Why don’t Comic Book movies sell Comic Books?

Comic Book Movies have dominated the box office for the last ten years bringing lesser known characters such as The Spirit, Thor, and the Green Lantern into mainstream consciousness. But it has done little, if anything, to improve declining comic book sales. Why is that? If the movies are popular, won’t people want to rush out and buy the comic? It works for movies based on books which is funny, because Tim Burton's Batman movie did lead to a long-term spike in sales. No one knows the reason why (despite their claims), but here are a few likely possibilities:

Accessibility

Movies are designed for people who know nothing about the characters or their history. A single issue of a comic book assumes you’ve read dozens (maybe even hundreds) of previous issues. New readers haven’t and most don't want to.

Completion

Movies have a definite beginning and ending--you can walk away satisfied that you saw a complete story. There may be a teaser for a sequel, but the story itself is finished. Comic books are only 22-pages (or 20 from DC) and tell a small part of the story (kind of like watching 5 minutes of a movie). You have to buy several issues over the course of several months to read the whole story, but by then the flow has been broken up and the excitement has gone down. This may be one reason Trade paperbacks are so popular--you get the whole story in one sitting. People like their instant gratification.

Coolness and Quality

Movies have big budgets, state-of-the-art special effects, 7.1 surround sound, art directors, costume designers, plus a team of people working together over the course of years. Comics have one or two artists and a pen. In the 1940s that was enough, because four-color printing and costumed characters were unique and had little competition--movies were black and white and the pulps were mostly words. In the late 1980s-early 1990s, the Todd McFarlane’s, Rob Liefeld’s, and Jim Lee’s were cool, because they brought new life with their dynamic artwork, panel layout, and improved printing. Today comics have gone back to boring panel layouts, dumpy figures, and boring colors. Compared to a video game or a movie, they just don’t stack up. And coming out on a monthly basis doesn't allow the creators sufficient time to craft their best story or do their best artwork. It also means they are going to run out of stories pretty quick and have to start repeating themselves.

Distribution

Movies are shown in cinemas around the world. Comic books can only be purchased in hard to find specialty stores and a few bookstores. Movies have multiple showings so everyone who wants to watch them can. Comic shops try to sell every copy of a comic they order, so if you aren't there Wednesday morning, you could easily be out of luck.

Price

Movies cost $7-16 depending on where you are and how you choose to view them (2D, 3D, IMAX). Comics cost an average of $4 per issue, but each story is going to run an average of 6 issues for a grand cost of $24 per story. It doesn’t take an economist to tell you which is a better deal.

These may not be all the reasons, but they seem to be the most likely. Many people think going digital is the answer to saving comics, but they tried that in 2000 with Dark Horse's free motion comics online, and that didn’t do so hot. Current motion comics sold thru iTunes and Amazon did a little better, and digital comics thru Comixology are not doing nearly as well as eBooks.

Maybe the whole comic book form needs to be reexamined and reinvented. It is a century old. After all, children’s storybooks are very different now than they were a hundred years ago.

What do you think?

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Is Restarting the Universe a Good Idea?

DC Comics announced they will restart their universe—again—and relaunch 52 titles at number one with a modern reinterpretation. Their goal is to boost sales and create more compelling stories. So how likely is it to work? People can speculate and offer argument after argument, but the best way to answer that question is to sit back and see what happens. For those who don’t want to wait that long, a quick look at history will do almost as well.

Restarting the universe is not a new idea. In fact, it’s a rather old idea that companies continue to try. Restarting a title at number one has also been done before. The results are increased initial sales then quickly drop back down, and the characters usually revert to who they were before the clean start. Many times the issue number reverts back as well. Here are just a few examples.

The Silver Age

The Silver Age of comics began with the relaunch of the Flash in Showcase followed by a new version of the Green Lantern. Both were very successful and gained their own titles and their Golden Age version forgotten--at least for a couple of years until the Golden Age Flash met the Silver Age Flash in Flash 123. After that all the forgotten Golden Age stories reappeared and became a separate universe.

