My favorite dead horse, beaten again.

And now for something completely diff'rent...

Dave Carter over at Yet Another Comics Blog has an insightful and thought-provoking commentary on the niche industry aspect of our favorite hobby: he cannily points out that the bestselling book of comics right now is merely a drop in the bucket of other media and our market is dramatically shrinking...not merely from forty or fifty years ago but even from seven to ten years ago.

It's a good, solid analysis and it got me thinkin' (which is always a dangerous thing). Dave's post is a twist on a question that I often muse (and sometimes blog) about: where is the new generation of comic book readers coming from? Because we're all gonna die out sooner or later and if the market/publishers don't make increases in a new customer base that hasn't picked up comics before, we're all standing around lookin' shocked in the same way Henry McCoy was when he announced the extinction of homo sapiens: only a handful of generations left before comics die.

Panels from New X-Men #116 (September 2001),
written by Grant Morrison, art by Frank Quitely, Mark Morales and Dan Green

I work in publishing so I see things from the view of the trade (rather than direct) market and one of the major problems is the circular argument of the existence of the floppy as direct market exclusive. They don't sell well in general bookstores to a new audience that has never bought them for a few reasons or combination of them, among them being perceived as poor value for money and the stores' reluctance to devote a section of the magazine department to low-profit items. But the publishers' reluctance or incompetence to draw new fans into the hobby confuses me as well. I probably make no fans among comic book store retailers with this view, but I wring my hands (er, hooves) over the recent Anita Blake and Stephen King programs from Marvel as floppies eventually collected into trade. Although they are genre works, with such a faithful and strong built-in audience for these series, there must be a considerable contingent of 'em who have never set foot in a comics store. And possibly never will, even tonight when King's comic debuts. But s'pose an original paperback graphic novel of these stories was released at the same time to trade bookstores and comic book shops—heck, even ship it a couple weeks early to comic book shops than to bookstores—and pay for co-op placement or marketing that would position the books physically or thematically where the customers for the series usually go—an Anita Blake graphic novel shelved with the Laurell K. Hamilton books, a Dark Tower GN shelved in the horror section next to King, not (or at least not only) in the GN section. Use that as the launch for a new floppy series and promote it in the back: "Coming in August 2007: a new monthly comic book series continuing the illustrated adventures of Anita Blake!" With instructions on how to look up your local comic book store (1-800-COMICBOOK).

I might be being naïve and I know I don't have the economics chops to work this out all completely, but I do think you'd sell a heck of a lot of GNs to a wider and more diverse audience that has never set foot inside a comic book store...and now you're giving them incentive to check one out. And a savvy store will market that movement to their advantage: Anita Blake endcaps or displays featuring the GN, new issues of the comic, PLUS other monthly series the audience might like. An informed hand-selling staff: "Hey, if you like Anita Blake, you might enjoy this Vertigo comic." The conversion rate is hard to predict but it will be quantifiable, and I believe this benefits the publishers, the direct market, and the trade bookstores.

The closest thing I have to an example of this—and it fails my idea because it had no monthly follow-up to drive customers into comic book stores...is the summer 2006 Halo original graphic novel from Marvel. No, it didn't sell 300,000+ copies, but a quick peek at BookScan, the Nielsen sales reporting system for bookstore sales, tells me Halo has sold over 35,000 copies in trade bookstores to date. BookScan numbers are actual out-the-door sales that results in cash in the register, by the way, not sales to the stores that may result in unsold copies sitting on the shelves. Baker & Taylor, one of the industry's largest bookstore wholesales and definitely the largest library wholesalers, does not report to BookScan so add their sales—6,200 copies—to the total*. I haven't any idea of how many sold through the comics direct market, but I'd guesstimate it pushes the total sell-through at over 50,000 copies. So, that's a $25 book that probably is sold to bookstores at $12.50 or possibly a wee bit high (depending on the distributor: most publishers seldom sell books to bookstores at discounts higher than 50% except for exceptionally massive quantities like those to accounts with centralized distribution centers or price clubs; I don't know enough about Marvel's distribution to bookstores or Diamond's arcane discounting schedule to be more accurate). Leaving aside royalties, production, marketing costs that are of course present, that means this book's profit is more than half a million dollars...not massive at all, but not chickenfeed in the general book industry either.

At the heart of it I can see the point of Marvel's program for something superhero related like Civil War. In just the main series alone, it's a floppy that sells approximately 200,000-300,000 copies of each of seven issues: by my admittedly spotty and inexpert economics that's over five million dollars, plus spin-offs, tie-ins, merchandising (t-shirts, posters, toys) and yes, the eventual trade paperback market. It makes sense for those superhero comics to debut in this format inside a comic book store because that's where the audience for 'em is: already in the comic book store. But is the main audience for Anita Blake or Stephen King inside a comic book store? I've gotta guess that only a slice of the Venn pie of their fans are also comics fans.

You can argue—and I do realize and understand—that Marvel's in business to make money, not new customers. They can publish the comic and put out a graphic novel later, and yes, in some ways that does serve the same purpose I'm proposing by getting the Anita Blake fans on board after the trade hardcover collection comes out in May 2007 (although I'll be interested to see if there's a back ad in that collection that points readers to the ongoing series in comic book stores). It's naïve of me to suggest Marvel needs to be "socially responsible" to their business. But there's a saying in business and it's a very simple one: "Start where the money is." Although there's some of it there now, the Anita Blake and Stephen King money started not in the comic book stores but in Barnes and Noble. And Borders. And Books-a-Million. And Elliott Bay. And Tattered Cover. And Shakespeare and Co. And Olsson's. And Barbara's. And Amazon.com. And CostCo. And Sam's Clubs. And Target. And that little indie bookstore down the street from you. And your local library. And hundreds of other places filled with customers who have never, would never set foot in a comic book store. Even if they see on StephenKing.com that a Dark Tower comic is coming, how many of them say, "I love King but I don't read comics." Put the comics where they spend their money, in forms that are reasonable for their purchasing habits, in locations that will leap out at them rather than hidden away, and the money will follow.

Or, I might be completely wrong and right now at a few minutes after midnight, a sizeable percentage of King fans are stepping into comic book stores across the country, stores they've never been in to buy something they also never have: a comic book. And they'll return and buy other stuff. And get hooked on that. And become comics fans for life.

Hey, it could happen.



*I'm aware there may be some overlap here: B&T's numbers are to both libraries and bookstores, so in some cases Halo may have been sold by B&T to a bookstore reporting to BookScan, which means those copies would have been counted twice. It's hard to quantify that number but I mention the possibility for accuracy and fairness's sake.