Best Comic Book Covers of the Week: 4/4/12

@pikahyper: I understand that youre a fan of Milestone, and I respect that you want to see more of the characters but it simply made more sense for the Vertigo to fuse with DcU because of its overall larger fanbase. But just because Milestone didnt merge in Flashpoint doesnt mean we wont see more Milestone characters. As you said here a few Milestone characters had already made their way into the DCU before Flashpoint, meaning that they were part of the old DcU before it merged. This means that we may still see them at some point. However its silly not to equate sales with popularity. That is exactly what sales are, a way to measure how popular a book is. If a book is popular it will get sales. If it doesnt sell well then it isnt popular. The comic book business is exactly that, a BUSINESS. If a book isnt selling well that means its not popular, therefore it gets canceled.

@noj: Understood, I'm coming off like I'm obsessed with Milestone and not a fan of Vertigo but I actually am a devote Vertigo follower so I also look at it from the stand-point that it has hurt Vertigo a great deal to be constantly pillaged by DC and very rarely does DC utilize the characters they take back well and they fall into obscurity like they were before Vertigo revitalized them. Just look at Death of the Endless, snatched her up for three issues in Action Comics then nothing, she shouldn't have been there in the first place and yet now would have been the perfect time for DC to come out with a new Endless series (under Vertigo) to cash in on.

I realize it is a business and popularity normally equals sales but there are still different levels, DC looks at those sales country wide but what is popular on one coast is not as popular on the other its been like that for decades, books that do extremely well here in California and we have a hard time keeping on the shelves don't do well in other states so for us it is a hot book that then gets rolled around and cancelled for poor sales, that takes away from the success that it gave to Californian retailers and the popularity and appreciation of the Californian fans but it plays no part in what DC considers successful because as you say not selling well equals not being popular. Some small publishers actual care about geographical demographics and they factor that into sales projections as DC should, they are just greedy and want to put in the least amount of work for the largest return on investment as they flip off the fanbase that supports them.

@pikahyper: The problem with the Vertigo characters over at Vertigo was that they simply werent really selling all that well. I know it always comes back down to money, but like I said DC is a business and its a fact of life. No matter how beloved or popular a book may be to a small group of fans, if the publishers are losing money making it then it will be canceled. No company in the world is altruistic enough to keep around something that is losing money for the small group of fans that enjoy it. So think of it this way. Either the characters from Vertigo would forever hang around in limbo since their books werent making any money, or they could be brought over to DC proper and still have a chance at appearing.

Youre whole thing about looking at sales statewide makes no sense whatsoever. Would you want DC to continue losing money on a book just so people in California would be happy? A business cant focus on the smaller picture. Even if people in California enjoy a book that wont raise sales. So maybe DC starts only shipping to States where it is popular? Well that makes even less sense since the book still costs the same amount of money to produce, meaning they lose even more sales and more money because they're limiting the audience they're selling to.

It seems like alot of people just cant understand the business of it all. DC isnt being greedy, they are simply cutting losses and trying to make money. If they WERE greedy we would be seeing regular books being priced at 3.99(marvel).

@noj: Statewide does make sense if you target specific demographics, you lower your print run and minimize and focus any advertising into areas where the product sells, lower print runs and fewer dollars spent on advertising can still equal profit if done right, it works for lots of other industries outside of print media and it has shown success in print media at certain levels, DC just isn't willing to lower the bar on what they consider successful for any of their titles, they seem perfectly content with the extremely limited sales on most of their kids books but you don't see those going anywhere because those tie in to the entertainment wing for Warner Brothers. I've been working in the comic industry for about twenty years now in comic retail, as a comic professional back in the day, comic distribution and eventually back running comic stores, I've seen what works and what doesn't and yes DC is greedy, just because they don't over-charge for their books doesn't mean greed isn't a prime motivator, like I said before: least amount of work for the highest return on investment. The big two are primarily motivated by greed and it shows in their practices, just look at digital comics, the content costs them pennies to make and distribute and its almost pure profit at their inflated "industry standard" prices.

Some companies don't mind breaking even, Mirage has been going that route with TMNT for years same with New England Comics. Oni, Image, Dark Horse, Slave Labor, Red 5 they all do very well using a standard business model but it works for them because they don't have a parent company sucking up every penny they make, that's why Marvel and DC have to have such high standards and take as many shortcuts as they can. You look at Boom or IDW and they are flourishing, at times their success is beyond belief but they continue to grow, nothing gets cancelled (except for the Disney stuff of course but that wasn't there fault), nobody complains about sales, tons of profit is made and it all goes back in to the business and I honestly doubt that is the case over at DC or Marvel.