Late 1960s-1970s

In the 1970s DC tried once again to reinvent their characters "for a modern audience". Superman became a TV reporter and Kryptonite became extinct. Robin grew up and Batman moved into the Wayne Penthouse. Wonder Woman lost her powers and wore white. Green Lantern teamed up with Green Arrow and tackled social issues.

So how well did this reboot go? Wonder Woman regained her powers after a few issues, and Green Lantern’s magazine was cancelled. The changes to Superman and Batman lasted nearly a decade, but sales were still very weak.

Crisis On Infinite Earths and Man of Steel

In the 1980s, DC decided to reboot their universe again with a mega crossover event (which became standard each year and was less impressive with each outing). The multiple universes were collapsed into a single universe. Superman was relaunched with the Man of Steel miniseries and a new title Superman by then superstar John Byrne who made several big changes such as leaving Superman’s parents alive and making Lex Luthor the head of an international corporation. He also went back to work at the Daily Planet and Kryptonite reemerged. Wonder Woman also restarted from day one courtesy of George Perez. Batman received a new origin thanks to Frank Miller and Year One, but much his 50-year history was kept. Flash was killed and replaced by Kid Flash who took over the mantel.

So did this mega relaunch work? Well, John Byrne’s two years on Superman did hit see increased sales, but they tanked once again after he left. And DC continued to license the old version of their flagship hero. Batman's sales soared, but it was mostly due to the Tim Burton film adaption of the character.

Heroes Reborn

In the early 1990s, Marvel Comics was home to the hottest artists of the day until they decided to leave and start their own company selling millions of copies of their own titles while Marvel’s once stellar sales plummeted. The company faced bankruptcy. So they convinced a few of their former superstars to come back and restart four of their worst selling titles in a stunt called Heroes Reborn.

The result? Initial issues sold well, but it wasn’t long before sales dropped, and one of the superstar artists was dropped after only six months. Twelve issues later everything went back to normal.

Marvel #1s

Around the year 2000 Marvel thought the reason they weren’t selling more comics was because the issue numbers were too high and new readers didn’t think they could jump on board because of all that history. So they restarted many of their titles at number 1 including Amazing Spider-man, Spider-Man: Peter Parker, Thor, Hulk, Daredevil, and others.

And surprise! It didn’t work. Marvel soon returned their books to their old numbers, first by showing both on the cover, then just using the original.

And there were more and more and more

These weren’t the only attempts at relaunching characters or an entire universe. Superman Y2K, the aftermath of Batman No Man’s Land, Zero Hour, the Ultimate Universe, Green Lantern: Emerald Twilight, Green Lantern: Rebirth, Superman: Secret Origins, and WorldStorm are only a few other failed attempts. Most of these garnered some media attention and sales increased for awhile, but it never lasted. And many of the changes were soon discarded or mixed in with what came before.

So what has worked?

So should comic book companies just leave their characters the same with no change? Is there nothing they can do? Are they doomed to failure?

Of course not. There have been many successful “revitalizations” of characters, but it hasn’t been erasing the past and starting with a blank slate. It has always involved embracing the past and expanding on it in a consistent way. (Did you catch that word, consistent?) Changing a character’s gender, race, or motivation isn’t edgy and creative—it’s suicide! There have been many reimaginings that have been very successful and been embraced by all versions that came after, and all of them were true to the core of the character.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is considered by many to be the greatest comic book series ever, not because Frank Miller turned Batman into a new and different character, but because he reverted back to the original Batman and let us see inside his head.

The Elektra Saga took one of Marvel’s least popular characters in a struggling bi-monthly book to being one of the most popular characters a best-seller by looking at the essence of the character (he’s blind and plays both sides of the law) and really explored that using Elektra as a dark reflection of what he could have been.

Batman: The Animated Series is regarded by many as the greatest version of Batman ever, not because they created a new version of Batman, but because they gleaned the best his 50+ year history.

The Marvel movies Spider-man, X-men, Iron Man, and others were box office blockbusters, not because they presented new versions of these characters, but because they presented the classic and essential elements of these characters using the best stories form their 30+ years of publication.

