by Brian Hibbs

(#133 – May 2005 – “Stupid, Stupid Publisher Creatures!”)

Publishing comics isn’t easy; I know this.

Publishing comics is difficult. The market is sideways and screwed up, there are huge barriers thrown up at every occasion, and true and proper marketing opportunities are very limited because the primary marketplace is largely limited to independently-run specialty stores where you can’t simply engage “one” buyer at, say, a Barnes & Noble, but thousands of individual accounts.

I love publishers, really I do – I wouldn’t have much of a business without them, would I? But there are times when I simply wonder if there are two brain cells to rub together between the whole lot of them.

(Yes, this is one of “those” kinds of columns, kids – if you’re looking for positivity, this probably not the month for you to be reading “Tilting at Windmills.” The column isn’t called “Smiling at Sunshine”. Besides, if I didn’t exist, you’d just have to invent me. No complaining there in the cheap seats…)

One of the things I particularly detest is the marketing of comics through compulsorily multiple covers – two covers or three covers or four covers or more, where the retailer is forced to stock them all. Recent examples would include the Alex Ross variant on Green Lantern #1 or the two covers on All-Star Batman & Robin #1, or the five different covers on Red Sonja #1. These are cases where the covers are allocated based on a percentage of the retailer orders; if I order 150 copies of Green Lantern #1, I’ll receive 75 copies of the Alex Ross cover and 75 copies of the Carlos Pacheco cover, regardless of how many copies of each individual cover that I might want.

This, to me, at least, is very different than alternate covers on later printings, or “chase” variants like Marvel does for projects like New Avengers, where you can get one for every 15 copies (or whatever), because in those cases I get to choose what gets brought in to my store, and in what quantities.

And it should be my choice as to what I present for sale, and in what measure.

What you need to understand is that I think that multiple covers are very harmful to the market – we’re effectively trying to get the customer to pay the entire cost of a comic (or more!) a second time, for a single piece of artwork. On a moral level, this really sticks in my gut and makes me feel queasy about the entire field.

On a practical level, I’ve been selling comic books long enough to know that the long term impact is to cause a percentage of our customers to start thinking more about being completeists, rather than buying material because they get pleasure from the contents. This is an insidious trap, because the net effect, in most cases, is that we drive readers from the hobby when they miss a variant and get frustrated their complete collection is that no longer.

I’ve seen it happen scores of times in my store.

Understand, I don’t begrudge multiple covers in and of themselves – some people do genuinely enjoy the collection aspect of it, some people are absolutely “strong” enough to not let it get in the way of their enjoyment of the content, and for some people it certainly increases their enjoyment of the content. That’s right on. I’d like those people to be happy. By all means, put two covers on a book, put five… hell, put a hundred covers on if that’s what you want and you feel you have the market for.

Just let me control the faucet; let me determine which covers I bring in, and in what quantity.

There are two real issues at play here: first, and foremost for me, is the ethical issue. I don’t believe in speculation, I don’t believe in collecting comics for reasons other than content, and I act accordingly when stocking and selling in my store. Not only do we have a firm policy on wholly disallowing multiple copy purchases – we strictly limit all sales to all people to 2-copies-per, all of the time, no exceptions – but also when presented with a choice of multiple covers, we almost always simply order one version. We’ll happily take special orders for the other versions, but I won’t rack them. As is my right to choose.

However, when these forced variants are crammed down my throat, I’m in a position where I am forced to appear as though I condone this type of behavior, regardless of my individual stance. That’s wrong, and that’s immoral in my opinion. I can’t just order what I want of the Alex Ross cover to GL #1, and eat the rest – at least not if I want to stay in business.

The other key issue is the economic one. Simply put, not all covers are created equal. There’s clearly a huge market disparity between an Alex Ross cover and one by Carlos Pacheco. Huge. There’s also a vast market difference between a Batman cover, and a Robin cover, even when the artist is the same, and both character’s names are in the title. Vast.

These covers aren’t going to sell evenly, and most consumers are going to have a clear preference of one over the other. Yes, because they’re generally more concerned about the content, they’ll “settle” for whatever cover is available, but they won’t be as satisfied as they could have otherwise been. I think that’s a mistake.

Further, forced variant covers skew the retailer’s single most important tool for survival: their cycle sheets. I won’t be able to tell from how many copies I sell of Green Lantern #1 how many customers I have for Green Lantern, the monthly comic. There’s no clear way to tell how many people bought both covers. That means at least one extra month of guessing when putting together my comics order. Whatever lost profit that entails (either from my under or over-ordering subsequent issues) is good for neither the individual stores nor the publisher.

