Getting Some Wired Crossed

Just about everyone's read the Wired column making the rounds the past few days (if not, go Marvel and Image websites, as well as in the form of free previews on sites like Newsarama. But clearly there needs to be a significant effort by both Marvel and DC to create a pay per download model ala iTunes (and if one has success with any sort of digital comics model, the other will undoubtedly follow). The most important point Mark McClusky makes in the column is this:

Most piracy doesn't spring from the desire to get free content. It comes from a desire to get it in a specific way.

Arguing digital vs. print is as inane as arguing single vs. trade. The idea should be to make one's product as easy to consume as possible and each format offers advantages to different customers. McClusky is discouraged by DC and Marvel's "no comment" but I doubt very seriously that no effort is being made by either to develop a profitable system of providing digital content. In fact, Tom Spurgeon points out that:

while there's certainly a case to be made that some sort of policy should be further along by now at the majors, I think the issue has some layers ... many books are sold as repositories of plot-line revelations rather than a specific entertainment experience -- I know the numbers are against me, but when I had a brother downloading chunks of DC's line for free I lost all desire to pick up the books in paper form.

Besides, if they can get someone to upload these things for free, and don't perceive a profit out there for pay-per-downloads this would cost them, I'm not sure why they don't just let people do that and reap the benefits of greater licensing awareness. In the end, I don't think these are insurmountable problems by any stretch, but I can understand taking a big longer to make sure.

The role of singles as repositories of plot-line revelations is the one area where digital distribution could theoretically hurt sales of singles, but theoretically those losses would be more than made up for with the download fee. Besides, there's growing sentiment that those interested solely in what happens next aren't buying comics anyway (more on that in the next few days). It may be possible to convert some of those into paying customers if a convenient and affordable option was available.

Where I have real trouble with the column, though, is in its tendency to take anecdotal evidence and personal experience and attempt to apply them to the industry as a whole. First, there are really two arguments being conflated into one in the article, namely digital distribution and internet distribution. McClusky mentions a DVD set of The Complete New Yorker in making a case for such a comic product, ignoring the fact the there's likely somewhat limited crossover between the market for a complete run of comics and a complete run of The New Yorker. Using that single anecdote (without providing anything beyond thousands of sales), McClusky goes on to conclude that a product like the Complete Batman would cause mass hysteria. I'm assuming the hyperbole is intentional because Marvel has already licensed their X-Men and Fantastic Four comics to GIT Corp, who released them as 40 Years of the X-Men Collector's Edition DVD and 44 Years of the Fantastic Four Collector's Edition DVD, both of which do fairly brisk sales on Amazon (for software anyway) but fall well short of causing mass hysteria. But that's because this isn't really the format that appeals to the market he theorizes about throughout the column. Instead, the iTunes model would seem preferable to those who would rather read their comics in a digital format (which preference is usually a result of the convenience of acquiring and consuming product digitally).

My biggest issue with the column, however, is its brief mention of the impact of such a system on retailers:

Geeks like the physical object - the collectible. But they also like just reading the stories, on paper or onscreen. Collectors would still pay a premium for the book itself - supporting independent comics retailers - and a whole world of casual fans could buy the latest issue of Superman - or even the very first appearance of Spider-Man - on iTunes.

Basically this is his way of patting retailers on the head and saying, "don't worry your geeks won't leave you." Well, thanks but that's both untrue and shortsighted, not to mention condescending. It's untrue in that some customers will spend less money at the comic shop if they can get hold of the same material legally online. Trade collections have already convert many who saw themselves as collectors in readers who simply prefer the stories either in the format or the accessibility that trades and graphic novels provide. Digital distribution would likely amplify that trend. It's shortsighted, though, because it assumes that the only thing that comic shops are good for is providing geeks with collectibles. Such an approach leads to a shrinking market, one which would quickly implode upon itself. Thankfully, the idea is also shortsighted in its assumption that the only thing the books themselves are useful for is as collectibles.

Comic shops need to emphasize their role as entertainment retailers (and have begun to do so). McClusky, however, clings to the concept that the book can only have value as a collectible rather than providing another means of accessing the same entertainment. The real argument he should have made here was that digital distribution can expose comics to a broader group than comic shops and can function much like bookstores to expand the market. It often theorized that downloadable music increases CD sales and it would seem the would be true of comics.

Then there's the fact that there is a reason that e-books haven't put bookstores out of business. It comes back to convenience and portability in particular. iPods are so popular because they made previously PC bound entertainment in the form of MP3's portable without a loss of quality. Until someone develops a reader that can do the same for books (and by extension comics), the printed book itself will always have the advantage of portability to go along with preference.

As I said initially, McClusky is right in his thesis, comic publishers do need to develop a digital distribution system. But I think its pretty clear from the logic of his own argument that its not a slam dunk and rushing into a poorly developed system could set a company back several years in building a digital presence.

One Mistake Later

Brian Hibbs offered his latest Tilting at Windmills column over at Newsarama last week and it turned out to be a fairly scathing, apparently drug induced attack on DC's approach to their One Year later event, particularly with respect to print runs. It's not his best work (which Hibbs admits up front) and it contains at least one factually incorrect statement regarding Marvel's FOC program (though Hibbs corrected himself in the discussion thread that followed), but the central theme of the piece, that DC chose not to overprint this event to a significant degree, is a sound conclusion to draw. He gets a bit sidetracked trying to determine why DC made such a change without informing retailers and discussing the differences between Marvel and DC policy, but the strongest point he makes is this:

To me, this is an epic and catastrophic bungling of the sales potential of most of these books, from the very top of the supply chain. Why? Because this was the best single chance, this entire decade, to get people to sample DC's line, free and clear of continuity (or, at least, where every reader was on exactly equal ground)

Remember: the publisher (at least in the case of a Marvel or a DC) generally has a lower Cost of Goods, and a high Gross Profit Margin than a retail store. Especially so than a single storefront retailer. It is far far easier for them to take a risk on inventory position that it is for any retailer.

