Comic Shop Owners Put On Brave Face, But Comics Are Way Down
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Comic shop owners across America continue to struggle in the face of a volatile economy and industry that refuses to deliver quality comic books. LCS owner Rod Lamberti recently explained why a lack of quality product and primary focus on comics as a collectible make things impossible to fix. Lamberti also laments a recent decision by DC Comics that all but removes his second most important sales day. Wes talks about LCS owner Rod Lamberti's recent newsletter outlining problems within the comic book industry . Comic shop owners put on a brave face, but comics are way down.
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#marvel #dccomics #comicbooks
They haven’t learned anything from the 90’s when this imploded.
Tell good stories, market it correctly, and give fans what they want.
It’s probably too late now, there’s a large number of people that are never going back, I know I’ll never again read a comic, just have no interest in those types of stories anymore.
@@InfamyOrDeath-__-I stopped reading them. I only collect some issue 1’s and that’s it.
90s admittedly were a second golden age
AVERAGE comics from the 70s and 80s would be Eisner nominees now. 🙄
At this point, you've gotta be a fucking masochist to be owning a comic book store.
Desaad: Oh, Great Darkseid, grant me a comic book store! I shall spread EEVILL!
Darkseid: You are truly a masochist. Good work.
What about a movie theatre? Lol
@@soshiderekmovie theater owners? Sadists
Pushing low quality products as well.
At my local comic shop last Wednesday there two guys in their 20's in the Manga section. They walked by the wall of the newer comics and one of them said 'There's Green Arrow.' and the other guy's response was 'Why spend five dollars on something I'll read once and then throw away?'. Can't argue with that. I bought my three 1980's Firestorm annuals, an old Flashback Thunderbolts special, and an old Marvel Tales back issue for for a total of $10.00 and didn't feel ripped off.
Preach it again for the people in the back!
Stop putting characters and scenes on covers that aren’t in the book!
Cooler things to collect, more entertaining things to read.
I believe it was Thundercats #1 from a few months ago had over 30 variant covers. I was so infuriated by this. That's a prime example of a company who doesn't give a damn about comics or fans.
The minute you see over 5 variants in the solicit, you know it's going to be junk.
Space Ghost had A through Z variants for issue 3 so there’s that. 🫤 I like space ghost so far but I don’t have time for that.
That’s just the dynamite business model honestly.
They should skip content, then print only covers as POSTERS.
@@aqdrobert Maybe an insert of 4-5 rejected covers but yeah free posters would be cool too
There are far too fucking many variants. The only articles about keys are focused on the ratios, and it's getting nuts
The new TMNT #1 had 128 variants.
8 open order variants
6 incentive variants, including a 1:500
112 retailer variants
2 con variants
That’s insane!
That’s insane. Wow.
i thought the 17 pictured in back of the book were way to many.
@@KardboardKenny yeah, it's out of hand. 112 are retailer variants.
@@destro47 they didn't learn from the '90's crash, I guess.
Back when Steve Skroce was leaving Marvel to do Matrix storyboards he told me no one would hype his Wolverine run because he already knew he was off to storyboard Matrix 2 and 3. I told him it would get the hell hyped out of it because Wolverine suuuuuuucked balls at the time. This was when Marvel would drop new guys on Wolvie all the time because it sold the same no matter who drew it. It was hyped. Wizard even did a multi page article on it because Skroce’s Wolvie run was so above the Wolvie books at the time. Now comics are SOOOO BAD that B- books stand out as great because the rest of them are F!!!!
Holy smokes, is it 2004 again? I remember having this exact same discussion before we shut down our comic shop.
Comic book reader from the 80's here: is there anything good at all currently on the stands right now? I haven't been to a shop in decades.
Well old school comic shops are dinosaurs and modern ones don't care about the comic industry but only graded old issues which is sad....
I haven't read Superman in ages and spent time last week trying to find something to read. NONE of the covers were visually interesting, many were without text or info regarding the story content. One cover actually had a bland, monochrome drawing of a woman's apathetic face staring into space - like a driver license photo. I left the shop WITHOUT an issue to read. Uninspired and uninterested.
Should've gotten a trade paperback or omnibus lol.
