Marvel to Abandon Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores

[Chip Cataldo]

I guess I'm pretty lucky here in Myrtle Beach as I have 2 excellent comic stores within 20 minutes of driving time. When one has an ASM #4 and #129 up on the wall and the other has a Detective #227 and ASM #252 up on the wall you get an idea of the depth they have. This is of course in addition to most current new issues, gaming stuff w/playing areas, toys, posters, shirts, etc. I wish I had more time & cash to visit each one weekly and support them more, but I have purchased from them both in the past and the owners are passionate about their business and the medium itself. It's refreshing.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Apocalypse-comics/108653822517621

 

https://www.facebook.com/Coastalcomicsmb

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[Prince Namor]

Nowadays, he says it was not his idea to turn his back on the Newsstand Market.

 

Yeah right.

 

Another example of Shooter revising history.

[Bosco685]

Nowadays, he says it was not his idea to turn his back on the Newsstand Market.

 

Yeah right.

 

Where have you been hiding?

 

And yes, it is interesting how people can change history in their mind. When things were going super, I thought he was quite proud of his Direct Market support.

[dgarthwaite-migration]

I grew up in the 90s, and I remember buying comics from Wal Mart as a kid. Usually they were a packaged deal. I had bought the Amazing Spider-Man Lifeline storyline in a package. I also got the best of 96 in a DC box. I believe it is still upstairs in a box of childhood stuff.

 

Why didn't this continue? They were cheap boxed up story lines. I even think they are first prints. I imagine they were overstock that Marvel and DC sold for cheap.

 

From what I understand, Walmart either bullies a company into taking almost no markup, or they require 100% returnability.. This is a huge gamble for a publisher. Walmart can order huge amounts above what they can reasonably sell, then the publisher has to eat all the cost of returns.

 

DG

[dgarthwaite-migration]

Collectors have to take some responsibility for the demise of the newsstand distribution. If you were with a friend and your friend's 10 year old son wanted to buy a comic at Walmart, what would you say? The odds are you'd be telling him that the comic he picked out had creases on the spine. You'd tell him he needed to pick out the very best copy. You'd tell him he needs to visit the comic store so he could get bags and boards to protect them. You'd essentially scorn every damaged comic you saw and you'd drain out every bit of excitement the kid might have. You'd want to shape him into being a wise collector. The lack of availability of newsstand comics is partly an issue because collectors scorn the way the general public is going to treat the product in a store. People who don't buy comics look at collectors as being part of some obsessed cult that they don't even want to understand.

 

DG

I don't know why you make the assumption that all the collectors here are incapable of relating to their children and have to fit to the stereotype that you've highlighted. I'm sure you'll find that most of the parents on this forum would be happy to have their kid want a comic to read and mangle like most of us did when we were kids.

 

Can parents relate to kids and go against the stereotype I've described? Yes.

Unfortunately, that doesn't matter, because collectors in the hobby overall treat comics as sacred. Someone will give the speech to a kid. To people who don't collect, that's "weird". It makes them want to avoid the obsessed individuals who are hung up on a spine indention or a rounded corner. It adds a whole set of rules that the casual consumer doesn't want to deal with.

 

I collected stamps when I was 12. I had so much fun soaking them off of envelopes. Family and neighbors let me go through their old letters and find old stamps and I could have them. I matched up the pictures with the pictures in the stamp album. One day I go to the stamp and coin store and a stamp collector starts giving me a lecture that I need to only collect new stamps and I needed the clear sleeves to protect them. I looked at the price of the sleeves. It was all out of my budget. I wanted the really old ones that had been used. After about two or three times of being told I wasn't collecting properly, I hung it up. It was obvious that being a stamp collector meant I had to think like everyone else. I wanted no part of what they were doing and I wanted no part of their lectures. I quit collecting stamps so I wouldn't have to deal with stamp collectors.

 

My point is that it doesn't matter if YOU can relate to kids. The hobby alienates people who do not think exactly like them.

 

This board has endless threads telling me how I should feel about restoration, date stamps, printing defects, pressing etc. I skip over most of it because I really don't care whether my opinion matches yours. I'm not interested in collecting with a magnifying glass and too many collectors are telling me I need to have that attitude.

 

DG

 

I think you're probably talking about a extremely small percentage of people that are effecting the entire industry. The likely explanation is that new generations of children are entertained in different ways than previous generations. Tangible comic books and the entertainment they generate are almost anachronistic.

 

My stepson has zero desire for paper comics. He loves the digital comics I get for him, because that is how he is used to absorbing his content. I try to support that for him.

