moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Henry Vogel) (07/04/85)
Okay folks, gather 'round for news and rumors from the comics industry! I picked up these tidbits from David Kraft of Comics Interview and he picked some of them up from discussions with the people at Fantagraphics. So here goes... First of all, Chayken (sp?) is leaving - or has left - First Comics. It seems he's gotten tired of not getting paid. Yes, First Comics is about three months behind in paying people. Timothy Truman is said to have one and a half feet out the door up there, too. As an interesting side note, how many of you thought that when Chayken left First, American Flagg would too (raise your hands)? I'm glad to see that I wasn't alone in thinking American Flagg was creator owned. It seems First Comics owns AF - for all I know First owns all of the books they publish (and I would expect they do, now). All that hype about creator owned books may have been just that - hype and nothing else. One of the big things Both Dave Kraft and Fantagraphics try to keep up with is what publishers seem to be on the financial tight-rope. Needless to say, First is taking their first few steps on the rope although I wouldn't yet say they're in danger of falling off, yet. However, there are others who aren't so fortu- nate. Eclipse is suffering. Kraft has been trying to get them to pay for some of the ads he's ALREADY RUN for them and, so far, is having no success. This is an excellent barometer as to how well off a company is. Pacific continued to order books for distribution (including copies of the Southern Knights that they had no intention of paying for - they folded owing us several hundred dollars (I know others got hit worse, but we only had $2000 to start with)) and to take out advertising (or try to) up until the end. Another company to watch for potential problems is Renegade Press (Deni Loubert's - formerly Deni Sim - company). According to Fantagraphic, Deni doens't have any money available to weather a storm - and you can be sure one is brewing. The poten- tially most disturbing info concerns DC. DC has recently pulled out of large advertising contract with Fantagraphics - one where the papers had been signed and some money placed to secure the agreement. Obviously, DC felt they could afford to lose the money more than they could afford to pay for the ads. The reports are that DC is running scared. Advertising or marketing will decide to do one thing and the upper level management will reverse the decision. What's causing all of this? Lack of sales, of course. Marvel is selling, but that's about it. (To make matters worse, Marvel is dumping 80 titles on the market next month - really, EIGHTY titles!) Why is this? Part of DC's problem, I think, is they doomed themselves in the 70's when they put out such trash and it still sold. Then Marvel passed them by and kept pulling away and DC finally decided they needed to do something. They began publishing good stories but it's going to take YEARS to reverse the bad image they built for themselves back then. That's fine as far as DC goes, but why aren't the independants selling? I really don't have an answer for that. Sure, American Flagg isn't the kind of book most kids would buy, but we like to think there are lots of adults in the market that would buy it. Maybe we're wrong. Maybe there aren't nearly as many adults as we think there are. Or, maybe the adults are buying the same stuff as the kids... I've heard from people who won't buy alternative books because of the price. They seem to think the price is too high, that the independant publishers have higher prices so they can make more profit. That is 100% WRONG (and I'll send in another article on the cost of publishing a comic book based on my experience with the Southern Knights). Maybe the fault is ours. How many of you hide the fact that you read comics? I used to do that, too. A lot of people do. There's nothing worse than having your peers laugh at you for reading kid stuff. Nothing worse, that is, except having the entire field fall apart for lack of readers! It's up to us to try to get people to read comics. However, it's important to use your judgement in this matter. Try to figure out what they would enjoy (you might find out what else they read for entertainment and loan them comics that fall - more or less - into the area their "regular" reading tastes follow). Someone who is outside of comics will not, most likely, read one issue of the X-Men and decide it's great - even if you were to loan them the truly great issues (#94-150). Is the person into mysteries? Try Jon Sable or Ms. Tree. Fantasy? How about Elfquest? You get the idea. It's up to us to cultivate new readers. One last thing and then I'll shut up. If you know someone who reads comics but isn't reading a book you particularly like, try loaning them issues of it. At least try to talk them into buying the book. From the other side of the issue, if you hear lots of good things about a book, give it a try! I had been hearing many good things about Zot! but hadn't picked it up. I decided to try it and I would have to list Zot! as one of my 5 favorite titles now. It doesn't even matter if you continue to buy the book, though. Just give the book a try. To forestll the complaints of those who have a limited budget, I'll tell you that I have one too. When I find a book I really like, though, I'll add it to my list even if it means dropping something else (and the something else is almost always published by Marvel or DC). Well, that's it. I'll shut up now. Henry Vogel henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay
moriarty@fluke.UUCP (The Napoleon of Crime) (07/04/85)
In article <788@vax2.fluke.UUCP> henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay writes: >First of all, Chayken (sp?) is leaving - or has left - First Comics. It seems >he's gotten tired of not getting paid. Yes, First Comics is about three months >behind in paying people. Timothy Truman is said to have one and a half feet out >the door up there, too. Amazing. Probably no other comic has won more prestigous writing and art than FLAGG! over the last two years, and then to discover that the creator is not getting paid... Incredible, and immensely sad, but who can blame Chaykin for leaving under these conditions? >As an interesting side note, how many of you thought >that when Chayken left First, American Flagg would too (raise your hands)? I'm >glad to see that I wasn't alone in thinking American Flagg was creator owned. >It seems First Comics owns AF - for all I know First owns all of the books they >publish (and I would expect they do, now). All that hype about creator owned >books may have been just that - hype and nothing else. OUTRAGEOUS! All this time, First has been saying how it was catering to independent comics people, and then this. There is no excuse for that amount of false buildup on the part of Mike Gold (he has been the biggest "FIRST is built for independents' use" chanter). Frankly, I either want the series to go