From: lsmith@mega.cs.umn.edu (Lance "Squiddie" Smith)
Subject: Re: Superman (some more stuff) ...
Organization: The Supersquids of the Poor
Distribution: na 
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 02:33:14 GMT

In article <22NOV199220500488@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov> sewon@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (WAYNE WONG) writes:
>I dropped be yet another comic book store today, and the entire Superman: 
>Doomsday set was being sold for $45.00 (yeah, that's what I thought too!).
>Sets were actually being bought.  I'm surprised no one has posted to rac.
>marketplace to sell SM #75 for $100.00.  Yet.

Give it time... 

>The goofy thing is, DC and just about every other comic company is going to 
>use the Doomsday fiasco as an example: let's kill off a major character and 
>get the media to hype it up so we can all get rich.  Who's next on the 
>death list?  I already posted about a month ago that a Marvel editor said 
>Marvel has compiled a death list of over 10 "major" characters who may be 
>killed off this coming year.  

We could argue that the death of Robin served as the prototype for the death
of Superman. Did we see an increase in the number of characters killed after
that? I really can't remember.

The only problem with killing off superheroes is they have to be brandname
superheroes. I doubt you'll ever see this sort of mania again just because 
Superman is probably the most well-known comic book character. If you 
killed off Booster Gold you would see an increase in sales, but nothing 
like what you've seen here.

The characters with enough name recognition to trigger similar, but smaller,
reactions might be Batman, Spiderman, The Hulk, and maybe Wonder Woman if 
they got some outrage from the NOW. You really have to get the attention 
of casual buyer and the non-buyer. While killing Wolverine would cause a
big stir with casual buyers, most non-buyers wouldn't notice.

>I'm starting to wonder if DC is really going to profit from Supe's death.  
>If all the Superman related books are "cancelled" for a year until they 
>bring him back, that's a lot of comic book sales that DC will be missing 
>out on.  Not exactly the smart thing to do for a company that is trying to 
>gain a larger chunk of the marketshare.  Sure Doomsday boosted DC's 
>standing for a couple of months, but what about the months after things 
>quiet down?  DC had better plan to hype up Superman's return as much as 
>they did for his death, otherwise all the non-comics people buying #75 are 
>going to forget about this fiasco.

A full year? I'd guess maybe 6 months if we're lucky. Others have said less. 

Considering how many copies they sold and the seeming demand for the
paperback, I don't think DC would lose any money if they let it disappear
for a year. They just sold a whopping amount of issues and many at a price
greater than they usual get. They'll probably sell a bunch more when he
comes back and depending on what they do with him, the orders per issue 
should be higher for the revived series.
 
How much does it matter whether the non-buyers come back for his revival? 
Considering the chaos I've seen in the last couple days, I'd think that 
many stores are going to increase their orders so that they have enough
for the demand. Shops may get stuck with the Superman rises from the
grave issue, but DC will do OK.

For what it's worth, the hype has started already. The speculators are 
assuming he'll be back. The non-buyers won't buy as many (unless they 
too start to speculate or otherwise act like lemmings) but they still buy
a lot. The quality of #75 probably won't affect the sales of the return. To 
many people that's what a comic looks and reads like. 

----------------------------
  Lance "Cr2O3.2H2O" Smith | "Don't think I'll ever get used to your strange
    (lsmith@cs.umn.edu)    |  clothes or that upper class, public school accent,
 Using up all that promise |  but you're all right. Let's go to the pub. Your
   I showed in my youth.   |  treat."      _Mr Peanut meets John Constantine_
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc