The Tease of Things I Don't Need

(Today's topics: The Form of Comics, Science!, Heroclix updates - with a late addition to the clix situation)

Trading Down?

In an Newsarama interview with Chris Oarr, Crossgen's VP of Sales, they discuss that company's return to publishing trade paperback collections. Initially, I was reading it all with an upbeat interpretation, until hitting the following section:

NRAMA: So basically, you’re saying that there might have been some erosion of the monthly sales due to the rapid release of the trades?

CO: Yes. There certainly are series, and for me, Preacher is a great example – it’s a juggernaut in the direct market in terms of trade sales. Like a lot of people, I fell into the habit of reading Preacher as a graphic novel series, not as a comic series. We definitely found, as we polled retailers and listened to fans, that we were creating that culture for many of our series that actually needed a steady monthly readership to remain viable.

I can say that it’s not going to be nearly as automatic, or clockwork, as we used to be in terms of trade releases. So don’t wait for the trade, folks.

::sigh::

See, I've been a strong advocate of seeing the comics industry shift its focus towards trade collections as their true bread and butter.

This would put them more in line with the successful models seen in European and especially Japanese comics companies that publish nearly everything in thick, paperback form. The traditional, monthly comic form - the folded, saddle-stapled comic book everyone's familiar with - would gradually become either a loss-leader (sort of an advertising form to help draw people in) and/or continue the direction comics have been headed in: as an increasingly specialized format with each title commanding a tiny readership in that form. (Consider that the low end price of a monthly, 22-23 page comic book these days is $2.25. Many are $2.50 to $2.99.)

For a few years it appeared that Crossgen was making this happen, and forcing both Marvel and DC to do the same.

Comics in trade and hardcover form were gaining new respectability in the eyes of the retail book trade -- always looking to capitalize on an underserved marketplace - and as Barnes and Noble and other major chains began to develop shelf space for "graphic literature" or whatever they chose to call it, Marvel and DC were pressed to produce more for that market so they could lay claim to as much of that shelf space as possible. Marvel and DC began to make changes at the editorial level concerning ongoing series, directing story arcs to run 4 or more issues to help make for convenient beginning and ending spots when they were collected into trade formats.

Some of this has been going on since the 1980's, but until Crossgen pushed the model as far as they did, that "don't wait for the trade" line was more of an industry standard. It never went completely away, to be sure - if a comic series simply sells very poorly it's cancelled, and may never see another incarnation as a collected edition. Still, Crossgen's push made it more likely. Even now, if Marvel or DC put out a limited series (a distinct story produced in 4, 6, sometimes as many as 12 parts) it's almost guaranteed to be collected into a trade format. Almost.

The old dynamic has been reaffirmed, at least for the moment.

Hopefully Crossgen's ill financial fortunes of the past couple years won't be seen as an excuse to reverse the overall trend. I still believe in a future where the traditional comics market is a tiny thing, driven by the hardest of hardcore fans, the ones who simply cannot wait, and those who will emphasize the collectibility of these items, while the publishers of the comics will depend upon keeping a catalog of collected editions available for sale. I don't think that Crossgen had that part wrong. Indeed, I think they did most things right - they hired some of the top mainstream talent, attempted to create a climate of all for one and one for all creative exchange among contracted and exclusive employees, and they attempted to offer well-planned stories that were consistent not only internally but within the context of their larger, fictional universe - but solid success eluded them primarily for one reason: They had a no superheroes policy.

However much one wishes to damn the US comics market for its almost pinheaded insistence on superheroes, they have a lasting appeal. If they had done it with even one series it would have opened the door to many fans who would have given that series a try and then been more inclined to follow some related plot threads into other series and become hooked. Believe me, I know how that works. I've been there.

Back to my original point, I favor the collected editions for several reasons. They're handier to read. One can pick one up with a reasonable assurance of having a complete story arc (albeit with some ongoing subplots, much as one would have in reading one of a series of novels concerning the same character) instead of just an isolated scrap. On a per/page basis they're generally less expensive -- though one has to watch out for that. I also suspect that trades offer a little more... respectability, and could help get more people over the social hump of being seen reading comics. There's a respectability that seems to go with the heft of a book, and it makes it easier for some to hide behind an air of nostalgia and kitsch while indulging in a comics fix in a book form.

Don't get me wrong. I love the traditional format of comics. I own many thousands of comics, having been reading and collecting since about 1968, and having a collection that goes back fairly solidly to the early 1960s. Some of my happiest memories as a child were long summer afternoons stretched out reading and rereading new and favorite issues.

The problem is that at these prices they're not the casual purchase - especially for younger people - that they were when I started and they were in transition from 12 to 15 cents each. The overall sales of comics in the decades since have been in a sorry state, only seeing any serious increases during the 80s into the early to mid-90s, when there was a growing (and ultimately artificial) collector's market. When that bubble burst it almost took the industry with it.

Barring an innovation that makes suitable paper extremely inexpensive, the traditional comics format appears doomed to continue towards a smaller and smaller niche market. The big players behind the mainstream comics companies - now almost hopelessly locked into the world of publicly traded shares, stockholders and quarterly reports - is almost uninterested in the red-headed stepchild to publishing that is comics. All they see are properties to exploit in other media, and licences to sell.

It remains an uncertain future... but now I realize that I've gone well off on a tangent (a blogger's prerogative, to be sure), so I'll stop here.