 

If comics were on spinner racks everywhere a kid went, it would be eye candy. My parents started buying comics for me and my sisters when we were on vacation. They wanted something to occupy our minds so that we'd shut up while my dad was driving. It wasn't just spinner racks. You saw comics promoting businesses. If you went into a Big Boy restaurant or a Captain D's, they had comics promoting their restaurant. Woolworths had the Whitman 3-packs. Comics were more integrated into society even if they weren't any good. Obviously, if you eliminate all that exposure to the public, people's perceptions will change. They aren't as interesting and cool.

 

Comics are out of sight and out of mind to the general public until they read an article about Action Comics #1 selling for a million dollar. At that point, people think comic collectors have more money than common sense and they want to sell any comics in their attic for some huge amount.

 

On the surface, collectors do want to think they are open minded. In reality, they panic at the thought of a kid taking an "investment" and devaluing it. It might not even be words. It might be the look on a parent's face. At some point, a collector has to convey to their child that daddy's comics need to be treated differently. At that point, the collector comes across as obsessive and hung up on paper. Most of you own some worthless comics that you guard and protect simply because it is a comic book.

To the general public, they don't necessarily understand the fascination. It's easier for them to just steer clear.

 

DG

 

 

 

 

[dgarthwaite-migration]

Collectors have to take some responsibility for the demise of the newsstand distribution. If you were with a friend and your friend's 10 year old son wanted to buy a comic at Walmart, what would you say? The odds are you'd be telling him that the comic he picked out had creases on the spine. You'd tell him he needed to pick out the very best copy. You'd tell him he needs to visit the comic store so he could get bags and boards to protect them. You'd essentially scorn every damaged comic you saw and you'd drain out every bit of excitement the kid might have. You'd want to shape him into being a wise collector. The lack of availability of newsstand comics is partly an issue because collectors scorn the way the general public is going to treat the product in a store. People who don't buy comics look at collectors as being part of some obsessed cult that they don't even want to understand.

 

DG

I don't know why you make the assumption that all the collectors here are incapable of relating to their children and have to fit to the stereotype that you've highlighted. I'm sure you'll find that most of the parents on this forum would be happy to have their kid want a comic to read and mangle like most of us did when we were kids.

 

Can parents relate to kids and go against the stereotype I've described? Yes.

Unfortunately, that doesn't matter, because collectors in the hobby overall treat comics as sacred. Someone will give the speech to a kid. To people who don't collect, that's "weird". It makes them want to avoid the obsessed individuals who are hung up on a spine indention or a rounded corner. It adds a whole set of rules that the casual consumer doesn't want to deal with.

 

I collected stamps when I was 12. I had so much fun soaking them off of envelopes. Family and neighbors let me go through their old letters and find old stamps and I could have them. I matched up the pictures with the pictures in the stamp album. One day I go to the stamp and coin store and a stamp collector starts giving me a lecture that I need to only collect new stamps and I needed the clear sleeves to protect them. I looked at the price of the sleeves. It was all out of my budget. I wanted the really old ones that had been used. After about two or three times of being told I wasn't collecting properly, I hung it up. It was obvious that being a stamp collector meant I had to think like everyone else. I wanted no part of what they were doing and I wanted no part of their lectures. I quit collecting stamps so I wouldn't have to deal with stamp collectors.

 

My point is that it doesn't matter if YOU can relate to kids. The hobby alienates people who do not think exactly like them.

 

This board has endless threads telling me how I should feel about restoration, date stamps, printing defects, pressing etc. I skip over most of it because I really don't care whether my opinion matches yours. I'm not interested in collecting with a magnifying glass and too many collectors are telling me I need to have that attitude.

 

DG

 

I think you're probably talking about a extremely small percentage of people that are effecting the entire industry. The likely explanation is that new generations of children are entertained in different ways than previous generations. Tangible comic books and the entertainment they generate are almost anachronistic.

 

My stepson has zero desire for paper comics. He loves the digital comics I get for him, because that is how he is used to absorbing his content. I try to support that for him.

 

Exactly! As an English teacher, there is a change with the way children absorb information. Students are more engaged reading something off a computer monitor or phone than a hard copy.

 

Every time we have these threads, people keep saying that the stories aren't appealing or relatable for young people. That just isn't the case.

 

Even my own daughter- who loves reading- enjoys it even more from her Kindle. Perfect example is the Hunger Games books. I purchased hard copies of them a few years back. My daughter went to read them and found she could rent them for free on her Kindle. She chose to do that rather than carry around the books.

 

If you want to appeal to todays' youth, you need to meet them where they are. Right now digital is the way to appeal to them.

 

Absolutely. It took awhile for my stepson to find the right books that he likes - but he's got a short list of favorites. Granted, he's still splitting time between his iPad, DS and XBox, but at least comics are there in the mix. Plus, he loves comic movies - so there is stuff that speaks to him as a 12 year old kid. But it's not paper comics.

 

I agree entirely that printed matter will go by the wayside. My main point was that society is facilitating and expediting the process. Consumers for the printed matter do still exist and consumers for future products could still be nurtured more efficiently.

