No More New Comics?

A year ago I asked How is your comic shop doing? as I was noting some troubling signs at Heroes and Dragons (HD) the biggest comic shop in Columbia. (Below you can see the huge Dragon that hangs from the roof.)



To me, it was clear the shop was having a problem of some sort that if not corrected would eventually lead to it closing. Another sign was the often near empty parking on the weekends. In the past this parking lot would have been overflowing with cars, but since the store stopped letting people play Warhammer, Magic and other games in the shop...well, you can see the results.



And now the shop has said it will no longer be selling new comics.

What makes this even more noteworthy is the size of HD. According to store owner Chris Foss, Heroes and Dragons is physically the largest comic store on the East coast. These pictures don't really give you a sense of the full scale of the shop, but trust me, it's massive.





I've heard many stories of people driving several hours across South Carolina to get to this store. For over several decades, it's been pretty much acknowledged as the best comic store in South Carolina with a staff that has included many comic luminaries (Chris Sims, Chad Bowers, ect...)

So taken on face value, the news that the shop is going to stop carrying new comics is pretty jaw dropping. However, word has reached me from several sources that the current plan is for the store to continue offering subscriptions to some of the bigger weekly subscribers. However, most of the longtime patrons I've spoken to have expressed some practical concerns about picking up their subs at a place where they can no longer browse for new comics.

As MoSFan4Ever told me, he just didn't see any way he could practically use previews to plan out his comic purchases 3 months in advance every month. He's used to being able to look at some iffy titles on the new comics rack to help decide if he should buy them.

I suspect even with those customers who take Heroes and Dragons up on their offer to continue their subs, there will be churn in two ways:

The Loyal Customer who fades away
People who try to continue at HD because they have store loyalty but over time will gradually find themselves buying more stuff from a shop where they can get new comics. These people may find themselves even starting a second sub at their secondary shop. As new titles come on the market, they will add them to that sub, not the HD sub. And given the way titles are cancelled and rebooted, it wouldn't take long before the HD sub is down to the bone.

The Timid Customer who just disappears
People who want to quite outright but are not bold enough to say so (you’d be surprised how many comic buyers fall into that category, but I’ve seen threads on Bleeding Cool where many fans confess to not being able to tell their dealer they want to leave the shop) This group can be a killer as sometimes they just let their stuff pile up in folders until it reaches a dollar amount they can no longer pay. Then they just quit coming to the shop altogether.

With all that said, I totally get why a shop might throw in the towel on new comics. I think this recent news article from the New York Daily News on the closing of SunnySide Comics says it best...

Comic shops are struggling to compete with video games, online retailers and eBooks.

[Sunnyside] sales plummeted 80% since the height of the comic book craze in the early to mid-90s, he said. And they’ve fallen another 35% in the last 18 months, he said.

From the article we get this quote from Comic Book Collecting Association President Steve Zarelli:

Comic shops are struggling to compete with online retailers, which can sell the books at a fraction of the price of brick-and-mortar stores.

Comic shops are fighting a two front war. On one side are slicker, more efficient ways to buy new and used comic books:

• Ebay
• Amazon
• Comixology
• Discount Comic Book Service

On the other side are the unpredictable business practices of the big two comic companies that have resulted in some hard to gauge product launches and 90's style variant cover barrages like:

• Forever Evil (both the event and the 3D covers)
• Marvel Now's variants
• Marvel's twice a month publishing schedule
• Marvel's Tron and Fear Itself variant covers

Currently, not counting HD, there are 6 other comic shops in Columbia:

• Silver City Comics in West Columbia
• Scratch and Spin Comics in Cayce
• Comics Nirvana in Lexington
• Gamma Comics near Sandhills
• Punk Monkey comics in North East Columbia
• Cosmic Rays on Devine Street

That sounds like a pretty healthy number of stores for a burg the size of Columbia, but one has to wonder. If a store as large and fabled as Heroes and Dragons no longer thinks it's worthwhile to carry new comics, how are the smaller stores faring?

- Jim

Are Your Bronze Age Comics Worthless?