The scale has shifted with the Big 2 in that average now by comparison seems like great. It's like they're gaslighting their readers.
Maybe they should leave marvel to these folks and open a comic company called "No Vida's".
The need to stop with gimmicks, events, and lower prices. Get better writers and artists. I'm of these people that just slab comics. We read our comics back in the day.
They’d have to fire everyone and hire competent people and close their Twitter accounts.
@@chrischreative2245plus I doubt they can afford it
In a sane world that world happen. Nowadays the lunatics run the asylum.
Who are " better writers" stories from the 70s and 80s don't fly anymore with today's youth. That is who they are trying to court since boomers and gen x are on their way out. A business survives by appealing to the new generation
The prices on trades and omnis need to go down too.
The market is collapsing on everything "Collectable". No margins, no rarity, no profits, higher bills. Comic Store in Philly 48 years in business got evicted out of there spot recently. When asked why they went belly up, they cited that they can't sell the books coming out nowadays. The stories are crap, it's all about the HOT covers, and everyone wants the same variant cover.
As a creator, I will never ever understand how publishers and comic shops do business to make money. I thought the idea was to get customers to read books and sell the best product to everyone who walks through the door. What the hell is happening to comics? No one knows
We do know they went woke
@@summonersummoner9536 yea that’s true
Just bought 13 comics yesterday but I doubt I’ll be the savior of comic shops.
I collected every comic offered on FREE COMIC DAY. Hope I helped.
@@aqdrobertif you left without buying anything, the shop lost money lmao
With my LCS DC fans don’t seem to mind waiting one more day for their DC fix..
which kinds of shows you the current state and “excitement “ for the product. I do however, see what you mean business wise. At this point I guess I’m just glad his shop is still in business.
I think some of the shops are just entitled to the previous status quo and don't want to adapt
The redo of the walking dead gets about less than 25,000 each issue .
All my reading joy comes from comics no newer than 1985... After I finish up everything from 1935-1985, I'll revisit 1986-2011... Anything after that will be indy books.
I love story and cool covers.
It is definitely moving to being like collecting cards or prints. When will we see blind packs of comics?
I will occasionally get a variant cover. Normally it will be a 1:25 or foil variant (ie new elseworlds) a few times a year. I purchased a 6th printing of ultimate Spider-Man as my reading copy and keeping the first printing mint.
Tom King's Batman was never good. It was below average but Rebirth gave it cover. In Batman #1, Batman Catches a Crashing Airplane and rides it to his death, except he's saved by Gotham and Gotham Girl, two character ideas who did not belong in Batman.
King's did the worst modern Batman run of all times. The book never recovered until today of the damage that King did to Batman stories.
gotham and gotham girl were clearly copies of Superman and supergirl
@@missmeme3946 They are Superman pastiches, like Hyperion, and the comic even calls them "supermen". The most serious problem is that King's comic is about them. It is like a backdoor pilot episode of a TV show.
Batman is saved by Gotham/Girl. Gotham/Girl fight crime with a thumbs up from Batman who is so excited that someone will be able to replace him someday (first storyline in Rebirth). Ooops, Gotham (Hank) killed a couple dozen people.
King at least thinks to bring in the JLA (written like cardboard cutouts), but HANK BEATS THE JLA INCLUDING SUPERMAN and the only thing that can stop him is Gotham Girl, who kills him.
Yes, Tom King has written himself two characters for his Batman Comic more powerful than All the Justice League together.
Next issue Gotham Girl has gone crazy (you can tell cause she shaves her head like Britany Spears), but Batman reveals his identity and they hug it out and she can go away, because we are six issues in and we are writing for the trades.
There are stories inside?
I used to get six books a week when times were good. Nowadays I begrudgingly get three books a month.
I saw this nearly 20 years ago when I was both working in the industry and actively supporting it. I come back to check on it and it's still doing the same thing. Bargh. Why is the industry still doing this to itself?
The standards have dropped but the price per copy has increased, I wonder why people aren't buying!
The correct term is "Shit Sandwich"
Spit Sandwich is what Ned Flanders calls it.
Back issue sales are still solid, which is great because I stopped ordering new comics last December. Getting the "free" issues of NYX, Phoenix and Blood Hunt hasn't changed my mind as they sit untouched on the self. I will point out the NYX issue because I still can't believe how bad it is, and I've given away some Blood Hunt. It hurts how little DC and Marvel care about their own products.