The only compelling argument I’ve ever heard was “Well, they increase our orders!”, and, yes, publishers deserve to maximize their profits as well. I’ve no problem with that. But, is there any reason whatsoever to believe that giving control to the retailers wouldn’t give you the same gains? Clearly, this type of marketing tool isn’t aimed at stores like me, so I’d absolutely be ordering the same number of copies. And the stores that are more collector-focused are going to still increase their order by an equivalent figure or better. (Why potentially better? Because a single product code with a variant is generally ordered as an addition to the base – “I think I can sell 20% more copies” – while two product codes is more often viewed as two distinct products)

See, if offering the multiple covers as multiple distinct products doesn’t increase sales by the same factor, this strongly indicates that the actual value to the market of those variants is less than you thought it was. That would seem to be simple logic.

Frankly, if you’re looking to increase your front-end buy-in, far better to incentivize the purchase by offering a better discount (As Marvel is doing with House of M #1) than trying to play these kinds of manipulative games with the way a market is designed to function.

Like I said, I have nothing against variant covers, in and of themselves – have fun, go nuts, make dozens – but let me keep my finger on the trigger of how many, of which ones, I get in. It is my store, and my environment, and I should absolutely be the one in control of stocking it.

[Edit: Apparently the zeitgeist is with me or something – I had this section all written on Monday 5/10, and I come home from the store on Tuesday to read the news of DC’s new 25/75% variant on Supergirl #1.]

Let me add that lopsided variants, such as this plan, separate customers into “haves” and “have nots”, and guarantees that speculators will try to snatch up all of the copies upon release and charge usurious prices in the aftermarket. This is a horrible and wretched move, and, frankly, reeks of desperation to snatch market share rather than a move made from creative interests. I expect much much better from DC comics. A hearty and full-throated “Shame on You” to those that let that decision pass. EndEdit]

* * *

There’s another place where we have to damn DC in particular: their extensive use of “extra” advertising. You know what I’m talking about: The Matrix Online MMOG insert, the Heroscape insert. Inserts, inserts, inserts. Eight-page glossy fliers bound into the center of your funny books. I’m not sure if I’ve bought a DC comic this month that didn’t have an insert of some kind or another within it.

(Marvel’s been throwing their “House of M” mini-posters in the center of many of their books, too – at least those are only 4 pages, and at least are functioning as an aid to help me sell more comics)

What’s the problem with these?

The main problem is that they add to the weight of the comic. Unlike in many other businesses, Direct Market comic shops pay all of their incoming freight – there are no “free shipping” options available.

Publishers like DC, one presumes, are getting premium advertising dollars for glossy inserts. Yet, who has to bear the expense of getting this advertising to market? Yes, sir – the retailers.

Standard format comics are 32 printed pages. An 8 page advertising insert is one quarter of that. So if I get forty copies of something with an insert in it, I am effectively being charged to ship fifty copies to my store. (its a little bit less because of the weight of the cover – but it is damn close)

This doesn’t seem to be equitable to me.

Yes, it is pennies. But pennies add to dollars, and dollars to hundreds, and before too long you think, “Why, I could have paid this month’s electric bill from the last year’s worth of inserts I’ve paid the shipping on. Remind me again why I’m giving the money to UPS instead?”

It’s simple: anytime there is an insert of any kind that increases the weight of the comic, a freight credit should be issued. Why should the retailers pay for the cost of distributing your advertising sales?

* * *

I can not, for the life of me, understand how we get the excess of “clumped” shipping that we do.

Here’s an example: 2 weeks ago. DC shipped Solo #4, the all Howard Chaykin issue. They also shipped City of Tomorrow #1, the first issue of a new Howard Chaykin mini series. Oh, and Legend #3, written by… Howard Chaykin. Dark Horse also chose that week to release Escapist #6 with, huh, a Howard Chaykin story.

Um, what?

That week DC also released Authority #7 and Sleeper #11, both written by Ed Brubaker. The only two Ed Brubaker comics they had on their schedule for the month. Of course, that’s also the week that Captain America #5, written by Ed Brubaker, came out from Marvel.

It will be a full month until another Ed Brubaker comic comes out.

Then there was the week of 4/20 when Marvel thought it would be a good idea to ship X-Men, Uncanny and, hell why not, Wolverine. And for fun, throw in X-23 and New X-Men. That week also had Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular, and Spider-Man Breakout #1 – in other words, almost the entire output of the “Spider-Man” books for a month.

Hello?

Let’s not even talk about the games people play with late shipping (resulting in the last week of the month almost uniformly being beat-the-deadline week) or publishers who think it’s just a swell idea to put out everything they publish in a single week. Sad.

While it was great for Comix Experience’s #1 Howard Chaykin fan (Hi, Seth Hollander!) that all those titles jumped into the store in one week, I believe it strongly hurt my sales. First week sales on Solo are the lowest of the four issues, and sales on City of Tomorrow are about a quarter of what I had hoped.

