Etc Cetera.....

by Mike Weaver

Gags, Gimmicks, and Good Business

This week, I'm going to get back to what this column was originally intended to be about: my view on important events and trends within the comic industry, as well as any and all merchandise and other media featuring licensed comics characters. Now, I've been a long time comic reader, since the mid to late 1970's. I remember, way back when, somebody asked Stan Lee, "Why is Fantastic Four labeled 'The World's Greatest Comics Magazine'?" The answer that Stan gave was that he just put that sobriquet on the title, figuring it would help the comic sell, and since no one disputed it, it therefore must be true. That's why Marvel's first family launched the Silver Age of comics, because Stan unabashedly plugged everything in that manner. If you look at the early 1960's crop of Marvel covers, note how many things that "you wouldn't believe" transpired. How many times you'd "never guess the ending". Everything that happened would "change the way you look at comics forever". Marvel was one of the first to capitalize fully on the free advertising that every cover represented, and it continued well into the 1980's. Then, suddenly, once word of the mammoth prices that rare comics fetched in the marketplace reached the ears of speculators, the emphasis shifted. Comics then sold because they were the first issue, or because they were sold sealed in a polythene bag, the theory being that most people would buy two so that they could read one and keep the other unmolested for later large cash. Hologram covers, parchment covers, foil covers, and even a pop up cover were used largely because they would drive the price and demand up, and also because they were very difficult to keep in near mint condition after a reading. Now, there was one obvious problem, namely, too much of a good thing. You can blame the death (and resurrection) of Superman with its obvious stunt writing, you can blame X-Men (second series) #1 with its multiple covers, all of which were put together on the last cover marketed, you can blame X-Force #1 and its "random collectible card in bag" tactic, but the fact remains: the bottom dropped out quickly on the overly marketed issues. For me, it was the year that all the X-titles crossed over (with hologram covers on each one) AND Avengers had 3 mega expensive foil cover issues in that same year, one of which was a cross over with the X-titles right after their hologram issues. It all added up to an awful lot of cash, and, to top it off, shoddy story telling. After all, if you were only buying it for the collectability factor, who cared what words were in it? Well, I cared, and I stopped buying.

Fast forward to years later, when the X-Men movie got me back into comics again. I was hesitant to pick up any of my old favorites, fearing that I would hardly recognize the characters, seven years of ongoing plots later. I was picking up things that had crept into existence in the interim, like Thunderbolts and Exiles, and staying far away from the X-titles, despite Claremont being back at the reins. I did notice, however, that there didn't seem to be any huge crossovers anymore. Nothing I read truly necessitated me picking up some other title I didn't care about to get "the full story", not even Annuals, which Marvel had been doing multi-title crossovers in since the late 80's. Nothing had hologram covers, covers intended for viewing under a black light, 3d covers, or anything of the sort, although it seemed that every now and then a major comic would have an alternate cover (limited to just two total, though, thankfully). And even when there were alternates, it seemed that both options were just as available. DC was putting out trade paperbacks as quickly as they could for most of their hot selling titles, meaning that you didn't have to buy everything right that instant to be able to read the story. Marvel and DC were both starting to mine their older properties, with somewhat mixed results. Let's face it, in the age of superstar artists, a Kirby drawn book doesn't hold up that well, mostly because he had to pencil five or so titles to make the equivalent of what a second tier artist makes today on one title. And nowadays, it seems optional for the penciller to get it done on time.

So, back to the point. It struck me that there really wasn't a single obvious marketing tactic in use on any of the comics. No Stan Lee style text boxes, no hologram covers, no special collector's editions. I found myself wondering what WAS selling comics these days? A look at the Diamond distribution list of titles sold answered my question: not a whole heck of a lot. Sure, the movies were helping to some degree, it got me and several others back in the stores. But there needed to be more than that in order to reach the true sales potential. After all, it wasn't the companies themselves that were making the movies. Where was the shameless self-promotion?

Then, I started poking around the internet. If there's one thing Jemas and Quesada do, it's talk a lot of smack on the internet, where they get the maximum amount of publicity for the minimum amount of money. It's really quite ingenious, throwing things out there for the fan sites to speculate over, or praise, or (more often than not) complain about. There is, after all, no such thing as bad press. DC did a ten cent issue of Batman, which they sneakily made part one of a major crossover to encourage purchasers to buy several comics that did NOT cost ten cents. Sure, lots of retailers bought heavy on it, and inserted it into newspapers, mailed it out, or found some other way to get the Bat signal shining across the neighborhood. It really, in the end analysis, wasn't that good, in my opinion. The art was far from top notch, the story seemed designed solely to make you want to read the rest of it (which is something that usually has the opposite effect on me, in comics), and there was absolutely no resolution. It didn't have me clamoring back to the store for issue two and up.