Superman #16 had a Zatanna variant I bought thinking it was the new Zatanna #1 that released the same day. Needless to say, I have two copies of Superman #16.
A vintage comic shop of gold, silver and bronze, with all kinds of other vintage collectibles will do the best now. Forget the new books.
Yeah, there are a lot of comics that i could draw a year ago and the editing is all over the place… I had bought the Doom Patrol Comic and i could not figure out what is going on… It is all over the place…
During the peak of the MCU's popularity, I recall standing in a comic shop and watching a kid brand new to comics walk in the store. I witnessed them look right at the Marvel section and say "these aren't the Avengers in the movie" and literally turned around and walked right out.
I haven't gone to my comic shop weekly for many years. Why? I have a pull, and I can wait a month or I just get my comics delivered to me. It is the solicitations that make me aware what is coming out, not looking over the newsstand. I rarely worry with variants...unless their is something i like or the normal issue sold out and the store asks if I want a variant. Like with X-men 1 I got the skottie art variant, since the store said the normal was sold out.
My local store closed in December. The owner still pulls for customers, but we have to meet him at a brewery once a week. I'm not sure how long it'll last.
Every book and video I saw about making comics said you had to have the main character on the cover.
The industry needs to start to push indie titles since the "Big 2" are just trash. Indies are putting out tins of interesting stories
I have started thinking for about 5 yrs now that the current industry standard of monthly floppies is unsustainable. The floppies cost too much and most readers feel they don't get enough value for their money. Marvel and DC should switch to maybe publishing 4 or 5 tankobon style monthly anthologies 200 pages plus. You can have one that is all the Batman titles or one that is all the Spiderman titles, another one that puts the monthly Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor stories together in one tankobon--you get the idea. I think that might have a better chance of selling. Publishing only 4 or 5 of these bad boys a month would also force the Big Two to trim the fat and get rid of excess titles that haven't been selling. You include in the monthly tankobon anthologies only the titles that are deemed core or essential. Just an idea.
That's a great point you brought up. Marvel and DC not advertising comics. It's almost like buying a McDonalds franchise without advertising. Anything could help LGSs.
At both shops in my area, the biggest sellers of new comics are the Marvel and DC facsimile editions. That should tell both companies what fans want to read.
Everything that DC does for events has the same tired line in their thinking, ‘launching pad for NEW READERS”! The problem is that ‘new readers’ don’t care anyway.
When I was young in the 70’s, I can go the local corner store and on the comic rack you browsed. I would buy Justice League of America (volume 1) because 9 times out of 10, you would get a great cover, great art and great story telling! It was consistent.
If I didn’t understand something, the writer explained it ie. Earth 2 vs Earth 1. Eventually I understood why there were 2 Supermans etc.
It wasn’t hard to grasp!
Now these ‘new readers have to be held by the hand to explain something!
Or, the writer doesn’t even care to explain it!
Just watched the video of the DC panel for their "All In" initiative. Pretty sure "All In" means everyone that isn't a normal, white heterosexual reader. Wonder Woman is a witch from hell, Superman is continually being referred to as "sexy" (I'm expecting gay), and Batman is built like Bane x2.
@@comicbookcountdown9252 I concur!
I wondered if there were any retailers out there who weren’t in favor of DC’s return to Wednesday releases.
Lower prices better stories.
DC has actually cut its line way down.
Hopefully this will lead to a greater eye on quality. Now if they could just figure out how to slice a dollar off the price tag.
I read Green Lantern.
Im looking forward to:
Green Lantern
GL: War Journal
Absolute GL
Green Lanten Dark
And
Justice League Unlimited.
I just saw the Batman :Brave & Bold.
I thought that would be a great idea for a GL book.
Four rotating series for $10 a month.
Sounds great to me. Id call it
Lantern Corps Infinite
Have it ft a series of limited from GL corps deep cast of characters.
I mean Guy , Kyle , Jessica, Simone and Jojo dont have an ongoing so why not give fans them but ALL the other characters in the GL mythos?
Sounds like a winner.