Smallville was an enormous success (at least the first five seasons), because they didn’t try to change young Clark Kent, but brought in elements of his now 60+ year history and showed how his family life and friends lead him to become the hero we all know and love.

Other Considerations

There are some other considerations a lot of people overlook. When comics first began, they were new and cool. They were four-color and pictures, which compared to the black and white text heavy pulps they replaced, were new and eye-catching. They also cost a dime and could be found anywhere, because they were sold on newsstands and newsstands were everywhere. They featured bright costumed characters (Superman and Batman were originally “costumed characters” not “superheroes”), which again stuck out. After a decade, comic books were no longer the cool new kid on the block, and more and more was being produced in color due to advances in technology. The comic explosion of the late 1980s and 1990s was due to better artwork and better printing to show off that artwork. Before then comics looked and were being produced much like they had been 50 years before.

If comics want the sales explosion they had in the Golden Age and the Dark Age, they need update the format in addition to embracing the history of the characters and expanding on it in a consistent and respectful way. They also need distribution beyond a few dying specialty shops. The digital revolution seems to be the most likely route, but it isn’t the only one. Comics could survive and even have a resurgence in print if they could find a way to gain universal distribution like they once had, and if they could contain content as cool and compelling as video games, the current pop culture superstar at a price consumers deem a “good value”.

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How to help others “StumbleUpon” your work

Have you ever written a book, thought it was the greatest thing in the world, published it, and then sat back and waited for the world to beat down your door to get their copy? If you've ever written a book, then the answer is most likely ‘yes’, and you are still waiting for the masses and wondering if they lost your address.

So how do you get the masses to buy your book and turn you into a bestselling author? Basically, write a great book millions want to read, then market it to them at a price and in a format they can’t say no to. Easy, right?

Ok, if it were really that easy, everyone would do it. With the Internet and the so-called “social media revolution” there are numerous tools you can use. (Yes, even you!) One of them is called StumbleUpon. Over at iLoveSmashwords.com I posted some helpful explanations and tips about using StumbleUpon to increase traffic to your work.

Read the full post at http://www.ilovesmashwords.com/2011/05/how-to-help-others-stumbleupon-your-work/

Poetry

I don't know when it started, but I've been writing poetry for a while. I create a Christmas card each year and write an original poem to go with it. I also make cards for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and birthdays and usually have an original poem in them. The last few years my brother and I have been making books with family photos as gifts for our parents, and I wrote a lot of original lines for it. And when I first posted a website, I wanted a unique way to display my art, so I wrote poems to go with my illustrations as if it were a virtual storybook on the web. I really enjoy writing, especially poetry. In fact I have a secret project planned for after my second novel is published that will ... but that would be telling.

There are several things I like about poetry. First is the rhythm and the way it sounds; good poetry is so melodic even if it doesn't rhyme. Second is the ability to paint with words, because you don't have the usual restrictions of prose that requires you basically to "tell" everything in a certain way. With poetry you can place the words visually to get added meaning. Third, I like how much can be said in a minimal amount of words. So many of the greatest poems are short in word count but long in content and message. The best art and the best writing takes just a little and makes so much of it.

The other day I suddenly had the idea to publish my poems. I was originally going to publish all of the illustration poetry, Christmas Card poetry, and other greeting card poetry, but realized it would make more sense to publish them as three anthologies. So I just posted the illustration poetry, but it is some of my favorite. It's available in most eBook formats from Amazon.com and Smashwords, but will soon go on sale at Barnes & Noble Nook store, Apple iBookstore, Sony eReader store, Kobo, and Diesel. I love the cover art! If you've been following this blog, you may recognize the characters. The title comes from one of my favorite poems. Enjoy!

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051U9XB6
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/60375

How to format a graphic novel or comic book for digital distribution thru popular eBook stores

Have you ever created a comic book or graphic novel and wanted to publish and sell it but weren't sure how or didn't want to go bankrupt doing it thru comic book stores?

Well turn that dream into reality! Over at iLoveSmashwords.com, I've outlined a few helpful steps and tips to make your work meet the formatting guidelines and pass thru Meatgrinder intact and qualify for the premium catalog. I cover what file format to use, what size your images should be, how to place them in a Word document without being shrunk to thumbnails, as well as tips on allowing previews and avoiding error messages.

