When she responded citing Marvel's 1970s magazine output as a sign of my suggestion having proved unsuccessful in those past attempts, she seemingly glossed over important points I made in my proposal. That is...

"This would not be an "either/or" situation, in that the customer would have a choice between a magazine version and a comic-book version.

No, the change in format would have to be total and across the line. There would be protests from some quarters, but I think the market would ultimately accept it. And it would be nice if Marvel, DC, and others agreed to make the change and do so at the same time...
"

(Note: I Added emphasis to the quotes above.)

Also, those 1970s magazine were largely in black and white, and modern magazines would be in full-color, not reprints (as a rule), not magazine counterparts to a monthly standard-sized comic book (as noted in my letter to CBG, it would be THE only format for the new stories when released.

She mentioned stalking out a spot on newsstands for most magazines containing fiction. In 2006 (when I wrote my letter above), or 2020, if there isn't a spot for magazines containing fictional content, that's because the publishers aren't putting such product out. Why would a newsstand dealer care if it's fiction or non-fiction magazines, accept if it sales or not?

In the beginning of my letter, I mentioned "Wizard Magazine"'s format change as an example of doing the right thing. Even though that publication eventually folded, I still maintain the format change was a good decision and NOT why that magazine failed.

That magazine failed for various reasons, but mostly because the publisher, who also runs comic book/pop-culture conventions PISSED OF Marvel and DC and other publishers when those publishers paid for hotel rooms and such for the Los Angeles Wizard World convention one year. The magazine was suffering due to the internet beating it on news stories, and by biting the hand that fed them, they lost exclusive news from Marvel, DC. etc. The price guide was not comprehensive and became less so as the years went on, so they lost the tow biggest reasons people bought that rag. Well, I suppose it was their "humor," too, which also wore out its welcome.

So, I still think a format change is in order, and see Gerry Conway's points. Heck, when I wrote my letter to CBG in 2006, I had been discussing such changes in format and distribution since the late 1990s. Sad to think it's well over 20 years later and the industry still has its head up its ass.

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Philippe Negrin
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 5:20am | IP Logged | 4 post reply

Matt this is what we had in France in the 70s and 80s...You could have 2 or 3 different Marvel Comics heroes or issues in one comic book and it really worked for some time.
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David Miller
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

 Gerry Conway wrote:
And I'd do *everything* possible to get monthly comics into supermarkets and movie theaters and Walmart and Target and Costco and offer subscription services through Amazon. Pursue every alternate distribution Avenue possible.


This is everybody's magic solution. Just wish distribution into place.

If newsstand comic book distribution was such an obvious no-brainer goldmine, then somebody would be doing it. If it was such a goldmine when it existed, it never would have died out. And that goes for newsstand distribution of just about any periodical.

My local 7-Eleven has about two dozen magazine (up front), and they're about cars, guns or hunting, and there's a woman in a camouflage bikini on the cover. The supermarkets might have twice as many, with fashion, news and lifestyle making up the difference (although fewer camo swimsuits). Print is dead and dying. Everywhere.

Comic books already have their alternative distribution system. It's called the direct sales market.

 Matt Hawes wrote:
like Time


Did you know about Time's then-pending December 2006 revamp when you wrote your letter?

For as long I can remember, fans and professionals have invoked news magazines as a model to save the industry, when if anything they're more endangered than comics. Their readership was declining disastrously in 2006, and now it is a quarter of where it was fourteen years ago. They would kill for a news magazine direct market.

 Maggie Thompson wrote:
Several years ago, there was a determined effort to market comics magazines on the newsstands. Such titles as Spectacular Spider-Man (#1. Jut 68), Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction (# I, Jan 75) and Tales of the Zombie (#1, Aug 73) were among the tryouts of such marketing. One of the longest-running projects was Savage Sword of Conan (Aug 74-Ju1 95). but most went quickly away.

I don't agree with a lot of what's in Matt's letter, but Thompson's misplaced confidence in her expertise on the viability of newsstand distribution based on what she heard about the sales performance of two Spider-man comics forty years prior is a good example of how fans barely understand the comic book industry, don't understand the broader business of publishing and distribution at all, and impose personal nostalgia in place of any real knowledge.

Stan Lee's experiments with black and white publishing are interesting trivia, but involved people, companies and an entire distribution regime that hadn't existed for decades before 2006 and were entirely irrelevant to the scorched modern publishing landscape. I've read a lot of those Seventies Marvel magazines, and it didn't help they were undistinguished by the standards of their existing adolescent audience, let alone those of the adults Marvel claimed to want to reach; there was no reason to pay $1 for a black and white Doug Moench Hulk comic when the real thing -- IN COLOR! -- cost 35 cents.


 QUOTE:
Among the challenges: Staking out a spot on most newsstands for magazines containing fiction. (Seen a lot of those recently? The number is minuscule.) Without a place to rack an item, most stores won't bother in the first place.

