Originally published January 1995, in Comics Buyer’s Guide 1995 Annual
Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? If so, it would seem Marvel Comics has managed it.
It used to be that Marvel had a shipping strategy somewhat akin to what is found in an average shopping mall.
Shopping malls generally have stores that are called “anchors,” one at either end, usually a JCPenney and a Macy’s. Or a Sears and a Bloomingdale’s.
The theory is that shoppers will want to swing by one or the other of the major stores and that other, smaller stores will benefit. En route to Bloomingdale’s, you might stop by WaldenBooks or grab something at Cinnabon. It’s a solid, standard marketing design.
It used to be that Marvel had that same philosophy.
The concept, you see, was that there would be two anchors to the Marvel line: X-Men and Spider-Man. Every week there would be an X-title and a Spidey title which would lure fans of same into stores. One title each week. These were the anchors of Marvel’s line.
And the notion was that, while fans were coming in weekly to pick up the latest X- or Spidey titles, they would also check out other comics in the Marvel line. Perhaps Thor would look good that week, or Fantastic Four was worth checking out. In this manner Marvel would have a strong sales presence throughout its line.
But somewhere along the way, that began to change. The X- and Spidey titles became entities unto themselves, became their own unique, self-contained, self-absorbed publishing concerns. The bulk of advertising and energy went into keeping these two relative Marvel behemoths going and growing. More monthly titles were produced, more specials, quarterlies, magazines, limited series, more and more and more, based—presumably—on the theory that, if people will buy a certain number of X-titles (for instance), then they’ll buy twice that number. And they very well might.
The problem is that Marvel committed the oldest sin in the book that one can commit, marketing-wise: It placed all its eggs in one basket.
Fans are not a bottomless pool of money. If the fans are going to keep up with the burgeoning quantities of their favorites, it means they’re going to stop picking up the mid- and lower-list titles. Which means, in classic trickle-down fashion, the rich get richer and the poor get shafted.
And here’s the big danger.
Let’s say you’re Joe Fan who, once upon a time, might have purchased the X-titles and Spidey titles, along with Iron Man, Thor, and Daredevil. As the former grew X-ponentially, you had to cut back on the latter. All your energies were focused on the “main” guys. Now, let’s say you reallllllly hate the Spider-Clone story. Let’s say you’re reallllllly fed up with the mutant titles. And you decide to stop buying them.
Marvel’s lost you.
Maybe Iron Man or Thor is gangbusters these days. But you don’t know that, because you stopped buying the title. And, once you stop buying a title—for any reason—it’s a major, major effort to get you to start again. Chances are, you won’t.
Marvel’s other titles might have kept you in the fold, but it’s too late. What were once the anchors of Marvel’s line in a stabilizing sense could very well become anchors in the drag-Marvel-down sense.
It is too late for Marvel to reverse this? Not entirely. Steps are being taken. Promotional plans are being made to spotlight some of the less-prominent titles, and groups of titles are being linked (the Avengers “family,” for instance) to encourage cross-sampling.
Biting the bullet and cutting back on the X-titles might help. There’s no way anyone’s going to sell the corporate brain trust on the notion of cancelling top-selling comic books. On the other hand, combining some might not be a bad idea. Make X-Factor and Excalibur into one title, for instance, making it a weighty $3 package. Less money than if Joe Fan purchased both of them but more than if he purchased only one. This would free up a few bucks here and there, so that fans would have a little cash left to sample other Marvel titles.
Whatever steps it takes, Marvel should keep a careful eye on further expansion of the line and even think about scaling back what it presently has. Because the fans aren’t going to pay for all this stuff, and, in the end, it may well be Marvel that pays.
(Peter David, writer of stuff, despite any appearances to the contrary, is perfectly happy with the freelance life.)
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The more things change …
Indeed, it was around this time Marvel did lose me.
Although, I suppose not entirely–I collected Hulk–until they fired you off it. So I suppose they did lose me entirely after all.