My collecting comics ebbed and flowed over the decades, peaking in the 1990s when I was spending upwards of $50 a week on titles, many of which I wouldn’t even read, but just bag, board and put into a comic box, never to be seen again. Last time I actively collected (in the mid-2010s), I only picked up comics I that would read, books that I enjoyed, but even that eventually stopped altogether as the mainstream comics industry was no longer about entertaining but about activism and those working within the business made it clear how much they disliked me, and people like me. Point taken.
Too add its a big pain in ass to be only able sell a small portion new stuff on Tuesday vs everything else Wednesday. Wes you don't know how inconvient it can be. And 70% plus your base isn't showing up till Wednesday. Most people DON'T want to make two trips for no good reason. Cost of gas....hello? Their time during week for work and such....hello? Until you've done it you don't understand how much it adds to the week. One release day is far better for this kind industry. WTF20.
DC moved to Wednesday now
@@PubeStache Yes I know that already.
The only time I'm interested in a variant cover is if the art is good and I like it. Otherwise I don't bother myself with it either. I still like to read comic books. Thanks to this channel I'm now reading Rook Exodus and Void Rivals.
However my days of Marvel and DC reading is numbered.
Yes, the standard has slipped so much that competent, generally passable mediocrity (Joshua Williamson, Jed McKay etc) makes a writer a "superstar" at Marvel and DC now. (And those guys have some BAD comic books themselves.)
Publishers, distributors, and “local” comic shops work together to drive up prices on agenda-driven comic books. Local comic shops aren’t local if you have to drive 20 minutes to get to one, and they benefit from all the variant covers. Publishers will go back to stories for mainstream audiences when they go back to the old model that used spinner racks in grocery stores. Maybe thrown in some ads for x-ray specs and the publishers will make as much or more money.
If Marvel and DC were truly confident about their books, they would have opened their own specialty shops years ago and become their own retailers. Instead, these shop owners get a heating helping of "take it or leave it!"
Disney closed their brick and mortar Disney Stores.
Like Games Workshop with Warhammer are a brand speciality shop.
Is there a need to open your own shop when you already own the distribution network?!?
Part of the reason of slowing sales could be due to the LBGQT push. As soon as I see one of those characters in a book, it's over for me, and I never buy another issue in the series.
I had to check myself recently
I buy for character and story, Batman, Detective, Action, Superman and Worlds Finest (Waid 🤢 I know) but I was starting to collect titles with covers I liked and I was spending a fortune on shit I wasn’t even reading.
That’s not why I collect I just got overwhelmed and swamped with pretty art
Now if I like a cover/variant it will be on one of the aforementioned titles
I know even that is stupid but I e tried to whittle it down to artists who also do interiors and not just covers.
Was hoping for a video on Rdj as doom
What's the point. It's just key jingling. Desperate.
As a shop, if the book doesn't sell, I WON'T order it. There are several books, much more Marvel than DC that I have ZERO orders for. NO ONE wants some of these books. Indy/non big 2 have to rely on quality for sales, and it's really showing.
When the video opens with Wes stroking the beard.... You know it's going to be deep.
Thank you 🙏. For speaking the truth. God bless you 🙏
I buy all I can from my LCS that is from the pre-woke era of comics
I watched the SDCC panel and the new line feels like one big Elseworlds run. I liked Elseworlds back in the day but a whole ongoing line of it? Oh boy. I’m enjoying non- big 2 more. We are getting that change over happening between my generation (Gen X) and millennials. Millennials were more into manga honestly. I had to drop an old standby con I did after this year because the attendance was so down and the crowd…I’m not sure what the crowd was there for. It’s never had celebrities. The overall vibe was flea market. Never a good thing. One of the featured guests was selling long boxes and slabs along with his regular merch. WTF?
That's the calling card of modernity: no past or future, only now. Modern writers aren't interested in planning out a lasting run or how their work fits into the larger picture because they're looking to mic drop every single arc and then flush the universe down the toilet. People always used to laugh at the MU 616 status quo, but it managed to tell compelling stories for decades and still keep readers asking for more.
Well done video, sir. I, for one, will buy a variant cover if the art is spectacular, not for the sake of having an entire “set”.
