The DC Comics Thread Vol. 3

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Presumably just them trying to reduce costs as the other division Lifford heads also went through layoffs.

[W.West Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close W.West]

First quarter layoffs aren't anything new in big business. New year, trim the budget, maximize profits. Who's to say they can't bring in an Andy Kubert to oversee art centric projects? I wouldn't panic over his loss.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

"Rest assured, the direct market will remain at the heart of our business – and will continue to be one of our greatest strengths."

I think that translated this means, "Selling our comics through comics shops to an aging market just isn't cutting it any more, and digital has never really taken off. So we're looking to find new outlets like the ones we've established at Walmart."

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

No concrete news yet but Bleeding Cool says a management restructure at DC is in the works.

THR: DC Laying Off 3 Percent of Its Workforce

Bleeding Cool: More Layoffs at DC Comics Coming Soon

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

Those 100 Page Giant books at Wal-Mart got me thinking.... that's basically putting out 5 comics at 20 pages each for a dollar....

They should totally just make comics cheaper and do more big business sales with grocery store chains, gas station chains, and retail outlets selling comics again regularly. Do something similar to the 100 page Giants and make it partially new stuff while reprinting some other material. I wouldn't have two vastly different eras of something in print at the same time though, like with the Titans book. Rather than showcasing different eras of the team make new material with back-ups featuring reprints of the solo Titans titles like Cyborg, Beast Boy, Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Nightwing.

Bi-Weekly at $1.50 per issue, make it like 10 pages of new material with two 5 page back-ups... I'd buy that Titans book hands down. They're still making the $3 a month for 20 pages of new material but they're also basically advertising stories of the past a new fan may want to go out and find the whole collection of in trades, individual issues, etc at the various comic shops that still have that sort of thing. In my mind it makes the most sense to do it with characters associated to an established team or brand. New GL comics with back-ups of GLC and one of the spin-offs like Ion, Emerald Warriors, any story featuring John Stewart, etc. New Superman comics with back-ups of Superboy, Supergirl, or even classic retro shit like Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen [I loved Superman:Metropolis that featured Jimmy]. New Batman comics with Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Azreal, Outsiders, etc. as back-ups. And if anything really struck fans like Birds of Prey, they could get their own new comic with back-ups featuring anything that featured Black Canary, Huntress, Batgirl, etc.

EDIT: To keep the idea rolling you could have Action Comics with 10 pages of new Superman material and two back-ups featuring the various DCU characters like Firestorm, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, etc. Detective Comics could have 10 pages of new Batman material with darker back-up tales featuring stuff like Simon Dark, Ragman, the Spectre [basically anything tied to Gotham or detectives, you could also feature... MARTIAN MANHUNTER!]. Then if stuff like trades of Blue Beetle started flying off shelves you could have a new Blue Beetle comic with back-ups featuring the Ted Kord BB and the different Booster Gold stories! Letters pages or active social networking somewhere with whomever addressed the letters pages in comic's past tied to the production of the titles might be something to look into again as well.

[Michael Heide Heide Finition Find all posts View Profile Close Michael Heide]

They can only sell these books so cheap because 80 out of those 100 pages have already paid themselves off. That's old stuff that went through various print runs. The only thing it costs today is more paper and ink.

You cannot use that as a basis for "20 brandnew pages should cost one dollar".

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Also with these being exclusive I'm sure DC is getting paid extra by Walmart.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

They can only sell these books so cheap because 80 out of those 100 pages have already paid themselves off. That's old stuff that went through various print runs. The only thing it costs today is more paper and ink.

You cannot use that as a basis for "20 brandnew pages should cost one dollar".

I'm not? As recently as the last decade DC was 'Drawing the line at $2.99'. Which is what a bi-weekly series with 10 new pages of content per issue would be doing. And like you stated, the other half of the issues have already paid themselves off, making the $3 monthly for 20 pages of new content for the publisher. However the back-up features and watching the trade and back issue market afterwards would be a key factor in seeing what sells. It's better than printing 6 pages of Batman Noel as a preview in half your titles as well as another two pages of DC Nation stuff nobody's probably reading half the time.

