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For the past few days there has been a kerfuffle in the extremely high profile, glamourous and profitable world of comics journalism.
Rather than comment on this hot mess, I'm going to talk about why it happened. And what we an do to improve things.
The thing…. is Hannah Means “Favor & Grace” not Shanon. Shanon means “wise river”
Wait…what?
-B
An obstacle to robust comics journalism may be the absence of “true public concern”. The industry’s sexism is definitely a public concern–aspiring women creators need to know what to be wary about and repeat harassers need to be called out. Racial bias is surely another public concern. But, beyond that, we’re mostly just looking at a subset of the entertainment industry populated by everyday people who earn modest incomes who don’t command a “gossip industry” that reports every time they’re spotted at the laundromat.
What remains is marketing and special interest pieces on creators and their craft.
The “big journalism” sites could do a better job talking to creators. Every member of the comic production team, from letterer to editor has a story to tell.
But, as for nation-gripping front page stories, the comics industry is too low-key for that. Even if it turned out that Marvel and DC were secretly run the Freemasons, I wouldn’t feel too rushed to call the FBI.
Thanks, Heidi. Someone with knowledge, wisdom and sense. You restored some of my former belief in comic book reporting.
“The industry’s sexism is definitely a public concern–aspiring women creators need to know what to be wary about and repeat harassers need to be called out.”
Who cares about the soulless corporate industry? Anyone with the free time and ability and access to the web can make and distribute comics all day, without interference.
Glad you wasted time and lost money. You deserve it, you heartless bastard.
So how does an indie comic get comic press? I get that the big industries are all set up for their age old sales and press thing but doesn’t that exclude indies? Like, we don’t have to cater to whatever system was set up, right?
Doesn’t that mean by extention that the entire system can be changed or at least redeveloped with indie comics? Sure, you will get even less money from that, no doubt but, and corect me if I am wrong, wouldn’t that growth eventually lead to bigger revenue streams due to a different and/or expanded readership? And what prevents somebody from writing the average hype piece for big publishers AND writing small indie things at the same time?
While I like that Marvel/DC do announce comics outside of the normal publication such as CBR and Newsarama the problem with them is that they are sometimes 6 months in advance. They attract new audiences but a big chunk of those who they attract generally don’t know when the comic will come out and end up forgetting about it. Marvel/DC don’t give them a way to keep track of when the comic will start, unlike a Hollywood movie which generally lists a date sometimes years in advance.
Take the recent announcement of Black Panther. This was announced last month but it hasn’t even got a confirmed start date and didn’t give one beyond 2016 in the announcement. While it has generated a lot of excitement I feel like many people will forget about it or miss it because they don’t know when it comes out.
Marvel/DC either need to start giving firm release dates in their big reveals (which will is dangerous when the comic is even made yet) or change to a model in which they do a consistent drip feed to remind people that it’s coming.
Nice writeup.
Back to the Storify narrative…
There is a third stage of marketing after Announcement and Final Ordering: Publication.
Sometimes, it works well, like when Spider-Man teamed up with President Obama.
Or as with Ms. Marvel, going through five printings, and rumored to have sold more digital copies than paper.
Marvel and DC and every other publisher with digital comics on Comixology don’t need to change the system.
The shops have already ordered their copies, and can’t return them, so Marvel et al. has pocketed the money.
If the stores sell out, they at least made some money. They may grumble (as they will), but they will reorder the second printing, and (hopefully) sell more copies of #2 and #3.
A store doesn’t have copies? A customer can’t find a store? No problem for the publishers… they can sell the digital copy direct to the consumer, or via Comixology. They make a bigger profit, the issue is always in print, and they can use the sales data to push more product later.
If only old white men would just get out of comics then everything would be like candyland and rainbows and unicorns and all perfect and stuff. There would be no sexism or racism or biting employees or poor marketing strategies….and stuff. Stupid white comic book industry.