The Bullpen

[BobBretall]

Your mistake is in ascribing Machiavellian motives to Marvel.  They're way too stupid for that.  If they bring down the direct market it's going to be because of their own greed and ineptitude, not as part of some grand plan.

I don't think Marvel is greedy......  Remember, they need to report to the mouse-eared overlords now.  Those guys know about making $$$ and won't let things that impede profit fly.   Marvel is a business, what you may see as greed, they see as "being profitable".  They will squeeze every $ out of their fan-base that they reasonably can.

The main thing they need to learn from Disney is how to squeeze the $$$ out of their customers and leave them with an idiotic grin on their face, happy to have parted with the money.

Wait, I think that's already happening with the hordes of people who say they'll gladly pay $3.99 for a comic as long as their favorite "architects" are creating it.   You don't think that's an accident do you?  Nor is it stupid.  They were very calculating in acquiring talent, lining them up, putting them on the highest-profile projects and then making fans pay through the nose for it.   And (most) fans are happy to do it.

[Johnny F.Normal]

Your mistake is in ascribing Machiavellian motives to Marvel.  They're way too stupid for that.  If they bring down the direct market it's going to be because of their own greed and ineptitude, not as part of some grand plan.

They are a corporation with mouse ears...
I paraphrase JQ in regards to a question regarding retail prices-"That's not my department"..most certainly on the fucking ball.

[Johnny F.Normal]

more action figures, more happy meals, and as much money from the market right now. Which would substantiate a marvel DM assassination plot, or at least a one last strip mining of the people who made them "sponge worthy" or mouse-whatever.

[Farrell]

I don't think Marvel is greedy...... 

Sure they're greedy.  All corporations are.  And they didn't learn it from Disney. 

What I was responding to, though, is the idea that their missteps are secretly intended to take down their competition.  That might be a happy by-product as far as they're concerned, but I don't consider them to be that evil or clever.

[BobBretall]

Sure they're greedy.  All corporations are.  And they didn't learn it from Disney. 

What I was responding to, though, is the idea that their missteps are secretly intended to take down their competition.  That might be a happy by-product as far as they're concerned, but I don't consider them to be that evil or clever.

That's your personal world-view pf corporations, I suppose.

If you equate the desire to run a profitable business to greed, then you can call them greedy..... 

[Farrell]

That's your personal world-view pf corporations, I suppose.

If you equate the desire to run a profitable business to greed, then you can call them greedy..... 

Well, yeah, I guess you could call it a personal world view but I didn't think it was any great secret that corporations are greedy.  It's the nature of the beast.  They're not just interested in being profitable, they're interested in wringing the maximum amount of profit possible out of their customers (remember the comments Marvel's CFO made a couple of years ago?). 

Doesn't bother me that they want to make money.  It's off topic, but what bugs me is how disingenuous they are about it, like publicly excoriating DC for reducing page count and now quietly doing it themselves. 

[JoeyN]

The article may very well be true, but in the end the problem is only people who read comics walk into comic stores. You have to get people in there.   It's not like walking into Best Buy to pick up a movie, and they can try and get you to buy something else while there. FCBD is a great event, and they tout how big of a success it was. However most of those people who got free books already read comics, and a small few actually start.  They really need to get the word out more on the event so non comic fans know about it. I mentioned it to a few parents around here, and they were oblivious to it even happening. They brought their kids.  Hell make schools somehow involved in FCBD somehow. We need to get Kids, and younger people back into it. I see the face of my friends 7 year old when I give him comics to read, and he loves it. I think he has read Takio, Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the first issue of Super Dinosaur a 100 times each. If it was not for me, he would never know what a comic was, and that's most kids these days.

[Dean S.]

