from a recent interview on Newsarama with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Senior VP, Sales & Marketing David Gabriel about their ‘All-New Marvel NOW!’ initiative:
http://www.newsarama.com/20643-marvel-s-alonso-gabriel-talk-all-new-now-branding-new-launches-the-reasons-behind-renumbering.html
Nrama: Onto the ‘#1‘ thing.
Why is Marvel now renumbering/launching titles so (relatively) frequently compared to the past?
Gabriel: We actually spent a lot of time talking about this at our last editorial retreat. People consume their content much differently these days than in the past. Renumbering titles offers us an opportunity to provide readers with an easily digestible chunk of content, not unlike a season of a television show.
Renumbering has its critics, but at end of the day we’re much more focused on making good stories than where they fit in a longbox. If you look at the numbers, books sell better after a relaunch. And even if the numbers eventually settle back to where they were after a year or two – that’s still 2 years of retailers selling more copies and 2 years of more Marvel comics in the hands of fans.
Nrama: You both are aware that while numbers are hard to quantify, as you say David, there are critics of renumbering. So to play “fanboy’s advocate” for a moment, what do you say to the common argument that if the quality of the titles was there, publishers wouldn’t have to renumber in order to boost or maintain sales?
Gabriel: Quality doesn’t always mean big sales numbers. Any publisher will tell you that. Daredevil is a perfect example. Nobody would argue that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s title is lacking in quality with all the awards they’ve won. It’s not selling poorly by any means, but relaunching the title for ‘All-New Marvel NOW!’ has almost tripled the numbers on a title that was nearly universally critically acclaimed. And to us, that’s putting a critically acclaimed comic into the hands of more readers.