COMIC STORES 2023: 'IT'S NEARLY 2024 AND I'M MORE THAN CONCERNED' 4 4

[Prince Namor]

https://icv2.com/articles/columns/view/55531/comic-stores-2023-its-nearly-2024-im-more-concerned

COMIC STORES 2023: 'IT'S NEARLY 2024 AND I'M MORE THAN CONCERNED'

Guest Column by Phil Boyle of Coliseum of Comics

Phil Boyle, whose Coliseum of Comics Chain is the largest comics and games retailer in the southeast, has shared his concerns and suggested solutions for comic stores at a time of declining sales.

It’s nearly 2024 and I’m more than concerned.

Marvel and DC, you blew it.  Or maybe you just succeeded in your plan to kill off an American art form of which you’ve been the able stewards of for 80 years.  It’s baffling that something so prolific was ushered to the chopping block and executed.  Strong accusation?  No, just the unvarnished truth as new comic sales find new lows.

Worse, you’ve gutted an army of passionate retailers who’ve worked in this biz for decades for close to poverty wages in many cases.  To put such a system of advocates in every state and major city in America, and around much of the world, would cost a fortune.  But it happened organically to your benefit, and in gratitude, you’ve strip-mined what little profit there was in favor of short-term goals and chasing corporate bonuses.

We, the retailers, cultivated the fanbase the same way the under-appreciated creators created the precious IPs that have made their parent companies obscene amounts of money.  It was a biosystem of fans feeding off the Wednesday excitement, eager to spend money on not only the comics that drew them in, but the T-shirts, lunch boxes, and mousepads with Spider-Man or Batman on them.  Fan, retailers, and creators, have all suffered under the recent corporate mandates.

Where did it go off the rails?  It’s not such a conundrum to anyone with two active brain cells and a list of back issues they need to complete their runs.  Comics, first and foremost, have always been entertainment.  Sure, collectible entertainment, which justifies the cost-to-entertainment ratio.  But along the way, the immediate sale and false bolstering of numbers through variant covers, convoluted events, and incessant reboots left the considerations of the fans behind.  Character swapping, gender-bending, and changing sexual orientation of beloved characters fell flat with the Wednesday Warriors who supported the industry for decades.  The crowd of new readers the changes were meant to attract didn’t translate to a 1-for-1 swap, leaving a declining customer base.

To make things more difficult on the retail side, in a very deliberate abuse of both the FOC system and retailers’ goodwill toward publishers, we constantly have to FOC an issue two issues out rather than next issue.  This makes ordering a guess.  Throw in four covers on #5, then six on #6, one of which is by Artgerm and another by Skottie Young, and then #7 has five covers with neither cover artist, and #8 has a celebrity appearance cover, and it’s a constant and very deliberate shell game, forcing retailers to guess on nearly every next issue.

How do we fix this, assuming we can pull the canoe back over the waterfall at this point?

A friend of mine recently moved into a condo and took up an advisory position on the board.  The pool was in need of repair, the roofs needed replacing, and the facades and landscaping had seen better days.  There was no money to make the repairs and the only solution was to add $150 a month to everyone’s condo fees to pay for the repairs.  The meeting that followed the announcement was less than friendly as people complained about the extra costs.  My buddy explained that everyone had been living off the equity in the condos and put no money INTO the condos, thereby devaluing them.

And here we are in the comic industry facing the same conundrum.  Marvel & DC have strip-mined the comic industry for the better part of a decade, putting no money into the market that sustained them for years.  Much like the condo association, an investment is needed by those who lived off the equity for years.  If you want a market in 2 years – yes, TWO years tops – then the time to invest is now.  What we need to revitalize this market:

 

1. $3.99 comics.  I would say $2.99 but we have increased rents, labor, and insurance costs to cover so $3.99.  $4.99 and more is a non-starter with too many fans.
    
2. Fewer covers.  I know this will get some pushback from every corner but without a focus, it’s all about the value of the covers and not what’s between them.  Max of 2 covers.  While you’re at it, give us a hook to sell, not just another convention commission piece with no indication of what’s inside the comic it covers.
    
3. Editors who are editors.  Too many stories are lackluster and agenda-driven, too many covers are con-sketch drivel with no sales point, and too much interior art is amateurish.  It’s clear neither Marvel nor DC has a publishing plan beyond the current reboot.
    
4. The characters are iconic for a reason.  The movies never got traction until they leaned into what made the characters decades-long successes.  Change is good for story but inevitably, you need to touch base with what brought them.  Gender swaps, sexual orientation changes, and outright changes to who’s in the suit are short-term headline grabbers but without long-term sales with very few exceptions.
    
5. Tell stories without proselytizing.  I’ve beat this drum for a decade and more but here we are, chasing away a large portion of our customer base with every new tale as they want entertainment, not a serialized sermon.
    
6. Limited new characters.  Fresh blood is good, but it’s become obvious that characters aren’t organic to stories, they’re shoehorned in for a bump in sales.  Dance with who brung you, as the saying goes.
    
7. I’d ask for Minimum Advertised Price but we’re not in that world anymore.  You made deals with the devil, which is also on you.
    
8. Here’s the big one: Discount and shipping.  Marvel and DC screwed this market so if you want to continue to have people dumb enough to labor 60 hours a week for poverty wages to sell AND ADVOCATE for your precious IPs, you need to invest in that market.  You stripped-mined (that word again, though it applies so precisely) all the cash out of the direct market and retailers are bleeding from the bone.  We need your investment, or this market goes away.  No, you can’t just sell online as the minimum production costs won’t be met with online only.  Investment means putting books on stands at a cost to you, not the people with the highest-per-issue cost.

Actual plan:

Set a minimum for each title by store.  Every issue over that minimum is sold to BRICK AND MORTAR retailers for 60 cents.  This puts books on stands, minimizes cost to retailers, and helps print runs.

Why should you listen to any of this?  Because your livelihood is tethered to the retail community.  Rome is on fire.  Fiddle or get on the phone with some of your key retail partners and find out what it’s like out here but be prepared for some ugly stories.  Without some immediate action, I see 25% of the retail stores closing at the end of the 1st quarter, 2024.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.

[media_junkie]

While I agree with pretty much everything he says in that article, the sad truth is that we all know nothing will change.  Nothing.

[Prince Namor]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:56 PM, media_junkie said:

While I agree with pretty much everything he says in that article, the sad truth is that we all know nothing will change.  Nothing.

Personally I don't agree with a lot of what he says.

As someone who once bought every Spider-man title each month, I haven't bought or read a modern Marvel or DC comic in years. 

Has zero to do with wokeness. 

Has a lot to do with price.

Mostly has to do with art that I find completely out of touch with the sequential storytelling style I grew up reading - stories that are just regurgitated nonsense that's been repeated ad nauseam for decades - characters I don't recognize at all from the ones I grew up reading - and crossover material that is clearly just designed to try and get me to buy even more diluted crud.

Add to that the collector mentality of bagging and boarding each issue and carefully storing it as if it's some prized possession that's someday supposed to be worth something. 

It all just seems rather silly.

Really I can't imagine Marvel or DC doing ANYTHING that would make me return to buying comics every month. 

[Bookery]

I quit selling new-release comics over a year and a half ago.  It was probably the best decision I've made in 40 years.  By doing this I reduced overhead, stress, and massive time consumption.  I'm now making larger profits than ever before just by dealing in back-issues.  Of course, this only works if you've been in business a long time and have built up a large client base.  But the author is wrong if he thinks the corporations care about losing comic sales.  To be honest, I have no idea why comics (at least the super-hero ones) are still being published.  They don't need them to create new characters... that is now more efficiently done in movies, TV shows, and video games.  (And frankly, with slightly more copyrighted super-heroes out there than there are humans on the planet, I have no idea why there would be a need to create even more anyway).  Non-hero comics appear to be doing well as manga and other formats, and are selling in mega-chains like Barnes & Noble, and of course, on Amazon.  The other shops in my region still sell new issues, but most of them are now emphasizing gaming and toys as their primary sources of income.  His warning to the publishers was solid a decade ago... but that ship has sailed.

[MatterEaterLad]

We're seeing the effects of 40 years of the direct distribution model. 

[Prince Namor]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:33 PM, Bookery said:

To be honest, I have no idea why comics (at least the super-hero ones) are still being published.

Protecting intellectual property rights?

[Prince Namor]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:41 PM, MatterEaterLad said:

We're seeing the effects of 40 years of the direct distribution model. 

Yep. 100% beneficial to the publisher. 

[Robot Man]

The days of “Marvel” and “DC” are long over. They have been sold off and sucked into large corporations. Publishing floppies is a massive pain in the butt to them and a losing proposition. Without revenues, there is no incentive.

I heard that “The Marvels” film is tanking. Frankly, I have no idea who they even are. To me, the Marvel’s are Billy Batson’s crew.

Have people grown tired of Marvel and DC movies and TV shows? Maybe. I know I have. The premise of the world or universe being threatened by a villian or group of them and super heroes coming to the rescue has been done over and over to the point of boredom.

Sad, but the Marvel and DC universe might have finally run it’s course…

[MAR1979]

Slight tangent; I know of many including myself who quit DC the day New 52 took over.

Sure it created a bump so Johns, Lee and Dideo were able to nicely pad their 2011 bonus' but as expected the increased sales were rather short lived. 

The few new readers/ customers who did stick around were dwarfed by those who walked away never to return...

