Okay, This Is A Good Idea....

[ARROW]

Just read elsewhere that Marvel Comics have inked a deal to sell comics in 7-11 stores all over.

 

I've been VERY critical of what I see as being the gloomy future of comics but THIS is a good move....if it works.

It increases exposure to the comics--puts them in a non-specific venue that can attract new readers to the titles.

Add to that the other announcement of a new series of titles, dubbed "MARVEL ADVENTURES", that ( rumored) will have a lower cover prices and be aimed at kids.

The MARVEL ADVENTURES sub-line of titles will apparently include the Marvel main staples: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Captain America etc...

I imagine that there will be a proper official announcement with all the details on this site some time very soon.

 

 

And it gets even better in a way:

A specific title--- Fantastic Four Adventures ---is spearheading a program to get comics into schools--obstensibly to pass along some important message to kids. Again, a smart move.

 

This is a progressive move, especially if the cover prices can be ramped DOWN on these books. If 7-11 gets involved directly with some fun promos ( Buy a slurpee and a comic for whatever price) then the books can really get a good push.

 

Image and DC are obviously looking on with great interest, and if the Marvel deal takes off, except them to follow suit. Heck, would not surprise me to see something like this worked with TRU, for example.

 

 

These are the kinds of things that can save comics. The books have to reach a wider audience to prosper and having large retail chains assist the push is only good news.

[GWhizzah]

Thanks for posting, this is great news!

[NMX]

I dig the news, but have concerns about selection and price.

 

Selection: Marvel should be pushing a little something from everything they're currently publishing, short of MAX titles or anything else inappropriate. Convenience store comics kick ass, and is an opportunity to win back older readers as well as winning new ones - I'd gladly pick up the latest Captain America while gassing up or picking up cigs.

 

Price: Kids are obviously the focus here, and rightly so, as we want new generations of regular readers. But all this new availability means bugger all if kids can't afford the books, or can get more of something else they dig for the same price (Arrow's often stated video game comment comes to mind).

 

In theory, Marvel invading 7-11s is great. In practice, it remains to be seen. I'm hoping for the best though.

[reideen1313]

Actually Ken, Marvel has been doing this for about a year now here in the states. They've been selling Marvel Age and collected issues of some of the Ultimate titles to stores like Target and Walmart (as examples).

 

Honestly, even though I check pretty regularly, I don't see them selling. 7-11 might be a different story though - it's how I got started collecting back when I was a kid.

[Lady Jaye]

Finally the platinum age of comics books is about to begin!!! This is what was needed for a long time. The only true way to lower the price of comics and to up the readership was to get the comics in the hands of the kids, the next gen of collectors!!!

 

I hope this works out, then the Platinum age of comics will truly have begun, and Marvel will be on the cusp of it, and will lock the market and keep DC second rate!!!!!!

 

It's good to be into comics again!!!!! Hopefully the prices come down!!!

[Tyranus]

The 7-11's in my area have been selling a wide selection of Marvel titles for well over 2-3 years now.

[revsears]

it's good they are doing this, better make sure that they don't just sale kiddie titles.

 

I wish marvel luck, and i do hope, dc, image, and ddp follow suit.

[TommyGoth]

This is excellent news! Where did we all start reading comics? By picking them up at the gas station! Or by reading our older sibling's comics which they picked up at the gas station. There aren't many 7-11's in this area though. They should put them in Exxon's too.

[synch]

The 7-11's in my area have been selling a wide selection of Marvel titles for well over 2-3 years now.

Yes I bet they get updated regularly every two years as well @smilepunch@

 

IMO its a poor choice unless they get a system setup where the shops can order, & return there books... How ever this would then be unfair too comic shop owners... Who , once they order something in, are stuck with it!

 

If 7/11's are going to start carying in titles regularly... these are ones I think they should sell from marvel, that I think would sit well with both kids/to teens & adults...

 

The new avengers

Ultimate spiderman

a normal spiderman...

Exiles

Wolverine... Everyone likes wolverine... :S

An xmen book, x-men, or astonishing..., or heck all three, its xmen...

 

I think thats about it... IMO these would be the best type of selling titles that would work well with a regular chain store that sells to public in general Rather than the collecter breed...

