MattGrant
Thursday, January 22, 2009, 08:13 AM
Well, I have to apologize to those who missed me last week (which was, y'know, everyone looking for a new CAFP column). I took an un-announced, un-expected week off. My humble apologies. With WonderCon (the big show of the Bay Area) coming up, I've been super busy trying to get everything I need to get squared away for that... So the column had to take a back seat.
This week, I'm going to side-step the planned second part to my last column, "Seb-Culture" because over the last week, something interesting has happened that I think relates to what we examine here...
While part of the message of CAFP is to convey the idea to non-readers that comics are not limited to any set of genres, its hard to deny the fact that, by and large, comics (in the US) are dominated by the genre typically stereotyped with the word "comic book." That's right, superheroes. Pretty much anyone who actively reads comics, superhero or not, probably started with a superhero books from at least one of two companies. The folks we like to refer to as "The Big Two." Marvel and DC.
Most of you are saying, at the this point, "You're preaching to the converted, shut up and tell me to give a comic to a friend already." Okay okay... well, what I'm getting at is the fact that in all likelyhood, the way things are going at the current moment, the big two are who we have to depend on to get new readers into comics. This is why a lot of our discussions tend to revolve around, how their business models may changes, different ideas for getting Big Two comics into kids hands affordably, and what not. Right?
Okay then. Well, as probably many of you noticed (if you pay attention to comics news, as I'm sure you do), both Marvel and DC had some high profile, big media blitz, draw in non-reader, hype books come out in the same week. One was a rousing success, and one a failure. I found this to be particularly interesting because these were both potentially good shots at pulling in new readers... so let's see what happened:
The Success: Obama On the Cover of Spider-Man
America has elected its first true-blue fanboy President (disregarding Reagan's affinity for Star Wars, that is). It's been pretty clear as far back as the campaign trail that creators have been tuned into this, with Alex Ross' popular painting, and Obama appearing on the cover of Savage Dragon (going into, what? 3rd and 4th prints), an issue in which Dragon endorsed Mr. Obama. Politics aside, this campaign, and Obama in particular, has really resonated with comics.
<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=2015&d=1232587951" align="left" height="250">So, it was only natch that once elected, he appear as President on the cover of a comic book, right? Well, despite some bickering between Erik Larsen and Steve Wacker, Marvel seems to have jumped on this opportunity by putting out an issue of Spider-Man featuring Obama on the cover. Marvel did a pretty good media blitz on it too (I know, just listening to the radio, I heard more than once about this particular comic).
I went to the comic shop last weekend, mostly intent on getting the other book in question, and let me tell you (and also bear in mind my LCS is a record store/comic shop) there were signs plastered everywhere with a picture of the comic and stating that the book was sold out and that they were taking orders. Once in a great while there might be a note, where the comic usually sits, if the comic sells unusually well, but more typically, if it sells out, its up to me to figure that out and get an extra copy ordered. So the fact that there were signs plastered everywhere, really says something. It says that people who come into the store and don't even know where to find Spider-Man, were coming in inquiring about the book. As it is, I hear the book has gone back to print several times.
As far as I'm concerned, this was a pretty rousing media success for Marvel. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the book was, well, sold out, I never got a chance to review it and see if they truly capitalized on this golden opportunity, or the was a one off gimmick to sell a lot of one book (let's hear what you think). The bottom line is, though, this is an example of Marvel really using outside media/publicity well, in order to draw in sales from "the outside."
The Failure: Batman Dies
I hate to say it, but here, I really think, is a really good example of the ball being dropped.
<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=2025&stc=1&d=1232611801" align="right" height="400">If anyone was going to pull in lots of new readers over this last year, it should have been DC. They had a billion dollar selling Batman movie. Wait. I said a billion dollar selling Batman movie. Listen, with numbers like that, I think saying that more than just Batman comic book fans went to see the move would be the understatement of the century. This is what you call a dream set up. All DC had to do was have some really appealing Batman comics, probably ones that feature other DC characters to get folks interested in that too wouldn't hurt. We could have pulled in a lot of folks that way.
But what was DC running during this time? Batman RIP.
Whether or not you enjoyed this, its safe to say that this was not the kind of story a new reader, jazzed about Dark Knight, would immediately take to. RIP confused even some dedicated Batman readers, not to mention the folks who would picking this up wondering who the heck Damien is, or what Bat-Mite or the Batman of ArrKeeLaaan (or whatever) is all about.