[TupennyConan]

On 11/13/2023 at 4:58 AM, Prince Namor said:

Phil Boyle of Coliseum of Comics

[MAR1979]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:13 AM, Prince Namor said:

Personally I don't agree with a lot of what he says.

Has zero to do with wokeness. 

Correct. Thats now an ubiquitous catch-all designed to ensure culture wars thus preventing + burying class wars. The sheep on all sides of the fence fall for it every time.

[Prince Namor]

Most of the comic book stores that are having problems now usually fall into one or more of these categories, that they could use to improve their business:

Cut down on the Heavy reliance on New Comics for business. Your Subscription business should be a huge part of your order.

Disinterested staff that alienates customers. A killer.

No website or minimal effort to produce one (It's cheaper and easier than ever before to have a web presence, there is almost no excuse for this other than laziness) It's the #1 way, people search for comic book stores. wtf?

No mail order business. (Use eBay, Amazon, your own site... everything you can to sell. Again, if they're not doing this, it's just lazy) Yikes...

LESS Modern back issues taking up space (and ridiculously over priced), more of an understanding of how to buy OLD comics and sell them. Blow those modern back issues out the door - use them for give aways - whatever you can. They SHOW the lack of value of moderns - don't keep them around for that. OLD comics are so much better of an investment in time and money. Yep.

A kid friendly section of the store with plenty of stock.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Prince Namor

[Ken Aldred]

On 11/13/2023 at 3:13 PM, Prince Namor said:

Mostly has to do with art that I find completely out of touch with the sequential storytelling style I grew up reading - stories that are just regurgitated nonsense that's been repeated ad nauseam for decades - characters I don't recognize at all from the ones I grew up reading - and crossover material that is clearly just designed to try and get me to buy even more diluted crud.

Add to that the collector mentality of bagging and boarding each issue and carefully storing it as if it's some prized possession that's someday supposed to be worth something. 

It all just seems rather silly.

You’re roughly my age, a veteran comics reader, and understandably a bit jaded. Likewise for me. I can still find some interesting books, here and there, such as an Image or Kodansha digital bundle.

My physical cut-off point was at $2-99 cover : if you were buying a lot, that was high enough, IMO.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Prince Namor]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:52 AM, Ken Aldred said:

You’re roughly my age, a veteran comics reader, and understandably a bit jaded. Likewise for me. I can still find some interesting books, here and there, such as an Image or Kodansha digital bundle.

My physical cut-off point was at $2-99 cover : if you were buying a lot, that was high enough, IMO.

Oh for sure... Image does some great stuff but I read manga more than anything. It's like a world of possibilities in those books and stories that Marvel and DC couldn't even begin to touch because of the dogma surrounding their highly valued Intellectual Properties. 

[jjonahjameson11]

On 11/13/2023 at 12:43 PM, Prince Namor said:

Most of the comic book stores that are having problems now usually fall into one or more of these categories, that they could use to improve their business:

Cut down on the Heavy reliance on New Comics for business. Your Subscription business should be a huge part of your order.

Disinterested staff that alienates customers. A killer.

No website or minimal effort to produce one (It's cheaper and easier than ever before to have a web presence, there is almost no excuse for this other than laziness) It's the #1 way, people search for comic book stores. wtf?

No mail order business. (Use eBay, Amazon, your own site... everything you can to sell. Again, if they're not doing this, it's just lazy) Yikes...

LESS Modern back issues taking up space (and ridiculously over priced), more of an understanding of how to buy OLD comics and sell them. Blow those modern back issues out the door - use them for give aways - whatever you can. They SHOW the lack of value of moderns - don't keep them around for that. OLD comics are so much better of an investment in time and money. Yep.

A kid friendly section of the store with plenty of stock.

 

 

I would add cleanliness to the list or at least an attempt to vacuum/mop the floors once a month, perhaps dust some bookshelves and countertops now and then?

[Poekaymon]

I personally dislike the millions of different covers, and have written about that before, but I can't get past the bad writing/agenda in this article here.  From the ad hominems "it should be obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells" to the sudden shift in blame on character swaps and sexual orientation.  I admit I don't follow much beyond Copper--can someone tell me what beloved characters have gone gay?  Did Superman finally get together with Jimmy Olsen?  As for toying with characters, as far as I know, Miles Morales is one of the most popular things to come out of comics in a while. I don't fault comics for trying some different things before just closing up shop--who is to say it wouldn't be even worse without these things that the article complains about.

Anyway, the declining popularity of new comics, along with the lament of the local comic store, is not shocking.  In fact, wasn't it inevitable?  Most print media has suffered the same.  Newspapers, magazines, local book sellers... all victim to fundamental shifts in the availability of entertainment.  Unlike when I was a kid, nowadays I rarely read anything in print aside for some nostalgia-based omnibuses.  I no longer subscribe to any magazines, never read a print newspaper, and hardly ever shop at brick and mortar stores.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[PopKulture]

On 11/13/2023 at 9:13 AM, Prince Namor said:

Has zero to do with wokeness. 