Haven't bought a comic book since 2016! Japanese anime is all the rave these days!
Crash 2.0 here we come!!! Choo choo!!! Get out while you still can!
The problem with the big two is that each one was purchased by a mega-corp, which gives them some insulation from market reaction. The extra corporate layer of management along with a cushion of funding allows them to ignore their customers more than they could have when they were a stand-alone publisher. You can tell from their actions- they feel like they have more time to dick around with alternate covers/endings, social messaging, etc.
I honestly feel bad for some of the comic shops I’ve been in recently. Like unless you have a great back issue selection or make a killing in tabletop or card sales idk how they keep the lights on. I try and go and support as much as I can but if you don’t have a back issue I’m looking for, I can’t justify purchasing Nyx 1 just cause they put out a cool cover to it.
It didn't just not improve. It's gotten worse. I like Batman: Off World, a lot more than I thought I would, but that's one, sort of off the beaten path book, in a sea of books that range from from boring to outright insulting. And then the DC movies, which are going to reach more people than the books, are shaping up to be awful, so I can only imagine how awful it is, hoping to sell comics, and they keep pedaling the garbage, and hiring the absolute worst writers, editors, and people, in general.
My LCS has been at it since 1969 and I started going there in ‘74,2 or 3 times a year ! Quite the experience compared to a drug store or delicatessen and I’m glad I did because it made me more objective about what I actually liked to read! Eventually it became a weekly habit when I got a job and being able to buy new comics and seek out back Issue comics was really nice! Not so nice in recent years is the literal shitstorm with events and variant covers! And I admit it was fun at first but over the last few years it becomes nonsense! For a little over 10 years I was doing inventory and multiple covers just bogs down and confuses everyone! The asinine marketing detracts the audience and definitely drives off new younger readers! I have a few variants in my collection but I want to read interesting stories and NOT cater to gd gimmicky distractions! 🎯⚡️🤞
I'm disappointed at the general state of comics.
Too many "creators" like Tom King and too few like Daniel Warren Johnson, who recently won a pair of VERY WELL-DESERVED Eisners for Best Writer/Artist and Best Continuing Series for Transformers.
We've got a new shop in town and they introduced me to the Comic Hub site and I've been buying stuff like crazy. Really looking forward to the new DC and Marvel events this fall. I'm really enjoying Scarlet Witch and Absolute Power DC event. We just live in an era where everyone hates everything and it's really exhausting.
I bought that Wolverine/Deadpool issue with the Stormbreakers cover for $1 at my LCS. I doubt it would have ended up in the dollar bin if it had a W/Dp cover. My LCS lost money on that comic only a month after it was new because that cover meant nothing.
US "mainstream" comics are in a death spiral. Their answer to decreasing sales been lower quality cheaper writers and artists, raising prices and heavily leaning on collectors over regular readers.
The first two points raise the barrier to entry and keep particular younger people away. Without those the entire business model runs on borrowed time. Kids that grow up today with manga will not magically turn into comic readers down the line. The industry will respond the continuous decrease in copies sold as they did the past 20 years. Increase prices and reduce quality further, which will only accelerate the speed at which the entire business model will collapse.
Awesome work mate
I have come to the unfortunate realization is that our hobby is dying and the future looks very dim. Most people who purchase don't want to read and creators know this hence the weak material. They just don't care enough to put out quality content instead more interested in making a cheap buck. Us older collectors who actually read have gravitated towards the back issue market.
These retailers are fans first, they're in a business that runs on passion and it's heartbreaking to see what the publishers, and the corrupt media that runs interference for the publishers, have done to them. They deserve better and so do the readers paying good money for garbage.
I agree. On my part, I go out of my way to keep up with comic lines that I enjoy… which implies that I’m exposed to all of the variant covers releasing.
Normal people, whom you’d want to get into comics, would be confused. That Stormbreakers Deadpool/Wolverine WW3 variant was very generic.
So... the LCS owners are at the 'Big 3' Dealership during 1980s level, or worse the late 2000s. 😢
I've never bought a comic newer than 2015 or so. By that point, they just stopped being fun.
Very true. It’s sad that companies keep putting out “edgy”, depressing stuff when fans want something fun and not the same kind of morbid stuff they see on the news all the time.