Even if no Batman movie had come out at the same time this ran, because of the selling point of the storyline, Batman possibly dying at the end, the storyline would have been sure to draw in some extra readers, just to see what it was all about. Unfortunately, at best, the comic was written specifically for comic book readers only.
So then the hype was, Batman dies at the end. Well, I'm told this was hyped. I saw stuff in the normal comic book news channels, but outside of that I heard nothing. If you happened to miss the book, Batman falls out of helicopter into water and his body is never recovered. This was pretty much touted as his dead for about 5 minutes or so (real world time) before it was revealed that, okay, he wasn't dead, but he will die in Final Crisis #6.
So now we're onto the supposed hype (once again, outside of normal comics news channels, I heard nothing) of "Batman is really dying this time."
Let's pause for a minute and remember that the Death of Batman, particularly with the amplified interest in the character thanks to Dark Knight, could pretty much be a sure fire huge thing. The planets have aligned, and now is the time to capitalize on that perfect moment to seize tons of potential new readers... right?
So after killing the shock by having a fake out death, where to they put the real death? Randomly in the middle of the second to last issue of a continuity heavy event mini-series. Let's not even go into the complications that Final Crisis itself has met, just try and picture in your mind, someone who has never read a comic book before, picking up Final Crisis #6 as their first comic. What would they think?
Compare this to Superman #75, twenty two splash pages of Superman duking it out with Doomsday, who is a new character, but is pretty clearly defined as a 100% bad motor scooter, defeating him, and ultimately suffering the ultimate consequence. Epic, no? If I just started reading comics, I'd be impressed (though the format admittedly was atypical).
Now look at Batman's death in Final Crisis #6. Three pages nestled in a comic that you pretty much need an encyclopedic knowledge of the DCU to appreciate. Batman pops literally out of no where and shoots Darksied (I admit, Darksied is cool, but layfolk don't know this, and he's certainly not from Batman's rogues gallery) saying something along the lines of "I got you!" Meanwhile Darksied shoots back with some beams from his eyes instantly killing him. Fight over. Couple pages later Superman shows up with Batman's corpse for a photo-op.
I'm not bashing the book outright here, keep that in mind. Overall, I think the books are decent enough on their own, but as a huge opportunity to pull in potential new readers (even just from a business perspective), I think that some really poor choices were made with the overall handling of this thing. Ultimately, what should have been a huge occurrence, was watered down by the false first death. The media exposure that should have been capitalized on to draw folks into the books was missed. Finally, even if folks had been drawn in, I don't think they would have been hung onto because the actual even was lackluster and part of something a passive reader would never hope to understand/care about.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, there's a lesson to be learned here. I don't know DC will ever have another film with the success of Dark Knight, in fact, most films will not have that kind of success, period. So, I think a pretty big opportunity was missed here, for DC.
Good for Marvel for jumping on the Obama idea. Sure, it may not have initially been 100% their idea. In fact, I'm pretty certain (despite what either side may say) that they looked at the success of the Savage Dragon book and said, "Hey, we've got Spider-Man, we could sell even more!" So, good for them for doing it. Hopefully, some good comes of it.
I hope I didn't come off as a downer on DC or bashing the Batman thing. This was truly from a CAFP perspective only. As most of you probably are aware, when it comes to the Big Two, I am most certainly a DC guy.
***By the way, I wrote much of this before having an opportunity to read Seb's great column, Seb-Standard, this week, which focuses the Obama Spider-Man issue - a good read, and I think our columns compliment each other nicely... without me even planning it! Go check it out!
Next Week
More than likely, I will be continuing the "Seb-Culture" column with part 2 of that.
In the mean time, find a clear concise and GOOD comic book, and give it to a friend or a stranger!
COMICS ARE FOR PEOPLE!
______________________________________________________
Matt Grant is a graphic designer and self-publishing comics and webcomics creator. His comic MastorisM can be read at www.MastorisM.com and updates Tuesdays and Thursdays. A long time comics fanatic and advocate for the medium, Matt eats, sleeps, and breathes comics. Yes, that mean's he poops them too.
Matt would love nothing more than to hear from fans, retailers, creators, and publishers that have anything relevant to contribute to his column. He believes that, only by working together, we can bring the comics medium to a wider deserving audience. Please feel free to email him at matt@projectfanboy.com (mailto:matt@projectfanboy.com), private message him here, or harass him on the street! Matt does not claim to be an industry expert in any way shape or form, but rather an opinionated pundit on the sidelines.
