Image Publisher Eric Stephenson Urges Comics Industry Not To Repeat Past Mistake 0

[james1miller]

Did Image completely stop releasing incentive variants and retailer variants?

 

I think they did around July 2015.

 

Does anyone know of any incentive variants or retailer variants released since they announced (around July 2015 I think) they were stopping or cutting way back on them?

 

Walking Dead 150 is Skybound so I guess Kirkman can do what he wants. But 150 only had one 1/0 incentive variant. The rest were regular cover price variants if you preordered.

 

 

[krighton]

I think it was just retailer variants that image stopped releasing

[50/50]

I think it was just retailer variants that image stopped releasing

 

They'll still do Image Expo Variants, but yeah retailer incentive variants are do-do bird.

 

Also they went all "punk rock" with it and gave the Walking Dead 150 B/W variant a 1:0 retailer non-incentive.

 

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/05/15/image-scraps-retailer-exclusive-comics-for-exclusive-tpbs-because-of-speculation/

Edited February 23, 2016 by 5050

[Jackhartmann]

Good speech.

[followtheleader]

If anyone else had written the article, I would care.

But not this guy after NWM.

 

Patrick

[james1miller]

I know a few books like Low and Tokyo Ghost have been doing regular cover price variants but I don't think Image has done any incentive variants for around 7 months maybe more.

 

If they have what are they?

[mschmidt]

I know a few books like Low and Tokyo Ghost have been doing regular cover price variants but I don't think Image has done any incentive variants for around 7 months maybe more.

 

If they have what are they?

 

The issue of Spawn coming out this week has multiple variants.

[followtheleader]

Yeah, Spawn has variants for the last few.

 

Patrick

[the authority]

I know a few books like Low and Tokyo Ghost have been doing regular cover price variants but I don't think Image has done any incentive variants for around 7 months maybe more.

 

If they have what are they?

 

The issue of Spawn coming out this week has multiple variants.

 

He just doesn't want/allow retailer variants other than TPB. Retailers around here struggle with comics and have either gone out of business or become gaming shops who also sell comics. Not one pure comic shop left in our area. Retailer variants helped some shops compete with the big online guys. It also gave them a reason to promote Image on top of the good stories and get people in their doors. For whatever reason, the perception of ES is that he wants to limit everyone's profitability except Image's. The best business plan is one that believes a rising tide lifts all boats.

 

Regardless, Image books are well worth reading.

[SquareChaos]

I don't think he believes a few variants are the biggest issue, though that seems to be where most of this conversation is focused.

 

We all know how he feels about incentive variants in particular, but he's also starting to talk more about... there's no other way to really save it... the creative bankruptcy inherently present in a comic universe that has to reboot itself every few years. Not to mention a retreading of the same characters similar stories over and over again. How rare is it for one of the Big Two to create and grow a new character these days? How often is that new character really a new character? In other words, how often is it derivative of some other popular entity?

 

I think these things are more to the point of Stephenson's concern... at least by my reading of his speech.

[james1miller]

I know a few books like Low and Tokyo Ghost have been doing regular cover price variants but I don't think Image has done any incentive variants for around 7 months maybe more.

 

If they have what are they?

 

The issue of Spawn coming out this week has multiple variants.

 

What's the ratio? Doesn't Todd McFarlane have his own division of Image kind of like Kirkman has Skybound so they can do more of what they want?

[IntoAnother]

Yeah, Spawn has variants for the last few.

 

Patrick

 

Are they variants that require retailers to order more copies in order to receive them?

 

I was under the impression they did away with those as well as retailer/shop variants. I'm not sure though.

[james1miller]

Spawn 259 to 261 have 2 covers each. They are 50/50 or regular price variants. They are not incentive variants.

 

ES is talking about retailer and incentive variants in his most recent speech.

 

 

[Prince Namor]

Yes, can we make that clear. He's not saying all variants are a bad thing.

 

He's saying the incentive variant process used primarily by Marvel to GLUT the market with unnecessary product is not a good thing.

 

Spawn or Tokyo Ghost or whatever having a choice between two different covers, is simply that, a choice. There's no increasing your order needed to get either cover.