This is the crux of my problem with DC's approach to OYL. This should have been an event on par with (or really much improved upon) their Zero Hour relaunch in the mid-nineties (you remember the first time DC tried to fix Crisis on Infinite Earths, Bad Hal, etc). With the momentum DC had been building for the last several months (or years) this initiative offered the possibility to hook a much larger number of readers on DC titles (and clearly would have worked to a larger degree than it has considering the sellouts). Instead they seem content with offering second prints. That's a fine stopgap measure and I for one appreciate both Marvel and DC's willingness to keep work in print and available. Unfortunately, when dealing with periodicals, the more momentum the better and DC sacrificed momentum.

Yet, in his response to Hibbs' column, Bob Wayne indicated that providing a jumping on point was never DC's intent:

For fans familiar with some of our characters, or fans sampling the DC Universe through the Infinite Crisis series, most of the One Year Later titles are strong entry points. We absolutely believe that One Year Later has been effective in reaching those readers. The fact that we're reprinting issues is a sign of faith in One Year Later and how it is being received at retail. But I don't think DC ever said or intended that the One Year Later titles were designed as a tool to bring in new readers who were unfamiliar with comics and/or our core characters.

But just in case, I checked in down the hall with the DCU's Senior VP -- Executive Editor, Dan DiDio. Dan's reply: "Never intended for that. As a matter of fact, it was the opposite, it was designed to create mystery around each character and allow us to get back to separate storylines coming out of Infinite Crisis. It was certainly a better jump on point than a jump off point. But that's not the same as bringing in new readers. If we had been trying to bring in new readers, we would have done all origin issues!"

A couple of issues here. First, reprinting issues shows confidence in one thing: unmet demand. Well, anyone with one eye and half a brain can see that when 19 out of 22 OYL titles have sold out there is unmet demand. Not exactly going out on a limb there to show their confidence in OYL. Wayne and Didio both indicate that OYL was not intended to bring in new readers which absolutely boggles my mind. For a company that seems devoted to dragging comics back to "gotta get it Wednesdays" you would think they'd take every opportunity possible to bring in new readers (and lets be honest how many people have zero familiarity with Superman or Batman).

Seems pretty clear that DC simply missed the boat here, right? Well, several Newsarama members commented in Tilting at Windmills discussion thread that it's ultimately retailers fault for not understanding their customers enough to order more copies of these issues. Bob Wayne doesn't go quite place outright blame on retailers but he certainly nudges the discussion in that direction when he says:

I don't think this is a question of "blame." The reality is that the demand for the OYL books was huge. As was noted earlier, retailers as a group didn't order as many copies as their customers apparently wanted to buy. We overprinted these comics, some of them by a substantial amount. Some retailers increased their orders substantially on many titles. A significant number of retailers seem to have decided that their customers would not be sampling any new titles as part of One Year Later.

The main idea? Retailers told us this was how many copies their readers wanted. In reality, what retailers told DC was: this is how much money we're willing to gamble on you right now because we can't afford to order 22 titles at Infinite Crisis numbers and be wrong. I would further point out that retailers are a superstitious, cowardly lot. Whether we should be willing to or not, as a group we don't take chances. Personally, I'd like to see that change, but many retailers were trained by the rollercoaster 90's that "no one ever went out of business selling out." Ignoring the ridiculous nature of that statement, it seems to apply perfectly to this situation. Both retailers and DC took the approach that there will be increased demand so we'll bump our numbers up a bit based on historical data of similar situations, but we'll rely on our "partners" to show a little faith in this initiative, leaving almost no one taking a chance on these books.

In the end it's not a catastrophe. Both DC and retailers saw percentage point gains. But a huge opportunity was missed by everyone because retailers assumed DC would take a chance on their line-wide initiative and significantly overprint most of these books. Meanwhile DC assumed that the burden would be on retailers to set the sales ceiling on these books by better predicting their customers interest in the event. Had a bit more planning and communication gone into the event beforehand, both sides may have been willing to take a bit more of a gamble and seen much greater rewards. Mr. Wayne, however, feels differently:

NRAMA: Okay, then from the retail perspective, was there a lack of communication between the retailer and publisher in regards to what the demand would be for these issues?

BW: No, I don't think so. We have to strike a balance between informing our retailers about the importance of an issue or a group of issues and maintaining an element of surprise when our readers buy the actual comic and read it. We've been talking about One Year Later for months, and how the weekly 52-part series 52 fills in the events of that missing year.

As long as DC (and Marvel for that matter) choose to treat retailers as fans who should also act as their sales agents rather than as commercial partners, significant growth for their publishing efforts and the direct market will be difficult to come by.

Reading the Returns

Two of my comic shop pet peeves came up in the last few days and are actually closely related to one another: Return policies and Reading policies. It seems that the majority of direct market comic shops fall into one of two completely opposite camps regarding return policies while a much smaller minority try to find a middle ground between the two. Policy #1 is, sorry you're out of luck, all sales are final. The perspective of these store owners is that the customer bought it, didn't like what they bought and want to exchange it for something else that they may or may not like. If customers are allowed to indiscriminately return whatever they want how will we ever sell anything? Policy #2 is, we want our customers to be happy regardless of if it costs us some money. If there's any problem, return it and we'll find something better for you. These store owners believe that keeping the customer happy over the long haul will more than make up for any short term loss. Then there are stores that understand the philosophy behind Policy #2 but have the same fear of such policies being abused that leads to the implementation of Policy #1. These middle ground store owners will accommodate a customer with a pull list but not a casual customer or some other such variation allowing special circumstance returns.

How many of you have walked into a store and seen the "No Reading" signs? Or furtively glanced at the guy behind the counter while wondering if it was okay to flip through as much of the comic as you had. Many stores feel if customers are allowed to indiscriminately read whatever they want how will they ever sell anything? These stores are for the most part the same ones with the "no returns" policies and are bringing the approach that they are selling collectibles, not running a library. I've been told (first and secondhand) that some people think we're nuts for setting up a lounge area and encouraging people to read. But I also know that I've yet to see someone sit down and read a book and leave without buying anything, never to be heard from again.