This week, I'm going to side-step the planned second part to my last column, "Seb-Culture" because over the last week, something interesting has happened that I think relates to what we examine here...
While part of the message of CAFP is to convey the idea to non-readers that comics are not limited to any set of genres, its hard to deny the fact that, by and large, comics (in the US) are dominated by the genre typically stereotyped with the word "comic book." That's right, superheroes. Pretty much anyone who actively reads comics, superhero or not, probably started with a superhero books from at least one of two companies. The folks we like to refer to as "The Big Two." Marvel and DC.
Most of you are saying, at the this point, "You're preaching to the converted, shut up and tell me to give a comic to a friend already." Okay okay... well, what I'm getting at is the fact that in all likelyhood, the way things are going at the current moment, the big two are who we have to depend on to get new readers into comics. This is why a lot of our discussions tend to revolve around, how their business models may changes, different ideas for getting Big Two comics into kids hands affordably, and what not. Right?
Okay then. Well, as probably many of you noticed (if you pay attention to comics news, as I'm sure you do), both Marvel and DC had some high profile, big media blitz, draw in non-reader, hype books come out in the same week. One was a rousing success, and one a failure. I found this to be particularly interesting because these were both potentially good shots at pulling in new readers... so let's see what happened:
The Success: Obama On the Cover of Spider-Man
America has elected its first true-blue fanboy President (disregarding Reagan's affinity for Star Wars, that is). It's been pretty clear as far back as the campaign trail that creators have been tuned into this, with Alex Ross' popular painting, and Obama appearing on the cover of Savage Dragon (going into, what? 3rd and 4th prints), an issue in which Dragon endorsed Mr. Obama. Politics aside, this campaign, and Obama in particular, has really resonated with comics.
<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=2015&d=1232587951" align="left" height="250">So, it was only natch that once elected, he appear as President on the cover of a comic book, right? Well, despite some bickering between Erik Larsen and Steve Wacker, Marvel seems to have jumped on this opportunity by putting out an issue of Spider-Man featuring Obama on the cover. Marvel did a pretty good media blitz on it too (I know, just listening to the radio, I heard more than once about this particular comic).
I went to the comic shop last weekend, mostly intent on getting the other book in question, and let me tell you (and also bear in mind my LCS is a record store/comic shop) there were signs plastered everywhere with a picture of the comic and stating that the book was sold out and that they were taking orders. Once in a great while there might be a note, where the comic usually sits, if the comic sells unusually well, but more typically, if it sells out, its up to me to figure that out and get an extra copy ordered. So the fact that there were signs plastered everywhere, really says something. It says that people who come into the store and don't even know where to find Spider-Man, were coming in inquiring about the book. As it is, I hear the book has gone back to print several times.
As far as I'm concerned, this was a pretty rousing media success for Marvel. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the book was, well, sold out, I never got a chance to review it and see if they truly capitalized on this golden opportunity, or the was a one off gimmick to sell a lot of one book (let's hear what you think). The bottom line is, though, this is an example of Marvel really using outside media/publicity well, in order to draw in sales from "the outside."
The Failure: Batman Dies
I hate to say it, but here, I really think, is a really good example of the ball being dropped.
<img src="http://www.projectfanboy.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=2025&stc=1&d=1232611801" align="right" height="400">If anyone was going to pull in lots of new readers over this last year, it should have been DC. They had a billion dollar selling Batman movie. Wait. I said a billion dollar selling Batman movie. Listen, with numbers like that, I think saying that more than just Batman comic book fans went to see the move would be the understatement of the century. This is what you call a dream set up. All DC had to do was have some really appealing Batman comics, probably ones that feature other DC characters to get folks interested in that too wouldn't hurt. We could have pulled in a lot of folks that way.
But what was DC running during this time? Batman RIP.
Whether or not you enjoyed this, its safe to say that this was not the kind of story a new reader, jazzed about Dark Knight, would immediately take to. RIP confused even some dedicated Batman readers, not to mention the folks who would picking this up wondering who the heck Damien is, or what Bat-Mite or the Batman of ArrKeeLaaan (or whatever) is all about.
