Go, Read: Brian Hibbs On DC Events

Newsarama has an article up by retailer Brian Hibbs about how DC's initiatives "One Year Later" (an in-continuity skipping one year ahead re-set of titles to encourage new readers to jump on without being baffled by accretion of story details so different from the concept of the character) and 52 (a weekly year-long series about what happened in that lost year) worked in his store. As always, it's nice to hear a prominent retailer's take on why one thing worked and another didn't perform, and Hibbs sticks to details and in-the-store observations rather than the sweeping statements he sometimes makes that cause his fellow industry watchers to blink twice and clutch their heads in vessel-bursting pain.

Although... one thing that's odd about the comparison is that they're not all that similar: 52 is an event comic; "One Year Later" was a line initiative. As much as it's impressive that 52 has sustained itself at its sales levels over such a long period of time when compared to other events, there should be little to no surprise that an event comic has a greater chance for success than an initiative right now. The big companies have at this point totally primed the market to follow event comics, and have specific tools at their disposal to help retailers get on board, some of which are mentioned by Hibbs. The companies have in that same last few years largely abandoned any equally invested efforts to reinvigorate their lines property by property except in those places a "dream team" can be assembled that makes the book feel like an event and then act that way in the marketplace.

What's hard to tell given the size of the major players is whether or not they're reacting to a market that is simply collapsing white-star like for your average, everyday series comic book, or if they've made it that way.
 
posted 3:08 am PST | Permalink
 

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