 

DG

[KingOfRulers]

Honestly, from the perspective of trying to appeal to new readers, I don't understand the big deal with Marvel abandoning book stores. Book stores are dying out. I doubt that very many kids are going to book stores, stumbling upon comic books and becoming a regular comic purchaser as a result.

 

So many seem to think that because comics on spinner racks is how they were first exposed to comics as kids, means that not having that same exposure to the current generation of kids, will result in them not having the opportunity to get into the world of comics.

 

Advertising and word-of-mouth for blockbuster films about these comic characters reaches hundreds of millions of kids, worldwide. That is how kids will get into comics.

 

Publishing is hurting. Not just comics. Why do people think that comics are immune to a bleeding publishing industry? Comics will live on as a specialty medium of entertainment (at least for the foreseeable future). Low print runs, high prices and a devoted customer base.

 

Tastes in entertainment change. Just because something was successful to a given market 40 years ago doesn't mean that the same product or service to the same market today will see the same success.

[Tony S]

Collectors have to take some responsibility for the demise of the newsstand distribution. If you were with a friend and your friend's 10 year old son wanted to buy a comic at Walmart, what would you say? The odds are you'd be telling him that the comic he picked out had creases on the spine. You'd tell him he needed to pick out the very best copy. You'd tell him he needs to visit the comic store so he could get bags and boards to protect them. You'd essentially scorn every damaged comic you saw and you'd drain out every bit of excitement the kid might have. You'd want to shape him into being a wise collector. The lack of availability of newsstand comics is partly an issue because collectors scorn the way the general public is going to treat the product in a store. People who don't buy comics look at collectors as being part of some obsessed cult that they don't even want to understand.

 

DG

I don't know why you make the assumption that all the collectors here are incapable of relating to their children and have to fit to the stereotype that you've highlighted. I'm sure you'll find that most of the parents on this forum would be happy to have their kid want a comic to read and mangle like most of us did when we were kids.

+1

[ChrisInBaltimore]

Collectors have to take some responsibility for the demise of the newsstand distribution. If you were with a friend and your friend's 10 year old son wanted to buy a comic at Walmart, what would you say? The odds are you'd be telling him that the comic he picked out had creases on the spine. You'd tell him he needed to pick out the very best copy. You'd tell him he needs to visit the comic store so he could get bags and boards to protect them. You'd essentially scorn every damaged comic you saw and you'd drain out every bit of excitement the kid might have. You'd want to shape him into being a wise collector. The lack of availability of newsstand comics is partly an issue because collectors scorn the way the general public is going to treat the product in a store. People who don't buy comics look at collectors as being part of some obsessed cult that they don't even want to understand.

 

DG

I don't know why you make the assumption that all the collectors here are incapable of relating to their children and have to fit to the stereotype that you've highlighted. I'm sure you'll find that most of the parents on this forum would be happy to have their kid want a comic to read and mangle like most of us did when we were kids.

+1

 

I tried a little to get my daughter to bag and board her books. She loves helping me bag and board my books. However, she still just reads and destroys her books. It doesn't bother me too much. She loves reading the few books I buy and when we get home from the comic store she reads them almost instantly.

 

The thing that probably does bother me is the fact that she destroys a $3 or sometimes $4 book.

 

Either way she's reading comics.

 

Oh and I pull the following books for her:

Archie

Betty and Veronica

Simpsons (anything related)

[Tony S]

DG

 

My point is that it doesn't matter if YOU can relate to kids. The hobby alienates people who do not think exactly like them.

 

This board has endless threads telling me how I should feel about restoration, date stamps, printing defects, pressing etc. I skip over most of it because I really don't care whether my opinion matches yours. I'm not interested in collecting with a magnifying glass and too many collectors are telling me I need to have that attitude.

 

DG

 

What you describe certainly exists on these boards. What your are forgetting - or missing - is that these boards represent an infinitesimal part of the hobby. It's a knowledgeable and passionate bunch for sure. But for every collector that collects slabbed books there are hundreds that do not. For every board member here there are hundreds of collectors that never heard of the place nor ever go online to discuss comics.

 

There are three comic book stores here in town and not a single slabbed book in any. There must be hundreds of collectors here in town if not thousands to support three stores. One other guy and myself probably own 95% of the slabs in town. If there is more than two other boardies in town, I'm unaware of it.

 

Posters on these boards forget constantly we are a small, small and very small part of the collecting hobby. So if you base observations of the general hobby on what you see here, you'll get a skewed idea of what is going on in the larger collecting universe.

 

Most of the collectors I know (that have kids or nieces/nephews) would love for kids to take an interest in comics and would not fret the wear and tear on such. The later Millennials (say born early 1990's) and Generation Z just don't have a lot of interest in comics. They are however into the characters. They just want them in games, movies and on TV.

