Collateral Damage?

[RedAngel]

Here's some unexpected fallout from Marvel's
Ccivil War, as I read the following in PW Comics Week:

"In a surprise development, Marvel Comics announced that it would delay the release until September and November respectively of issues 4 and 5 of Civil War, the company's bestselling super-hero miniseries that has become something of a media sensation. Civil War is a huge publishing event involving characters and story lines from every Marvel super-hero series. The postponement is forcing the delay of other monthly series like the Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man and Civil War: Frontline, which all tie in closely with the main Civil War story line. Over a dozen Marvel titles will have to be held back so as not to spoil important plot points to be revealed in the central Civil War title.


The delay sparked a firestorm of criticism from traditional comics shop retailers, who depend on the timely delivery of monthly comics series to generate steady consumer traffic and revenue. Indeed, Marvel's decision to put off the popular series highlights changes in the comics industry's retail channels, as it shifts from relying solely on the monthly magazine publishing model it has used since the early 1940s to a model taking advantage of the explosive sales growth of collected editions sold through both comics shops and the mainstream trade book market. The problems also highlight the degree to which the traditional comics shop channel is now heavily dependent on massive company wide crossover publishing events like Civil War and DC Comics' Infinite Crisis, which involve all the characters and series in a company's publishing list and generate widespread consumer interest and lots of national media attention. "

Suddenly, a certain phrase comes to mind ... something about eggs and one basket ...

[Quato]

redangel said:

Here's some unexpected fallout from Marvel's
Ccivil War, as I read the following in PW Comics Week:

"In a surprise development, Marvel Comics announced that it would delay the release until September and November respectively of issues 4 and 5 of Civil War, the company's bestselling super-hero miniseries that has become something of a media sensation. Civil War is a huge publishing event involving characters and story lines from every Marvel super-hero series. The postponement is forcing the delay of other monthly series like the Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-man and Civil War: Frontline, which all tie in closely with the main Civil War story line. Over a dozen Marvel titles will have to be held back so as not to spoil important plot points to be revealed in the central Civil War title.


The delay sparked a firestorm of criticism from traditional comics shop retailers, who depend on the timely delivery of monthly comics series to generate steady consumer traffic and revenue. Indeed, Marvel's decision to put off the popular series highlights changes in the comics industry's retail channels, as it shifts from relying solely on the monthly magazine publishing model it has used since the early 1940s to a model taking advantage of the explosive sales growth of collected editions sold through both comics shops and the mainstream trade book market. The problems also highlight the degree to which the traditional comics shop channel is now heavily dependent on massive company wide crossover publishing events like Civil War and DC Comics' Infinite Crisis, which involve all the characters and series in a company's publishing list and generate widespread consumer interest and lots of national media attention. "

Suddenly, a certain phrase comes to mind ... something about eggs and one basket ...

Is that "Publisher's Weekly"?

Any big company with half an ounce of common sense would be going out and looking for new distributors. It's stupid to rely on one distributor. When I say "rely", I'm aware of the newstand model which quit working in the 70's. They need a direct market competitor to Diamond. The industry needs a checks and balances so that Diamond can't bully or intimidate the retail shops. Nothing would help the publisher more. All distributors have a margin of error in their ordering. If two distributors overorder, they help increase the number of new comics in circulation and it helps publishers afford the types of talent and creators that the industry needs to survive.

Years ago, Radio Shack used to be an excellent store for finding all kinds of obscure electronic oddities. One day I walked in and all the oddities were gone. All they were selling were overpriced "impulse" items that you could buy anywhere. I looked around and thought.... "why the hell would anyone make a special trip to radio shack to buy an overpriced computer mouse?" In my mind I can picture some idiot looking at a spreadsheet saying "gosh, we aren't selling many diodes, why don't we drop them and just sell printer cables?" Well "duh". You can find a f**k**g printer cable anywhwere. The only reason they were selling them was because people were looking for the oddities. Rather thasn leave emty handed, they were buying the other things they needed out of convenience. Of course on top of that, they were constantly annoying me by asking for personal information. I always either refused or gave fake info. My whole point is that you have to think outside the box on a spreadsheet. If you think inside the box, the sides of that box are all you will ever see. The newest & nicest Radio Shack in my area is an empty retail slot now. Morons ran the company into the ground.

Quantum Physics implies that an observer collapses the wave form of possibilities. I believe that the minute you start making decisions soley from a ± number in a spreadsheet cell, that you've doomed yourself to failure. At some point imagination and common sense have to override the numbers.

[toddluck]

Civil War is an excellent plotline. I've just been following the two Marvel Universe titles I normally get and I've been having a ball. I haven't had to buy a single extra comic to understand what's going on but I'm intrigued by the plotline so much I wish I could afford some of the other titles (reminds me of Shooter era Valaint in that way).

Anyone know what the delay is about? X-over miniseries delays happen occasionally at DC. I don't think I've ever seen them delay tie-in titles because of it. Though honestly DC x-overs usually feel less like stories and more like mandatory yearly marketing events they know will sell as long as it gets published. Kind of cool to see someone actually take an x-over seriously as a story (haven't seen that in over a decade )

[Defiant1]

toddluck said:

Civil War is an excellent plotline. I've just been following the two Marvel Universe titles I normally get and I've been having a ball. I haven't had to buy a single extra comic to understand what's going on but I'm intrigued by the plotline so much I wish I could afford some of the other titles (reminds me of Shooter era Valaint in that way).

Anyone know what the delay is about? X-over miniseries delays happen occasionally at DC. I don't think I've ever seen them delay tie-in titles because of it. Though honestly DC x-overs usually feel less like stories and more like mandatory yearly marketing events they know will sell as long as it gets published. Kind of cool to see someone actually take an x-over seriously as a story (haven't seen that in over a decade )

Maybe it's a publicity stunt to let media attention coincide with the ordering window more efficiently. I could be reasoned that they are losing sales on current issues because the media hype is hitting the public too late.

Defiant1

[toddluck]

admin said:

toddluck said:

Civil War is an excellent plotline. I've just been following the two Marvel Universe titles I normally get and I've been having a ball. I haven't had to buy a single extra comic to understand what's going on but I'm intrigued by the plotline so much I wish I could afford some of the other titles (reminds me of Shooter era Valaint in that way).

Anyone know what the delay is about? X-over miniseries delays happen occasionally at DC. I don't think I've ever seen them delay tie-in titles because of it. Though honestly DC x-overs usually feel less like stories and more like mandatory yearly marketing events they know will sell as long as it gets published. Kind of cool to see someone actually take an x-over seriously as a story (haven't seen that in over a decade )

Maybe it's a publicity stunt to let media attention coincide with the ordering window more efficiently. I could be reasoned that they are losing sales on current issues because the media hype is hitting the public too late.

Defiant1

That's entirely possible. However, they seem to be doing a good job keeping them in print by reprinting them and I would think it would be in their best interest to keep doing so (rather than let the original orders get adjusted). They'll sell the same amount of copies to the readers but create more collectors buzz for those "hard to find" sold out issues.

Here's the story behind the delay:

forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=80636

Since this happened several times at DC (heck probably happened at Marvel, too) the ovewhelmed artist sounds right especially with Quesada's "I'd rather delay a book forever than have you pay for a fill-in artist" policy.