Wednesday is Comic Day!

Sometimes it seems as if about 46% of internet bandwidth is used by comic book fans complaining about event books and crossovers. And yet they still sell incredibly well. For 2008, 9 of the 10 top selling comic issues were part of a major event/crossover. 8 of the 10 were issues of Marvel's Secret Invasion and one was from DC's Final Crisis.

Follow up:

So, is there a problem? High sales is the point, right? Yes and yes. For every comic book event, just as with every other event in the universe, the people that didn't like it are more likely to comment than the people that did like it. Internet chatter cannot therefore be the deciding factor of whether or not something worked. However, the comic book market is pretty small, so even those angry few matter. And even if an event book sells big, if it has a negative impact on the sales of other books, it can end up being a losing situation.

In 2008, the average comic in the Diamond Top 300 list for each month sold 22,594 issues. Obviously there is a big spread and #1 sold a lot more than #300, but that's the average. Each of the above mentioned event books sold in excess of 100,000 copies. And each of those event books sold at $3.99, a dollar more than a typical comic. so an event book, in and of itself looks like a big gain. But total number of comics sold for 2008 was 4.6% less than for 2007. Hidden within all these numbers is the impact the event books had (or will have for the events that only just finished) on other comics put out by the publisher. Only the publishers have all the numbers to see if an event is really growing the market or just growing by eating the smaller children.

On the internet and at conventions one will hear the term "event fatigue". To the reader it seems like the moment one event finishes the next starts, giving no time to tell stories using the status quo created by the last event. In the case of Marvel and Secret Invasion it seems like the whole purpose of the event was to kickoff the following event (Dark Reign). Some events have had so many tie-ins that just trying to read the whole story was exhausting, both mentally and financially, to some fans.

For events that came before 2008, the most frequent complaint about was the number of tie-ins. Way back in 1985, DC had their first uber-event: Crisis on Infinite Earths. It was a huge event that aimed to completely change the DC universe. Almost every title tied into the event. Some tie-ins were pretty flimsy. For example the term "red sky tie-in" came from the fact that in Crisis the skies were red and for some tie-in books, the only perceivable connection was that they colored the sky red. No real story connection was evident. The second complaint about tie-ins was that they took away the freedom of the individual title creators to tell their stories if they had to fit into the events.

Usually the complaints about the number of tie-ins are unfounded, because although they are supporting stories - they aren't essential to read the main story. Although dozens of books tied into Crisis on Infinite Earths, if you go and buy the hardback and read it alone, you will get a complete story. People complaining that they had to read all these extra books sounded like someone complaining that they couldn't enjoy Saving Private Ryan without also watching Schindler's List.

Recently, publishers (although they claim to not listen to the internet) tried something different. The events still had tie-ins - but the tie-ins were dedicated mini-series. So instead of, for example, making the creative team of Fantastic Four tie into Secret Invasion, a four issue mini-series was published, called Fantastic Four: Secret Invasion. It was a mini-series that took a scene or two involving the Fantastic Four, from Secret Invasion, and expanded on that scene telling a story that was connected to the event but not essential to the story being told in the event. Sounds like a great idea, right? Everything was fixed! Well, not really. This created a new complaint. Now the problem is that if a reader can continue to read all the main Marvel titles, like Fantastic Four, Captain America, Daredevil, and The X-Men and the event doesn't impact those titles, well then it kind of minimizes the importance of the event in this big, shared, soap opera type universe of superheroes that keeps fans coming back every month.

DC followed a similar path, keeping the event out of their regular titles and creating mini-series to tie-in. DC, however, made another mistake. Their mini-series tie-ins, rather than supporting the main event, seemed to do one of two things: either they conflicted with the event, leaving the fans wonder which story was correct, or even worse - they were absolutely essential to understand the story of the main event, and weren't advertised as such.

In a few months, DC will release the hardback edition of their 2008 event, Final Crisis. This hardback is solicited as containing only the titular Final Crisis books, 1-7. Any customer that wanders into Barnes & Noble or Borders and picks up that hardback and takes it home to read is going to get very, very confused.

Both Marvel and DC events also suffer because of publishing delays due to lateness. it ruins the pacing of the story and sometimes is so long that readers can't remember why they cared to read it in the first place.

So how can we have the best of both worlds? How can we have events that are big sellers, big publicity bringers, big tent-poles for the publishers, an entry point for readers and yet not exhaust the fans? Here are my suggestions:

1) Events should last no more than 6 months. The publishers can do whatever they want when it comes to page count. There's no reason they can't reduce the time span. In order to stay within this 6 month window they would have to fix another problem they have, and that is lateness. Get the pages from the artist before the event begins.

2) Events should be no less than 6 months apart. Readers want to see how the event impacts the universe and their favorite characters. Give the creators time to tell a complete arc using the new status quo before it becomes obsolete. Events are like big summer movies and therefore should be in the summer, when kids are out of school and people have a little more cash. Start the event in April and finish it in September. This also lines up well with the convention season, for publicity.

3) Coordinate the editors and creators. It is unacceptable, in a shared universe, to have a character die two different ways in two different titles, in the same month (Orion). Take more time to plan the event so that the creators can work their characters in at the right pace and work the impacts of the event into their books, appropriately.

4) Keep the big events accessible. This one is aimed squarely at DC. Final Crisis may be one of the least accessible stories ever told. Grant Morrison is praised for the levels and depth and subtext and metatext that he brings to his stories - but in this event, he forgot to actually bring the story. Good literature has subtext and metatext within a story that is on the surface. A sharp reader will realize that Chekov's Metamorphosis is not really about a man turning into a bug, but a casual reader can still enjoy it as that, a story about a man turning into a bug. An example in comics is Alan Moore's Watchmen. On the surface, it is a good old fashioned murder mystery. Below the surface it is all about structure and the trappings of comic books.

5) Use the event to tell a big story or to setup a new status quo - don't use it to kickoff another event.

I, personally, love events. I'm rarely disappointed in them. This time, as is evident from earlier posts, I've been disappointed by both Marvel and DC.

Marvel disappointed me by changing the purpose of their event at in the last issue and missing out on the opportunity for a fascinating status quo. Dark Reign looks like it will be interesting - but it could have waited. They also took about 9 months to tell a story that takes place over a day or two, while their core universes ticked on.

DC disappointed me by doing a big event that appears to have had no management, no coordination, and no focus.

There are certainly people that enjoyed either or both events, but there are a lot of people that feel disillusioned with Marvel and DC. We really can't afford to lose those people. I hope Marvel and DC roll their sleeves up and work hard to appeal to those people to come back.