I can’t pinpoint a specific incident or story that caused it–just a general disappointment in comics that were all flash and no substance–but I was abandoning comics in general at this time. I spent most of a year and a half concentrating on hunting back issues and occasionally glancing at the few spinner racks that still hung on at local retail stores to see if anything worthwhile was seeing print. It took a WTF moment of creative fresh air–Thunderbolts–to pull me back into Marvel, and it was at least a year after that before I started looking at DC and other companies’ offerings again.
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As I recall, my last pull before I dropped comics back then wasn’t a Marvel or a DC book–it was The Savage Dragon. Haven’t read a new issue in years, but that book still gets my vote for the least predictable and one of the most fun reads I’ve ever had in comic book form.
X-Factor and Excalibur were such distinctive books. How could they have been combined in a way that would’ve maintained their distinctive character? Are we talking about an anthology, or a flip format, so that a given book had essentially two titles and numbering legacies? Would fans who tended to prefer (and solely buy) one and not the other been able to find them? How could this have worked?
Well, Hulk and Sub-Mariner were pretty distinctive; but they were combined into one title. So were Captain America and Iron Man. I just figured the same deal would apply. Although a flip book would be interesting.
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PAD
How were they combined? As anthology titles, or as duo team books?
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I guess an anthology could work: One is the U.S. government mutant team, and the other is the premiere British super team.
You don’t remember “Tales of Suspense” or “Tales to Astonish.” Wow. Now I really feel old.
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PAD
I’d like to think that I’ve learned about industry history that precedes my time, Peter, through things like reference books, message boards, Wikipedia, etc., but I can’t know everything. My gateway title, the first I read every month, was The Transformers in 1984, and I didn’t graduate to mainstream titles until about 1988, so while I’ve heard of ToS and TtS, I’ve never read them or held a copy in my hand.
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Sorry, I wuz just asking.
No need to apologize, Luigi. I just forget sometimes the age differences, that’s all.
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PAD
Some of us remember the anthology titles, Peter; heck, some of us even have old Marvel Masterworks reprints of the pre-superhero TtA and ToS. Never mind those whippersnappers in the corner. 🙂
My first Marvel comic ever was Uncanny X-Men #137. Very powerful story, especially to the impressionable teenager I was, until they brought Jean Grey back to create the original X-Factor.
My first Spider-man was Amazing #180. Blissfully unaware of the original clone saga, my last was when the clone returned and Marvel tried to tell me that everything I read before then was false. “Scarlet Spider?” 😛
I never got too involved in the multiple mutant titles, but dropped everything when Chris Claremont was “released”. Even Josh Wheddon and Peter David’s writing couldn’t get me to come back to them since because there are just too many to follow.
The Hulk? Same thing when Peter David was “released”.
Have slowly come back to Marvel enough to be aware of what is going on in the company. Peter’s run on Captain Mar-vell and the She-Hulk. Waid, and now Hickman on the F4/FF. Good stuff. The new Silver Surfer mini looks promising, although I wish they would bring the proper Spider-Girl, May Parker, back.
But I still do not trust/like the company as a whole. Stunts like Civil War, One More Day/Brand New Day, etc make me leary.
A shiny coat of paint and big events do not maintain the house that Stan and Jack built well. Len Wein, Archie Goodwin, Roy Thomas, and company were good caretakers between the mid 1970s to early 1980s.
Now…?
I know others might disagree with me, and they are more than welcome to do so. It may be their Marvel, but it’s not quite mine.
(Sorry for the length of this post Peter. I’ll get off my soapbox now.)
I never got too involved in the multiple mutant titles, but dropped everything when Chris Claremont was “released”.
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The Hulk? Same thing when Peter David was “released”.
Luigi Novi: What’re they, hounds or something?
Now I’m picturing Liam Neeson…”Release the comic book writers!”
No, they’re “crackin’.”
I always thought when I was released or let go: “What am I, a fish?”
TAC
“Now, let’s say you reallllllly hate the Spider-Clone story. Let’s say you’re reallllllly fed up with the mutant titles. And you decide to stop buying them.
Marvel’s lost you.”
I’ve got to admit, this is what happened to me after “One More Day”. Spider-Man was what got me into watching (and buying) all the other goings-on in the Marvel Universe (Civil War, World War Hulk, etc), but after “One More Day” I just dropped the whole thing. I hear that it’s gotten very good since then, but have no interest in getting back into it.
I originally only bought GIJOE comic books when Larry Hamas was writing them. Then after seeing the X-men cartoon in the 90’s, I bought my first X-men comic book, and started buying everything with an X on it. I got a subscription to X-Factor comic, and read it until you left it, and then someone else took over and it started to suck too badly to continue. Everyone else did the same apparently since it was canceled. Glad you finally got it back and it became worth reading again. I think history has proven time and again, if a comic book does well, its because of its writer, and if you take that way, it’ll start to suck. If you have good story lines issue after issue, people will keep buying it. Have a few bad issues in a row, people stop buying it.
Don’t worry Peter; some of us remember Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish; as well as Strange Tales, which featured Dr. Strange and eventually Nick Fury. Ever since I cashed out and sold my collection before the market crashed many years ago, I only read the occasional title when it interests me; when I’m no longer interested, I donate those comics or recycle some of them on to my nephew. It’s much more enjoyable to pick up books when I don’t HAVE to read them anymore. And a lot cheaper too.
Personallly, as someone who buys practically everything Marvel and DC publish as well as select IDW,Dark Horse, Boom!, etc. I have to start and wonder what logic goes in to making monthly books that may have a final price tag of $18 after the story arc is over. How many books and their tie-ins can be afforded? I’m going to be 55 and starting to think now may be the time to bail.
Great column, and exactly what happened with me, on a couple occasions.
It was going in to look at X-titles that first got me to pick up a “Hulk” issue while PAD was on it. Liked it so much that I became a regular reader.
“X-Cutioner’s Song” was the terrible crossover that made me drop all the X-titles. (Except X-Factor.) Then PAD left X-Factor, and I was done with X-titles.
Stuck with Hulk until PAD was gone from that, then I was out of Marvel. For a long time.
I agree that the “all eggs in one basket” marketing plan doesn’t make much sense.
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Another thing about Marvel I never quite understood is why Marvel Age cost the same as a regular comic. Why didn’t Marvel offer it for free, like DC’s Direct Currents newsletter? Both contained capsule summaries of upcoming issues in the publishers’ respective lines. Yes, Marvel Age had other information (presumably; it had more pages), but it was still essentially advertising for what was coming out in the near future.
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I don’t know how long either Marvel Age or Direct Currents was published; but when I was aware of them in the 80s and early 90s, I was very much on a budget with regard to my comics purchases. So I didn’t buy Marvel Age. Why would I pay the cost of a comic for what was essentially advertising about comics, when I could spend that money on an actual comic?
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I’m sure DC made some marketing blunders, too, including some “eggs in one basket” moves; but to the best of my knowledge, Direct Currents, and/or a successor, never cost the price of a regular comic. If it did, I wouldn’t have bought it.
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I wonder how many Marvel series I might have become interested in (and purchased) had Marvel Age been free, and I’d learned about them in its pages? Some of the information in DC’s Direct Currents newsletter made me curious enough to sample comics profiled in its pages.
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I didn’t know CBG even existed at the time, so any comics “news” I got would have been from word of mouth, house ads, and things like Marvel Age and Direct Currents. I have many more DC Comics than Marvel. I wonder how many DC series I bought after reading about them in Direct Currents; and how many series I subsequently picked up because of a house ad, and/or something mentioned in the letter columns (or editorials) in those books?
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For the record, word of mouth (reinforced by a brief Starlog profile) is what got me to pick up Hulk during PAD’s run. I don’t remember, but maybe a house ad or editorial or mention in the letter column in Hulk got me to pick up Captain America during those months when John Walker was Captain America and Steve Rogers was The Captain. If so, had I not gotten word of mouth about Hulk, would I have ever picked up either title? Possibly. If a cover had caught my eye. But who knows? And again, I was on a budget, so I tended to stick to the titles I was buying on a regular basis, with only the occasional sampling of something on the shelf that caught my eye.
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For the record, I still wouldn’t pay the cost of a comic for something with advertising about a company’s titles.
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Rick