Likewise, the 4/20 Uncanny and X-Men and Wolverine all lost some 20-30% of their normal volume, so whether it is talent or characters, too many books in a single week is never a good idea.

This seems like such a simple problem to solve – isn’t there one person at every company who has the power to say, “we need to hold {whatever} off another week so we don’t over-saturate our market, even if that results in us having to take returns for lateness”? One person who is actually looking at what is being published week-by-week, and keeping an eye for balance, to minimize competition? And if there’s not, what the heck is wrong with you already?

Be responsible, will you?

* * *

There is an art to timing your TP releases that seems to be escaping a lot of publishers.

See, here’s the thing: when you solicit for your TP before the work collected in it has even appeared, you’re generally sending the wrong message. At that point, you’re actively telling your customers to “wait for the trade”.

Comic retailers, as you know, buy comics non-returnable. A comic store, if they’re at all good, is going to try to take a relative position on a work so that they have it in stock throughout the “life” of the title. It’s not really enough to have part 1 on hand for the first month – you want to have copies to sell when part 4 comes out or part 6 or part 12, however long a story is, so that readers can “jump in” at any point. Further, a series isn’t necessarily dead when the last part goes out – if the work is strong, it is possible to sell copies for months to come.

Unless the TP comes out too fast.

Once you know the TP is coming, the impetus to grab the singles is greatly lowered. The TP is almost always a superior package, after all – often better paper, usually a lower price, always without any advertising the periodical might have had. With my consumer hat on, there are now a half-dozen titles that I personally only buy in TP – because I know for a fact there will be a TP.

So, if you want to be in the business of selling periodical comics, it is very important that you make efforts to ensure that the market for periodical comics stay healthy and robust. And that means giving enough distance between serialization and collection so that the market can absorb and clamor for the periodical.

If I were the Lord High God of Comics, I would rule that no TP of previously published material should be solicited until at least 30 days after the last part of serialization has been on sale – that would make it at least 90 days between serialization and collection. Even that’s really far too short – 6 months is a much better time frame.

(On the opposite end, you probably don’t want to go over 1 year-behind with an ongoing concern – the “catch up” gap starts to become insurmountable by then)

More and more often we’re seeing publishers doing things like Month 1, issue #1, Month 2-4, issues #2-4, month 5, TP. That’s way way too fast, and has a net depressive impact on the market for your periodicals.

Honest injun, if you want the market for serialization to be strong, you have to support it by not collecting too fast.

* * *

Good lord, am I getting tired of “custom” solicitation in Diamond’s Previews catalog.

If there is one thing that came out of the distribution wars that I regret above all others (and, let me tell you folks, it’s a long list…) it’s that Previews has become this lumbering, out of control… thing, thanks to Previews selling publishers ad space and letting them design those pages as catalog pages.

Except there’s no style guide, there’s no common graphical element imposed – publishers are free to seemingly do any darn thing they want.

Problem is, it renders Previews an impotent tool as an ordering catalog. Which, y’know, is what it’s supposed to be.

Honestly, it’s difficult to make it through Previews when doing an order, without getting a head ache. It’s a jumble of style and color, and it is often impossible to tell the difference between a solicitation and an advertisement.

The best possible solution, in the eyes of a guy who has to, y’know, order using Previews, would be for Diamond to create a stripped-down retailer’s catalog for just the comics. A catalog where every publisher has exactly equal real estate, text font and size, and cover picture.

Of course, I live in reality, where even if Diamond had the stones to try to do that (and, let’s be blunt, they don’t), the political pressures of the exclusive publishers would probably ruin any chance of that happening. So, next best thing, we have to call on the conscience of the individual publishers.

Now, look, I know that you’re desperate to stand out. I would be too, if I were a publisher, but as a retailer, trying to order your product, I really really don’t need color backgrounds. I don’t need a full page reproduction of your cover – a quarter page is more than enough. I don’t need or want full bleed graphics, or fancy type treatments, or dynamic “edgy” layouts. Clean, simple-to-read, hype-less solicits are what I need to do the best job in ordering your comics. Black words on a white background. Seriously, four books per page (or more) – you really and truly do not need to give me a full page to solicit a single comic book; it does not increase my orders one whit.

Otherwise you’re adding to my time and my stress – at the most stressful time of my month, no less! That doesn’t help you sell comic books.

* * *

Maybe I am naive, but these all seem to me to be such no-brainers. Most of them really are about just thinking through the consequences of your actions.

That’s not very hard, is it?

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Brian Hibbs has owned and operated Comix Experience in San Francisco since 1989. Feel free to e-mail him with any comments. You can purchase a collection of the first one hundred Tilting at Windmills (originally serialized in Comics Retailer magazine) from IDW Publishing. An index of Tilting at Windmills on Newsarama can be found right here.