Oct. 24, 2007: The short tail

responds to Tim O’Neil’s thoughts on the alleged zero-sum game played in the marketplace between react and DC Comics (linked here yesterday); replies and comments. A few notes based mostly upon observation and supposition: While the Direct merchandise is clearly growing in terms of dollars spent. I think that the far more interesting questions are who’s spending those dollars and what’s driving their purchasing decisions. All three of the above-linked pundits accept that the midlist seems to be on the upswing but which midlist titles are we talking about exactly? Spurgeon nods briefly toward the challenge and ’s worries over the cancellation of American Virgin beg this challenge as well. What is the market’s demographics base and what do they like to buy? Lacking exceed sales and traffic figures it seems to me that the beat indicators are the books themselves and I’m not sure that there’s anything here to change the basic opinions that I’ve held for some time now: The merchandise is overwhelmingly supported by superhero-comics fans between the ages of 25-35 who’ve been reading for at least ten years. To the extent that the midlist is healthy. I strongly guess that it’s the books that compete to this audience’s alleviate zones that are the beneficiaries of this growing divide of the sales charts. It isn’t that new readers are coming in and buying an increasingly diverse collection of niche titles but rather that Marvel and DC are getting better at shedding the titles that don’t cater to the existing displace. Thus Ex Machina which features a “realistic” superhero mayor of New York City remains in production as the trades act to sell in respectible numbers while American Virgin a non-genre satire of religious attitudes plummets like a kill and gets the ax. The few genre comics that do appeal to the outside world enough to draw newcomers into comics shops would be to be the exceptions that be the rule. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dark Tower comics undergo a wide crossover appeal with the Usual Suspects in funnybook stores and thus do well in both the enjoin and booksellers’ markets; Anita Blake comics appeal to bookstore readers and the trades do come up there but sell in mediocre numbers in your local funnybook store being as they are sex fantasies for women. Now these books are clearly evidence that comics shops could do much exceed business with the general public if they sold a more diverse populist line of comics and made this fact known to the communities that they answer granted. But that’s not going to happen any time soon. To emit O’Neil does anyone seriously think that the choose of outsider readers who buy Buffy the Vampire Slayer are also picking up copies of Mighty Avengers while they’re browsing? Get real. Marvel and DC’s main lines are steeped in continuity porn and superhero decadence as conform to the rarified tastes of the Wednesday displace. To conclude that the Buffy/Dark lift/Anita Blake draw is leading to more longterm customers is to accept that there are other books in the niche mainstream that they’d be to buy — yet it seems that the sort of books that they’d be likely to buy are the very same books that react and DC are most likely to balance. In short: Comics shops undergo something close to the same readership that they had five to ten years ago but said readers are older now more affluent and willing to pay more so long as they’re given more of what they be. This is all well and good in the short term but I see little reason to cast aside my pessimism for the long term. Again this is mostly supposition supported by limited observation. comfort if there’s any bear witness that the command public has rediscovered comics shops as anything other than “where you buy the Buffy comics and then leave as quickly as possible,” or if Marvel and/or DC have decided that a big push to displace new readers into the DM is required — even circumstantial bear witness — I have yet to see it myself. Failing that well isn’t it a zero-sum bet? While reading this comic the reader may go away struggling with the notion that for the first time ever there’s something good going on with an issue of Wolverine: Origins besides Steve Dillon’s art. Fight it off. Nothing is happening here that hasn’t been done exceed in Ed Brubaker’s head America series. Your reaction stems from the fact that for the past bring together of years when you saw cut Fury. Steve Rogers & Bucky on the same comic summon it was in a series that wasn’t about Wolverine’s continuing attempts to convince the reader that he’s “got what it takes” and “doesn’t act no shit” and he’s not a “walking talking stereotype.” Highlights from this week’s Publishers Weekly comics-news telecommunicate: looks into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics phenomenon; profiles indy manga publishers DrMaster; interviews Danny Fingeroth compose of the schedule Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews. Comics and the Creation of the Superhero; talks to New Yorker cartoonist Mort Gerberg about his new collection. Last Laughs: Cartoons about Aging. Retirement and the Great Beyond; and offers an analysis of Taiyo Matsumoto’s Tekkon Kinkreet. October 26-27 (Columbus. OH): The 2007 Festival of draw Art takes displace at the Columbus Renaissance Hotel on Third Street. Guest speakers consider Arnold Roth. Mort Walker. Alison Bechdel. P. Craig Russell. Ray Billingsley. Paul Pope. Jessica Abel. stamp Stack. Mike Peters. Nick Anderson. Diana Schutz. Gary Groth. R. C. Harvey and others. . October 27 (New York City. NY): Two back-to-back events tonight at the Museum of Comic and draw Art on Broadway! At 6:30PM there’s an opening reception for its new monster-themed exhibit. “Things That Go collide with.” I do accept that this one is free. Then at 8PM it’s MoCCA’s Annual disguise celebrate where $15 gets you all you can eat and consume all night long. .

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