Aug. 31st forms the eve DC Comics has a change of seasons, so to speak. The New-York based publisher resets its over quarter-century entirety, rewrites household icons and relaunches with 52 flagship titles, heroes and villains. Sept. 1st distributes all #1 issues.
The cadre executive officers were in the Mid-Atlantic area last week for a quasi-town hall meeting with D.C. Metro area retailers. The Roadshow comprises DC Entertainment's Co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, Executive Vice President of Sale, Marketing and Business Development John Rood, Senior Vice President of Sales Bob Wayne, Director of Sales Vince Letterio.
Invites went out to retailers around the Mid-Atlantic, and of those who arrived were Third Eye Comics Steve Anderson and Beyond Comics Jon Cohen. These Maryland-small business owners talk a bit about that meeting, and during independent phone interviews gave some foundation responses to similar questions, and a few singular ones.
Examiner: Were you surprised that DC Comics set up an invite for comic book retailers?
Steve Anderson: No, because I already knew about it from ComicsPro. It's an organization online and represents a lot of retailers. I had heard through the ComicsPro grapevine that they were doing this. So, I wasn't surprised by the invite but when I heard the concept about the Roadshow I was a little surprised.
John Cohen: No, I was not.
Examiner: When the relaunch was revealed, were there any specific concerns you had before this meeting?
SA: Honestly I think that I was one of the earlier people to be optimistic about the relaunch. I feel that it's a very good thing. I feel it's a very strong thing. I think that it's going to be a very positive thing for the comic book industry. I felt that way when I first heard about it initially. I actually felt that way moreso after the meeting. Of course, there were some initial concerns about how it would be marketed to the public and how my customers were going to handle it and things like that. I think that way that they're doing it, that's kind of how I saw it. I knew they weren't going to chuck out like thirty years worth of stories on a whim.
JC: I strive as a retailer and when immediate major change happens to any character or core structure it can come across as backwards... and there was no information. This is something they felt obligated to keep under wraps and then - therefore, there wasn't enough information for our customers, to alleviate their concerns with information or for us just like anybody else to wait on a story to go out on the internet. So DC, they wanted to make sure all the retailers were armed with accurate information.
Examiner: Did you feel like there was any marketing research?
SA: I don't think that they put a lot of market research into the average person that comes into the comic book store. I do think there was a lot of marketing research into what we call lapsed fans. In fact, the meeting yesterday kind of confirmed that. There were a lot of people reading the comics in '90s. A lot of people. The industry almost - a lot of people almost killed the industry too. But there were also thousands upon thousands, hundreds of thousands of books being sold. That's a lot of people who used to read comics that don't read comics anymore and I think that DC kind of picked up on that. They want to take advantage of the fact that there's this whole new wide arena of people that they could reach out to, you know. I think that's what kind of their market research focused on. I think they were focusing on people that don't read comics now, as supposed to people who currently do in terms of the marketing. But at the same time... there's something for people who are already a hard-core fan to enjoy.
A year to the month of June after Wonder Woman had a fanfare milestone for a 600th issue and Batman's Detective Comics made 700, whereas April of 2011 marks Superman being the character that ignited it all in Action Comics #1; which set a record 900th issue. All new legacies may now become the next generation's status quo, and de facto recognition, trivia or well-known, will be of yesterday's Man of Tomorrow ken. The film-revered "Superman", which only revived DC Comics core template on Superman in 1978's theaters, could actually come across as altogether incorrect within thirty years. Comic book buyers were split on the news of DC's relaunch, but many were young or seasoned inveterates that responded with disheartened commentaries across the online news.
Examiner: Do you feel like your going to lose any adherents of the past comics - any long-time regulars who might dismsiss the new series even if the story quality is good?
SA: No, I don't think so at all. Not only do I think that we won't lose but gain people. I think that our long-term customers will read even more comics because there's more options available now. A higher quality story coming out from one of the top two publishers. So I think its a good thing. The thing about things like this is that whenever they initially start there's an overwhelming start in the negativity. That's how we are as fans. We're quick to react if we dont quite understand all the details. I think DC could've done a better job originally about putting all the deatails out there - to let people know. The way that this is being handled and the way it kind of it's going to be dealt with - It's going to make a lot of people happy. It's going to make a lot of people excited about comics.
JC: For the most part I think that more people are actually going to be more interested in the comics. There's not many I don't think will- I doubt many will stop buying them.
The neo genesis can arguably be said to differ from the fictional sojourn that changed a Kryptonian's super-leap into flight, and a Dark Knight into mentoring a once never-before-seen Boy Wonder. The relaunch seems to have resemblance to 1980s "Crisis on the Infinite Earths", where the corporate arm spurred an agenda to creatively trim down the girth of multiple Earth's, alternate world class superheroes and timelines. Sept. brinks a variant throwback milestone. Action Comics of 1938 debuted Superman's origin. 2011's Action Comics #1, the unexpected takes the fore once again, and for one and all, one-time readers or ardent subscribers, the anticipation justifiably can be said to meet relevance.
Examiner: What was the fundamental objective of the meeting? What was your judgement on how it was handled?
SA: The general, overall gist I got of the meeting was I think they wanted to put any concerns of retailers that were worried at ease while at the same time I think they wanted to rally the troops. I mean, we are the frontline troops. We are the comic books pacemaker. We're the ones that put it out there. We're the ones that say 'Hey, Scott Schneider is doing incredible things in American Vampire' and 'You should read the latest Detective Comics'. That's us. DC knows that and they've always been a retailer-friendly company. So, they wanted to get us all together basically to say 'Hey look. This is what we're doing and you can communicate it to your customers how we're doing it. This why we're doing it. Here's how you can use this to drive people into your doors... overall do what everybody wants and that's to make more comic book readers.
JC: The fundamental objective... was to basically outline what they're doing and why they're doing certain things. For someone like myself, I needed to make sure that their approach to their characters was not going to make their fanbase upset. So, they did a very good job of giving us information and that's a good thing, not a bad thing. I could compare it to Marvel. Marvel starts up every so often in a time frame, like they're doing with Captain America coming up. Like Daredevil #1 came out. Like they killed the Human Torch and started within the series for a new #1 Fantastic Four before it came out. They retool their characters on a regular basis.
All DC is doing is- they wanted to make sure that we knew they want to reinvigorate their comics except they're doing it all at once. For me this is free advertising. Everyone's talking about it. That's great, that's good fun.
Examiner: As a small businessman, was there anything that stuck out to you where you could say "Great, I can really run with this"?
SA: Oh yeah, several things. That they're going to be investing a lot more into public adveretising. There's going to be national campaigns designed to reach the public and make them aware of the DC. TV campaigns- I mean: I don't know about you but I can't remember the last time there was a TV Campaign for comics. Maybe the Ultraverse [Malibu Comics] stuff. I can't remember the last time they had a television commercial... I mean there's several books that they're going to diversify their line with... So you have that... appeal to all sorts of fans.
Examiner: Were there factors that were addresed that you felt could help you with future sales?
JC: Well... the bottom line is that DC Comics has been around for a long time. They have a lot of people who know what they're doing. Even though I might have- I might whine or complain like the other guy, they know how to keep people buying comics. If they have better quality to give to their customers, that its happier customers walking around reading comics. They're not doing it as a negative. I just wanted to have the answers I need to position myself so I can answer the questions of all my customers.
Thanks to John Cohen (Beyond Comics) and Steve Anderson (Third Eye Comics) for making room in their time for this interview.
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