Marvel's Falling Sales 6 6

[Get Marwood & I]

9 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

Have you ever had the pleasure of listening to the song by GG Allin - Drink, Fight and F***  ??

it is hilarious !!!

 

I have, but I'm afraid I can only condone one of those key life components 

[Get Marwood & I]

10 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

I love all the comments above sums up my 80s as a kid collecting and scraping change so my mom
would write a check to a mail order shop.

 

Sorry FB. I wanted to show my appreciation of your post using the designated new boards appreciation tool but, even though in England I've just got up and it's my 'first of the day', computer says 'no':

 

[Get Marwood & I]

10 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

Yup.  Same for me with ASM 171.  As a Nova fan I wanted this crossover issue, but it was Non Distributed and eventually I had to send a postal order off to a mail order dealer. Thrilled when I received it, disappointed when I read the story to find it was absolute bollocks.  

 

Ah, simple pleasures, ruined by Photon. You can't beat it 

Now, on a separate note, how is it that you can say bollocks without manual manipulation but I can't say Dick unless I use sleight of hand? Ken, you seem like a very reasonable, nuanced man. As such, you may wish to avail yourself of the content of my Change Request here:

As a man of taste and deportment I feel sure that you will pick up the baton and join me in my crusade to correct the inexplicable suppression of Dicks from these boards.

Join me in the fight Ken, join me!

 

[Get Marwood & I]

It's just occurred to me that I may have moved this thread a little away from it's original theme with my last few posts. So; 

"Marvel is rubbish at making comics and no one wants to buy them anymore" 

There. Back on track.

[lizards2]

3 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

14 hours ago, porcupine48 said:

14 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

Same here Spike.  It took hard work and dedication to build up my 100+ Squeeze singles. Especially the imports.  Now, they're all over ebay in multiples. Ebay has killed 'proper' collecting.  FU ebay! ?

Squeeze?Really?That's some argybargy..

 

Sorry, I can't continue this conversation Spike. Mummy said never take Sweets From A Stranger 

[Get Marwood & I]

2 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

[lizards2]

1 minute ago, Marwood & I said:

 

2 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

 

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

[ComicConnoisseur]

This story keeps getting bigger.

New York Times now calls out Marvel about diversity and falling sales.

Marvel Comics May Have Slumping Sales, but Don’t Blame Its Diverse Heroes.

Marvel has recently been experiencing a “massive sales slump” because of more basic factors: the frequent restarting of series with new No. 1 issues; fan fatigue over story lines that promise changes but fail to deliver; and the introduction of a deluge of new series. There is also the expense of comic collecting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/books/marvel-comics-diversity-thor-hulk.html

[nWo_22]

On 4/4/2017 at 11:36 AM, delekkerste said:

Hopefully these figures will dispel the notion held by some that the comics industry is doing great these days.  I mean, these figures are shocking - only 2 Marvel titles selling more than 40K copies, with their #3-10 best-selling titles selling a paltry 35-39K issues (and that's just to RETAILERS; actual sales to readers will be less).  The average final issue of a cancelled Marvel book sells only 7K copies.  That is shocking.  

Granted, other publishers have probably taken market share away from Marvel, and there are additional sales from digital and trades.  But, you'd have to conclude that much of the rebound in sales (as measured by $$$) that has been reported in recent years has been due to variant covers, higher cover prices, new issue speculation in the CGC/SS/etc. era, etc.  Again, these stats are just SHOCKING, and not in a good way.  

 

Gene under no decade of comic book fandom would this garbage sell and I thought the 90's were a disgrace to comics.  This is because Marvel in terms of comics is catering to loser PC snowflakes since they killed off Wolverine.

Marvel has grown in the billions and that is in the movies.  I could care less if Marvel cancels all their titles it will have ZERO impact on AF 15's and back issues.  It actually seems back issues are selling better because collectors have to go back in time to read good stories of their favorite superheroes since the creative insufficiently_thoughtful_persons can't give their audience anything new/fresh.    Marvel is a movie company now and that is just fine with me.

Stan Lee from day one wanted to make movies and not comics.  Well it seems Marvel Comics has realized his dream. 

Marvel Comics has been replaced by Marvel Studios.  They just put their less talented artists/writers who can't cut in their movie division in their lower forgettable paper comic book division.

[porcupine48]

15 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

Have you ever had the pleasure of listening to the song by GG Allin - Drink, Fight and F***  ??

it is hilarious !!!

Saw gg live in 91/92.. that was an experience...

here's a great Zevon cover..

Hope you're at rest GG

 

[nWo_22]

On 4/2/2017 at 7:03 AM, Likefro said:

They haven't cared about long term fans for many, many years now. 