Except for all the people for whom it does.  

[PopKulture]

There have been many threads or posts over the years that cite cover price, gimmick covers, constant reboots, gratuitous crossovers, poor storytelling, etc. as as well as the fact that a comic might take under five minutes to read these days versus twenty minutes or more years ago. No one reason can be entirely dismissed as the reason comics seem to be in decline  (at least non-manga comics). 

Edited November 13, 2023 by PopKulture

[Dr. Haydn]

It's been about 25 years since I picked up a new comic book. I've been collecting Silver and Bronze Age trade paperbacks and omnibuses since then.

[Prince Namor]

On 11/14/2023 at 4:51 AM, Poekaymon said:

I personally dislike the millions of different covers, and have written about that before, but I can't get past the bad writing/agenda in this article here.  From the ad hominems "it should be obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells" to the sudden shift in blame on character swaps and sexual orientation.  I admit I don't follow much beyond Copper--can someone tell me what beloved characters have gone gay?  Did Superman finally get together with Jimmy Olsen? 

See, this is why the 'wokeness' thing is so over blown. There may be a couple of characters you remember from the Copper Age, out of ALL the characters you remember from the Copper Age, and none who are MAJOR stars, who are actually gay, one of which is Northstar, who they pretty much thought was gay even then. 

John Byrne - "As I have made clear many times in the decades since I created him, Northstar was Gay from “day two”. The character was not homosexual when I first conceived him. That came later, when Alpha Flight got their own series and I was looking for ways to give them depth beyond being able to survive a fight with the X-Men. I decided to make one of them Gay, and by a process of elimination settled on Northstar. Those “cliche” attributes were in place before I’d given any thought to his sexual orientation."

Who else... Superman's Son Johnathan Kent, Tim Drake (Oh, as if the sexuality of Robin's hasn't been put into question throughout the years), Iceman (who wasn't even in use as a character anymore), John Constantine (we knew dabbled), and a number of females - Harley and Poison Ivy (no one seems to mind, THERE), BatWOMAN, and Valkyrie (Well, Duh)

Mostly the wokeness was an excuse to complain about the rising diversity in comics that no one was reading any way, especially the people who were complaining about them.

Before I sold my store back in 2017, I'd have customers come in and say things like, "I hate all this wokeness. I can't believe they turned Thor into a girl!" 

In a rare moment of subtleness, I'd simply ask them if they wanted to discontinue their subscription to the book.

They'd always say the same things... "Oh, I don't actually read it..."

Of course not. I'd then correct them on a few facts. 1. They didn't turn Thor into a Girl, Jane Foster became worthy to pick up the hammer (the story behind it is actually really well done) 2. All of the Thor fans that I had who were reading it, LOVED IT. and 3. There's been over 1000 Thor stories in the 61 years he's had his own titles, thank god they didn't repeat, yet again, one of the one's they'd already told. 

(One of the things, I WOULDN'T correct them on is - If you ever want to have someone of the opposite sex have an interest in you - it might be a good idea to get out of the habit of calling a woman, 'GIRL'. You know, the same way you prefer not to be called a 'BOY'. But I always figured to hell with it, I'm not their freakin' parent.)

So yeah, there's some topics and sexuality they're playing with and talking more openly about but... the Heterosexual, White Male, Superhero is still the standard.

On 11/14/2023 at 4:51 AM, Poekaymon said:

As for toying with characters, as far as I know, Miles Morales is one of the most popular things to come out of comics in a while. I don't fault comics for trying some different things before just closing up shop--who is to say it wouldn't be even worse without these things that the article complains about.

There's been forced diversity in comics since the Copper Age. Giant Sized X-Men #1??? Monica Rambeau as Captain Marvel was the leader of the Avengers at one time. I heard someone complaining about She-Hulk being a waken idea for a TV Show. That character has been around for 40 years! Spider-Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl... Bishop in X-Men. Luke Cage... why is it suddenly bothering everyone NOW?

On 11/14/2023 at 4:51 AM, Poekaymon said:

Anyway, the declining popularity of new comics, along with the lament of the local comic store, is not shocking.  In fact, wasn't it inevitable?  Most print media has suffered the same.  Newspapers, magazines, local book sellers... all victim to fundamental shifts in the availability of entertainment.  Unlike when I was a kid, nowadays I rarely read anything in print aside for some nostalgia-based omnibuses.  I no longer subscribe to any magazines, never read a print newspaper, and hardly ever shop at brick and mortar stores.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Yes, THIS. The decline began WAY before any of this began to happen in modern comics. Realistically it began in 1971 with the jump from 15/20 cents on the cover price. Print runs declined heavily in the 70's. We just had that bubble in the 90's that temporarily made people lose their minds and it's been print runs downhill almost ever since.