Home
D&D
Music
Banner Archive

Marvel Comics Timeline
Godzilla Timeline


RSS

   

« Cancer Patient Grows Replacement Ear | Main | Good Name For a Band »

Upselling your existing client base

Two related items in the world of Marvel publishing. The first is a follow-up to the variant cover conversation started by Brian Hibbs a while back. The latest is by Rich Johnston, which is significant because as both he and the Beat point out, Johnston used to be (and to a degree, still is) a booster of variant covers. But Johnston draws parallels to the boom/bust in the 90s and suggests that we're close to another tipping point. Beyond that prediction i don't think he says much that Hibbs hasn't already said, but i do note that Johnston says quite explicitly the same thing that i mentioned in my previous post, which is that the market is being (artificially?) propped up by those poor schmucks people whose interest are different than mine that buy every variant.

The second topic is related to this thing that we're now calling double-shipping (in the late 80s and 90s, the X-Books just proudly shipped on a bi-weekly basis in the summers and we thanked them for it, by gum). In order to make bi-weekly status, artist are, well, cutting some corners, as this Beat article points out, showing Mike Perkins cribbing directly from Alan Davis (hey, might as well copy from the best), and of course mentioning Greg Land as well. Marvel owns the rights to those pencils so there's no legal issue here, but people are understandably upset. I'm a big fan of Godzilla movies, which re-use footage like nobody's business, and i would never have noticed the copying if it wasn't pointed out to me, so i don't feel like this is an egregious harm, but it certainly shows the conundrum Marvel is in. As the fan base continues to dwindle they need to get more and more money out of those of us who are left. Variant covers are one way but the people interested in that are a subset of an already small group (The Loyal 100,000). Double-shipping popular titles is another way, but it can result in an inferior product. Both strategies have risk.

It's actually kind of interesting being here during the End Times and watching the industry die its slow death.

By fnord12 | October 3, 2012, 12:55 PM | Comics