The Goosing Of Marvel NOW With Variants And Discount

[Joe Kalicki]

Peter

Only 'game changer' is expanding the market by making content that people want, especially people who aren't in the same demographic they can't keep, let alone grow and don't currently buy comics. You hold on to that dream that someday they'll find a way to sell this stuff to blind people... Whether 'floppy', TPB, or digital, if the content doesn't change, the results will be the same.

Maybe you are wrong and it's not the content that's the problem, it's the format and the price.

[Blade X]

Thank you for calling out Mr. Gabriel's BS. Marvel's variant incentive program is designed to force retailers to order more books they wouldn't normally order. Because the market will be gutted with an over-abundance of , say Uncanny Avengers 1 regular covers, thos books will be worthless and likely in discount bins by Christmas time. And Marvel has the sales numbers that fool themselves into thinking that this is what retailers want. The system is set uo to tell Marvel what they want to hear, not necessarily what the truth is on a retail level. Great article.

And in more Marvel BS spin news here's what Wacker said (along with my response to his post) over on the CBR boards in response to AXEL IN CHARGE article that Rich quoted Gabriel from.

Quote Originally Posted by stephen wacker View Post
Personally, I'd rather work someplace that tries books like that than a company you describe that would run into hiding creatively and only publish "sure bets".

SW

And here's my response

Thank God Marvel doesn't run into hiding creatively and only publish "sure bets". If you guys did that, then most of your books would be Avengers,X-Men,Spidey,and Wolverine titles. Also, Spidey,Wolverine,Iron Man,Thor,Hulk,the Thing,and Captain America would either simultaneously be on multiple teams or appearing regularly in 2 or more books every month. Also, just about every damn MU character would be a member of the Avengers. Oh...wait.

So when will you be giving Marvel your 2 weeks resignation.

[Blade X]

Re: Variant Covers

Retailers have to share some of the blame for this. If they only ordered what they reasonably thought they could sell, THAT would send a clear message to Marvel and the other companies.

If a retailer was confident they could sell 200 copies of a book, then by all means order that book in that quantity. But if all they could be reasonably sure that they could sell was 50 copies, don't order an extra 150 more copies that you will be sitting on for years just to get one comic.

I just can't imagine there are that many people, relative to the amount of shops, that are going after the rare variants to justify the whole thing.

I think Marvel and the other companies have done an excellent con-job on everyone.

While I agree with you that retailers should share some of the blame for over ordering those comics in order to get the variant covers, it should be noted that many retailers might be trying to get these variants because some of their customers might specifically ask for those covers and they (the retailers) are trying to make those few customers happy by getting those variants by taking advantage of the huge dicount incentive that Marvel is offering them.

[Cavemold]

Maybe you are wrong and it's not the content that's the problem, it's the format and the price.

I think most fans across the comic book sites are only somewhat excited by the Marvel Now Launch. I also perfer DC on -going format much more than marvels format.

[Peter J Poole]

Peter

Only 'game changer' is expanding the market by making content that people want, especially people who aren't in the same demographic they can't keep, let alone grow and don't currently buy comics. You hold on to that dream that someday they'll find a way to sell this stuff to blind people... Whether 'floppy', TPB, or digital, if the content doesn't change, the results will be the same.

Bob, content is not the main problem. If there were some magic content formula that would sell, do you not think at least a few of the 130 indy titles a month would regularly be topping the 100K league? Because they can do any damn content they choose to.

Varied content, more diversity, Hell yeah, I'd love to see some. But digital also makes it less expensive, and therefore less of a gamble, to try throwing 'new' ideas at the wall to see what happens...

BUT the problem is the order levels are insanely high as to be prohibitive. Nobody wins if the price of getting the incentive is too high to reach. That was the genius of DC using returnabilty to get more copies in the shops without threatening to put the store out of business. If I had tried to hit my target numbers on Uncanny Avengers, I'd be staring at a stack of at least 70 extra regular copies and who knows how many variants... Well over $200 in unsellable stock rotting in a box. No thank you.

Bullshit.

If you choose not to play the game, fair enough, but the whole point of it is that you get those extra copies either free or almost free, after you make a profit on what you did order and sell. If you're convinced these 70 copies you can not sell are 'worth' cover price and you're not going to do anything with them except let them rot in a box, that'd also be your choice... But that makes you a monkey with his paw stuck in the jar because he will not let go of the banana inside it...

Cheers

[Peter J Poole]

The problem Peter, is that the people running Marvel made public comments such as "we feel this the proper way to launch something, as it less hurtful to retailers."

They made public statements promising to bring in lapsed and new readers and did nothing to actually accomplish this.

They promised jumping on issues, yet their very first Marvel Now book was nothing more then an epilogue to AVX.

They led retailers to believe that this promotion would do for them, what the New 52 did.

OK...

Isn't the major difference between NOW and Nu52 that Marvel are doing a rolling release as opposed to a big bang approach?

So isn't it maybe a tad redundant to say it's failed in the first few steps, when it's supposed to take time to deliver?

The epilogue to AvX is also prologue to how the 616verse is currently set up. It'd be daft to ignore that, or to miss a chance on piquing interest in a series that's still available and/or heading for trades...

I don't know if NOW is good or bad in commercial terms, anymore than I knew about Nu52 at the time. Give it a year and then we can look at the results.

Cheers

[Peter J Poole]

Maybe you are wrong and it's not the content that's the problem, it's the format and the price.

I think it's the format - or at least the perception of the format, in terms of 'comics are for kids/nerds/sad losers' - and the prices that are discouraging civilians from even trying the damn things in order to form an opinion on content...

Cheers

[Joe Kalicki]

I think it's the format - or at least the perception of the format, in terms of 'comics are for kids/nerds/sad losers' - and the prices that are discouraging civilians from even trying the damn things in order to form an opinion on content...

Cheers

That's my thinking as well.

[Peter J Poole]

While I agree with you that retailers should share some of the blame for over ordering those comics in order to get the variant covers, it should be noted that many retailers might be trying to get these variants because some of their customers might specifically ask for those covers and they (the retailers) are trying to make those few customers happy by getting those variants by taking advantage of the huge dicount incentive that Marvel is offering them.

There may well be a degree of good customer relations involved, though perhaps not outright philanthropy...

But presumably retailers are also making money from this course of action too?

Cheers

[Peter J Poole]

That's my thinking as well.

The really, really annoying/heart-breaking thing to me is that the super-hero comic buying customer base is so damn small that at least doubling it on the back of things like the Avengers movie should not be a particularly difficult task....

Cheers