Posted in: Comics | Tagged: black panther and the crew, marvel, nick spencer, secret empire, super-mega-crossover events

Nick Spencer Tweets On Trickle Down Economics For The Comics Industry

Published Wed, 17 May 2017 11:12:37 -0500

by Jude Terror

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The first sales numbers for Secret Empire are in, and while the book's #0 issue did land at the top of the charts for April, it wasn't the best selling or even second best selling single issue comic book of the month. Both Batman #21 and The Flash #21, part of DC's The Button crossover, outsold Secret Empire #0 by a considerable margin. Or, in other words:

Also, since Marvel is gloating about what looks like a technical sales victory, I couldn't resist doing this pic.twitter.com/gdKHyjeqvE

— Nick Hanover (@Nick_Hanover) May 5, 2017

Does this mean the strength of Marvel's event book economy is beginning to falter?

Now, in the wake of the cancellation of Black Panther and The Crew, Spencer has taken to Twitter to address general criticism that lower profile books like The Crew would have a better chance if Marvel put some effort into promoting them. Spencer first made reference to a thread he posted in March:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/864169867674398720

That thread:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848022414587871233

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848022901479530499

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848023657934761985

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848024383947800576

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848025244648341504

It's true that costly advertising campaigns may not be financially viable for most comics books. But that being said, it's also not the only means of promotion. There are lots of high profile websites willing to publish Marvel PR on comic books completely free of charge. In any case:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848025820937428995

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/848026881852981249

Bottom line: talk up the books and creators you love. Like it or not, most times, you are the ad campaign.

— Nick Spencer (@nickspencer) April 1, 2017

A Marvel classic: it's the job of readers to promote comics (and then, by extension, is it the fault of readers if a book is canceled?). Spencer brought his thoughts back to the present:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/864171243867586560

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/864191195852922880

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/864191928052531200

Trickle Down Economics for the comics industry. The mere existence of super-mega-crossover event comics, on which Marvel seems to focus the bulk of its marketing efforts, helps the smaller books make more money? It's the way the comics industry would work if Ronald Reagan were running things, and everybody loves Ronald Reagan. "Mister Didio, tear down that wall!" But does it really work?

Fabian Nicieza thinks so:

https://twitter.com/nickspencer/status/864202276545544193

But that was ten years ago. Elsewhere on Twitter, pundit Colin Spacetwinks offered a well-researched rebuttal that shows that Trickle Down Cominomics may have diminishing returns, and earned a lot of retweets and likes, showing many agree:

horseapples. event books aren't selling half of what they used to and fail to significantly boost other titles https://t.co/gfflWSidpP

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

And backed it up with numbers:

you want proof? let's compare fuckin a civil war tie-in for RUNAWAYS AND YOUNG AVENGERS to the main chars of Secret Empire last month. pic.twitter.com/9Tn0VHtHBy

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

which isnt even getting into how the CWII tie-ins of Ms. Marvel sold less in the DM than her self-contained work at same issue number before

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

or into how with a constant overdose of events and relaunches, even books that should COMFORTABLY last for ages, like Avengers, run shorter

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

All New All Different Avengers? FIFTEEN issues! for fucking Avengers! Aaaavengers! more popular than they've ever been!

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

here's the sales of Inhumans Vs. X-Men no. 1! that's pretty sweet! but what about x-men's sales?

ooooooops! pic.twitter.com/UXJZiBjuYs

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

if you can't sell x-men in the top 10 without gimmicks and events, then you're probably doing something horribly wrong.

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

hey we're not even mentioning how Rocket Raccoon's sales fucking suck now, yet he is getting ANOTHER series.

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

and what it's worth? The Crew under Priest got SEVEN issues, and that was in 2003.

don't fucking come at me with 'we're doing new things'

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

stop blaming fans. stop saying nothing you're doing is actually the problem. stop making excuses.

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

y'all at marvel need to start looking inward for what your problems are but that would require contradicting axel alonso and tom brevoort.

— Colin Spacetwinks (@spacetwinks) May 17, 2017

Marvel looking inward? Is that likely?

Secret Empire #2 is in stores now. Will we see the rest of Marvel's line enjoy a trickle down boost in response? May's sales numbers should be released in a couple of weeks, and then we may have our answer.

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