I personally agree.  Honestly for the most part I feel if you were born after 1980 (aka you read comics mainly from 1990-current) you really never got to see got see amazing comics book in general.  90's-now were and are a joke, and besides Pre-Unity Valiant, DC Vertigo (Preacher, Y:Last Man, Sandman) and Image/Skybound (WD, Saga, EastofWest etc...) titles most comics are mindless stories of talentless garbage.

Invest in back issues  Pre-1975 and 50% off new trades and call it a life.

[Mercury Man]

I can just as easily redirect $100 on month from Moderns to Bronze/Silver.    Granted, the hunt is a bit harder, and the better condition the higher the price, (which means less comics), but the catalog is vast.  

[ParamagicFF]

It really is a shame to see what Marvel has become. I feel like they've been chasing the original Civil War for almost a decade now. As a modern reader I think the era of the Civil War, The Initiative, and even Secret Invasion was the best Marvel had been in a LONG time. Each individual title was able to do it's own thing, but there were great overarching themes. It all seemed somewhat natural. Now I feel like everything is shoehorned into trying to be something it's not.  

[Buzzetta]

My LCS owner has a LOT of Marvel that people are not buying.  His comments:

1 - No one wants to see Amadeus Cho or a female Hulk - They know Hulk as Bruce Banner - bring back banner

2 - He says that the female versions of the characters did not bring in female readership as much as it caused others to drop the titles due to unrecognizable long term characters.

My additional comment to this.

Robert Downey Jr IS Tony Stark / Iron Man.  So long as that face is on screen, Tony Stark needs to be in the Iron Man suit.  Kids who want to read more adventures with Tony Stark might actually go into a comic book store to read more Iron Man stories.  They will be confused and probably become disinterested when they pick up the comic to find out that Tony Stark, the guy they love in their favorite movies, is not Iron Man. 

 

[fastballspecial]

3 hours ago, nWo_22 said:

I personally agree.  Honestly for the most part I feel if you were born after 1980 (aka you read comics mainly from 1990-current) you really never got to see got see amazing comics book in general.  90's-now were and are a joke, and besides Pre-Unity Valiant, DC Vertigo (Preacher, Y:Last Man, Sandman) and Image/Skybound (WD, Saga, EastofWest etc...) titles most comics are mindless stories of talentless garbage.

Invest in back issues  Pre-1975 and 50% off new trades and call it a life.

I have come around to this thinking more and more being a child of the 80s. I cant find anything Marvel worth reading now since Old Man Logan its just that bad. Now I am so far out that when I picked up X-men Prime I only recognized 1/2 the members. Its really a sad time if you are a Marvel now other books like Jupiter's Legacy are brilliant, but Marvel as a whole is even worse then DC in the late 70s I think.

[thehumantorch]

10 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

 

Sorry FB. I wanted to show my appreciation of your post using the designated new boards appreciation tool but, even though in England I've just got up and it's my 'first of the day', computer says 'no':

 

It's really 10 likes over a 24 hour period so if you gave out 10 likes 23 hours ago you'll have to wait another hour

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

It's really 10 likes over a 24 hour period so if you gave out 10 likes 23 hours ago you'll have to wait another hour

Goddammit thehumantorch! ?

[thehumantorch]

It's funny, we've spent years supporting comic publishers, consuming their product, arguing over who's stronger, who's most powerful, who we love the most.  Yet they seem to consider us racist or sexist when we don't support bastardized versions of characters we've known most of our lives.  Is it any wonder that some long time readers quit in frustration?  Don't ask for our loyalty and then throw away everything we've been loyal to.

And it would make sense that digital issues of these new characters are doing better, they're likely selling to new readers who don't know the original characters like we do

[01TheDude]

Wall of text follows--- proceed with caution....

Spoiler

 

I would be more impressed if Marvel came up with NEW characters played by women or minorities or whatever flavor of the  day they are shooting for. That would expand the character base. Outright replacement of established characters for the sake of diversity ignores the time fans vested in that original character-- an important aspect when it comes to Marvel characters who are supposed to have a realistic life story.

Granted established characters might be reasonable to see as a woman (or whoever). Thor comes to mind-- since Don Blake found his way to that role by finding a cane in a cave. Iron man I suppose could work as well since the suit/tech is the what defines that character. Really anyone can become the heroes if they encounter the same circumstances of the origin that their predecessors did.

DC in a way was far ahead of this curve if you think about all the Superman family characters-- Man, girl, boy, dog, Bizzarro, and probably more (not my realm).

Anyway- like others have said- you put together a good product (great art, fine writing/stories) and fans will find the books. Is there a lack of talent at the center of the problem? Is 4 bucks the same amount of money to kids today as 25-35 cents was to those of us buying books in the 1970's? Why are the book cover prices so expensive? What kind of margin is involved or is more about the low volume of sales forcing a higher price point?