Clearly these two policies are linked in the sense that some stores are cutting it so close on their cash flow that they're afraid that they won't be able to cover their bills if they allow customers to sample product without paying for it or to return that product for something that they may like more. They have to squeeze as much out of those customers as quickly as possible to keep the doors open. While I understand cash flow problems as well as anyone, policies like these are what keep many stores cutting it so close on their cash flow. Approaching any business with fear and nostalgia leads to dwindling sales in almost every case and those clearly seem to be the two motivating factors behind preventing customers from making the most informed decision.

For more on my feelings about in store reading, go read about our couch.

Quick Hits 4/23

*It finally seems to be sinking in that the best advertising is word of mouth advertising and the best way to create that is by giving away free stuff. First, there's Free Comic Book Day. As great as the whole event is, by far the best element of it is the chance for retailers to get promotional product at a low cost that they can then afford to give away to create word of mouth about both themselves and the material. Now we have the movement towards making decent sized chunks (at least 10-15 pages) of comics available for free on the internet. I've mentioned Larry Young's decision to post Continuity at the AIT/PlanetLar site and the Isotope Lounge running their Legal Download Fest a few weeks back. Image has first issues of several titles (generally the best to offer a preview of) up in their entirety on their site, plus previews of a few more. Meanwhile Marvel offers a wide sampling of new and old in their entirety, including such useful issues as Runaways #1. Is offering free looks at these going to create a wave of sales nationwide? Probably not, but every little bit helps.

*Then there's the flip side of that coin, when Image and Newsarama decided to publish Godland #8 in its entirety on the web. A good idea until you realize that the preview hit the internet exactly 12 days after the comic was released in shops. It's not the competition that's the main problem since there are plenty of people who buy the book but would never see the preview on Newsarama. The problem is how much it annoyed those people who did buy the comic without knowing that less than two weeks later is was going to be available for free online. It would have made much more sense to release a preview of issue #7 which was over a month old or wait a bit longer. Then there's the terminally late Expatriate. It's an interesting series with some nice art but the last issue shipped -- well before we were a store so I'm really not sure. The books artist, Jason Latour, is serializing those issues that have already been released at his livejournal I assume in an effort to drum up interest in the final two issues which we will theoretically see in the next few months. Which is great and all, but it would make much more sense to provide these previews when a firm (by which I mean once the books are completed and printed) release date is known for the final two issues. As is whatever attention and desire for the books that he generates will most likely evaporate again before those issues hit shelves.

*And finally, because the First Second parade never ends: Tom Spurgeon interviews Mark Spiegel about where the line is and where they plan to take it. Fate of the Artist, which feels to me like the lynchpin of the launch, was a toss-in huh? Then there's the fact that they're looking to be successful both inside and outside of the direct market. Maybe it's just lip service (and the rather meager Diamond discount would back up that assessment) but there does seem to be a committment to see the line succeed in the Direct Market as an element of much larger success. Things like Chris Butcher getting seriously advance copies of their books is at least encouraging. Interesting (at least from a business perspective) stuff and just further convinces me that these books have the potential to make huge waves (hopefully in both the direct and bookstore markets).

A Worthy Catalog

Over the last couple of weeks I was able to read and review five of First Second's six spring releases and to varying degrees I've enjoyed and appreciated them all. The level of planning, care and capital that went into this launch is pretty awe inspiring and will hopefully pay large dividends for the industry critically and financially.

One example of just how committed and innovative First Second's approach can be is apparent in their Spring Catalog. I'd been hearing rumors about this catalog months ago and when I finally got the chance to look at a copy I was impressed. It's fairly slim, as to be expected from a company without a backlist, but it has great extras that are pretty clearly devoted to selling the concept of graphic novels as a viable, commercial approach to storytelling and therefore bookselling. This includes Jessica Abel's wonderful "What is a 'graphic novel'?" comic that works as a very simplified version of McCloud's Understanding Comics. Calvin Reid offers his thoughts as Publishers Weekly's resident graphic novel reviewer with some nice insight regarding the growth of the format. Meanwhile Booklist's Michael Cart recommends some starter material for those who are new to the format (none of which, interesting enough, are a part of First Second's offerings).

First Second gets something that many publishers (and businesses for that matter) do not. Creating widespread acceptance of the product increases the potential customer base and helps grow sales in a healthy, organic way. Rather than leaping into the fray and making a grab for as much market share as they can muster, the approach seems to be "improve the industry as a whole and sales and profits will follow." It's an approach that the rest of comics would be smart to emulate.

What's most appealing about the catalog for us, though is that it promotes really impressive work in a really impressive package. That makes it a great tool to utilize in an effort to appeal to customers like libraries, particularly in an effort to get them to stock a greater number of literary graphic novels. As much as I enjoy showing librarians just how viable comics are as an art form, it's immeasurably helpful to be able to point to publications with some significant cache like Publishers Weekly and Booklist to reinforce my point. And best of all, the final essay is from a librarian, indicating just how much graphic novels bring to a library's collection.

On the other hand, I don't know that this first wave of books has a breakout star. I loved Fate of the Artist and it certainly has the potential to make a commercial splash, but as good as the Alec books are, they don't exactly sell From Hell numbers. The Rabbi's Cat has sold well but its a bit more mainstream (at least on the surface) than Vampire Loves, though I do expect the latter to find a nice sized audience. It's simply difficult to predict just how much initial demand there will be for these books (though we're prepared for quite a bit). Even so, I expect all of these titles to do fairly well as evergreen titles (their quality certainly suggest as much).

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out David Welsh's interview with Alexis Siegel over at the CWN's Flipped. Siegel translated The Rabbi's Cat and two of First Second's spring releases (Vampire Loves and Deogratias). Its an interesting perspective on translation in general and the particular difficulties translating not only language but cultural quirks as well. Definitely worthwhile reading, and probably due another look after reading those books.

Origins of Theory

I have no idea what this means (although many, many other people seem to think that they do) but Diamond went from just over 10,000 copies of Wolverine Origins #1 in stock on Sunday to sold out yesterday afternoon (expect the press release once another variant cover has been created). I've heard through the grapevine that in store sales have been very strong which was what I anticipated, what with an alternate cover and it being a first issue of a new Wolverine series and everything. Clearly the variant cover is boosting sales, but there are definitely other forces at play here. For once, it seemed as though Marvel had overprinted enough to at least last a few days after the title hit shelves. Instead, it lasted a few hours. Some believe that the overprint is being bought up by e-Bay warriors hoping to make a few extra bucks by marking these books up but that seems fairly unlikely on that large of a scale. Another popular theory posits that retailers as a group order incredibly tight initially in order to guarantee selling out within the first week of sales but at the last minute realize there is more demand than they will be able to meet and their advance reorders eat up the overprint.

I don't know what caused the overprint to disappear so quickly, but the fact that it did leads me a conclusion: some long established stores are limiting their growth by not increasing their orders by at least some significant percentage above guaranteed or even predicted sales. What this leads me to believe is that those stores are not particularly interested in growing their comic sales, unless that growth is in the form of a boom. Let's be honest, at minimum a quarter of direct market stores use comics as a secondary or even tertiary income stream (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's closer to half). Those stores are, somewhat understandably, more interested in devoting capital to growing their most profitable product lines rather than devoting that capital to a market that can be as difficult to gauge as the comics singles market. That's not to say that those stores ignore demand for a "mainstream" title like Wolverine Origins, though, so when they see that they're selling many more copies on day one than they thought, well time to get on the horn to Diamond and get some more copies in the shop pronto. Problem being, of course, that comics singles are sold as a periodical and the majority of a title's sales momentum is built in that first week. By the time an issue hits shelves, it's almost too late to increase the number of copies of it a store will be able to sell. We routinely order at minimum two or three copies more than we believe we can sell with the idea that we aren't fortune tellers and there are likely markets out there for books that we haven't entirely predicted are there. And we're a small store (growing slowly) where singles are barely a quarter of our total sales.

In fact, as of this moment, we have sold a grand total of zero copies of Wolverine Origins #1. It's being roundly trounced by Daredevil, Justice and New Avengers, not to mention weeks old books like Fables and Emo Boy. This says much more about MacGuffin than it does the book, of course, but I still find it unusual. Despite the fact that sales continue to climb in every category, we've developed only a handful of regulars and most of those regulars are coming in for a graphic novel/trade or two a week. Outside of our reserve members, sales of our singles are primarily to customers either browsing or looking for a specific issue that they can't find anywhere else.

Quick Hits 4/17

*Mike Sterling ran down some simple steps for Free Comic Book Day that literally every store in the country that sells comics should be doing as a minimum. With FCBD hitting its 5th anniversary, it is beginning to to come under a bit of criticism for either a) having run its course or b) being ineffective from the beginning. Exactly what effect the event has had on an industry wide scale is almost impossible to determine and on a store by store basis mileage is going to vary wildly, although anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that the benefits are almost directly related to the promotional effort the store puts into the event (which is pretty much true of any event). The difference with FCBD is that publishers are offering cheap product that we can use as part of the promotion, saving a nice chunk of the expense that such an event would otherwise carry. I think the failing in FCBD is when stores put the money they've saved on that product into something other than promoting the event. I've noticed the attitude from some stores that this should be a publisher funded promotional event in which we basically just supply the venue. Clearly that is not only not going to happen, it's not particularly practical (especially when you consider how loathe Marvel and DC are to promote the industry as a whole rather than just their own exclusive corner of it).

*DC's One Year Later is into it's second month and judging by DC's weekly sell-out announcements, its been a success. Unfortunately for them, not everyone is judging based on just the sell-out press releases. First of all, whether they'll admit it or not, there was pretty clearly a decision made by someone at DC to make little or no increase (if not a decrease) in the amount of overprint for these titles from what they were getting prior to OYL. They may have done this as a means of getting retailers to order more heavily and take on some of the risk associated with such a large scale promotional push. More likely, though, they are hoping to use the publicity generated by these sell-outs to keep the "event" fresh in their consumers mind. Hopefully the intent was not to create a run on these books among speculators (though we did have more than one customer come in looking to buy multiple copies of these books). Over at the Savage Critic(s), Brian Hibbs offered his thoughts on the first wave of books, including what he would have done were he in charge at DC. I agree wholeheartedly with what he says there and I think DC has the missed the boat here by allowing some of the momentum these titles should be building to wane a bit because the books are unavailable. I think DC chose not to overprint these books as part of Didio's plan to make Wednesday's exciting again. He's stated that his goal, particulalry with 52, is to force customers to rush out to their local comic shop on Wednesdays because they're so excited about what's waiting there. It seems DC has decided to give an additional push by making it clear that if you don't get it Wednesday, you're going to have to wait a few weeks (and if you do get it on Wednesday, don't forget to check back for the alternate cover!).

Portrait of the Artist as an Eddie Campbell

Whether it's film, books, comics, music or any form of art/entertainment, as my anticipation builds expectations follow suit. What inevitably follows is disappointment, either in the quality of the work itself or in my decision to learn as much as possible about the work before seeing/reading/listening to is myself. Generally I manage to spoil an otherwise perfectly decent bit of art by expecting too much of it. There are those rare cases, though, when expectations are exceeded or, as in the case of Eddie Campbell's Fate of the Artist, shattered to bits.

I've had the chance to read three of the four "Alec" books so far, which are essentially Campbell's fictionalized version of his own life (unfortunately I've been unable to get hold of How To Be An Artist, which based on the first page of Fate of the Artist and my own luck is likely the most relevant to the new book). By the fourth volume, After the Snooter, Campbell dropped Alec MacGarry as a stand in and the walls between fiction and reality became more like windows. Here those windows seem to have been opened, allowing everyone to cross back and forth at will. The best part, though, is that as intelligent and meta-textual as this makes it, I wasn't quite ready for how funny and engrossing Fate of the Artist is. Based on what little I had seen of it, I feared that this book would be too intellectual to really enjoy. Appreciate maybe, but I suspected it would be something I would read once and put away. Instead, I've already read it twice.

