The Curious Case of The Boys

Due to what are apparently creative rather than business reasons, The Boys has been cancelled by DC Comics. Or, more likely, the creative team (who own the rights to the work) refused to make certain changes to the content and therefore DC decided to stop publishing the title immediately.

This is pure speculation, but I suspect that the transition of The Boys from DC's Wildstorm imprint to another publisher will be an excellent example of the current iniquities of the comic book industry. There are a thousand variables that will affect the success of the series when it lands with another publisher, not the least of which being just what publisher it ends up with. Sales will almost certainly drop off to some degree, although re-launching with a new #1 and incentive gimmicks would likely defray most of that decline. Even so, a title that sells over 30,000 copies per issue from DC will likely be lucky to sell in the 15,000 range from a publisher like Dynamite (one of the title's rumored landing places). While the several month delay that is almost guaranteed to proceed the series' re-launch will be a factor in this decline, what will really hurt is visibility, or rather, lack thereof.

We have a local competitor that carries almost exclusively Marvel & DC -- they just began carrying Walking Dead within the last 6 months, only the second Image title they stock (Spawn being the first, likely a holdover from this store's success in the early nineties). For whatever reason, those in charge of this particular store are not willing to look past Marvel and DC to even the other brokered publishers except when their regulars require it (which is surprisingly rare). I suspect that they, and stores like them, will treat this series as if it has completely disappeared rather than shifting to a new publisher. It's behavior like this that will harm the only numbers that we can see, and ultimately, the only ones that matter -- sell in to comic shops.

Assuming that we could track such things, I don't expect that we'd see much drop off in the number of actual readers purchasing the title from retailers. In fact, there might even be a jump in such numbers, especially if the new publisher was savvy enough to use the trade paperback to build momentum. Unfortunately, the book's real customers are retailers and they will have several reasons beyond simple laziness to cut orders, the most important being money. This was a title that was seeing month to month sell in growth, a rarity among singles. Generally single issue comics see a boost in numbers from an event, a crossover or a creator change and then the numbers begin to dwindle until the next event, crossover or creator change. Month to month sales growth shows that retailers are under estimating demand on a monthly basis (possibly because demand is increasing). It also means that as that title becomes more readily available (i.e. more copies on shelves, even if they're the same shelves) it sells better. If a product is good enough, word of mouth will drive sales, assuming the customer can find the product.

So, retailers were ordering more copies because they were seeing sales growth beyond their estimates, meaning, if they were willing to take a small risk and increase orders beyond guaranteed sales levels, there was the potential to make more money. Now, however, the odds are good that The Boys will be published by someone other than Marvel, DC, Image or Dark Horse, meaning many stores will see anywhere from a five to ten point drop in margin on this title, with reorder penalties to further hamper growth. I suspect that within six months of a re-launch, The Boys will have settled into declining numbers below the 35,000 or so the last Wildstorm issue based solely on standard retailer ordering behavior. Right or not, margin is king for most comic shops and with a reduced margin most shops are going to take much less of a chance on improved sales without a variant cover or some other gimmick to back it up.

Of course, all things being equal, The Boys is in much better shape than it would be had it gotten it's start with another publisher. The last title to make such a switch, Fallen Angel, had declined to the 10,000 range in sales at DC and was cancelled for that reason. It debuted with slightly higher sell in numbers at IDW (thanks most likely to variants on the first few issues) and has now settled down in the 7,500 range a year into its second run. What was cancellation level sales at DC was a resounding success for IDW, whose best sellers are the Transformers books which sell in the 15,000 range. Had The Boys debuted there, it would likely never get close to the numbers it will have based on it's debut at DC.

The one other factor to consider is stock levels. The first six issues of The Boys have been continuously in stock since publication, something that can't be said for titles from most publishers. When a good store sees growth potential in a title like this, they'll reorder earlier issues to help new readers get on board as early in the story as possible and make themselves as much money as possible (especially without the reorder penalty that is covered by the brokered publishers). Because Diamond essentially acts as a storage warehouse for all single issues of Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse comics, they are much more readily available to stores than title from other publishers that only send additional stock to Diamond's warehouses when Diamond buys it from them. The built in advantages for the "Big 4" are such that growth is much, much easier for their titles than for those of other publishers.

With The Boys we can see a near perfect illustration of how the reality of an industry dominated by a single distributor can lead to restricted creativity and competition that can only lead to ever diminishing returns in the single issue comics market.


UPDATE: The Beat has another breakdown of a potential sales drop as well as the reaction of a few other retailers.

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness

Continuing a look back at my favorites from last year we come to Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness. I was a latecomer to Scott Pilgrim and something of a reluctant one at that. I'd heard wonderful things and I liked what little I'd seen, but I made three separate attempts to read the first volume, each time finding myself pulled out of the story despite my ability to easily identify with Scott himself. The problem, quite simply, was my own inability to accept the story on its own, occasionally goofy terms.

I went in with high expectations and was disappointed by what I initially interpreted to be a lack of depth to the story. What I failed to realize was the layered way in which Brian Lee O'Malley was going about telling his story, starting off with seemingly innocuous characters living a rather banal (if, again, familiar) existence. It was all a bit too much like reading about people I know, until suddenly Scott would be a Mario-like character in a video game. I just couldn't quite accept the looniness of the presentation coupled with the fairly straightforward story, as it felt too much like a failed attempt at magical realism.