The article may very well be true, but in the end the problem is only people who read comics walk into comic stores. You have to get people in there.   It's not like walking into Best Buy to pick up a movie, and they can try and get you to buy something else while there. FCBD is a great event, and they tout how big of a success it was. However most of those people who got free books already read comics, and a small few actually start.  They really need to get the word out more on the event so non comic fans know about it. I mentioned it to a few parents around here, and they were oblivious to it even happening. They brought their kids.  Hell make schools somehow involved in FCBD somehow. We need to get Kids, and younger people back into it. I see the face of my friends 7 year old when I give him comics to read, and he loves it. I think he has read Takio, Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the first issue of Super Dinosaur a 100 times each. If it was not for me, he would never know what a comic was, and that's most kids these days.

I think none of these are bad ideas, but I doubt any of them would help much and they would only delay the inevitable.  The DM is basically doomed because people increasingly don't want to drive to the store and they increasing don't want to be bothered with physical media.  Not everyone wants to be done with print, but I think just on this message board where (I think) we're mostly in the 30-50 age range we've seen more and more people over the last year or so saying, "I love digital because it is convenient and fits my schedule."  Trust me....18 year olds have zero interest in driving to a store and buying paper copies of stuff.

I'm not saying "print is dead", but it is quickly moving to a very niche status.  There will still be DM stores, but they'll be the big ones in big urban centers that have so much traffic now that they can still survive when their traffic gets cut in half over the next few years.  But, for those of us in cities under 200K people, I'll bet our LCSs don't survive and then we'll really see a digital push from the publishers out of necessity.  

Honestly, I'm excited because it'll be a very interesting time.  Probably some of us older dudes won't every do digital comics.  And, when that happens, Marvel will have to stop publishing two Captain America titles because there won't be enough demand.  But, digital will allow a more diverse audience and since those Marvel editors will need to justify their jobs, they'll maybe see about getting some people to write a romance comic or a crime comic and it might be in a different format or have cool digital features.  I'm looking forward to that.

[JoeyN]

Oh i totally agree about moving towards digital for media (as well as shipping), as I am a person that has been behind it from day one (I liked reading comics with a hard copy for some reason though.). When it comes to music and regular books, it's nothing but digital for me. Now if we could get Blu-Ray quality video and sound digital, I would do that as well.  

The only problem with comics in Digital though at this time is that people have to want to Download the application (and search it out), just like they have to want comics to walk into a store.  I  think that once the the Kindle gets a color version where amazon can list comics in their Kindle store, things will start moving a bit more swiftly.

Probably some of us older dudes won't every do digital comics

lol. Even though I like hard copy's of comics I do buy digital stuff. When they have the .99 sales, or release a certain series day/date (did it with Justice League Generation Lost)  I will try it out.  If I like it I will pick up the trade down the road.

[evaD]

In discussing the demise of print comics and the idea that people don't want to drive to the stores, I think we're leaving out online services like DCBS and print on demand services like Ka-Blam. We may see the demise of the lcs but print will probably survive in some form.

[BobBretall]

 Trust me....18 year olds have zero interest in driving to a store and buying paper copies of stuff.

I don't believe this is true in the absolute "zero interest" way you have stated it.   I see 18 year olds in my LCS every Wednesday.  Are they the bulk of the people?  No.   But the interest level is somewhere north of ZERO.

[Hassan T]

I don't believe this is true in the absolute "zero interest" way you have stated it.   I see 18 year olds in my LCS every Wednesday.  Are they the bulk of the people?  No.   But the interest level is somewhere north of ZERO.

My daughters have zero interest in digital comics    There is no absolute truth.

[Tim H]

Trust me....18 year olds have zero interest in driving to a store and buying paper copies of stuff.

After seeing the FCBD line at Acme you have to see that the above statement isn't true.  New kids and teenagers coming in every week.  How many of them will be long time fans of the medium and weekly customers?  I don't know, but the market is there if you are willing to take the time and effort to cultivate it and get the kids into the store.  You can't just sit back in your little corner of the rundown dimly lit shopping center and expect people to actively seek you out.  You have to get out there and be seen and heard.