Artists, writer in particular, talk about creating the world in which the work exists, often down to the minute details most of which will never come into play in the work itself as a means of creating authenticity. Actors often apply a similar concept in the creation and portrayal of a character, developing a history and backstory that allows them to connect more fully to the material, despite the fact that the details of that backstory will never exist outside of their mind. Fate of the Artist succeeds most brilliantly in the creation of four distinct yet thematically linked worlds in which nearly the same story takes place, each commenting on the others without violating their own idiosyncrasies. "Honeybee" has its own lifespan as as comic strip over the course of the book, evolving from a fairly crude beginning into a a full color, full page strip with quite a bit of complexity. And while the strip's relationship to the other stories is always present, it succeeds in its own right by being funnier than many newspapers strips without any context beyond its own panels. Meanwhile, "the film" segments are very much a direct descendant of the Alec stories, though with an additional layer of metatext I wouldn't have thought possible. Sharing the spine of the story with the film is the detective novel which dominates much of the first part before disappearing into the background in part two. While adhering to the tropes of the genre, it manages an interplay with the film that provides the details for the creation of the fourth and most impressive story. This is the world that seems closest to reality, yet is created through a single interview and the interplay between the other three worlds. That interview (ostensibly with Campbell's daughter), combined with clues from the film and the detective novel, allow the reader to create a story that answers the question I was constantly asking myself, "what's really going on." The complexity seems daunting, yet Campbell manages it all so well that there's no difficulty becoming immersed in these worlds.

While one could read this as Campbell's finale (including an author's photo of him walking away), First Second already has plans to publish another of his books, The Black Diamond Detective Agency. Rather, Fate of the Artist feels much more like the last of the Alec series. The final segment indicates that drawing so heavily on his life as inspiration for his work has left Campbell unable to enjoy that life (and metaphorically deceased as a result). Yet is this the "real" Campbell or the Alec MacGarry/Eddie Campbell creation that shares his life? Fortunately, there's more than enough packed into these slim 96 pages to speculate on to no end. Enough of that for now, though, before I turn into a pseudo-academic, reconstructing a fictional artist to take the place of the real one.

At this point I feel like I've turned into a shill for First Second (which technically I pretty much am), so next week I'm going to review their catalog (pretty impressive unto itself) and maybe offer one or two negative thoughts. In the meantime, check out Graeme McMillan's thoughts. And Jog's insights, which make me simultaneously jealous and physically ill.

Stassen's Tale

Continuing our tour of First Second's spring releases we come to Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda. Jean-Philippe Stassen creates a small, brutal story that resonates far beyond its pages. The titular character, Deogratias, grows from a boy to a man over the course of the story, yet when we meet him at his oldest, he seems to have regressed to the mentality of a child (or animal). Through a series of flashbacks, we begin to see who Deogratias was and what his world was like before genocide ripped Rwanda apart.

Through these flashbacks we're introduced to two sisters, Benina and Apollinaria, the closest thing this story has to heroes. The sisters are both the targets of Deogratias' affection, and while Apollinaria has little interest in Deogratias, Benina is much more receptive. Stassen skillfully depicts these three growing from children to teenagers over the course of the story, impressively conveying their physical, mental and emotional growth. Unfortunately, Deogratias is a Hutu while the sisters are Tutsi, the subject of derision and eventually genocide by the Hutu majority.

Stassen chooses to limit the violence to a few scenes, almost exclusively in the background, instead focusing on the emotional and psychological ramifications of the violence on Deogratias and the rich cast of characters. In the flashbacks he offers insight into an imperfect community, but one in which the three friends have found a way to be happy. Even that happiness, though, came at a high price to the adults who care for the children.

As the story gains momentum, a sense of foreboding overtakes it and the mystery of just what happened during the genocide to leave Deogratias in the state he's in weighs heavily on the narrative. By the end, Stassen has answered those questions in the most real and therefore devastating way possible. This is a book that glorifies nothing about those terrible events and their aftermath, not even the possibility of pyrrhic victories. It is not about heroism or sacrifice or anything except the cost of such atrocity, both to the world and to one little boy.

Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda deservedly won the Goscinny Prize, a partner award of the Angoulême International Comics Festival. David Welsh digs a bit deeper (and comes out with a much better review) over at Precocious Curmudgeon. Available May 2, 2006.

Tail Eating Syndrome

The other day I claimed that I was not going to go on a diatribe about my distaste for the practice of publishing variant covers, particularly as an ordering incentive. Apparently I was wrong.

We do not carry variant covers unless it's unavoidable. In the case of Infinite Crisis, it is not a matter of choice. Yet, I know for a fact that it has increased our sales by at least 25% because several customers want to have both covers or simply can't decide between the two (I have to admit that I generally prefer the Perez covers, but that's not the case for every issue). Even with the bump in sales this provided, I would still have preferred a single cover for each issue which might have allowed me to use my sales skills to convince a customer to try another series (a OYL title, perhaps). In the long run, we would see more money from a customer picking up a news series than getting two covers of the same book. And, quite frankly, a few customers who did not want to shell out for both covers spent quite a while deciding which cover they wanted (and seemed to have a bit of a bitter taste in their mouth from having to choose in the first place).

Still, the incentive variants are even worse. Its pretty typical of any business to offer some sort of incentive to your customer to spend more money, whether it's luring them in with a buy one get one free deal or offering a better discount if they purchase a higher volume of product. Very rarely are these incentives actually worth it and in the case of variant cover incentives, they actually do harm.

Jumping into the wayback machine for a minute, a few years ago Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics, laid out the pro side of this argument (I'm chopping it up a bit for the sake of space, but go here to read the whole column):

Over the past decade comics publishers have voluntarily increased their output
of premium cover editions that they pass on to retailers, usually for only a
nominal cost, or even sometimes for free...the new executive team at Marvel is acutely aware of the market for comics collectibles, and has promised to make darn sure that any book touted as a "limited edition" will actually have a very small quantity produced...This will help protect consumers from the scams that sometimes occurred during the 1990's, when many "limited editions" had print runs dictated only by how many were ultimately ordered.