 

 

New avengers... Lots of big names in it... Captain america, Mostly known by the older audiance.. May make em tempted to pick one up, spiderman, wolverine ect... Anyone who was a fan of those guys & happened to see a them on the comic cover, could pick it up just for kicks & get into it...

 

The rest.. Well for reasons listed above... Well known charecters & names, thanks to the movies, & upcoming movies...

 

Exiles... Not well known charecters, however a buncha goofy rag tag muties Deffinitly apealing to lil kids, & perhaps more apealing looking to parents who would most likely buy the book for there kids... Just because it more offten tends to have a more humoris/funny/cartoony looking covers for the most part anyways...

 

Ultimate spiderman, for the same reason as exiles, plus the above reasons...

 

Hmp... I wonder if I can order in comics at work... I've never thought to ask... maybe I'll set up a rack & order in some of the above... See how they do, if they don't sell we get to return our stuff @loll@

[TommyGoth]

Don't forget Fantastic Four. They're going to be huge this summer. I say Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, an X-Men title, maybe the Hulk, The Avengers, and two or three kids titles.

 

With this happening maybe we can use my "Give comics and candy for Halloween" idea and get the ball rolling on a new age of comic popularit. Of course if DC would jump in with Superman and Batman, arguably the two most well known characters, then things would definately take off. However, we don't want to saturate the market like in the early 90's.

[Skips]

Thing is... I've only seen 7-11s downtown and out of town...

 

But I guess it is still good news. !

[synch]

Really?.. normaly there everyplace! Even HERE! HERE WHERE THERES ONLY ONE LONE WALLMART & ONE LONE ZELLERS !

 

LOL!

 

 

The FF is not going to be huge... it is quite frankly simply going to be the flavor of the month... or two... I can see it lasting for two months & dieing out on the 3rd...

 

& hulk... Well the hulk I'm sorry to say blows! I can't see em selling at all quite frankly...

[revsears]

Other notes of intersests:

 

Nick has been airing stuff on something called "ask nick" about comics. Asking kids their favorites (and one of the winners was RUNAWAYS! AWSOME!) marvel or dc, title,s heros and all kinds of stuff. ANd was really making it look cool to read comics!

[Lady Jaye]

However, we don't want to saturate the market like in the early 90's.

It wasn't about saturation of the market, at least not that I remember it. It was about crappy storytelling, focus on artowrk, and lame variant covers over actual substance. The whole turning this into a business even more that it ever was, is what did it. THe whole bringing in of speculators that were looking to cash in, is what did it.

 

I also think it was during the 90's that comics were pulled from most convenience sotre shelves. So that didn't help at all either!!

[revsears]

comic book shops and speculators were the problem back then. Nothing will be worth money anymore, especialy if people think it will be. The whole reason things are worth money is cause no one saved em back in teh day. You would have better lucking saving completly odd ball cheap-o indy comics hoping a famous writer will rise out of a book that barely got printed if you want something worth money

[TommyGoth]

It wasn't about saturation of the market, at least not that I remember it. It was about crappy storytelling, focus on artowrk, and lame variant covers over actual substance. The whole turning this into a business even more that it ever was, is what did it. THe whole bringing in of speculators that were looking to cash in, is what did it.

 

I also think it was during the 90's that comics were pulled from most convenience sotre shelves. So that didn't help at all either!!

That's saturation.

[TommyGoth]

double post, sorry.

[ARROW]

However, we don't want to saturate the market like in the early 90's.

It wasn't about saturation of the market, at least not that I remember it. It was about crappy storytelling, focus on artowrk, and lame variant covers over actual substance. The whole turning this into a business even more that it ever was, is what did it. THe whole bringing in of speculators that were looking to cash in, is what did it.

 

I also think it was during the 90's that comics were pulled from most convenience sotre shelves. So that didn't help at all either!!

It was certainly saturation.

 

Too much of the product with gimmicked incentives to too few an audience, and most of that audience targeted with the FALSE precept that the items they were buying were truly collectible and thus were of value and would appreciate.

The market PLUMMETED once those speculators left-leaving copy numbers at a rough 10-25% of what they were before.

That's saturation.

 

 

You need to keep in mind that todays sales numbers are averaging around 30,000 to 50,000 copies. Only the top 10 of about 300 titles breach 60,000 copies a month.

 

In the peak of the 90's boom, the average was around 200,000 copies, with again, only a few hitting the heady realm of 750,000 to one millions copies per month.

