Manifesto for a better industry - draft, Nov 2011

[Peter J Poole]

Out of conversations in the 'Marvel comics get digital downloads' thread in News. A bullet list of what various people keep bringing to the table.

If people want to comment, amend, add or ridicule off stage, I'm happy enough to update and repost as and when.

Marketing:

The perception of comics as the media of kids and nerds has to change. An adult reading a comic needs to be as commonplace as an adult reading a magazine, or book, or watching a movie or show, or listening to a piece of music. TV and other media need to show it in that light, not as the knee jerk stereotype of Big Bang Theory fame.

Marketing needs to be national, not shop by shop neighbourhood by neighbourhood. (Though the LCS should do more on that front)

Marketing needs to be of comics as a publishing medium, not just of Gonadboy as a standalone product.

Marketing needs to facilitate the 'see it/want it/get it' cycle. So ads need to tie into the comic shop locator or some centalised website.

$2.99 for a 20 page comic is not cheap or trivial. If value - real or perceived - can be added, or prices lowered, they should be.

Promote comics to parents as an easy and affordable method to get their children interested in reading. And demonstrate that early reading skills results in better performance in school.

Delivery:

The need to find and go to a speciality store impedes the initial - new reader, first comic - sales process. Comics need to be more accessible, either digitally, or through other stores/outlets, possibly as lower quality anthologies.

Different delivery formats need to be complimentary or independant, and each profitable in isolation, they should not compete with one another for market share.

Subscription deals need to be more attractive, either from publishers or at the LCS.

Content:

Capes with everything is self-limiting and promotes the nerd image. Comics need to service more genres.

TV shows already have audiences of millions. Instead of pushing comic book IPs to TV and movies, take TV shows - even cancelled ones - to comics, with quality artists and writers doing the adaptations.

Consider the all ages factor, possibly with a pre-teen 'Johnny DC-esque' line, a Young Heroes in continuity line of books about the early years of existing heroes, and the main books as at present.

Adopt a mix and match of single issue stories and longer arcs.

Adopt a policy of seasons of a title. Six to twelve issues, beginning, middle and end, then see if sales justify another season.

Expand Vertigo and Icon to offer publishing services to others instead of relying just on the intensive farming of each publishers own IP crops.

Get new blood into the industry, with showcase or anthology books, and open calls/summer school internships for young wannabes.

[Emperor]

Good stuff.

Some thoughts:

They need to stop writing for the trade and I think this is where the mix of single issues and longer story arcs comes in. Granted purely done-in-one stories will burn through a writer's stahs of ideas but it isn't like they usually hang around for an awful long time on titles these days, and usually then they have some overarching plan.

Continuity porn shouldn't be banned per se, as the connections of characters and their histories can for the basis for solid stories, but don't rely on it and don't assume everyone knows everything. Doing that just helps make comics less accessible to the general public.

I do quite like Mark Millar's ideas about releasing comics (especailly those of the Big Two and other Diamond distributed comics) in the same way you do films: cinema (comic books in shops), trade paperbacks (DVD release) and rental/streaming (digital download). However, this does require the comics to be available in a wide range of stores but that needn't undermine LCS - when I started reading comics I bought what the newsagent stocked that looked interesting and then went to the comic stories to fill in back issues and make sure I had the full runs that I wanted to read - clearly if you want an expert sales service and help in ordering specific titles then you have the comic store and the availability in general shops helps feed more people into them.

[Mark Seifert]

I do quite like Mark Millar's ideas about releasing comics (especailly those of the Big Two and other Diamond distributed comics) in the same way you do films: cinema (comic books in shops), trade paperbacks (DVD release) and rental/streaming (digital download). However, this does require the comics to be available in a wide range of stores but that needn't undermine LCS - when I started reading comics I bought what the newsagent stocked that looked interesting and then went to the comic stories to fill in back issues and make sure I had the full runs that I wanted to read - clearly if you want an expert sales service and help in ordering specific titles then you have the comic store and the availability in general shops helps feed more people into them.

It's also probably already too late to roll this back (the digital release-date trends, I mean). The tail is going to be wagging the dog on this issue within 18 months, I suspect.

That said, shops will transform and survive -- and in the end, it's going to be a positive for DM retailers because of the various secondary effects such as what you mention.

[Peter J Poole]

I'm already pretty comprehensively on record with a lot of my thoughts on digital, so I'm going to hang fire in here for a while...