Last week there was a story on comicsbeat.com entitled Why your Bronze Age comics collection ain't worth squat!
 

The story quoted one of the stars of American Pickers (Frank Santoro) as he explained why Bronze Age comics aren't worth much nowadays...

It’s a typical collection that you see floating around now. Classic Bronze Age. A run of Marvel Two-In-One. A run of Micronauts. A run of Alpha Flight. A run of Camelot 3000. Badger. Nexus. Web of Spider-Man. A good selection of valuable X-Men. A good selection of worthless Cloak and Dagger. But nothing interesting like Elektra: Assassin or Slash Maraud. You know the drill.
“How old is Tommy?” I asked.
“42,” sayeth Uncle Louie.
“Yeah, that makes sense. See, what’s happening is all the guys your son’s age are dumping their collections now. They all had the same books. So the market is flooded.”

Note: As fellow fan of the Bronze Age Trey Causey pointed out, a lot of the comics he mentions aren't really Bronze Age at all, but the question remains.

As one might imagine, the comments section quickly filled with other Bronze Age fans sharing stories to confirm the notion. I thought I would share my experiences in this area over the years as from time to time, I've dabbled in flipping old comics and runs.

Back in the early 2000's, when I was self-employed, I had the time to scour ebay in search of cheap comics with which to put together complete runs. (Which sold very well at the time.) With a little work, you could scoop up issues of, say, Batman and the Outsiders or Freedom Fighters in separate auctions for about a quarter a piece. (You always had to watch out for people who gouged on shipping.)



Once assembled, you could then turn around and sell the complete set for anywhere from one to two dollars an issue. (Or in some cases, like a complete set of FOOM, which took forever to acquire, I might charge more than that.)



However, around 2005, I started to notice that I was getting less and less watchers on my ebay auctions. As the years progressed, it became even harder for an auction to complete all the way. On the flipside, it was becoming easier and easier to pick up the single issues in what I would call "dump" auctions (auctions with lots of random comics.)

I think part of the problem is that people can now pick up old comics so easily in all sorts of Collected Editions.


The other problem is as people transistion to reading their comics digitally, it is becoming much harder for them to justify buying old paper issues (especially if a large portion of their house is already devoted to a storing their collection.) In some cases, when inspired to read older stories, the newly converted digital fans are looking for them not in musty long boxes but on torrent sites instead.


I've even noticed ebayers picking up on this trend by offering digital collections of old comics on DVD. (In the screenshot from ebay below, the Spider-man DVD Rom might be legit, but the Phantom and Green Lantern collections aren't.)



Even with all those odds against them, a casual search of ebay will reveal that quite a number of ebay auctions where Bronze Age comics still sell at respectable prices.

So, in answer to the question posed by today's post title, I would say while calling Bronze Age comics worthless is quite an exaggeration, they have definitely lost some value among some potential buyers.

With all that in mind, here are a few tips for getting the best price for your old Bronze Age Comics:

Shoot a picture of your item on either a clean background (like a white sheet) or on bubble wrap. It sounds silly, but a picture on bubble wrap sends a buyer the subliminal message that the item is ready to ship and will get to them very quickly.



If you are selling a complete run of comics, scan and show buyers each and every cover. This is good for two reasons. One, the cover art will help entice them into making the decision to buy the issues and two, it will help you field complaints if one of the covers is not in perfect condition.

Always offer free shipping. If that sounds extreme, remember than media mail usually only runs about $5.00. If you aren't making enough profit in your auction to cover that cost, you need to up the number of comics you are selling in the auction.

Try to capitalize on any current trends in current comics. Like for instance, right now, with of an Inhumans movie and their prominent appearances in Marvel Infinity, this would be a great time to try and move a complete run of some older runs of the Inhumans.



Those are my tips. If you have other suggestions, please feel free to suggest them in the comments section below.

- Jim

Does the Comics Industry really need saving?