Next up, Free Comic Book Day. A retailer suggested this to all the major publishers, and it seemed like an awful good idea. Many other industries (particularly Baskin Robbins) had benefited greatly from giving out free product on one specific day. Several publishers released low cost reprints of popular comics to shops, and it seemed to go very well. A lot of new readers wandered in to grab a copy of Ultimate Spider-Man, as well as some long time aficionados who wanted to try something new, but just didn't want to pay for it. The truth of the matter is, Ultimate Spidey couldn't sell a lot better than it already was, and the other titles were for more limited audiences. It was still good in theory, because it got people in the door.

Around this time, Marvel announced the upcoming nine cent issue of Fantastic Four. Quesada proudly said that he wasn't above stealing the one good idea DC had had recently, and correcting its shortcomings. FF #60 would be a self contained issue, done by a relatively popular creative team as their first issue of the comic. Now, I've never been the biggest fan of anime style art, but I understand that it's rather popular, and, for that style, Mike Wieringo is rather good. Mark Waid has always been one of those writers, to me, who was always solid but never a superstar, mostly because he never seemed to take big chances with the characters. Taking chances is the whole reason Grant Morrison and Alan Moore can, more or less, do no wrong in the comics field. It can backfire, though. Just ask Howard Mackie.

Hot on the heels of this, a bizarre little publicity stunt started brewing in Marvel's corporate offices. Peter David, writer of Captain Marvel, was angry that the publishers were going to be raising the price on their lesser selling comics. You guessed it, Captain Marvel was one of said lesser selling comics. He released a statement to several fan sites stating that he was willing to take a pay cut to keep the cost of the comic down, and also blaming Marvel for not advertising the comic better. Quesada and Jemas chimed in, insisting that the title would remain at its elevated price, and David's page rate would not be reduced. They additionally challenged that they had products that could easily outsell Captain Marvel, implying that the once popular David was washed up. It's hard to pinpoint exactly how much of this was pure publicity stunt, because so much of it was believable, right up until the time that Jemas and Quesada revealed their projects, Marville and Ultimate Adventures of Hawk Owl and Zippy (thankfully shortened to just the first two words), respectively. It was announced that Captain Marvel #1 would go against these staggering juggernauts of projects, and the winner in sales would become an ongoing series. Three guesses who the winner would be…here's a hint, it starts with a C.

Bit it didn't end there, oh no. Amid speculation that all three titles were just alternate covers for Captain Marvel, the Diamond Distribution sales figures for the three came out. And, in a stunning display of marketing gerrymandering, all three titles appeared to win. Captain Marvel had a pricier alternate cover edition, so held two separate spots on the charts. The two lowest spots of the three titles, but added together, it was the winner. Marville held the highest position, since it only had one price point and seemed like it might actually be worth a glance, and Ultimate Adventures had the highest sales in dollars, since its price point was higher than Marville's. Everything won, and lost, simultaneously. For what its worth, all three titles were actually unique, disproving the "multiple covers of Captain Marvel" theory. I only, personally, bought Ultimate Adventures, because I felt bad that it was the only one still lingering in the comics shop the next week. It's not bad, and has a certain charm as a Batman parody. I wouldn't continue buying it, by any stretch of the imagination, but I hated to see it totally blown away by the other two when the actual sales figures hit. The entire promotion shows that just when you think you have Marvel's new marketing team figured out, they surprise you. I don't think anyone expected the muddy water tie situation that the promotion ended in, but I still guarantee that Captain Marvel will be the only one still among us in a year or so. In any event, I think it's safe to say that Quesada and Jemas have made Stan Lee proud by capitalizing on the free marketing space available to them. In Stan's day it was the cover, but in this brave new world, it's the internet that gets more visibility. One thing that hasn't changed is the method of selling. Comics are a dynamic medium, and have always sold themselves on the amount of action and excitement within. Filling your marketing strategy with those two elements seems like the logical way to go, and it's as true now as it was in 1963.