Thompson's point is questionably-premised on her own nostalgia; popular fiction anthologies were popular at the time when Maggie fell in love with reading, and she's mistaking its personal appeal to her for an indicator of industry health, as opposed to industry trend. Given the size of most general newsstands, one wouldn't expect many magazines containing fiction in the first place (say, I haven't seen a paperback book section in a grocery store outside the South in I don't know how long), but at the time she was writing, a general reader with a yen for fiction could stop by even the denuded magazine section of a place like Waldenbooks and scratch their itch with Playboy, New Yorker or Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, which is comparatively a lot. And real newsstands, actual businesses dedicated to periodical sales, to this day have a substantial section of literary magazines, which is however not the kind of fiction she's talking about.

***

I don't think superhero comics are actually dying, anyway. Somebody introduced to superheroes from seeing one of the four Marvel or DC properties that were in the 2019 worldwide top ten box office and collectively made six billion dollars can walk into a comic book shop and an intelligent clerk -- the weak link, I admit -- should be able to guide them towards myriad self-contained current works (the labyrinth of crossovers and niche spinoffs may be intimidating to collectors, but casual readers are familiar with having to puzzle out context) in line with their stated interest (if somebody is a fan of superhero comics, Hello Kitty and high school romance movies, I'm pretty sure there's an X-Men collection for them), as well as countless configurations of classic stories. The reader who wants to buy and read everything and have it make continuity sense will still be left in the cold, but that reader was always part of the problem.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

 David Miller wrote:
...Did you know about Time's then-pending December 2006 revamp when you wrote your letter?...

I don't think I knew about that revamp when I wrote the letter, no.



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Darin Henry
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

Calling for Marvel and DC to “disrupt” the model they created is futile. Tailoring superhero comics for 8-14 year olds is risky (borderline insane) because there aren’t any 8-14 year olds making the ordering decisions at comic shops. Those decisions are made by individuals in their 20s to 60s who want publishers to make comics that they can hand-sell to their overwhelmingly adult customers, most of whom expect their superhero comics to grow up with them. Changes to the format and target demos of superhero comics will only come from the fringes of the industry. Sadly, so many of the people screaming loudest for change, ignore it when it happens because it doesn’t fit the narrative that gets them attention from the people who read articles about superhero comics (again, none of whom are 8-14 years old).  Or perhaps it’s because by acknowledging that the kind of comics they are calling for actually exist, they’d have to put their money where their mouth is. 

It’s easier to be an advocate against the big 2, than to be an advocate FOR a small company. Ironically, doing the latter would be more a more effective way for influencers to get the results they say they want from the big 2 because if retailers order (and readers buy) enough kid-friendly non-big 2 superhero comics in a reader-friendly format to show they can be profitable, Marvel and DC will fall over themselves adopting those changes. 
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

I don't think superhero comics are actually dying, anyway.
------------------------------
The sales numbers haven't been in long-term decline?

While someone introduced to Marvel/DC properties from the movies can walk into a comic book shop and find related comics, how many actually do?
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Darin: Sadly, so many of the people screaming loudest for change, ignore it when it happens because it doesn’t fit the narrative that gets them attention from the people who read articles about superhero comics (again, none of whom are 8-14 years old). Or perhaps it’s because by acknowledging that the kind of comics they are calling for actually exist, they’d have to put their money where their mouth is.


***
You are actually claiming the people screaming loudest for change are ignoring that the changes they're asking for have already happened?

Yeah, that didn't happen.

And... Who is advocating that they should be written so that no one over 14 would want them?

Writing comics for all ages allowed comics to thrive for decades. Doing that again would not be remotely "insane."

If insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results, then it would be NOT shifting the target demographic which is insane. You can't increase sales by designing a product that only a specific number of current subscribers could possibly want or have access to.
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David Miller
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

The sales numbers for everything has been in long-term decline across publishing as a whole. The decline of superhero comic sales has if anything been mitigated by the existence of the hated direct sales market.

I suspect the number of people who seek out superhero comics because they liked Joker statistically rounds up to zero, about the same as the percentage of people who pick up present-day James Bond novels because they're Daniel Craig fans.
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Mark Haslett
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Dave: The decline of superhero comic sales has if anything been mitigated by the existence of the hated direct sales market.

**

Much like many vegatative patients' inability to breathe are "mitigated" by the existence of life-support machines.

How many comic-book sales are there outside the direct market?
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Darin Henry
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Posted: 26 September 2020 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Sorry Mark.  I wasn’t clear. I was actually implying “all-ages” when I said 8-14 since what Conway is citing as “the problem” with modern superhero material is content that is not appropriate for 8-14 year old thus, it’s not all-ages. 14 is not a strict cut off point in my statement but I can see how you’d inferred it to be.

As to your point that “it didn’t happen”, would you mind elaborating? What kind of content or changes are desired in superhero comics that you think aren’t currently available?
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