It may be my name on the OP here, but a lot of the stuff comes from other people - Bob, Joe, Blade, Fitz, D. Bell, and others.

Everyone on BC seems to have ideas and give vent to 'what the industry needs' again and again in various threads, so I am hoping we can get more of a focussed concensus here instead of the usual background chatter...

Fingers crossed!

Cheers

[Joe B. Pangrazio]

And though it's well beyond a lot of our control, getting new blood into the industry and getting them fair pay (which, overall, I think is better than it used to be) is a very important part of all of this. Because that new blood will gain name recognition and some will go on to be Marvel/DC "lifers" or some will go off and do their own things, or they'll go and support other publishers. And that will be a boon for everyone, in the long haul.

[Mad_Man_Moon]

Good stuff.

Some thoughts:

They need to stop writing for the trade and I think this is where the mix of single issues and longer story arcs comes in. Granted purely done-in-one stories will burn through a writer's stahs of ideas but it isn't like they usually hang around for an awful long time on titles these days, and usually then they have some overarching plan.

Continuity porn shouldn't be banned per se, as the connections of characters and their histories can for the basis for solid stories, but don't rely on it and don't assume everyone knows everything. Doing that just helps make comics less accessible to the general public.

I do quite like Mark Millar's ideas about releasing comics (especailly those of the Big Two and other Diamond distributed comics) in the same way you do films: cinema (comic books in shops), trade paperbacks (DVD release) and rental/streaming (digital download). However, this does require the comics to be available in a wide range of stores but that needn't undermine LCS - when I started reading comics I bought what the newsagent stocked that looked interesting and then went to the comic stories to fill in back issues and make sure I had the full runs that I wanted to read - clearly if you want an expert sales service and help in ordering specific titles then you have the comic store and the availability in general shops helps feed more people into them.

I prefer longer stories, to be honest with you.
That said, Spoiler Batgirl was awesome, and mostly done in ones.

The reason why we have a continuity (moreso at Marvel, heh) is because the stories need weight, and by referencing a larger world you bring framing and importance to a story. it doesn'thave to be cumbersome, though. I didn't read every x-factor before I started PAD's run, but I got the gist of it pretty quickly ...

[Peter J Poole]

I do quite like Mark Millar's ideas about releasing comics (especailly those of the Big Two and other Diamond distributed comics) in the same way you do films: cinema (comic books in shops), trade paperbacks (DVD release) and rental/streaming (digital download).

My gut feel there is that while trades - particularly high quality/hardback/oversized ones - bring a little bit more to the market, monthly comics and the same thing in digital are too competitive for the same demographic, and unless/until the audience numbers go waaaay higher having them both on offer endangers them both.

Lower quality - cheaper paper, B&W printed - anthology books via mass retail outlets are still - maybe - different enough to the monthly books to find their own audience though.

YMMV, natch.

Cheers

[Fysh]

I have a feeling that this would need to go hand in hand with a Manifesto For a Better Fandom, which would probably necessitate being able to beat large portions of the existing fandom around the back of the head with a big stick.

That being said, I very much like what I'm seeing here. I'm very much a fan of the "season" concept, and I think it could be used as a half-way house for those of us who like the comics medium but aren't particularly pushed one way or another about serialisation of stories.

[Joe B. Pangrazio]

Thread is now sticky because I like it, I think it's worthwhile, and things are changing so I don't want it to get washed out.

That being said, I very much like what I'm seeing here. I'm very much a fan of the "season" concept, and I think it could be used as a half-way house for those of us who like the comics medium but aren't particularly pushed one way or another about serialisation of stories.

I don't know if Peter cribbed it from me a bit or if it's a case of parallel thinking, but it's a pipe dream of mine for Marvel and DC to do it. Because while it would (hopefully) smash the yolk of continuity (while still allowing people to create their own, much like it used to be back in the 60s/70s) it could open up so much fun and stop stupid things like BND.

Oh, you want to write a married Peter Parker? Cool, go nuts. No, it doesn't matter that yours will come out at the same time as a single Peter. We can just say they're not happening at the same time (or if they introduce a kid, people will know it's not the same time).

And it also helps prevent lateness (if done right).

But...*sigh* pipe dreams...

[khuxford]

But...*sigh* pipe dreams...

Would it be fair to say that, sometimes, the pipe be callin' you?