I don't think anyone knows how to tell a good story anymore. And might be even longer than that. Occasionally a decent one pops up here and there, but three vast majority are simply worth the landfill or to be recycled.
I always found it annoying, going into a comic shop and they have the next day's books laid out, but aren't allowed to sell them yet until Wednesday.
They had Star Trek comics based on the USS Enterprise 1701-B, but the Captain said they weren't available until Next Tuesday.
Stores started dying in the middle of the 90's, this is nothing new and we saw it coming
Been collecting comics for 50+ years. And the sales have been dropping off since the launch time of Image. Each generation of collectors hashad no interest in any comic.
Invest in silver and gold ingots engraved with your favorite superhero from Western comics and anime. SILVER Surfer. Booster Gold. Star PLATINUM.
Way too many variant covers. Its so bad that the blanks sell out so that artists can do their own covers to sell on Facebook. Just give me A and B.
At the end of every episode of House of The Dragon on HBO Max there is a QR code that brings you to a GoT mobile game and a QR code that brings you to George’s books. Why can’t DC manage to do that for their comic app at the end of every DC show or movie on the platform? It’s free advertising and they would be hitting their target market a lot more efficiently than the way they are currently advertising their highest selling titles in every comic they publish, as if we didn’t know about the comics already. Absolute bafoons.
Comic book style conspiracy theory incoming:
Collective unconsciousness (blissfully lulled) is not new or uncommon however, sometimes what can appear to be a psychic level stream of understanding in groups of people, usually but not always found amongst the truly oppressed, can emerge into that general din of the noise of life awareness. In this particular instance it was when media allowed a tidbit in their cycle a little while ago concerning how many young men of the 1st world regions were often thinking on the Roman Empire. And I’m theorizing that it is due directly to the mirroring of its simultaneous decline in art with society just as ours is today.
Catering to the collectors and and the woke is what killed comics ( among other things). Its the housing market problem but in the comic book industry. Why make variant covers? That never made sense to me, it just dilutes the actual product and just lays there gathering dust. Wouldnt you want the actual fans to buy your product and remember the cover of the story? Isnt that what makes it iconic? Take manga for example, each cover of the individual manga is never changing. Their Magazine covers are all unique and always different as well. But they dint have variants and guess what, people buy it because they like the story, genre or the artist. Idk im not an expert here, i just say what i see.
They should fire everyone ( currently its too toxic) and scale the company down to size based on sales. I feel like that would send a good message to the fans. Focus on product and not production for the sake of production. Retail is dead because people dont go to comic shops. But them back in grocery stores for example. I bet that would boost sales and bring back younger fans.
I don t think even shifting strategies will change sales much. People are struggling financially these days way more than ever in history
Before COVID I was spending easy 500 per month on books. These days I can maybe spend 150 per month. This includes graphic novels as well. So I’ve completely scrapped buying periodicals
At least make in different color interior like black in white .gold and gray with different var.comics.😂maybe that will help sells .more than 3.covers is overkill
At least for the comic stores I frequent, there was very little interest in having DC titles available for sale on Tuesday. It just was not that big of deal for the vast majority of the customers, and the extra work it caused for the retailers was just not worth it. It's just so much easier to have one release day for the week.
This is a lot of the same arguments I saw in the ‘90’s. Variant covers, lackluster stories, catering to speculators. Except there are far fewer readers now than in the 90’s. The industry has refused to adapt to changing times and are still making the same mistakes as decades ago.
I’m soooo sick of events!!!!!!
come on now.
'murican comics can't compete w/great story telling, great prices and tig ol' bitte manga girls.
Comic shops should push more Image and Indie series, ask for lower cover prices to push sales, take control of the biz.
I loved Harley Quinn when it came out with Palamotti and Conner. I buy Harley for covers and become Tini Howard cant write. She is so boring.
Id say its because our society is dark and people simply arent rooting for figures that protect and reinforce society.
The shuffling of the same writers/creators(I use the latter very loosely) is the equivalent of the kid who took a huge dump in another kid’s sandbox only to jump to another and proceeds to take another huge dump.
What kinda metaphor is this???? Loooool! Sounds like you have experience!
I only like buying old bronze,silver age, or independently published books at this point.