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Who is buying these?

Started by Astoria,

51 posts in this topic

miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted

a few thoughts....

 

1. Very savvy marketing move. Marvel looked at the continuing growth of cosplay and is smartly cashing in on it.

 

2. "Who would buy these?" Lots of people. Just probably not us. Most of these cosplayers are "celebrities" in the cosplay world with twitter and instagram feeds that some hollywood types would be jealous of. Their fans will buy. Many of these cosplayers have their own tables (promoting their charities, their websites, and so on) and are set up at shows. Wanna know what their fans will bring to have them sign? Yep!

 

A smart dealer would check to see which cons they will be at in 2016 (ie see what their "hometown" con is, or which one they do every year) and make sure when they set up at the show they put a stack of the cos-play variants front and center (and maybe try to jockey for a table not far from the cos-play area to get the traffic as it goes by). I could see the books selling to the cosplayers for prices out of line with the market (as in higher) versus a variant with that same level of scarcity

 

but that's just a thought if there are people out there who... you know... like to make money.

 

3. Two negatives. I think the pictures are underwhelming. The costuming is fine (heck its supposed to be authentic and hand made cosplay stuff) But to me the backgrounds and picture compositions are just underwhelming. How about they recreate a famous cover (say ASM50 for the Spidey cos-play)

 

4. The other negative is I do wish Marvel had tied into a charity. Some of the pictured cosplayers have charitable foundations that make appearances and do events for the sick and underprivileged, others have ties to research charities. Marvel could have given a percentage to a cosplay related charity and used it as a platform to show that this segment of the hobby has a philanthropic side to it.

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Astoria

Astoria

Posted
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Posted

Don't think these are pros, but I could certainly be wrong. Covers are just plain bad. Rusted Corri-gated Iron, what looks like a school hallway, Thor tromping out of the jungle.... The whole line looks unprofessionally done, but perhaps that's what they wanted.

 

Edit: stand corrected on the cos-pro issue but the pics could have been done a lot better.

 

 

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IntoAnother

IntoAnother

Posted
Posted
Are these photos of known cosplay individuals from the convention scene or simply random people dressed up?

 

known cosplay people.

 

The Captain Marvel actually runs Marvel's cosplay blog

 

 

Thank you, I'm not very cosplay hip but I agree they do tend to have quite the fan base.

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KPR Comics

KPR Comics

Posted
Posted
My non-scientific, anecdotal only survey says: Cosplayers don't buy comics.

 

I dont think they'll view it as a comic. Its memorabilia to them. Or even a marker of the publisher validating their hobby.

There is that.

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Mike's Rack

Mike's Rack

Posted
Posted
a few thoughts....

 

1. Very savvy marketing move. Marvel looked at the continuing growth of cosplay and is smartly cashing in on it.

 

2. "Who would buy these?" Lots of people. Just probably not us. Most of these cosplayers are "celebrities" in the cosplay world with twitter and instagram feeds that some hollywood types would be jealous of. Their fans will buy. Many of these cosplayers have their own tables (promoting their charities, their websites, and so on) and are set up at shows. Wanna know what their fans will bring to have them sign? Yep!

 

A smart dealer would check to see which cons they will be at in 2016 (ie see what their "hometown" con is, or which one they do every year) and make sure when they set up at the show they put a stack of the cos-play variants front and center (and maybe try to jockey for a table not far from the cos-play area to get the traffic as it goes by). I could see the books selling to the cosplayers for prices out of line with the market (as in higher) versus a variant with that same level of scarcity

 

but that's just a thought if there are people out there who... you know... like to make money.

 

3. Two negatives. I think the pictures are underwhelming. The costuming is fine (heck its supposed to be authentic and hand made cosplay stuff) But to me the backgrounds and picture compositions are just underwhelming. How about they recreate a famous cover (say ASM50 for the Spidey cos-play)

 

4. The other negative is I do wish Marvel had tied into a charity. Some of the pictured cosplayers have charitable foundations that make appearances and do events for the sick and underprivileged, others have ties to research charities. Marvel could have given a percentage to a cosplay related charity and used it as a platform to show that this segment of the hobby has a philanthropic side to it.

I agree, it's not a bad marketing strategy but the photography is horrible - stiff and staged. It looks like they could all be saying "How do you want me to stand? Like this?" These would have been a lot better if the photography was better.
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