I view this trend toward publishers creating alternate covers as a way of helping retailers as a great step forward...the future of our entire industry is resting upon the shoulders of approximately 1,000 comics retailers, many of whom can barely cover their weekly new comics bill. The fact that the publishers have at long last discovered a low cost method for them to financially help retailers build their capitalization base delights me...there are still some members of the comics retailing community who suffer from guilt at the thought of actually being paid by the comics publishers for taking on additional risk. That number is steadily dwindling, however, as a growing number of those comics retailers who do not avail themselves of the financial incentives that they have earned join the ranks of the unemployed. While I think those retailers hastened their own financial demise through poor decisions, I still very much regret their departure from our community... I very much hope that all comics publishers continue to provide retailers with sales incentives through limited promotional editions, and that collectors come to a greater understanding of the financial needs of comics retailers. Limited promotional books will not solve all of the financial problems of the comics retailer community, but I believe that they are an excellent step in the right direction.

Needless to say, this is an example of how to make more money by selling to the same base of consumers rather than increasing the size of that base. What's interesting about order incentive variants is that they are an example of publishers' (and Diamond's) attempt to do the exact same thing. Rather than trying to increase their number of customers by creating programs to help new stores open, thereby increasing the size of the direct market, the idea is to convince their existing customers to buy more than they can reasonably sell in order to get these incentive variants. It's a system that leads to stagnation and ultimately results in the snake eating its tail. Brian Hibbs pretty much dismantled this argument at the time. A few highlights:

See, the "problem" is that Chuck's perceptions are filtered through the lens of being one of the largest retailers in the DM...That means Chuck'll get 11+ copies of this very rare variant. Meanwhile, back in the rest of the DM, there are 3800 stores, so the "average" store gets... um... no copies of the variant. That's because the "average" store orders about 18 copies of Wolverine -- less than a third of the target number of 65 for-a-variant. Oddly, I'd have little problem if Chuck had said "Variants are good because they make me more money" -- but the suggestion that they're great for the market as a whole, or great for the smallest stores struggling the most is really far from any kind of reality. Because most stores never even qualify for the things...I think variant covers send exactly the wrong messages to comics consumers (because, let's face it, your comics are, in the main, actually worthless as a "collectible").

That last part is pretty much the driving force behind what we do here. I understand that it's fun to collect comics. I enjoy the fact that I have the entire run of Starman. But I am under no illusion that those comics are even worth the prices printed on the cover. The only way that a collectible increases in value is if supply or demand drastically increases. Otherwise we're talking about penny stock here. To try to trick a customer into paying a premium for something that they then will have to sell at a premium to a customer who will almost universally regret the purchase a few years down the road is a miserable idea that leads to customer dissatisfaction. As I said, if we're trying to get our regulars to spend more money, it's a much healthier business decision all around to get them interested in new series rather than shelling out a lump sum of money for a product that offers no additional value.

Into the Deep End

I've spent several posts extolling the seeming virtues of First Second, and that trend will continue this week with reviews of most of the titles that comprise their initial launch. Before getting into that, though, I got a call from their marketing coordinator last week and I want to quote something Chris Butcher said after meeting a couple members of the First Second staff at NYCC "These guys are so on-the-ball it's scary." There's an interview with Mark Spiegel, who's heading up the line, at PW that'll give you an idea of how much forethought went into this.

Two thirds of their initial releases are translated from French and two of these feature art by the amazingly talented and prolific Joann Sfar. Sardine in Outer Space, originally published in France in 2000, is a collaboration between Emmanuel Guibert and Joann Sfar and is about as well designed as a series of bedtime stories could be. Broken up into roughly 10 page short stories, it follows the adventures of Sardine and her space pirate uncle Capt. Yellow Shoulder. We're clearly dealing with achildren'ss book here (and the types of logic that entails) but it's almost an ideal introduction to the format for kids. Sfar's art is much larger and for the most part looser than in The Rabbi's Cat (which is saying something), but it's a style that works beautifully for a series featuring unusual aliens, planets and adventures. As with any book in this format, some stories work better than others but the hits outweigh the misses by a large margin (I was particularly fond of "Honkfish Jamboree" and "Pokemon" -- it's not what you think). I've had a bit of trouble deciding what to recommend to parents looking for something to read with their kids and I think this will be at the top of that list (especially with ideas like a disco ball planet peppered in for the adults). Available May 02, 2006.

The other spring release from Sfar is Vampire Loves, a collection of the first four books in his Grand Vampire series. I love this book. To be honest, as much as I like The Rabbi's Cat, this was the title I was least excited about of the Spring releases, but that was clearly a mistake. Full of interesting andcomplexx characters (who just happen to be vampires, witches, ghosts, supernatural cops and even the occasional mortal) it's an addictively humorous story about relationships and behavior. Not only do the characters feel like real people (relatively speaking of course), it seems as though Sfar just grabbed a couple of my friends and transformed them into these characters. Top that off with Ferdinand, the most likeable vampire this side of Angel (or Count Chocula), and this was a book I just could not put down. Sfar creates a cast of characters that's it's impossible not to love (even the ex-girlfriends) and we get to watch their lives intersect as they fall together and apart (with pearls of wisdom like "Some guys ought to be videotaped when they're alone with girls and have the tape shown to their buddies"). There are a few subplots that run the length of the book but the real joy of reading this are the moments and the dialogue rather than the plot. It reminds me quite a bit of the Scott Pilgrim books in that way (not to mention some distinct similarities between Scott and Ferdinand). As I said, this is a wonderful book that leaves me anxious to see what else Sfar and First Second have for us. Available May 02, 2006.

I'm generally wary of a publisher that comes onto the scene with such a large initial release rather than slowly building a line of titles like Pantheon. The genius of First Second, though, is that they're initial wave includes translations of four popular and award winning European titles plus a high profile book from Eddie Campbell. When only one of your first six titles is unproven, it makes more sense to go ahead and make a splash. I had a good amount of faith in this company based simply on what I had seen of the work they were publishing but after hearing from them I'm convinced that this is a publisher that is going to make serious waves in the sequential art field.