Up until a few months ago, the conventional wisdom was that the comics industry was a sinking ship and it was only a matter of time before:

A) There was an industry wide implosion and/or
B) The big two only published flagship titles and spinoffs with no B/C grade characters appearing on the racks anymore.

However, back in May, John Jackson Miller performed some serious number crunching on sales numbers and determined that dollar orders are nearly double what they were 10 years ago.

What's more, as of June 2013, comics shops have ordered $250 million dollars worth of comics and trades. This puts this year as the first time in 20 years that the industry is on track to having a $500 million dollar sale. To get some idea, this time last year, the industry had only ordered $222 million dollars worth of product.

And all of these sales do not take into account the now noticeable bump that publishers are receiving from Digital sales. While neither DC or Marvel have given any figures about their digital revenue (other than Dianne Nelson's vague comment about digital sales being in around a million each month) Image has been more forthcoming.

According to Image, digital sales makes up to 15% of comics sales and 27% of revenue.



Now, with all that said, where does that leave our dark prophecies of a apocalyptic industry? This all sounds pretty good, but there is one detail about sales that people are overlooking (I believe.) As Image Publisher Eric Stephenson says in this interview when talking about the appeal of digital sales:

"I mean, how many comic stores are there? Maybe 2,000 or 2,500 in the United States? There are more radio stations than that. If you’re trying to convince casual [and new] customers to find comics, we’d be better off selling to radio stations than comic book stores.”

At one time, the number of shops in America was close to 10,000 (at the height of the 90's) - and while we can all agree that number was more than the market would bear (without rampant speculation to prop it up) - you have to wonder how are comic shops doing now? 

If, as the numbers suggest, that comic sales are doing so well, then why are there so few comic shops?

I suspect the answer has to do with the way comics are bought by retailers - they are in of themselves speculators. When Marvel or DC announces a new title, they have to guess how many they will sale. Unlike graphic novels (which are a bit more evergreen) retailers have to sort of hope they have ordered enough Marvel Now Captain America or Superior Spider-man to satisfy their Wednesday clientele. Guess too little, and you end up with pissed off customers. Guess too high and you are stuck with a boatload of unsaleable product. For the digital vendors, no guesswork is involved. It's a no lose situation.

I think this is a situation that bears watching before we take the patient off life support.

What do you think?

Does it feel like the industry is A OK to you?
Do you buy as much stuff from your local comic shop as you did 10 years ago?

- Jim

Ten Years of Failed Super Teams

This week saw news that Marvel is relaunching Defenders as an all female team called Fearless Defenders.

My first thought was, "Good luck with that." As Marvel just got finished cancelling their  latest incarnation of Defenders written by Matt Fraction which only managed to last 12 issues. (It had one of the most precipitous second issue falls in the history of comics.) Part of me wants to say people just aren't interested in the Defenders anymore (and that may be true) but as I thought about it, I realized - Most Team Books have failed during the last ten years.

Check out this bandwidth hogging list of cancelled team books that have come out in the last ten year:

Yes, I know we all love the old John Byrne Alpha Flight, but you can't go back.

The Outsiders title will appear on this list in several incarnations I'm afraid.

 These next three comprise a hat trick of failure. DC just won't give up on the Doom Patrol will they?

There is Guardian's of the Galaxy movie coming out in 2014, so that should mean we'll see the next version of this title lasting longer than its predecessors.

This revamped Infinity Inc. came and went so quick, I have no idea how good or bad it was.

This title had the unfortunate duty of following up a really good revamp/incarnation (Justice League: Generation Lost) As it was, this title was so bad, it was in the first wave of DC 52 causalities.

Nextwave was an interesting book at first, but a little Warren Ellis goes a long way.

The announcement of this version of Outsiders caused a bit of a ruckus over at Newsarama where a reviewer by the name of Jess Lemon (a pseudonym for a famous blogger) had the temerity to suggest that it was filled with tired and retreaded ideas. At the time, Lemon's words are heresy, but ten years later, it turns out she was right.

I have a soft spot for The Power Company simply because Busiek found a way to ressurect Simonson's Manhunter.Unfortunately, my soft spot was not enough to keep the title around for long.

 Secret Six was a Gail Simone's take on the Suicide Squad, and I have to admit, it was pretty good at times. Not good enough to make it into the DC 52 relaunch though.

The most notable thing about The Order is it was originally going to be called The Champions (which might have given it more legs in the long run.) however a lawsuit kept Marvel from using that title. But a double whammy of then unknown Fraction and generic name spelled doom for this book.

Like the Doom Patrol, DC wants you to buy a Freedom Fighters comic. No matter how god awful it is. During the last ten years, they've had several ongoing and mini-series under that name.

 

I was reluctant to put this title on the list simply because in some ways, it's a bit like Neil Gaiman's  Sandman. It really couldn't be continued without the original creators. Still, its sales didn't justify it continuation so it makes the list.

 

Young Avengers might have last longer if the writer hadn't left in mid story (or whatever happened.)

It wasn't until I started making this list that I discovered Marvel had tried another go with New Warriors. It sure didn't last long.

 

Runaways was a nice attempt by Marvel to try and do something different, but it just never caught on.
 

Shadowpact was a DC Supernatural Character book written by Bill Willingham. Sounds like a slam dunk, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it just never caught on.

Currently, here are the list of new Team book that were introduced in the last ten years that have not been cancelled yet:

Secret Avengers
Birds of Prey
Suicide Squad (reintroduced)
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Ravagers
Teen Titans (reintroduced)
Avengers: The Initiative
Avengers Academy

Of the books on that list, only Secret Avengers, Teen Titans and (strangely) Red Hood and the Outlaws are really what I would call healthy.

So you can see why I have my doubts about the success of Marvel's Fearless Defenders. 

Looking at my list, were any of the comics listed one near and dear to your heart? (Like The Power Company was for me.)

- Jim

How is your comic shop doing?

I am at the beach this weekend, So today's post is going to be a little light. - Jim

Reading this news item at the ComicsBeat.com, It made me think about Comic book sales at my own comic shop.

A Growing Sense of Concern Over Marvel’s Sales - http://pulse.me/s/bTQgh

For the past couple of months I've noticed my comic shop orders less titles and often running out of comics before the end of Wednesday. In many cases I have also noticed the shop misjudged how many to issues to order (the recent wedding issue of x men was significantly over ordered.) There was also a recent round of layoffs at the shop with many long time employees being shown the door. All that adds up to a business in serious trouble.

This makes me wonder:
Are the problems at my shop indicative of widespread problems throughout the industry?

So how is the place you buy your comics doing?

Paper Comics Walking DeadWatch

This weekend I was shocked as my Sister-in-law, who has not set foot in a comics shop in over 25 years, explained to me how the Comixology website works! Here's what the deal was:

She's been watching Walking Dead on TV
Gina (my wife) loaned her the first Walking Dead Graphic novel.
A friend on facebook (someone from her high school days who still reads comics) told her how to get more issues on Comixology




Since then she's bought over 80 issues of the series from the website and is currently caught up on the entire run.

AND because she was buying her comics from the site, she found out about the DC Relaunch and is now buying Aquaman, Justice League, Animal Man, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.
She asked me to recommend some other titles, so I suggested Y, The Last Man and the new Wonder Woman.

I mention all this because whenever I post one of my sidewalk rants about how paper comics are going to practically disappear soon, my critics always like to counter by suggesting that the process will be a slow, steady decline which might take decades. What those naysayers always forget is that sometimes things happen, like a Walking Dead television show, that causes a huge tidal wave of interest in digital comics. These unexpected (by my critics at least) paradigm shifts in turn cause other jumps in the process (like DC making a Y, the Last Man movie) which perpetuates the accelerated decline.

That may seem like an awful lot to extrapolate from the random buying habits of my Sister-in-law, but as card games go, Marvel/Disney have yet to make a grand play, so let's keep watching.

With that, I present today's Halloween themed Free Comic:

Weird Terror!




- Enjoy!

Marvel - All Winners or All Losers?

So...in case you haven't been following the comics news-a-net lately, Marvel seems to be showing signs of what I like to call, Ef Upedness lately. It's that point in a company's lifespan when you start to see the writing on the wall that indicates you need to get the hell out of there because it might not be around for long.

First, they have been laying off an alarming amount of staffers even after reporting a profit for this quarter.

Second, among the layoffs were employees in the Digital division? (Yeah, that's a smart place to trim, cuz that whole digital comic thing is just a fad.)

Third, and less harrowing, but still telling, they cancelled the All-Winners Band of Brothers mini-series in mid run

Over at Blog@Newsarama.com, this commenter summed up my feelings pretty well:

Hawk_Fan Says:
October 22nd, 2011 at 10:03 am
I am annoyed by any of these titles being cancelled, but it doesn’t surprise me. The one that REALLY gets my goat though is ALL-WINNERS SQUAD: BAND OF HEROES There are 7000+ people that are reading that mini And enjoying it) with more waiting for the trade.

If Marvel cannot complete a commitment to the fans (they comitted to a mini-series, its not like anyone expected an on-going!) by producing just 8 issues then they should not be in business. I understand low sales causing an on-going (or what was thought to be up-graded to an on-going) to be cancelled but to canceo a mini-series is both lazy and un-professional.

As noted, there are 7000+ fans who want to see the story completed asnd, for a mini-series the sales figures have not been bad!

Now, I'll be honest, I wasn't buying All-Winners Squad because, well, y'know (Modern Comics Suxors) but I have to agree with Hawk_Fan. There is something particularly suspcious about Marvel pulling the rug out from under a mini-series that only had 3 more issues to go.

I've gone on record on the net several times about having my doubts with this whole Disney/Marvel thing. Disney just doesn't strike me as a company that see the value in owning a comic book company. Disney comics sell very well all across the world but even then, Disney just liscenses out the characters to other publishers. When I was a kid, I read Disney stories published in Gold Key Digests

More recently, Disney comics have been published by Gemstone and Boom! My daughter read the Fairies of Pixie Hollow published by PaperCutz

I know a creator who works on Disney comics who has told me face to face that Disney has no interest in the comic book business. And why should they? Disney makes more money off of Movies, Toys and Theme Parks than Marvel could ever imagine. A comic that sells 100K is a big deal to the comic world, but to Disney, that's not worth getting out of bed for.

So, at the end of the day, when Ike Perlmutter has to explain to his new bosses how Marvel missed their quarterly expectations, I can see how he might end the explanation with..."But we are looking for ways to trim costs..."

Perhaps I should start a Marvel Comics Deathwatch?

Anway, as far as All Winners Squad goes, none of the old Golden Age comics are in Public Domain, so for today's Free Comic, I present All Good Comics 04.

- Jim

The Relaunch of Paper Comic Deathwatch?

Some of you who started following this blog in the last year may not be aware of a series of articles had called Paper Comic Deathwatch. The idea was that on a semi weekly basis, Caine and I would examine trends in comics and computers/phones that we felt were leading to paper comics practically disappearing. At its peak, the series was one of our most popular, never failing to get links from other places. We even got a bitching logo for the series from Friend of Flashback Sean Kleefeld!

As a series, we had some predictions about the future of Digital Comics many of which have come true (most notably, the wild success of the iPad a year before it was even announced.) And the Decade Comics Went Digital Post has been used as a resource in several college classes I've been told (via email)

But we stopped using the Paper Comic Deathwatch moniker around January of 2010. Partly because I saw a lot of people not only jumping on the band wagon with similar themed articles, but because as the digital doomsday of comics began to creep closer and closer, what had started out as a fun, tongue in cheek series meant to goad companies into embracing digital distribution was becoming more and more like slowing down to view a car accident on the highway.

It's one thing to suggest that all books and comics will one day go digital without worrying about the implications of that reality. It's another to see struggling retailers and book dealers in a life or death struggle against juggernauts like Apple and Amazon.

Case in point: Borders has now joined Barnes and Nobles in pulling 100 of DC's Most popular graphic novels from its shelves. 