 

Retailers should order more of a title because customers want to READ it. THAT is for the health, benefit and long term growth of the industry.

 

Fooling retailers into believing that by ordering more and more copies of a book, in order to get a variant that someone MAY pay more money for, simply keeps that retailer from concentrating on ordering product that customers may actually want to read.

 

It cheapens the overall view of comics to see long boxes full of unsold Marvel Comics, and sometimes even boxes full of variants. (One of the biggest local shops in St. Louis has, at least 10 long boxes of variants at any given time - mainly made up of books they just qualify for automatically)

 

Why buy Marvel Comics new, when you can just wait for a store's year end sale and pick up most everything for $1 each? That's not helping us to grow the readership.

 

 

[IntoAnother]

Thank you James and Chuck.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

The guy is right on the money regarding what's currently happening in the business today.

 

IMAGE rarely goes multicover and usually that's in the pivotal issues of WALKING DEAD (#100 and #150 being examples). IMAGE and DARK HORSE don't depend upon the gimmick variant covers like MARVEL, DC, DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT, ZENESCOPE and AVATAR do.

 

This, coupled with the ever increasing prices of issues, the rehashed storylines, constant reboots, deaths/rebirths/returns and new #1s create this bubble that will eventually burst.

 

One title that provides a prime example of what the BIG TWO and other publishers can do is the HELLBOY model of publishing. The beauty of HELLBOY is that, for the most part, the title has always been a series of mini-series. There isn't this constant need to put out product, month in / month out to meet the demand. The demand will always be there. There are breaks between series storylines which allow artists and writers to fully realize the world without any kind of economic, publisher or fan pressures thereby maintaining the quality of work the fans have comes to enjoy.

 

And I say all this as a person who is not the biggest fan of the title but I can certainly respect what they do and how they do it.

 

Not taking shots at Hellboy, but have you ever checked the sales? They aren't outstanding.

[krighton]

I can't find his CGC meltdown on old posts...were they removed?

[Doktor]

Regardless of the history or track record of the messenger, the message is spot on.

 

Then again, I generally won't disregard a message that makes a lot of sense just because the messenger might be a bit of a jackwagon.

[Prince Namor]

The guy is right on the money regarding what's currently happening in the business today.

 

IMAGE rarely goes multicover and usually that's in the pivotal issues of WALKING DEAD (#100 and #150 being examples). IMAGE and DARK HORSE don't depend upon the gimmick variant covers like MARVEL, DC, DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT, ZENESCOPE and AVATAR do.

 

This, coupled with the ever increasing prices of issues, the rehashed storylines, constant reboots, deaths/rebirths/returns and new #1s create this bubble that will eventually burst.

 

One title that provides a prime example of what the BIG TWO and other publishers can do is the HELLBOY model of publishing. The beauty of HELLBOY is that, for the most part, the title has always been a series of mini-series. There isn't this constant need to put out product, month in / month out to meet the demand. The demand will always be there. There are breaks between series storylines which allow artists and writers to fully realize the world without any kind of economic, publisher or fan pressures thereby maintaining the quality of work the fans have comes to enjoy.

 

And I say all this as a person who is not the biggest fan of the title but I can certainly respect what they do and how they do it.

 

Not taking shots at Hellboy, but have you ever checked the sales? They aren't outstanding.

 

And there it is.

 

So the alternative to low sales is to create a false impression of collectibility, so that more people BUY it - not to read and enjoy but to get a sense of excitement, that they have something, that may be WORTH something - when in reality, they own something, they don't even really want, and that won't be worth anything more to someone who didn't really want it in the first place?

 

And that is the mentality that has nearly destroyed this hobby.

[Jaydogrules]

So let me get this straight, this guy basically thinks the entire market should go the "Image" route, and that this would somehow be "better" for sales and the long term viability of the market?

 

Putting out one new niche title after another, month after month, just to see what sticks? Most with bottom feeding sales numbers? With unreliable creators who can't produce on any reliable schedule? Forcing readers to wait sometimes months for one issue? Still put out variants, but only the kind of variants that "Image" likes and approves of?

 

Yes, let's hope that Marvel and DC can be more like that.

 

-J.