Quick Hits 4/8

*I almost launched into a longwinded diatribe about how much I hate variant covers, including our reasoning for not carrying them at MacGuffin unless its unavoidable (Infinite Crisis and second printing variants being the obvious cases). Fortunately I wasn't able to get past the flinging bile at the keyboard phase and into the shaping into semi-coherent thoughts phase this week because a) I'd already done it with regards to back issues and b) I began working on a series of posts reviewing the books of First Second (oh yeah, and I had to attend to our wonderful customers). Thankfully Jason Richards spent a good deal of the week breaking down the economics of variants as retailers have to deal with them (with followups here, and here). He's trying to make a go of carrying the variants for those customers who want them and I wish him luck because it's more of a risk than I'm willing to take.

*We're temporarily sold out of Infinite Crisis #6. Definitely did not see that coming. We ordered the same number of copies as we had issue #4 & #5 and still have half of those left on the shelf, but it seems that we've built a larger base of customers since #5 came out. While I'm happy to see that, it's a bit annoying that I misjudged demand to the point that we sold out in 2 days. And while we should have plenty more available beginning Monday afternoon (assuming UPS comes through), I don't like having to send customers away without Infinite Crisis because it's not one that they're likely to want to wait a few more days to get. Still, silver lining and all.

*Mr. Sime has begun his series of interviews with "the brightest and best of the future of comic retailing." First stop was a great choice, Secret Headquarters in LA. Dave and Dave are really good guys and have created a phenomenal concept for their store as half comic book shop half art gallery. They really play up the artistic value of what they sell rather than the collectible value and they host some incredible events that, quite frankly, I'm incredibly jealous of. Anyone interested enough in comics retailing to follow this blog should keep an eye on this series of interviews because I believe we need more stores like Isotope and Secret Headquarters for the industry to grow in healthy and profitable ways.

Drink Me or Eat Me?

The philosophy at MacGuffin is that any comic single over a year old (and less than say 25) that has been reprinted as part of a collection is dead money. Even if it hasn't been reprinted it is pretty much dead money. We are big proponents of comics as entertainment rather than collectible and in that context the back issue has a fairly select market. Ten years ago I was scouring back issue bins to put together the early run of Starman or Waid's Flash (didn't get very far on the latter) because that was the only way I was going to be able to read the story. Today most of those issues are collected in a much more convenient format if one is interested primarily in the story. There is definitely a market for people who prefer singles, but it is not a market where we see much potential for growth and is therefore not the market we choose to cater to.

Hence, no real back issues. What we are committed to, though, is keeping available recent singles that have yet to be reprinted in a more convenient format. In order to do so, however, we have to be able to guess roughly how long we will need to keep these issues available before a collection (be it paperback or hardcover) hits the shelves. For Marvel and DC this has become fairly easy since they tend to collect roughly every six issues of a title and we try to keep roughly the same number of previous issues on the shelf. Even with some of the smaller publishers it's fairly easy to gauge when a collection will be released, but a significant chunk of their output are limited series and we simply keep the singles available until the trade is released.

The problem becomes, how many copies do we need to preorder to have these issues available until the trade? And more importantly, how do we simultaneously adjust for the increased traffic we're seeing as the community realizes we're here? The end result being that we generally order too many copies of each issue, leaving us with more than can fit on the shelves. And what do we do once issues have been collected in a more convenient format? Comics sitting on the shelves or in our storage room are wasted capital that, quite frankly, we need to keep the business running. So, outside of keeping some copies available as outlined above, we've developed a threefold system to liquidate that inventory. First, we offer those issues to other retailers who do specialize in back issues. This is not as a means of making a profit, instead it is simply a way to convert the inventory into liquid assets that can then be used either to purchase more inventory (generally of the evergreen variety) or to pay operating costs. Option number two is to convert the inventory into advertising materials. We're big fans of guerilla marketing and there is almost nothing more useful in guerilla marketing than offering free product. The important part, though, is that the free product is offered to new consumers as a means of drawing them to the store (or the industry in general).

The final option is simply a variation on the idea of converting extra copies into advertising. We're setting up what we're probably going to call a sampler box. The idea being, try a single at 50-75% off of cover price, hopefully something that you had considered in the past but passed on for whatever reason. At a significantly reduced price, hopefully that title or issue now gets a chance. As a sales tactic, it is a form of advertising something new to existing customers. As an inventory solution, it again converts dead money into some form of liquid asset, even if it's at a loss to us. We feel it is much more critical to have access to our capital than to tie that money up in back issues in hopes that maybe some day we'll make money off of them. In the meantime there are about 4,000 more trades and graphic novels on our list of SKUs to add to our inventory that we believe have a much higher sales potential.

The one drawback of the sampler box, or any discounting scheme, is the potential to significantly devalue that merchandise and teach our customers that they will save money by waiting a couple of months until something ends up in the discount pile (similar to how Marvel and DC seem to now regret teaching consumers to wait for the trade). As such, we're being very carefully about how we'll use the these samplers. The majority of singles offered will be either the beginning of new storylines or issues that we feel will be particularly effective at hooking new readers.

Early in our development, so much of our success will be based on cash flow and our biggest ally will be liquid assets. As such, it is critical that we recognize dead product as quickly as possible and move to replace it or simply liquidate it. Eating too much stale inventory will only end up with us shrinking away into oblivion.

We've Got Lots of Issues

The question of back issues has begun to rear it's less than attractive head. We're not a back issue store. That's not to say that we have none, rather we have only as many as can fit on the relatively thin shelves behind the most recent issue (i.e 4 or 5). This pretty much serves the purpose we have for it, namely that if someone picks up issue 27 of The Walking Dead on a whim, realizes how wonderfully soap operatic it is and wants to read the whole thing, well we have the whole thing available as four collections and the three latest issues. But we are not the store to come to looking for the first issue of The Walking Dead. We're going to hand you the first trade. That's not to say that we don't sell plenty of singles, but we don't keep them as backstock.