This is all due to Amazon cutting an exclusive content deal to distribute with DC for the exclusive rights to certain graphic novels in digital format.

Let's evaluate that - the two largest book chains are concerned not because DC is exclusively selling all paper books through Amazon, but digital books. And to protest the point, both companies (who aren't doing great sales wise or in the stock market) are going to stop selling said books in a medium that is completely different!

That strikes me as very foolish. My heart goes out to people working for both booksellers. I don't think your proprietors are using best judgement in a time when they should be stepping carefully.

Have a great weekend.

- Jim

Captain Comet: Doombringer

Seems like everyday in comic news, there is some new sales statistic, company shakeup or industry innovation that gets tongues wagging on the oncoming death of paper comics. However, there is an omen of ill portent that the soothsayers have been ignoring: Captain Comet!

If you aren't familiar with Captain Comet, I'll give you a quick lowdown before explaining my theory...

He first appeared in 1951 in Strange Adventures 9 in a story called Air Bandits From Space! Created by Julie Schwartz, John Broome and Carmine Infantino he was the first Mutant Superhero in DC Universe. (Much like Namor is the first mutant in the Marvel Universe) During his run in the title, he would usually appear on the covers, but in 1954 his appearances were discontinued. After that he was mothballed until 1976 when he would return and begin his role of harbinger of doom.

In 1976, Gerry Conway revived the character for use in the Secret Society of Supervillains 2 (a series I've covered here before.) He was a mainstay in SSOSV for the run of the title during which his popularity grew among readers.

According to DC Answer Man Bob Rozakis, Captain Comet came in second in a reader poll to determine who the next member of the Justice League should be. But then tragedy struck the industry when the DC Implosion caused the cancellation of more than two dozen titles including SSOSV. And while it's hard to really say what caused the DC Implosion, witnesses will attest to seeing a gun wielding mutant at the scene.

From there the character drifted in a sort of DC limbo appearing with Superman in DC Comics Presents and making a cameo appearances in other titles like All-Star Squadron.

Note to DC - in the 80's you had a comic book where Superman teamed up with other superheroes for fun done in one stories. Now you have a comic where Superman just sort of walks around issue after issue. How's that working out for you?

Anyway, check this out:

Captain Comet's last appearance in DC Comics Presents was issue 91.
The series was cancelled 6 issues later.

Captain Comet's last appearance in All-Star Squadron was in issue 53.
The series was cancelled a year later with issue 67.

Yeah, I know, not really a smoking gun, but let's keep going...

After this going so long without a real home title, Captain Comet was added as a member of L.E.G.I.O.N. in 1990. Actually, the character meant for the spot in the title was Adam Strange, but there was this really bad prestige series that going to feature Strange, and DC didn't want there to be a conflict in continuity or sales focus or who knows what. As a result Comet was a regular character in the title even following it's change in title to R.E.B.E.L.S. until the title was cancelled in 1996.

It was right around this time that the 90's comics speculator boom ended and almost destroyed the industry. Coincidence? I think not! Perhaps it Captain Comet and NOT too many foil covers that actually led to the 90's collapse.

If you still don't believe me, consider recent comic events. Up until 2005 Captain Comet disappeared off the comics radar until Jim Starlin used the character for his Rann-Thanagar War and Mystery In Space mini-series.


And 2005 is exactly the same time that Marvel and DC started having constant crossover events which have been burning out readers left and right. Chilling, isn't it!

And now Captain Comet is a featured character in the new REBELS series written by Tony Bedard (who I've always liked).



The series is up to issue 21, so Bedard seems to be wrangling the Captain's curse well, but with so many recent appearances of DC's favorite Space Mutant, can there be any other reason for the current slump in comic sales? And what can these ongoing appearances portend for the future of comics?

So there you go. It's not economic recessions, digital sales/piracy, event fatigue or high prices that are killing comics. It's the first man of the future born a hundred thousand years before his time!

I guess the future isn't a great place for paper comics. ;)

Have a great weekend!

- Jim