Read the full post here: http://www.ilovesmashwords.com/2011/05/formatting-a-graphic-novel-or-comic-book-for-smashwords/

If you'd like to check out a few of my comics, visit my Author page at Smashwords. Some of my comics are even available for free: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jeffthomason

Thoughts on Writing: Show and Tell

In one of my high school English classes, the teacher would start class by writing a sentence telling an action on the board, and we had five or ten minutes to fill up half a page showing the action. For example, the teacher would write “The room was messy” and we would write a paragraph or three describing the messy room without ever actually saying the room was messy. It’s a technique calls “Show Not Tell” and English wasn’t the only subject to make use of it; my college art classes were fond of it as well. It’s frequently quoted as a way to make your writing “better” and more “professionalism”, but is showing really better than telling?

On an interesting note, anytime you write, you are telling your audience what is happening. To show you need to include pictures, so anytime you create visual art, you are showing and not telling. But semantics and technicalities aren’t my goal for this essay.

Showing and telling are both tools a writer or artist can use to convey a message or story. One is not necessarily better than the other. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses, and they both have their uses--things they do better than the other.
Telling appeals to the intellect. It is much quicker and much clearer. If you tell someone the room is messy, you can convey that in four words and there is no question whether or not the room is messy. If you were to describe a room and the clothes on the floor, the week old pizza under the bed, the overflowing trashcan, you need several sentences, and at the end, some people may think the room is normal, not messy.

Showing appeals more to the emotions. It creates richer, more vivid images in one’s mind. It also requires more of the reader to figure out what you are trying to say, and therefore can be more satisfying when the reader succeeds.

Telling is good if you want to make a point quickly and clearly. Telling the reader certain facts allows you to move thru a story quickly without breaking the rhythm. Showing allows you to bring your reader into the situation, to create an experience and play on their emotions so they feel something for the story as if it happened to them.

Determining which to use in a given situation depends on the situation, what your goal and purpose is, who the audience is, how much time they have to digest the information, and how capable they are of digesting the information. One should not automatically dismiss telling as bad writing and accept showing as good writing. One must take into account the situation, purpose, and desired result to judge the quality of writing.

A wise writer or artist will use the most effective tool for the job.

Mother's Day Card

I like to make cards for special occasions by hand. I create an original illustration and an original poem for each. I've built up quite a collection.

This year for Mothers Day I created an original for my Mom, but I decided to share it with you too. Enjoy!

Mothers rarely get what they deserve
For the many sacrifices they make,
The time they give up,
And the worry they endure.

They may hear an occasional thank you
Or some other quick acknowledgement,
But like so many other important things
Their labor of love goes unrecognized.

But today, this mother will get what she deserves
As we not only tell her, but also show her
How much we love and appreciate her.

Happy Mothers Day!

Technology in the Classroom

The local news in Idaho has been filled with a lot of talk about the education reforms recently passed by the State Legislature and signed by the Governor. One of the controversial issues is to divert money from teacher pay to increasing technology in the classroom. If increasing the amount of technology provides more student benefit than increasing the number or teachers or quality of teachers, then it is a good idea. So the question is, does technology in the classroom benefit students, and if so by how much, and is that greater than the benefit of more teachers who are happy? Here is one product of the Idaho school system’s personal experience on the subject.

Background

To give you a little background, I love technology and my entire working career has relied on it. I create websites and program custom web apps for clients in the financial, health care, retail, and many other sectors. I also use a computer to create logos, brochures, packaging, sales sheets, business cards, handouts, inserts, posters, and much, much more graphic design work. I also provide illustrations for book covers, children’s storybooks, and young adult novels all of which require a significant amount of digital art. So I am no stranger to technology and certainly understand its place. I’ve also had to use a diverse array of knowledge I gained in school including writing skills, math skills, accounting skills, analytic skills, debate skills, speech skills, random odd facts, and much, much more. Knowledge I’ve gained on a variety of subjects has been invaluable to me. So here are three case studies of technology in the classroom and what it did for me and my fellow classmates.