with Chaykin, or for him to kill it, rather than have it assigned to someone less talented (and, in my opinion, there are only four or five people in the industry as talented as Chaykin). Same goes with Jon Sable... >One of the big things Both Dave Kraft and Fantagraphics try to keep up with is >what publishers seem to be on the financial tight-rope. Needless to say, First >is taking their first few steps on the rope although I wouldn't yet say they're >in danger of falling off, yet. However, there are others who aren't so fortu- >nate. Eclipse is suffering. Worse and worse. If any independent company appeared to be handling itself right in number of titles published, FIRST was it... they added on new monthly titles only after a couple had been cancelled, thus keeping a standard number of titles out there. Eclipse has been going hog-wild in adding titles onto their schedule, and I've worried for the sake of their good titles (ZOT! in particular). Considering that Marvel takes up only 15% of my total budget for comics, it looks pretty grim for the titles I'm getting now. >Why is this? Part of DC's problem, >I think, is they doomed themselves in the 70's when they put out such trash >and it still sold. Then Marvel passed them by and kept pulling away and DC >finally decided they needed to do something. They began publishing good stories >but it's going to take YEARS to reverse the bad image they built for themselves >back then. As discussed in this newsgroup before, there does seem to be a "only Marvel is good" attitude out there, though this seems to be among the *younger* buyers -- I would expect it to be among the older ones who dislike trying anything new. >That's fine as far as DC goes, but why aren't the independants >selling? [...] we like to think there are lots of >adults in the market that would buy it. Maybe we're wrong. Maybe there aren't >nearly as many adults as we think there are. According to the Comic Buyer's Guide's poll, over 60% of the people answering their poll were <= 16 -- and the poll was hyped up much more in the independent titles than in the Marvel mags. It may be even more lopsided than that... >Maybe the fault is ours. Afraid not -- this kind of thinking leads to "Our product failed due to the ignorance of the public". In a supply & demand market, if you want something to sell, you have to make sure there is enough of a market to support it. Of course, art should not conform to market policies -- but it is going to have to deal with business realities if it plans to make a profit. In other words, it's important to remember that an artist should (must) be free to create what he or she wants to create; but to automatically expect to make a living from such work is not a valid claim in a free market society. Artists have been predominately poor throughout history (or have moonlighted :-) ). Of course, this all leads to the consistent dilemma of having to do things you don't want to do so that you can get paid, so that you can do things you want to do. People who have jobs they truly, fully enjoy (i.e. there's nothing else they'd rather be doing) are the exception to the rule, I think (oops, better move this to net.philosophy). At any rate, it looks to me like several of these companies planned poorly, and expanded too quickly, before they had the venture capital to support their expansions. Comments? >It's up to us to cultivate new readers. Well, as my friends point out literature/movies/etc. which they think I will like, I also return the favor (perhaps a bit more zealously than they :-) ). And the number of times I've given my "Comics have jumped light-years in quality" speech... I agree that, if the person might be interested in what's going on, do so (sci-fi readers are particularly receptive, I've found). However, I try to avoid zealous behaviour in all things, and as I have several friends who rarely read in the first place ("I'd rather be sailing", etc.), I usually discuss other topics around them, just as I don't talk much about movies I've seen or books I've read around them. Again, it strikes me that the industry has to face realities. It's not very pleasant to note that if an alternative company is selling to a smaller chunk of the market than Marvel, they are not going to be able to publish with the financial freedom (e.g. the number of titles) Marvel does. But this is reflected everywhere in this society (look at the summer movies). >One last thing and then I'll shut up. If you know someone who reads comics but >isn't reading a book you particularly like, try loaning them issues of it. At >least try to talk them into buying the book. From the other side of the issue, >if you hear lots of good things about a book, give it a try! I had been hearing >many good things about Zot! but hadn't picked it up. I decided to try it and >I would have to list Zot! as one of my 5 favorite titles now. It doesn't even >matter if you continue to buy the book, though. Just give the book a try. Yes... no way to better convince another comics friend that something is good than to give them a look. Also, that is one of the major reasons I love this netnews group -- I've been pointed to many, many excellent books that I would otherwise have missed. >To >forestll the complaints of those who have a limited budget, I'll tell you that >I have one too. And, to leave this article on a running net.comics joke, I, too, have a limited budget for buying comics. I've promised to have my monthly bill go no higher than the B-1 bomber annual expenditures. Of course, I've had to hedge a little this summer.... And people ask me why I turned to crime... "He was sweet and sincere and giving and good... AND A CHERISHED NEIGHBOR UNDESERVING OF SUCH A FATE!! "Nevertheless, better him than me. Amen." Expect the Unexpected. He does. ---> Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
broehl@wateng.UUCP (Bernie Roehl) (07/08/85)
In article <788@vax2.fluke.UUCP> henry%clemson.csnet@csnet-relay writes: >Why is this? Part of DC's problem, >I think, is they doomed themselves in the 70's when they put out such trash >and it still sold. Then Marvel passed them by and kept pulling away and DC >finally decided they needed to do something. Possibly, but that was a *long* time ago. The stuff DC's been putting out lately is not only as good as what Marvel's doing, it's actually better. As I mentioned a few postings back, I used to read almost nothing but Marvel, but the number of DC books I've been reading has steadily increased, while my interest in Marvel has steadily declined. In fact, I've crossed the line; when I started reading Swamp Thing (*highly* recommended!) and gave up on Secret Bores II, I took a count. I now read more DC than Marvel. Saying that DC put out trash 15 years ago may be true; saying that Marvel's the front-runner now is ridculous. >(To make matters worse, Marvel is dumping 80 titles on the >market next month - really, EIGHTY titles!) "Dumping" is probably a good word for it. -- -Bernie Roehl (University of Waterloo) ...decvax!watmath!wateng!broehl