[Speedy-D]

Wait, Chris S. and Tony S aren't the same person?

[MrBedrock]

Wait, Chris S. and Tony S aren't the same person?

Nope. I too was confused by all of these ssses. But in this case one goes by "Chris" and the other answers to "Tony".

 

[Buzzetta]

Wait, Chris S. and Tony S aren't the same person?

 

Imagine my surprise when I registered on a site only to find out that Buzzetta was taken. I took BuzzettaNY instead.

[the blob]

Collectors have to take some responsibility for the demise of the newsstand distribution. If you were with a friend and your friend's 10 year old son wanted to buy a comic at Walmart, what would you say? The odds are you'd be telling him that the comic he picked out had creases on the spine. You'd tell him he needed to pick out the very best copy. You'd tell him he needs to visit the comic store so he could get bags and boards to protect them. You'd essentially scorn every damaged comic you saw and you'd drain out every bit of excitement the kid might have. You'd want to shape him into being a wise collector. The lack of availability of newsstand comics is partly an issue because collectors scorn the way the general public is going to treat the product in a store. People who don't buy comics look at collectors as being part of some obsessed cult that they don't even want to understand.

 

DG

I don't know why you make the assumption that all the collectors here are incapable of relating to their children and have to fit to the stereotype that you've highlighted. I'm sure you'll find that most of the parents on this forum would be happy to have their kid want a comic to read and mangle like most of us did when we were kids.

+1

 

Given that 98% of the comics purchased at a shop or at walmart or wherever are never going to be worth more than a buck or maybe half cover price, I just don't see the obsession with condition turning kids off or uber collectors really getting all that stressed out about these things. i give my kid BA/CA beaters to read and enjoy or NM modern drek to trash as he sees fit. indeed, we decorated his comic box with collage by cutting out images from some of the comics. NM they ain't anymore!

[musicmeta]

We are another step closer to the demise of the physical comic book. Looks like we're down to comic book shops only ... plus the digital format.

 

I agree with an earlier post, this will give a little bit of new life for some comic shops.

 

Bring back the 70's paper stock...I like that paper for the cover's, story and art

[dgarthwaite-migration]

DG

 

My point is that it doesn't matter if YOU can relate to kids. The hobby alienates people who do not think exactly like them.

 

This board has endless threads telling me how I should feel about restoration, date stamps, printing defects, pressing etc. I skip over most of it because I really don't care whether my opinion matches yours. I'm not interested in collecting with a magnifying glass and too many collectors are telling me I need to have that attitude.

 

DG

 

What you describe certainly exists on these boards. What your are forgetting - or missing - is that these boards represent an infinitesimal part of the hobby. It's a knowledgeable and passionate bunch for sure. But for every collector that collects slabbed books there are hundreds that do not. For every board member here there are hundreds of collectors that never heard of the place nor ever go online to discuss comics.

 

There are three comic book stores here in town and not a single slabbed book in any. There must be hundreds of collectors here in town if not thousands to support three stores. One other guy and myself probably own 95% of the slabs in town. If there is more than two other boardies in town, I'm unaware of it.

 

Posters on these boards forget constantly we are a small, small and very small part of the collecting hobby. So if you base observations of the general hobby on what you see here, you'll get a skewed idea of what is going on in the larger collecting universe.

 

Most of the collectors I know (that have kids or nieces/nephews) would love for kids to take an interest in comics and would not fret the wear and tear on such. The later Millennials (say born early 1990's) and Generation Z just don't have a lot of interest in comics. They are however into the characters. They just want them in games, movies and on TV.

 

This behavior is not limited to those who slab their comics. The moment you take something typically thought of a ephemera, and spend extra care to protect it, you become different than the mass population out there. Most magazines sold at a grocery store do not get bagged and boarded when they get home.

 

That's one of the reason you see so many eBay ads saying that the comics they sell are in the original plastic bag. People assume a comic bag must make every comic a highly treasured collectible.

 

DG

[dgarthwaite-migration]

OMG!

 

Chris S. post the Hula Hoop girl.

Tony S. posts other stuff.

 

This is a huge difference.

 

DG

[slym2none]

We are another step closer to the demise of the physical comic book. Looks like we're down to comic book shops only ... plus the digital format.

 

I agree with an earlier post, this will give a little bit of new life for some comic shops.

 

Bring back the 70's paper stock...I like that paper for the cover's, story and art

 

Four-colour printing, too!

 

I just wish that would actually lower the price significantly, but it wouldn't.

 

 

 

 

-slym

[B-Smooth]

There was a Geppi's comic world a couple of miles from my house. Made the newsstand copies obsolete.

[Comicopolis]

Shoot, I was going to comic shops when I was nine or ten.

 

All those books with naked flesh in them - that wasn't a comic shop.