Case Study 1: High School Math

In High School I took all of the advanced math classes. In Advanced Algebra and Trig as well as Pre-Calculus, we occasionally used the T1-81 (a high tech graphing calculator) with several richer students had the then latest and greatest T1-85. In Calculus we used the HP 28 (another high tech graphing calculator). During the times we did NOT use the calculators, we learned how to do math by hand and better understand the principles. When we pulled out the calculators, students struggled with getting them to work, then once they figured it out all they had to do was punch in numbers and think about the processes taking place or the concepts being used. Or they programmed their calculator to play Mary Had A Little Lamb. In both cases, little math was learned. I honestly got a lot more out of the weeks in class we solved equations by hand then I did punching in numbers and copying the answer.

Case Study 2: College English

In college I took a computer-based English class. We sat at computers during class time and all work had to be done on the computer. During the 3-credit hour course I was required to type one paper and take two tests. And on the days the computers were malfunctioning (a common occurrence) class was cancelled. Anyone who has taken a college-level class will tell you one paper for the entire three credits is unheard of.

Since college I have become a professional writing both writing copy for websites and graphic design projects, marketing materials, newsletter articles, my regular column on Examiner.com, one young adult novel with another on the way, several short stories, and a few comic books. I have yet to use anything I learned in that computer-based class. I’m not even sure if I did learn anything.

Case Study 3: College History

I also took an Internet based Art History class. We were given a schedule of what we were to research, then let loose to scour the Internet for information and present it to the class. I had a friend in another Art History class being taught traditionally. I was always amazed how much they covered that we didn’t even touch. Later I took two other Art History classes taught traditionally, and I learned much more from those. Technology again got in the way of education.

Other Examples

These are just three of many, many examples I have. I could also include computers causing graphic designers to be worse designers, illustrators not drawing as well, business classes where more time was spent on finding funny pictures and cool transitions for a presentation than on researching and finding content for the presentation, and much more, but I think you’re getting the picture.

What am I saying?

Now, I’m not saying technology doesn’t have its place in a classroom. Word processors are the best way to type papers, and students should learn to use them and use them well. PowerPoint presentations, videos, and scientific calculators are also very helpful.

What I’m saying is whenever a teacher or institution tried to rely on technology or put great emphasis on technology, education has suffered. I have personally learned more from a teacher who was passionate about a subject and allowed to share that passion with me without worrying about whether the information would be on a standardized test or how to get some gadget to work.

My experience has told me that giving students laptops, iPads, new computers, and other cool gadgets isn’t going to improve education, but instead be a distraction from it. Unfortunately, it’ll be several years in the future before the data exists to prove this, and by then the damage will be done and the students will not be as capable as they could and should be.

How Technology has changed the Illustrated Story: Case Study 1 - Pulps vs. Comics

Matt D. Williams, the author of Jak Phoenix, invited me to write a guest post on his site. I look at the early twentieth century and examine how advances in printing destroyed one genre but created a new one. It also changed the way certain types of stories were told.

Read the entire post at http://jakphoenix.com/2011/04/13/how-has-technology-affected-the-illustrated-story-a-guest-post-by-jeff-thomason/.

As you can see, it is only one case study. The topic interests me so much that I plan to make it a whole series of posts. Don't hold your breath, because I have a lot of other things I'm working on first.

This image is a drawing of Wandering Koala^TM, and I think I'll use it for the title pages of all future stories. It's fitting, because I consider Wandering Koala to be a 21st century pulp hero who also appears in comics.

A few thoughts on Digital Comics

I use to be a big time comic fan, then I stopped reading them for a while, then I started reading them again but not with the same enthusiasm.

Recently Comixology released a few numbers about the growth of digital comics. They are growing, but more slowly than other media that went digital like music, movies, and books. It’s too soon and the data too scarce to make any definitive statements about them, but here are a few of my thoughts.

Why do people buy Digital Comics when they can get them on paper?
1) Price – Comics cost $2.99-3.99 per 22-page issue. When I started buying comics in 1989, most comics cost $1.00 while Superman comics cost 75 cents. That means they’ve increased in price by a factor between 3-5. Paperback books haven’t even doubled in price during the same period. Paper comics are pricing themselves into oblivion. The current diehard fans that are willing to spend too much and buy multiple copies for variant covers are the main thing keeping the current system going; very few new fans are entering the market threatening its survival. Digital Comics are currently sold for between 99 cents and $1.99. I feel this is the main reason digital comics are growing--the print market is so far above market price that it is forcing competition to emerge, a phenomenon that has been observed in the past and been misinterpreted by courts as a lack of monopoly instead of the result of a monopoly.

2) Coolness Factor – With the launch of the iPhone, Android phones, the Kindle and other eReaders, and the iPad, downloading digital is the current “new and cool”. People download apps they’ll never use, books they’ll never read, and music they’ll never listen to a second time. Why? Because it’s cool, and this has led many people who don’t read comics to start downloading digital comics. This is one reason certain titles have seen growth in digital sales without any loss in sales for the paper version.

3) Availability – Every year more and more comics shops close their doors. Fewer and fewer newsstands carry comics. And while the Direct Market was set up to over order comics so they’d have back issues to sell, the current goal is complete sellthrough so the shop isn’t stuck with unsold issues. Digital issues in theory should always be available in whatever quantity they’re demanded. This is probably the least compelling reason.

So are digital comics the future? Maybe. I personally like paper comics better, but I won’t be able to afford to buy them for much longer at current prices. And many times I’ll wait for the trade paperback and buy it at a discount at Amazon, which doesn’t help the Direct Market system or local comic shops.

Of course, there are challenges:

1) Collectablity – A digital file is unlikely to increase in value.

2) Readability – While one can read a comic book on a giant computer screen, it’s not a pleasant experience. People like to download and consume content on their iPhones and Kindles and iPads and other gadgets, but their screens are too small to read current comics. Some have tried to cut up the comic into individual panels, but that usually results in odd configurations and cropped artwork. Others have tried to zoom from panel to panel, but then you lose the “page as a whole” design the artist intended and again miss out on some of the artwork.

3) Technology – Anyone who has tried to download and read a digital comic knows it takes a lot of time and processing power. It’s kind of a buzz kill waiting and waiting and waiting only to have the comic crash.

4) Price - Digital comics are currently sold for between 99 cents and $1.99. I’m not sure these are the right prices, being a creator and seller of digital comics myself. At 99 cents you don’t make enough profit to sustain or grow the business unless every issue is a blockbuster which it won’t be. As a consumer I’m resistant to spend $1.99 on something that isn’t physical and that is hard to read.
Is there anyway to overcome these challenges. Of course!

1) Focus on complete collections over the one “hot” issue. Make having every issue seem as great as that limited first issue going for $40 on eBay. I don’t know how well it will work though. But if people actually read the comics instead of storing them in Mylar, it may.

2) In the 80s it was common for action figures to come packaged with a mini-comic. They were usually aroung 5” x 6.5” and would be easy to read even on a smart phone screen. In Brazil they sell comics in digest sizes with three issues per book. This makes the cost per issue much lower than it is in America, and they have to translate the dialogue anyway so adjusting it for the smaller space has to be done anyway. (In case you haven’t guessed, I’m proposing creating new comics as mini-comics; that way you still get the total effect of the page while maintaining readability. Plus you have fewer panels per page, so there are more pages and it appears to be a better value. Of course, this isn’t helpful for older comics. There is no good solution for those.

3) The technology problem will solve itself as Internet speeds become faster and devices become more powerful. Of course, better coding would speed up the process.

4) $1.50 seems like a good price to me. That’s what I sell a lot of comics at, and they sell as well as the ones I price at 99 cents, but I’m actually making enough money to make it worth my while. Of course, the packaging multiple issues together would allow for lower per issue prices and may be the way to go, especially for long stories that can’t be wrapped up in 22 pages.

I don’t see digital comics ever completely replacing print comics just as digital music hasn’t replaced hard media and eBooks haven’t replaced print books. There are things print can do digital can’t, and if the industry takes advantage of that, then print can have a healthy future.

But I have my doubts they will.