In the 70's books like Spiderman and Batman never sold below 750,000 copies. Titles would be cancelled if they dropped below 120,000 copies.

 

These numbers PALE in comparison to the 1940's, and early 50's when sales averaged at OVER 2 million copies per month, PER TITLE.

 

If you account for infation in all aspects of the selling price and costs of production, the costs of comics have kept pace. This means that even with marketing focusing DIRECTLY on the targeted dedicated consumer comics sales have steadily continually declined over the past 70 years.

 

Which sux of course, but the data is there.

 

The direct sales thing, set up in the 80's fueled the boom of dedicated comicbook specialty stores, and the whole idea of direct sales meant that comics would no longer be returnable--which made it more profitbable for publishers. Grocery stores would buy their magazines and comics on a returnable basis. Once the sales window closed they returned the comics BACK to the distributor, where they were bundled and then DESTROYED.

This had been the norm for decades.

With direct sales, what got ordered was directly purchased by the retailers and thus became their property once it passed its sales window.

This meant the rise of the whole back-issue business., and it propelled stores to treat comics as collectibles to move the older stock.

Its also made stores more cautious in ordering, because if they over-ordered, THEY were stuck with the excess.

 

Its really hard to say if this switch from returnables to direct sales harmed the comics industry at all--the costs of paper and printing started rising rapidly around this time, because this was systemic of the WHOLE magazine industry. That's a whole lotta wasted paper.

 

The other thing is that all through this time, comics were a very low-brow reading medium. The stories were often very ........well, silly.

Today, comics are more sophisticated then they have ever been, but the audience to appreciate that sophistication is smaller than its ever been.

Double-edged sword that is.

[synch]

Now days though they could just take those comics & recycle them... I duno if they were just not able to do that back then or what... It most likely was just not a big of a concerne as it is now... PS you wana talk about wastes of paper & product take a look at the loto biz! Holy cr**! :S The loto biz probly has gone through twice as much paper & products (plastic,cardboard ect) than what the comic companys did then! @loll@

[TommyGoth]

Here's an idea. To lower costs of gas station comics, use cheaper paper. Print two versions of the same comic. One on better quality paper for the shops and collectors and one on a lesser quality paper that will lower the cover price 25-50 cents. I think a copy of Amazing Spider-Man would have a better chance selling in a 7-11 for $1.75 rather than $2.25.

[Degato]

That's not a bad idea!

Well, at any rate, I hope the 7-11 deal bodes well and that the FF movie helps usher in some kids who don't know a thing about comics. I'm sure the Spider-Man and X-Men movies helped a bit but, we're probably running out of big cannon (recognizable) heroes to make films of.

[ARROW]

Here's an idea. To lower costs of gas station comics, use cheaper paper. Print two versions of the same comic. One on better quality paper for the shops and collectors and one on a lesser quality paper that will lower the cover price 25-50 cents. I think a copy of Amazing Spider-Man would have a better chance selling in a 7-11 for $1.75 rather than $2.25.

It would be tough to lower the cost.

You'd need to seperate distribution systems to avoid having the wrong product show up at the wrong venue--and that means extra costs.

It appears to be a good idea on the face of it, but when you look at how the system works, it's not viable.

 

The thing is, that in any venue that is not a specialty store the comics have to be returnable, because those stores cannot store them for longer than the sales window--usually one month.

 

The publishers will have to eat anything that gets sent back, and in todays market, that could be pretty bad.

 

What MIGHT work better is a digest format, at that price--like the Archie digests, but scheduled with a 3 month sales window and monthly re-stocking options--- the books could loiter in the stores longer and have a better chance at getting picked up. It could be all-reprint material to save costs. Stocking it quarterly is a risk because if it looks like its warming the shelves the consumer impression might be that its not worth getting--every other magazine rotating out in 1-4 weeks appearing fresher.

[synch]

oh dude thats freakn brilant, archie sized diegests, or whatever sized... I think the archie type size would be a TADDD too small for regular comics... & put em out as TPBS on a regular time! Heck I'd be even tempted to buy those!!

 

Come to think of it, I think TPBS are the only way comics could work at non comic type shops... Comics just come in far too regularly for gass stations to keep up with them & not get over loaded! They could allso have all the covers/varient covers & such shown in the tpb there.. Which could help peek collecters interst if anything a bit lol!