From: Greg Clow <ecurrent@zooid.guild.org>
Subject: Re: Popularity in Comics
X-To: DANI ZWEIG
Organization: The Zoo of Ids
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 17:01:00 GMT

dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) writes:

DZ>ian@airs.com (Ian Lance Taylor) writes:
DZ>>
DZ>>It's kind of depressing that comic book companies succeed by aiming
DZ>>their books at a younger audience, one which in general has less
DZ>>disposable income than (I expect) most of the people reading this
DZ>>post.  It emphasizes what a minority adult comic readers are in the US
DZ>
DZ>I don't see it as depressing.  We simply need to accept that there are
DZ>two comics markets.  There is a large market, consisting primarily of 
DZ>in the thirteen-year-old range.  And there's a much smaller market,
DZ>consisting primarily of older readers, with larger disposable incomes,
DZ>who have been reading long enough to have more complex tastes.

Yes, but something that many people don't realize is that as the 
popularity of books in the first market (the 13 year olds) increases, then 
the market share of the more mature books (specifically the independents 
like Fantagraphics, D&Q, Caliber, Rip Off, etc.) DECREASES even though a 
totally different group of people are buying those books.  Until this was 
pointed out to me, I always thought "Well sure, Marvel and DC (and, now, 
Image) keep cranking out utter crap, but there's still a demand for mature 
books, 'cause there are adults who want to read them, so the supply will 
always be there".  However, a recent explanation of the situation has 
changed my thoughts on this.

Look at it this way: your average comic shop has X number of dollars per 
month to spend on books.  Suppose that, in the past (i.e. before Image), 
the retailer was spending 50% of that money on Marvel books (probably a 
bit low, actually, but it'll do), 25% on DC, 15% on Dark Horse, and the 
remaining 10% on assorted indies.  In the case of most comic shops (i.e. 
those that cater to the "fanboy" crowd, not shops like the Beguiling in 
Toronto that specialize in alternates), this is a pretty valid estimate.

Then, along comes Image.  They've got the "talent", they've got the hype, 
and they look like they're gonna be "hot".  Now, when Mr. Comic Shop is 
putting together his orders, how do you think Image is going to fit into 
the picture?  That is, which portion of his comic "pie" do you think will 
suffer the most in order for him to allocate funds to Image?  In order to 
buy some copies of SPAWN, do you think Mr. Comic Shop is more likely to 
drop some copies of X-MEN from his order, or drop some copies of YUMMY FUR 
(or HATE or OBLIVION CITY or DIRTY PLOTTE or SLUTBURGER or...)?  I think 
you know the answer.

The bottom line here is: companies like Image do a hell of a lot more harm 
than good to the independent comic publishers.  Personally, I don't think 
that Image is going to have much staying power, and the kollector skum 
that have been hording copies of SPAWN and all those other Image titles 
are going to be very disappointed when they find out they'd be able to get 
more cash selling the books as toilet paper.  But, in the short time that 
they have been around, Image has done a lot more harm to the market than 
most people realize.  I know that one company in particular (Caliber) had 
some big plans for this summer and fall, but they ended up postponing a 
lot of books (and losing money in the process) because of the Image glut 
threatening their orders.  I know this because a friend of mine has a book 
that Caliber has been set to debut "soon" for a couple of months.  (The 
book, by the way, is HYBRID, which is actually the first issue of the new 
format CALIBER PRESENTS... buy lots!)


Greg
ecurrent@zooid.guild.org
sizone!ecurrent@ee.ryerson.ca

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