From: lsmith@deci.cs.umn.edu (Lance "Squiddie" Smith)
Subject: Re: Why Vertigo? Was: Marvel copies DC... again
Organization: Little Business Squids of the Poor
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 04:29:03 GMT

In <1993Jan6.145905.13727@schbbs.mot.com> Chagnon_A@msm.cdx.mot.com (Andrew Chagnon) writes:

>Given the discussion that last month Sandman was ranked #75 in sales and
>Hellblazer wasn't in the top 100, why is DC creating the Vertigo line?

Just a clarification, that was October.

I was looking at the figures for December (these are based on orders to
the distributors) and Sandman was up to 64th position. I still don't recall
any of the other soon-to-be-Vertigo titles making the top 100. 

>There doesn't seem to be a sound business reason to do it from my viewpoint.
>Are there a large number of 'mature audience' readers out there that DC is
>tapping into, or are they hoping to create a new market of Vertigo readers?

>Judging from the sales stats, it seems that market does not exist, and DC is
>hoping to create one. 

It's hard to judge a book's success from the Top 100. While making the 
charts means the book is doing well, not making it doesn't make it a failure.
Sandman's 75th spot on the October chart still puts it ahead of all but
approx. 12 other DC books. (October seems to have been a bad month for DC.)
Marvel controls a large segment of the market (they also put out a lot of
books) and so they have a large portion of the Top 100 list. That list 
also had some of the Image titles which have yet to see the light of day.

People have pretty well hashed out the reason for the Vertigo splits.
(There were some talk about it being a preventative action to avoid infighting
at DC. Probably just a nasty  rumor.) Let me see if I can sum it up.

- Different directions. DC superhero titles have an image that is different 
  than the mature titles. Vertigo allows the mature titles to exist outside
  of the perception of DC. 

- Building a market. People buy Sandman or Hellblazer and like it. By 
  grouping the titles under the Vertigo imprint, these people would know
  where to go for similar titles. I think this is a major point. I see a
  lot of people (many of them women) coming in just to buy Sandman. Vertigo
  should get some of them to try the other titles.

- Building increased retailer support. This sort of goes with the increased
  market. If a retailer sees he or she is selling more copies of one Vertigo
  title, he is may try ordering more of the other existing or new Vertigo 
  titles just to see if they'll sell.

- Increased attention. Like the Death of Superman, the birth of a new imprint
  should attract attention. DC has done a lot to attract attention to Vertigo.
  Special covers in January, promotional kits, big push behind the Death 
  mini-series, etc. This sort of marketing should increase sales, even if only
  temporarily. You may see some increased sales to speculators due to the
  new name, too.

- Advertising. I don't know how big a concern this is, but having a "mature"
  line allows you to market those titles differently to potential advertisers.
  If you can say these comics will attract the attention of college age or
  older readers, then you can sell ad space to advertisers who might not 
  place an ad on a book aimed for teenage or younger readers.

- Cool name. I'm not sure how people will react to its meaning, but "vertigo"
  rolls off the tongue nicely. It's distinctive where DC is sorta generic.
  Plus you can come up with swell slogans like "Let's get dizzy!" (It helps
  if you imagine that last one being done by Arsenio Hall.)

---------------------------
 Lance "Cr2O3.2H2O" Smith | "Well, I thought you were cute, no matter what 
   (lsmith@cs.umn.edu)    |  that computer person wrote. Now that you don't
  Featuring a character   |  need it anymore, could I have your top hat for my
  created by Neil Gaiman  |  collection?" _Mr Peanut: The High Cost of Eating_
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc