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The ComicsPRO meeting has wrapped up, but not without presenting its two Industry Appreciation awards. Marvel’s svp of sales and marketing David Gabriel won one and MAD/EC founder Bill Gaines won the second. Two awards are presented annually, one to a living and one posthumously. Gabriel released a statement as follows: I am honored to […]
[The following is a transcript of the speech given by Eric Stephenson, Publisher at Image Comics, on Friday, February 19th at 3:50 p.m. at the 10th Annual ComicsPRO Membership Meeting in Portland, Oregon to the comics retailer community.] I’d like to talk about the future, but first, we’re going to do some time travel, back […]
This is a thoughtful take on what’s going on in the industry. I really think the mid-majors will survive all this comics-movie madness hanging over the industry but I cannot say the same for Marvel and DC; ship’s sailed. Once the well runs dry on TV and movie viability those characters will be vaulted and only used for marketing and toy sales.
Eric Stephenson said: “So we’ve gone back to gimmicks, to variant covers and relaunches and reboots and more of the same old stunts disguised as events, when really all our readers want are good stories.”
I wonder how much of this comes from corporate owners seeking profits for a certain quarter. Relaunching a line usually helps sales as fans rush to buy first issues. Then sales slump again. But maybe a good quarter is enough to satisfy the owners and shareholders. As he says: short-term thinking.
CVS said: “Once the well runs dry on TV and movie viability those characters will be vaulted and only used for marketing and toy sales.”
The joke used to be that if Ike Perlmutter had his way, Marvel would consist of one guy with a telephone, licensing the characters for movies, TV shows and toys. Maybe that day is actually coming.
“I’ve been turning down zombie pitches for years, but now, I’m turning down sci-fi pitches. I’m turning down horror pitches. Crime pitches. Anything we already have in abundance. Unless there’s something truly remarkable about those kinds of comics, the market is filled with them already. There are other seams to work. Now is the time to start digging deeper.”
err…but for my friends and people like me who are important who have cool X-men or Hunger Games like ideas, I’ve greenlighted my kind of folk who I can hang with or comforted because I know they’ve worked for Marvel or DC…,
America’s Got Powers
Story By: Jonathan Ross
Art By: Bryan Hitch
18 years ago, a strange crystal touched down in San Francisco and every pregnant woman in the area gave birth. These were no ordinary children, though, as each but one was gifted an extraordinary power. Used by society for entertainment, these special children live in a form of slavery with no rights, except the ability to compete in the Games. –
THEY’RE NOT LIKE US
Eric Stephenson
Simon Gane
Eisner-nominated NOWHERE MEN writer ERIC STEPHENSON teams up with red-hot artist SIMON GANE for an all-new ongoing series! We all have advantages over one another, but what if you were capable of things most of us can only imagine? What would you do – and who would you be? A doctor? An athlete? A soldier? A hero? Everyone has to make a choice about how to use the abilities they’re born with… but they’re not like us.
REVENGE #1
Story By: Jonathan Ross
Art By: Ian Churchill
Cover By: Ian Churchill
Published: February 26, 2014
Diamond ID: DEC130487
Griffin Franks was a joke in Hollywood. A washed up action-hero. Over the hill. Past it. A has-been. A barely-was. But now he IS The Revenger. He’s a star. His movie’s a hit. His latest wife is hot. He finally has everything he wants. Just in time for someone to take it all away. Forever. Starting with his face.
(speech continues….)
For the rest of you chicks , latinos, people of color, keep trying till you send me something fresh if you want to ride with Image, but for now I’ve nixed more major comics categories so send me something like Manga Pop Golf Comic instead because we need to keep it fresh. And if its superheroes, unless you’re Liefeld, Larson, Kirkman or McFalrane, the best of the best there is (who hired or helped me) you guys are the worst , buzz off and don’t fill up my inbox.
The light shines from me and only me.
Does anyone think that variants build “lasting readership”? Publishers do them to boost sales. Feels like half of his speech misses the point, on purpose, in order to garner more support from people that dislike big two.
Interesting that he leaves Image out of his potted history. I don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative, it’s just a thing I noticed.
Governments in Central, and South America are dependent on the USA -only consumer “anti-“culture like the USA can consume cocaine at a ‘government sustaining’ level. India loves us for the synthetic heroin we all love to import from them -Oxy, anyone? I love this article, but we are dealing with people here that will shock another person repeatedly, and for increasing amounts of time w/each shock just because someone in a lab coat says to, and you think foreign entities like Disney/Marvel, or Time/Warner are going change their profit making machine? Is this article a “the Millennials are coming!” type of warning that multinational corps will be branding towards? Can Generation 911-snitch be capable of caring about this article -you see documentaries about teens going from Oxy to cheaper heroin (that sill is making it over her from Afghanistan), and they all say there is nothing to do where they live. Avoiding acknowledging others while staring at iPhones, and living along asphalt, and strip malls, and traffic, and no journalism for accountability -insightful sequential that instigates awareness in this type of stuff would be nice, more sequential journalism as well, please… The current early 21Century ‘former-USA’ environment does not enable or perpetuate the sale of the type of sequential Eric Stephenson is promoting. What is going on today, please, that realistically would make us think things are going to ‘get better’?
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
-Yet, is it not the purpose of an ‘American’, regardless of salary, education, or sense of cooperation, or work ethic, that the majority of adult life be grueling traffic, asphalt, outsourcing, the same regurgitated shows/advertisements, only news no journalism, someone’s corporate policy, more grueling traffic, and over priced flimsy pamphlets that rarely give sequential the respect it deserves, especially while said pamphlets are called “comic books”? If it is not broken for the multinationals foreign entities / corporations, then why would sequential ever not be referred to as “comic books”?
Stephenson’s argument seems to assume a major factor that just isn’t true…that all of these publishers can be run in the same way because they have the same, or very similar business models. This is just not the fact. Image, while likely having the best creator owned model in the industry, also sets it self up with risk factor and overhead that is very very different from other publishers. So Stephenson here boils things down much more simply than the actual factors of publishing comics as any one company allow for. I think he has some great points and many different things, but they, in many cases, don;t cover for the intricacies that not only ignore the specifics of the big two like Marvel and DC, but don’t account for the specificity of companies like Book, Dark Horse, or Oni either.
He’s wrong about one thing: Marvel didn’t go bankrupt because of foil covers, or indeed anything Marvel was doing at all. Marvel went bankrupt because of reckless and foolish investments by its corporate parent.
That said, there are plenty of publishers that DID go bankrupt in the 1990’s because of foil covers. I totally agree with his overall point; it’s just that the Marvel bankruptcy doesn’t illustrate it in the way he thinks it does.
I said, when the New 52 was first announced, that it would lead to a temporary boost in sales but that, in the long term, sales would drop. I’ll admit to being wrong about just how big that sales boost was and how long it took for it to slide, but it appears that it’s finally happened. And DC’s solution is…a bunch of fucking new #1’s.
It’s not that DC hasn’t been willing to try new and different things, but it’s too ready to pull the plug when they’re not immediate successes. Marvel seems to be doing much better on that score, but is still beholden to the Big Event/New #1’s pattern.
Image, meanwhile, is putting out the absolute best books in its history. I’d say the same for IDW, despite its overabundance of licensed titles. Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Boom, and many others are doing mighty fine work too.
Overall, I’d say things are looking pretty good; there are a hell of a lot of options out there for readers, and, anecdotally, my LCS is doing good business and a lot more specialty stores have opened up in the past couple of years, which is not what I was expecting after Atomic was shut down and the writing seemed to be on the wall.
I sure wish DC and Marvel would get their shit together, though. They’re putting out some great books, but they can’t seem to settle on a strategy that’s sustainable in the long term. Oh hey, another bunch of new #1’s; THAT always works.
Likewise, if you are a publisher putting out too many comics: Stop.
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Check out the Image Comics section in any recent issue of Previews.
Hey, Eric, ever heard the old saying, something about a pot calling a kettle black?
What I’ve taken from this speech is that comics have got boring. When I was younger I used
To read comics. At my age I can easily afford hardcover graphic novels.
Why not market your wares more in bookstores.
My final point is to learn French and see how much charm and fantasy there is in reading
French or Belgian comics. Maybe some of that can be brought back into American comics.