Even if no Batman movie had come out at the same time this ran, because of the selling point of the storyline, Batman possibly dying at the end, the storyline would have been sure to draw in some extra readers, just to see what it was all about. Unfortunately, at best, the comic was written specifically for comic book readers only.
So then the hype was, Batman dies at the end. Well, I'm told this was hyped. I saw stuff in the normal comic book news channels, but outside of that I heard nothing. If you happened to miss the book, Batman falls out of helicopter into water and his body is never recovered. This was pretty much touted as his dead for about 5 minutes or so (real world time) before it was revealed that, okay, he wasn't dead, but he will die in Final Crisis #6.
So now we're onto the supposed hype (once again, outside of normal comics news channels, I heard nothing) of "Batman is really dying this time."
Let's pause for a minute and remember that the Death of Batman, particularly with the amplified interest in the character thanks to Dark Knight, could pretty much be a sure fire huge thing. The planets have aligned, and now is the time to capitalize on that perfect moment to seize tons of potential new readers... right?
So after killing the shock by having a fake out death, where to they put the real death? Randomly in the middle of the second to last issue of a continuity heavy event mini-series. Let's not even go into the complications that Final Crisis itself has met, just try and picture in your mind, someone who has never read a comic book before, picking up Final Crisis #6 as their first comic. What would they think?
Compare this to Superman #75, twenty two splash pages of Superman duking it out with Doomsday, who is a new character, but is pretty clearly defined as a 100% bad motor scooter, defeating him, and ultimately suffering the ultimate consequence. Epic, no? If I just started reading comics, I'd be impressed (though the format admittedly was atypical).
Now look at Batman's death in Final Crisis #6. Three pages nestled in a comic that you pretty much need an encyclopedic knowledge of the DCU to appreciate. Batman pops literally out of no where and shoots Darksied (I admit, Darksied is cool, but layfolk don't know this, and he's certainly not from Batman's rogues gallery) saying something along the lines of "I got you!" Meanwhile Darksied shoots back with some beams from his eyes instantly killing him. Fight over. Couple pages later Superman shows up with Batman's corpse for a photo-op.
I'm not bashing the book outright here, keep that in mind. Overall, I think the books are decent enough on their own, but as a huge opportunity to pull in potential new readers (even just from a business perspective), I think that some really poor choices were made with the overall handling of this thing. Ultimately, what should have been a huge occurrence, was watered down by the false first death. The media exposure that should have been capitalized on to draw folks into the books was missed. Finally, even if folks had been drawn in, I don't think they would have been hung onto because the actual even was lackluster and part of something a passive reader would never hope to understand/care about.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, there's a lesson to be learned here. I don't know DC will ever have another film with the success of Dark Knight, in fact, most films will not have that kind of success, period. So, I think a pretty big opportunity was missed here, for DC.
Good for Marvel for jumping on the Obama idea. Sure, it may not have initially been 100% their idea. In fact, I'm pretty certain (despite what either side may say) that they looked at the success of the Savage Dragon book and said, "Hey, we've got Spider-Man, we could sell even more!" So, good for them for doing it. Hopefully, some good comes of it.
I hope I didn't come off as a downer on DC or bashing the Batman thing. This was truly from a CAFP perspective only. As most of you probably are aware, when it comes to the Big Two, I am most certainly a DC guy.
***By the way, I wrote much of this before having an opportunity to read Seb's great column, Seb-Standard, this week, which focuses the Obama Spider-Man issue - a good read, and I think our columns compliment each other nicely... without me even planning it! Go check it out!
Next Week
More than likely, I will be continuing the "Seb-Culture" column with part 2 of that.
In the mean time, find a clear concise and GOOD comic book, and give it to a friend or a stranger!
COMICS ARE FOR PEOPLE!
______________________________________________________
Matt Grant is a graphic designer and self-publishing comics and webcomics creator. His comic MastorisM can be read at www.MastorisM.com and updates Tuesdays and Thursdays. A long time comics fanatic and advocate for the medium, Matt eats, sleeps, and breathes comics. Yes, that mean's he poops them too.
Matt would love nothing more than to hear from fans, retailers, creators, and publishers that have anything relevant to contribute to his column. He believes that, only by working together, we can bring the comics medium to a wider deserving audience. Please feel free to email him at matt@projectfanboy.com (mailto:matt@projectfanboy.com), private message him here, or harass him on the street! Matt does not claim to be an industry expert in any way shape or form, but rather an opinionated pundit on the sidelines.