Comic Book Community – Publishers

Publishers have a huge impact on the Comic Book Community.  They have an impact on the creative end on the industry and also how the characters are distributed.  Most people know that comics are distributed through Diamond Comics Distributors, which has exclusive distribution agreements for comic distribution for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image and IDW comics as well as some other independent comic book companies.  While other distributors have been able to fill in some of the gaps, they tend to be back ups rather than complete replacements for Diamond.  The influence of comic books and comic book characters is no longer felt just in printed comic books.  Comics have been in the movie business since the serialized silent film The Silent Shadow of the Bat-man in the 1920s depicted the origin of Batman.  Animated versions of comic book characters started with Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoons in the 1940s.  TV sparked a revival in superhero print comic books with the 1960s Batman TV show.  At the same time, licensed products became popular and t-shirts, toys and bedding began to spring up in store across the nation.  The reach of influence of comic books in the mainstream has only increased as the comic books have expanded beyond superhero tales.  Comic book based movies are consistently the top box office earners with lots on mainstream and independent comic book movies in the pipeline.  The comic industry has made several attempts at digital distribution at comics, but they never had an easy way to distribute the comics at a low price point in a timely manner until recently.  The Ipad and the Comixology application seem to have the presentation, delivery and cost covered.  So with the comic industry seemingly at the peak of its game, what more could publishers do for the Comic Book Community?

All Ages

The Comic Book Community needs more all ages comic books of all genres.  Starting in the late 1980s, comic books started to mature with their readers, but there was no equivalent replacement that allowed younger readers started.  There have been efforts, but until recently most of them involved taking animated TV shows and making comic books based upon them.  DC has really made an effort to create comics that can be read by much younger readers that have humor and tone down the violence, even cartoon violence.  Boom Studios has the license to create comics based on Disney and Pixar characters, which have been a welcome edition to comic book racks.  What the industry needs is something like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Captain Underpants that originates in the comic book market instead of the book market.

More exposure

DC and Marvel are both owed by multimedia conglomerates.  They should be using this to their full advantage.  DC is owned by Time Warner, a motion picture and print media company.  Marvel is owned by Disney, a television, motion picture and amusement park company.  Recently, DC comics had the first page of their Wednesday Comics comic book printed in USA Today.  DC should look for opportunities to do this in the future.  They could be serialized stories exclusive to the newspaper or magazine or reprints from the comic books.  Both Disney and Time Warner have the ability to place comic books in the background of TV shows and movies.  Extras could be wearing character t-shirts.  They could be reading comic books.  They don’t even have to be a certain characters comics.  Just showing people reading comics in public could increase the exposure.  Including the comic shop locator website and phone number at the end of the DC and Marvel movies and trailers is a small thing that could have an impact.  I’ve read that Marvel has already started putting Marvel products in their Disney stores and amusement parks.  Increasing the amount of products and eventually themed rides in the Disney parks will further the public’s familiarity with the characters and indirectly with comic books.

It’s a Digital World

The big controversy over last few years has been whether or not mainstream comic book companies will start selling digital versions of their comic books and how they will do it.  I think that the bigger controversy will be whether comic books have the digital success of music or the relative failure of the TV industry.  The music industry was able to pull out of the death spiral that it was in and music pirating thanks to Itunes, which allowed people to buy individual songs or entire albums.  It gave people a choice and yet the album format hasn’t gone away as some people predicted.  TV on the other had tried to sell their product commercial free for a price, then they pulled back on it and allowed their shows to be played free with commercial interruptions.  Some networks had full episodes for free with commercials and then pulled them on play clips or recaps of the shows.  Currently of the major comic book companies, only Marvel has their comic for sale digitally.  The cost is $1.99 a comic and the books are all older material.  I’ve already heard complaints that it’s too much per an issue and that they should be released at the same time or before the paper copies.  I’ve heard 99 cents (like a song) should be the cost.  The problem is that although the cost of creative talent makes up a lot of the cost of a comic book and depending on how you distribute it, the publisher still ends up paying either Comixology or Apple through the IBooks a percentage that is nowhere near zero.  So the idea that going digital automatically reduces what someone should pay for the same product by 75% is a little outrageous.  I’ve heard a lot of people cite that the reason they want digital down loads is to be able to carry hundreds or thousands of comics with them and reduce the amount of long boxes or book shelf space at home.  The other reason reduced price doesn’t make sense is that there are few element s of society where convenience doesn’t come with a premium price.  Want to get a letter delivered quicker?  Overnight costs more.  Want to have someone park your car?  Valet isn’t free.  Want to buy Milk while you are at the gas station? It’s going to cost you more.  The convenience of having the comics digitally should cost as much as the paper copies for the first several months they are out and then they can go into the digital “back issue bin”.  The main reason that digital and paper comics should have an equal footing initially is that until Publishers can build up a digital readership their current only distribution method is through Comic Book Shops.  The transition needs to be gradual so that Comic Book Shops can adapt because for a lot of cities and towns the Comic Book Shop is what holds the Comic Book Community together.  We will talk what they can do to adapt next week when the topic is the Retailer’s role in the Comic Book Community.

What kinds of things do you think Publishers can do to support the Comic Book Community?  What is the right price for a digital comic book?  Would you be will to pay the same price as a print comic to get at the same time digitally?  I want to hear your ideas and opinions in the comment area below.

Shawn DeMumbrum
SpazDog Comics
www.spazdogcomics.com
SpazDog Press
www.spazdogpress.com

Email: shawn@spazdogcomics.com
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