Can this man save Superman? 0

[namisgr]

Interesting article on Brian Michael Bendis in the Business section of the Sunday New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/13/business/superman-marvel-bendis.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness&action=click&contentCollection=business&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=13&pgtype=sectionfront

[shadroch]

Other than completely and utterly destroying Diamond, and starting over from scratch, I'm not optimistic anything can save Superman or the 32 page monthly comic.

Then again, I'm not sure they are worth saving. As almost every book is made into a TPB, just eliminate the monthlies and put out three TPBs a year. Since they aren't reprints, you can even charge more. 

But I digress.  

Good luck to MR B. I've enjoyed most of what I've read of his, but that's a very small fraction of his work.

[namisgr]

9 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Other than completely and utterly destroying Diamond, and starting over from scratch, I'm not optimistic anything can save Superman or the 32 page monthly comic.

From the article:

 But as John Jackson Miller, a comic book writer and former trade magazine editor who tracks industry circulation for comichron.com, points out, the death of the medium is a myth — for now. From 2011 to 2016, there was intense growth in sales across print and digital — largely because of individual comic books acting as a serial outlet for graphic novels. In 2016, sales in the industry hovered around $1.08 billion. And while numbers for last year are expected to show a decline in overall sales (most notably with Marvel), those numbers will still exceed $1 billion.

[shadroch]

Growth is due to price increases, more than unit expansion.   A billion dollar business doesn't mean a successful one.  The number of sales outlets keeps dwindling, as do sales per store. 

An almost ten percent decline in sales is not a sign of a healthy market.

I am of the opinion that in order to save the comic market, it must first be destroyed.

Edited April 16, 2018 by shadroch

[Ken Aldred]

1 hour ago, shadroch said:

Then again, I'm not sure they are worth saving. As almost every book is made into a TPB, just eliminate the monthlies and put out three TPBs a year

Bendis' decompressed style is ideal for this, if they want Superman written with later TP sales in mind.

[namisgr]

10 hours ago, shadroch said:

Growth is due to price increases, more than unit expansion.   A billion dollar business doesn't mean a successful one.  The number of sales outlets keeps dwindling, as do sales per store. 

An almost ten percent decline in sales is not a sign of a healthy market.

I am of the opinion that in order to save the comic market, it must first be destroyed.

What do you think about Bendis' role at DC, the focus of the linked story?

[shadroch]

"Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" comes to mind.