On my third attempt, however, I decided that I was going to just plow through the book so that I could at least talk about it with friends and customers. And as I got deeper into the story, I began to realize that all of the seemingly random detritus were actually an example of how this story has been filtered through Scott's perspective and experience. I could just let it all wash over me and enjoy the ride (which got quite fun and fairly complex once Ramona arrived on the scene) or I could read two levels at the same time and either way the book would be an enjoyable experience. And since then, I've read (and enjoyed) each volume twice, once to just flat out enjoy the ride and a second time to read a narrative told by Scott Pilgrim in which everyday events like an awkward meeting between a new girlfriend and an ex-girlfriend gets magnified from his perspective into a massive kung-fu battle. The lack of an objective narrator adds a surprising level of depth, even for those scenes in which Scott does not appear (especially if those are also read as being told by Scott).

Ridiculously unnecessary analyses aside, this is a flat out fun series and 2007 saw the release of its third volume. It features the arrival of Envy, a character who is yet another example of O'Malley's ability to translate commonplace experiences (in this case reinventing oneself while at school) into an over the top metaphor that still functions as a believable character (once the exaggerated premise is accepted). On top of that, the history and baggage that everyone from Scott to girlfriend Ramona to roommate Wallace to band-mate Stephen Stills to heart breaker Envy bring to the table makes for some surprisingly complex character interactions and are great material for the flashbacks that O'Malley has begun using to great effect.

As deeply satisfying as the story is, though, the biggest draw is the laugh out loud humor. While there's a bit less of it this time than in previous volumes, there were still several moments (particularly involving a character's vegan status and a hilarious and therefore forgivable deus ex machina) that had me laughing more than any other comic this year.

The art is definitely rooted in the manga tradition, but O'Malley brings his own unique sensibilities to the table, especially in terms of page layout and backgrounds (often photo referenced from the story's setting, Toronto). The juxtapositions of detailed background with cartoony character designs only further reinforces the tension that makes this series successful on so many levels.

Batman: Year One Hundred

Wednesday sees the collected release of one of my favorite series from last year, Batman: Year One Hundred. It's a futuristic take on Batman that draws on two primary sources for inspiration: the classic first appearance, purple gloved The Bat-Man, wearing a cobbled together suit of cloth and leather rather than streamlined rubber and Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Year One with a bit of The Dark Knight Returns tossed in for good measure. What Pope brings is a sense that The Batman, as both a comic book character and as a masked vigilante, is more a symbol than a character. This is true of most comic book characters for that matter, but with Batman Pope is using one of the oldest and most popular as a jumping off point for comics as symbolism.

The basic premise is that Batman re-emerges into Gotham in 2039, 100 years after his first appearance there. He disappeared into legend years ago, and exists as a myth in what is now a police state run by Homeland Security. Thus, Pope sets about creating an elaborate metaphor for the future of the United States, wherein the disappearance of civil liberties creates a need for the resurrection of a masked vigilante not to fight criminals on the street but rather the criminals who run the government.

What makes this so effective is that Pope uses Batman, the most malleable of all symbolic heroes. This is a character who popularity has endured (and inspired) Adam West camp, sci-fi closets, Frank Miller, seventies sex god, Frank Miller, Bane and the nadir of grim and gritty, a nearly limitless supporting cast of crossover potential, and again, Frank Miller. He does this by making The Batman as much a mystery to the reader as he is to the rest of the cast, allowing the reader to fill in their own version to fit their individual perspective on the narrative.

In some ways I think this is the only sort of Batman story I can really get behind anymore because it's high quality work that's allowed to tell a story on it's own terms rather than as part of an editorially controlled direction. This is Batman as pure symbol, no internal monologue, no angst, just a man with a mission and a mask. On top of that, it has everything I want from a Batman story.

Dense mystery? Check.
Corrupt police force? Check.
Lone honest cop named Gordon? Check.
A Batman who's mysterious and just a bit scary? Check.
A sense of the character's history and mythology? In spades.

You'd Think With an Extra Week . . .

I may be jumping the gun here and Diamond may very well bend over backwards in an attempt to get this fixed, but it appears that West Coast comic shops are receiving roughly 10-15% of their Civil War #6 orders this week (with the rest presumably to follow next week). Any number of things could cause a problem like this, from a shipping issue which prevents most of the books from getting there (as happened last week for almost every DC book on the west coast and a few titles like Army of Darkness in the West and South) to a personnel error to a buggy computer (trust me, it's been an issue with Diamond recently). The real issue here is that it's a problem in a certain region of the country that could severely damage a shops sales on what should be a best selling title. Not to give anyone ideas here, but a reader on the West Coast could easily order from an East Coast mail order comic shop and receive the book before their West Coast shop does, cutting into the sales potential on a non-returnable product that I'd guarantee will be one of that stores largest single issue orders of the year (2006 or 2007).

I really don't have much more to say about this (although Johanna has a few thoughts), and I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel stepped in to make sure Diamond does something to try to get this fixed as quickly as possible, but considering the holiday and the potential shipping complications involved, it's entirely possible that West Coast fans will be finding out what happens in Civil War #6 via the Internet.