Which leads to our current circumstance, in which we have multiple copies of several issues of some title which we simply do not have room for on the shelves. Once there's no room left for, it where does it go? We don't have back issue bins, for the most part they have almost no value on eBay, we've sold what we can to other stores that are running low or want particular back issues, but if we simply take them off the shelves and store them somewhere, well that's capital that is simply sitting there screaming to be liquidated. At the same time, I'm not a huge fan of devaluing the merchandise by selling off inventory at a deep discount just a few months after release. Which is all a longwinded way of saying that, we've come up with a couple of short term solutions and possibly some long term ones that I'll go into in more detail tomorrow. Until then, a couple quick notes:

Go check out the Isotope Legal Download Fest, running virtually all week.
Yesterday they premiered a first look at B. Clay Moore and Jeremy Haun's The Leading Man from Oni and today we get a look at Tony Consiglio's 110 Percent. Something certainly seems to be in the air.

Finally, I mentioned that the search feature wasn't working very well -- here's how bad it is:
Our most searched for title is True Story, Swear to God (I'm assuming that's what anyone just searching for "true story" is actually looking for). Unfortunately, unless the searcher puts quotes around the words, True Story, Swear to God doesn't show up in the results. Not exactly ideal, so if anyone is particularly adept at writing search code, let me know.

Round the Blog

Today has been earmarked by me as a day for following up on previous posts (in the grand tradition of your least favorite daytime talk shows).

First Second, by virtue of their name alone, gets the treatment first. Over at Panels & Pixels we get another quick rundown of first impressions of the first wave of releases (keep reading, its broken up into 2 posts) and the promise of future reviews (to which I am looking forward). I continue to be perplexed by my feelings on The Lost Colony, but the more I think about it the more I like (which is something of a backhanded compliment I realize). From what I can tell there are at least three volumes planned so it should be interesting to see how Klein builds on the first installment. I'm also curious to see what sort of presence the entire line will have in the Direct and Bookstore markets and how they will fare. Finally, I should be able to take a look at Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda and Vampire Loves soon, so reviews of those and Sardine to follow.

My brief discussion of Continuity lead to a significant increase in the blog's traffic due to links from Comics Worth Reading and AIT/PlanetLar (thanks Johanna and Larry). The reviews and just a bit of commentary have begun to spring up, notably Graeme's review and speculation at the Savage Critic(s) and the always argumentative Newsarama posters. Still, I guess we're just going to have to wait to see what the data says when the orders are in (where's the fast forward button when you need it).

In a related note, an apparently confused fan followed Larry's example and decided to post Transmetropolitan #8 in its entirety on his Livejournal. That the issue was already released and in no way belonged to said fan was apparently inconsequential (I kid of course. And Ellis doesn't seem to mind much). So after the few of you reading this who somehow missed the boat on Transmet discover it and are desperate for more, head into MacGuffin where we have the entire run of trades in stock.

So, the search feature's not working real well, since all it does is point to the category pages, but since it provides some use we're going to leave it up. As for those category pages, they will slowly begin to include descriptions to go along with the titles and prices. The Sci-Fi/Fantasy page was the first, with others to follow.

Quick Hits 4/1

*It's been covered about as extensively as something on a private forum can be, but if you missed it, our colleague, RIOT's Jason Richards, had a falling out with several other retailers at the CBIA forum. The conflict itself was sparked by a misunderstanding but was really based on a clash of personalities (and not just a little based on concepts of what a comic shop should be). As with any message board, there's a tendency for several voices to emerge loudest and in this case a few of those voices happened to chime in at the same time saying essentially the same thing. I'm sure it felt more than a bit like being ganged up on, particularly when both sides seemed to be misinterpreting what the other was getting at. Johanna Draper Carlson had a ringside seat and pretty much nails it (as usual). The subtext below the surface of many CBIA conversations and this one in particular, is that we're dealing with an industry without any real standards with which to compete. There's no nationwide or even regional chains (Lone Star Comics is probably the closest to this) to compare a store with and it's often lamented by customers that there aren't enough good comic shops out there (or enough out there period). When you couple that lack of standardization with the relatively singleminded passion it takes to be successful as a comics retailer, you find that there's an incredibly broad spectrum of store owners who have incredibly varied opinions on just how things should be done, a perfect recipe for conflict. Anyway, I don't blame Jason for not feeling inclined to post at the CBIA anymore, but it can be a useful tool, particularly for the retail community to interact with publisher representatives.

*In semi-related news, James Sime, proprietor of the world famous Isotope, has returned to his Comic Pimp column at CBR with a concept that I'm a huge fan of: pointing out some of the more innovative, forward thinking retailers to come into the business recently. As I'm sure those of you who follow the blog have guessed by now, I think that there's huge potential for growing the Direct Market, but that the key to such growth is in pursuing new and lapsed readers through the creation of retail environments that will both attract their attention and then provide better service and selection than any similar outlet. I can't wait to hear from more retailers who have brought their own approach to the industry (and hopefully I'll even be able to swipe a few ideas for MacGuffin).

*I really shouldn't underestimate the selling power of a sellout announced before the title hits shelves. Last week it was Batman #651, this week it was Fantastic Four #536. Nothing brings out a speculator like an announced sellout. Wednesday I had several customers come in looking for multiple copies (taking a cue from my Marvel Zombies experiences, I've taken steps to limit first day sellouts of "hot" titles to customers purchasing multiple copies of those titles) and still sold out of the title before the close of business. The whole Doom's hand and Thor's hammer thing certainly drove sales up from what we were selling on Fantastic Four (which was none at all), but Marvel announcing the day before it hits shelves that they are sold out and not planning to reprint simply encourages this sort of behavior.

Not that I'm blameless here. I knew there would be a higher demand on this title (as a result of the cover and warnings from Marvel about its importance to Civil War) and had increased my order significantly from what we usually get of Fantastic Four. This is where my newfound ability to utilize actually sales data in the ordering process came back to bite me. Marvel allows retailers to change their order numbers up until 3 weeks before release and when it came time to adjust our order on this particular issue I saw 0 sales of Fantastic Four compared with a ridiculously high order number (for a normal issue). I then proceeded to slash order down to just barely more than the average issue of Fantastic Four, thereby kneecapping myself. Just love it when actually using data instead of gut instinct comes back to bite me.