This publish is Filed Under:

Home page Highlights,
Interviews as well as Columns

Beau Smith

by beloved Smith

Before the comic book company had a direct Market, info on upcoming problems was difficult to find by. utilizing marvel as well as DC Comics as examples, they were quite much your only source for hints of what storylines as well as characters were going to be in new issues. marvel Comics was a bit much more generous with “talking” to the visitors then, they had to be, they were the upstart comic book publishers doing only about 12 books a month as well as they needed your interest in a major way.

A Bullpen Bulletins page

Stan Lee was fantastic at selling, hyping as well as promoting Marvel’s upcoming comics. His utilize of The marvel Bullpen Bulletins Page, The Mighty marvel Checklist, Stan’s Soapbox as well as The Letter Columns, were amazing, cutting edge as well as smart. There were times when as a reader, those were the very first locations I inspected when I purchased a new marvel Comic. DC Comics complied with fit a few years later. When marvel started acquiring ground on them, they created the direct Currents page in their line of comics, it was their response to The marvel Bullpen Bulletins Page. direct Currents didn’t rather have the exact same personal friendliness of Marvel’s Bullpen Page, however they were making an attempt to lastly get to understand their readers.

DC direct Currents

Please keep in mind that in the 1960s as well as 1970s, there were no true comic stores, television had only three channels, the national news was only on for 15 minutes in the evening, print magazines on comics were nowhere to be discovered except with unusual as well as difficult to discover fan self-publication…AND….the Web hadn’t been created yet. Unless you were pen-palling with one more comic book reader, you truly weren’t getting much information on what was happening in the next problem of Captain America or who the shocking guest star was going to be in the Batman story. assumption what?

THAT WASN’T A poor THING!

I comprehend that with the innovation of the direct Market sellers had as well as needed to understand as much info on storylines, innovative teams as well as guest star selling points as possible. I get that as well as support that, however at the exact same time, that craving for much more as well as much more advancement info (Along with former print magazines as well as the internet) has somewhat ruined the appeal of comic books to readers.

When you understand as well much or in some cases, everything, you begin not to care as much. The comic book loses its value as well as it becomes a bit sterile. I likewise associate the lack of the excitement of the search as a major reason comics have lost visitors as well as sales. being able to get any type of comic book you want practically instantaneously has made the romance of the comic book less attractive. in some cases we won’t or don’t admit it to ourselves, however it’s true in a big number of cases.

Do we truly requirement to understand whatever about the future storylines? I believe the art of composing solicitation material has ended up being lost. In advertising comic books for over 25 years, being able to compose a compelling solicitation without providing the cake away is so extremely important. let them odor it, however don’t let them eat it yet. It’s not a cruel tease, it’s building a foundation for a long term publisher/reader relationship. That’s why none of the present as well as recent storylines have no true selling or purchasing impact. The cat’s not only out of the bag, it’s scratched the furniture as well as gotten out of the home before you saw what color it was.

Word of mouth is still the most essential as well as impactful type of marketing as well as promotion. getting it is the difficult part. I really believe that blog writers are a extremely essential part of getting the word out on what comic books are great as well as what ones other visitors ought to be paying interest to.

DCU Relaunch

Let’s play pretend for just a moment like we utilized to do as kids. just recently DC Comics has revealed that they are rebooting as well as renumbering a great deal of their comic books, just pretend, that they didn’t reveal it as well as were very, extremely vague in their solicitations, not even stating that they were renumbering the problems let alone altering whatever up. Can you envision the word of mouth this would’ve gotten from readers, from the press, on the web? believe of exactly how numerous people would be scurrying to discover these problems as well as checked out them, it would be huge. While you’re pretending, likewise envision that the visitors would seriously checked out the books as well as comment on what they truly believed about them, great or poor without any type of pre-release fertilization to sway their opinions. Needless to say, it’d offer a great deal of books as well as get a great deal of attention. DC Comics would discover out best away if the new modifications were compelling sufficient to rate of interest readers. Talk about taking genuine risks….oh, that’s right, we’re only pretending.

Keep this in mind, regardless if the genuine modification works or not, DC can as well as most likely will go back to the original numbering as well as characters if things don’t work out the method they planned. In the comic book company every modifications to stay the exact same one more day.

Your never altering amigo,

Beau Smith

The flying Fist Ranch

www.flyingfistranch.com