After quickly selling through more than 10,000 copies each of, The Return of Dapper Men and Mouse Guard: Legends of the Mouse Guard, two late November hardcover graphic novel releases, indie comics house Archaia is looking carefully at the marketing and promotional strategies used for the two books. And while Archaia publishes both periodical series and original graphic novels, the success of the two titles in the bookstore market is making the publisher consider moving away from releasing periodical issues at all.
"You have to market your graphic novel like you would market a novel or a movie – where you're really promoting it 9 months to a year, so that you have that momentum," said Archaia editor-in-chief Stephen Christy. "That's the way we need to market all of our books."
By November 18, Archaia had sold 10,000 copies of Dapper Men, an original graphic novel, immediately ordering a second printing of 5,000 for a quick turnaround; and by Nov. 23, it had dished out 15,000 copies of Legends, a spin-off of David Petersen's Mouse Guard, an Eisner Award-winning fantasy/adventure series chronicling the adventures of medieval mice. PWCW talked to Christy, Petersen and Dapper Men writer Jim McCann, who all offered insights into the process of stoking the promotional channels behind these titles. (Read PWCW’s profile of Archaia’s new releases here.)
Behind the 'Dapper Men'
A creator-owned title produced by writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee, Return of the Dapper Men is a work of fantasy that also includes elements of steampunk and science fiction, winning over critics and making holiday gift guides (including PW's). Christy said the direct market (i.e. the comics shops)—a comics retail channel that still specializes in superhero comics—accounted for less than 1,000 copies of the first printing. “I understand why they didn’t do it. It’s not a superhero book, it’s a $25 graphic novel, and it has new creators. My hope is that now we can go to the direct market and say, ‘You can purchase this without fear.’”
Christy admitted he was nervous as Archaia was prepping Dapper Men. It's McCann and Lee's first graphic novel, although McCann has written for Marvel Comics and Lee has experience as a gallery artist. "We said, 'OK, we don't have a big-name writer, a big-name artist or a hugely established concept—let's just make sure the quality across the board is phenomenal.”
Besides quality and McCann's Marvel ties, Christy downplayed paid promotions and outlined an almost viral campaign to promote The Dapper Men, emphasizing getting galleys and art in front of key figures in the media very early. Indeed, Christy said, "compared to big publishers, we did a very minimal ad-buy. I wouldn't even call it an ad buy. We used our resources very conservatively to get advanced copies, advanced art or advanced previews into the tastemakers that we knew would make these books big events. There was a very little monetary commitment and it was truly word-of-mouth."
Some of that word-of-the-mouth buzz stemmed from McCann and Lee's promotional tours leading up to Dapper Men's release. They spent two weeks traveling to various conventions, hitting major shows such as San Diego Comic-Con International and Heroes Convention in Charlotte. "Janet brought her original art work to show off," Christy said. "You can hold the art and run your hands over it because it's 'decoupaged' and then 'Mod Podged,' so there's literally a glossy sheen over it."
McCann and Lee sold 500 limited editions of Dapper Men at New York Comic Con, and they toured conventions with teaser posters and Janet's art in tow. The latter was weird, McCann said, but, as the author of a creator-owned title, "you need to market yourself. It's almost like you're creating your own brand. We kind of made (the convention visitors) a part of the process while we were creating the book."
McCann and Christy also pointed to social media (Twitter, Facebook, among others) as well as digital previews as instrumental to the Dapper Men's hype machine. Archaia offered sample pages on the Archaia.com website as well as including a foreword byTim Gunn, fashion stalwart of Project Runway fame. Recently, Archaia signed an exclusive deal with digital comics distributor Graphic.ly, releasing a 10-page preview of the Dapper Men to satisfy consumers awaiting copies of the second printing.
Looking at Legends of the Guard
Mouse Guard was originally published in 2006 by Dan Petersen to critical acclaim and commercial success and Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard is the latest chapter in the Mouse Guard series. Petersen, creator and owner of the series, has written and illustrated Mouse Guard since launching the series but the new Legends series different—it’s offered in an anthology-like format featuring stories by such well-known comics creators as Gene Ha and Sean Rubin, who tell new stories in the Mouse Guard universe using a Canterbury Tales format in which the mice one-up each other's storytelling.
Legends had a simple marketing strategy, Christy said. "Tell everyone, 'Hey, there is a new Mouse Guard book by other people besides David,” Christy said, “who are doing new stories and new tales, and these are some of the names. Showing them the names and the art was enough to get [fans] interested."
Unlike Dapper Men, Legends was released first as a periodical series in four single issues before Archaia released the hardcover in late November. The direct market accounted for sales of around 4,000 copies, Christy said, but the bookstore market was a different story. "As we got closer and closer to the release date, major outlets such as Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com kept upping and upping their orders,” Christy said. “When the book went on sale, we had 12,000-13,000 copies sold (between the two markets), and then it sold out immediately thereafter."
To build more buzz, Petersen and Archaia are revealing some of the creator names attached to Legends Vol. 2, slated for release next year. Those include McCann, Lee and Stan Sakai, creator of the long-standing, anthropomorphic animal series Usagi Yojimbo.
Like McCann and Christy, Petersen also noted the importance of representing the work at convention tours, online forums and on social media platforms. "Anywhere you can show up digitally is great—Twitter, Facebook, your blog. I've done things like live Ustream (videos) where I'm drawing and answering questions,.” Petersen said.
Trade Books, Periodicals and Digital Comics
For now, Archaia will continue selling the Dapper Men and Legends hardcovers, Christy said, noting that the company generally doesn't publish trade paperback versions of its graphic novels. But Christy also conceded that the sellouts of both books helped Archaia better understand its market.
"It's proven to us that we were correct, as a company, in our assumption three years ago that [book format] graphic novels are really where we need to be, and that we can't be in the single issue [periodical] market,” Christy explained. “We need to focus on each book, making it an event. Archaia publishes so many different kinds books, so it makes it easier from a marketing sense because you're targeting different audiences and you have something new to talk about every time.”
Is Achaia planning to move completely away from serialized periodical releases? "It wouldn't be unfair to say that Archaia might not be publishing single issues next year in the traditional format that they're understood in now," Christy said. "I think we'll always publish a few here and there because some stories are served better in a serialized format,” he explained, “the truth of the matter is that it's become unsustainable for publishers of our size to devote time and effort to single issue production. If we're going to spend the manpower and money to print something, we want to focus our attention on a graphic novel because we're looking at one product. You're not looking at four or five products spread across a timeline."
What does Petersen think? Typically, Mouse Guard titles are serialized. "I like stories broken into little parts that amount to a bigger story. Certainly, with the advent of digital, it's not impossible to say that single issues will go away,” Petersend said.
Christy said digital previews are, in a way, replacing single issues. "The purpose of single issue is to build buzz for the trade paper or hardcover,” he said. “If you can get a free digital preview into the hands of just as many people getting a single issue, you're already doing your job better, and you're doing it at a cheaper cost. That's something we're going to continue doing."