How Are We Going To Save The Comic Industry? Flashpoint Buttons!
Dateline: Dallas. The ComicsPRO Annual Membership Meeting. Improving comic stores and growing the market were the themes at this year’s ComicsPRO Annual Membership Meeting. Comic book retails descended upon Texas to meet with over 20 sponsors… including top comic publishers and distributors. This year’s topic? “Ideas for marketing and metrics to improve efficiency in comic book store sales.” Simply put: How do we get our asses out of the fire, just a little bit longer?
Many notable names and faces spoke, including Spawn’s creator (you do remember Spawn, don’t you?) Todd MacFarlane, IDW’s CEO Ted Adams, as well as DC big-wigs, Dan Didio and Jim Lee. While we won’t bore you with all the details… suffice to say? We’re not holding our breath for a revolution. As tablets become prevalent with hipsters and the Beiber-clan, so will digital comic distribution. And while the big boys have made a few comments regarding integration of digital comic purchasing THROUGH comic stores… face it. If you can buy comics in your underwear in mom’s basement, or have to actually put on pants… we’re betting at least SOME people will choose to stay home. That’s less business for the stores. With 2010 comic sale’s down from the year before, and many stores facing diminishing returns… it was DC’s marketing initiative that caught our eye.
So, what did DC bring to the table to help the local comic store drive the unwashed masses to their brick and mortars? Buttons! Glorious Flashpoint buttons! Less plastic then those Blackest Night rings you all died to get… But perhaps with a pointy end, allowing you to proclaim to the world your love of Cyborg, or Casino-Batman via your trendy messenger bag.
This is supposed to drive us back to the stores in droves? This is what will save a dying comic store from shutting it’s doors? 2 cents of plastic and tin, with nifty logo celebrating yet-another-crossover we’ll likely mock and or forget by next year? Well ComicMixers… what do YOU think?
As someone who has most of thos rings and a bunch of those buttons from conventions, I don’t know if I can say anything. Then again, I got most of those free or with comic I already bought, items like this have never convinced me to buy a book I wasn’t already planning to buy.
My personal thought is for each publisher to organize events like Free Comic book day. With all the hype behind the death of Johnny Storm, imagine if Marvel was organizing events all over the country as a kind of Wake for the fallen FF member the month after his death for the weekend of the next issue?
The Superman story going on right now has had set backs, but I’d be curious to see what kind of turnouts/ sales bumps comic shop in the towns he’s gon through have had, and imagine what kind of improvements they might see with big name support/ involvment.
DC will probably argue that they’re trying to help retailers by keeping the price of their comics at $2.99. They had a decent online marketing campaign for that initiative, so couldn’t they have spent the button money on some ‘Support your local retailer’ adverts? I don’t think that’s part of their long-term plan.
The major publishers are seriously increasing their online comics libraries, and I expect they will soon start publishing ‘digital-only’ titles involving major characters. One day they will find it no longer financially-viable to publish hard copies of their books.
Retailers are likely to stock more titles from independent publishers and self-publishers. Comic shops will become more like specialist bookshops offering a wider range of indie titles and a more involved, enriching buying experience than ‘point and click’. It could be a win-win for both comic shops and smaller publishers if they work on initiatives to support each other over the crux point of the next 5-10 years.
Well, that’s my two cents worth!
Phil Hampton
The Comic Academy
Hey, comic retailers, maybe you can open a record store. I hear they are the next big thing.
That’s so helpful.
I was making a point. If you’re a comic retailer and you’re waiting for DC to ‘save’ you, you’re going to be out of luck. Did the music industry save Sam Goody or any of the other record stores? Is the book publishing industry jumping in to save Borders? In general, print is dying off and moving to digital. Comics, as a part of print, are going to move too. Sure, print comics will still be available (probably in the form of trades), but a few plastic rings or metal pins aren’t going to stop the transition. If you’re a comic book retailer, I hope you can see the writing on the wall…