I see it as a more inventive and profitable form of the old Marvel Comics Presents where there was always 3-5 stories going on in each issue. It's just here every bit of content wouldn't be brand new and the page count per story wouldn't vary as much unless DC went with like a double feature type title with two stories per issue with 10 pages of content each story and charged a bit more.

Also with these being exclusive I'm sure DC is getting paid extra by Walmart.

I think about it like a connected universe for the retail chains. You know how in the States we have like Pepsi Co. that also owns Doritos/Lays and how they put product out in every grocery store and gas station as well as specific fast food chains like KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut?

Like that just with a brand or maybe imprint of DC comics. Imagine all of the add space coming up during the Super Bowl. A lot of Marvel movies right? But you know as well as I do the top brands like Pepsi, Doritos, and some fast food chains are going to be high on the list as well. Now imagine one of those adds legit being used for DC Comics and the launch of such a product and not just a movie or Pepsi commercial. People would take notice and it's not like WB doesn't throw enough money away.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Also with these being exclusive I'm sure DC is getting paid extra by Walmart.

I don't think Walmart is paying DC anything. I think DC is paying Walmart for that rack space, just like the tabloids located at the registers are paying Walmart for the spaces where they're sold. And just like DC and Marvel pay for the slots where they're sold in the comics shops.

And I'm pretty sure Walmart agreed to the deal only because the publications DC is selling there are exclusive to Walmart.

It just ain't that easy to sell comics, which are grossly overpriced at four dollars a pop in the comics shops. If you put them out anywhere else at that price, nobody would buy them and the merchants would refuse to stock them.

As I've said here before, print comics are in the stage of their life cycle where the people in charge are managing their decline. Every industry eventually reaches that stage. Print comics are not a growth industry. They'll never get back to where they used to be.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Confession: part of me is hoping to see the last days of print comics. I like to think I will outlive this hobby.

The thought that comics will just end, and my various collections will be complete without me trying to keep up and maintain them warms me at night.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Confession: part of me is hoping to see the last days of print comics. I like to think I will outlive this hobby.

The thought that comics will just end, and my various collections will be complete without me trying to keep up and maintain them warms me at night.

I've come to the conclusion that without the speculators, DC and Marvel would have gotten out of the business of print comics a long time ago. There just aren't enough actual comics readers left to make that business worthwhile for them.

But the speculators are very persistent, because the vitality of the aftermarket. I think they might keep print comics going for a long time yet.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

It's so odd that we live in a world where comic book movies make up to billions of dollars each at the box office, yet the actual comics they sprang from are lucky if they move 30,000 copies a month. People just don't have the interest or attention span for reading anymore. Especially on paper.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

It's so odd that we live in a world where comic book movies make up to billions of dollars each at the box office, yet the actual comics they sprang from are lucky if they move 30,000 copies a month. People just don't have the interest or attention span for reading anymore. Especially on paper.

There's also the very large problem that you have to make a special trip to a comics shop and pay four dollars for an issue that's likely to be so padded out with pretentious oversized panels that nothing much happens that month.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Yet when you go to a message board and say that the comics companies should offer readers more value for their dollars by printing floppies on newsprint (and saving the fancy paper for the trades), and by going to a six-panel grid to make sure that something actually happens in each issue, they act like that's the stupidest shit they've ever heard.

Because of course it's all about them, and not about bringing in new customers who think comics are overpriced.

[Ωmega Man Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Ωmega Man]

There's also the very large problem that you have to make a special trip to a comics shop and pay four dollars for an issue that's likely to be so padded out with pretentious oversized panels that nothing much happens that month.

This is the main reason why I think DC needs to look beyond just putting out product at a place like Wal-Mart super cheap style and expand to several other retail chains. When I was a kid comics could be found still at gas stations, grocery stores, etc. That's a big part of why comics sold so well in the 90's. They were literally everywhere. And it's not like the whole business would be taken from the comic shops. People would still go there for trades, individual back issues, other collectibles, trading cards, etc. Comics alone have never been the only thing that kept comic shops in business.