The comics retailer advocacy group ComicsPRO presented a slate of retailer themed programming last Friday at Comic-Con International, starting with a breakfast and a State of the Industry panel. The latter included ComicsPRO president Joe Field, Image publisher Eric Stephenson, Marvel senior v-p of sales David Gabriel, IDW CEO Ted Adams, Dark Horse director of public relations Jeremy Atkins, Diamond's v-p of sales and marketing Roger Fletcher and DC Comics senior v-p, sales Bob Wayne.
Asked about the state of their business, all seemed to agree with Atkins' assessment of "interesting times." Most of the panel felt that the fall of the Borders book chain represented an opportunity for local comics shops to pick up Border’s customers (and store fixtures.) Fletcher pegged the size of the direct market (the network of comics shops serviced by Diamond) at 2,300 stores, and retailers all spoke of the need to stay mindful about customer service, marketing initiatives and staying fully engaged in the their businesses.
Gabriel pegged Marvel’s forthcoming Avengers movie as a big tentpole for 2012 and said Marvel would be supporting the run-up to the film, as well as their Ultimates line—a line featuring updated origin stories of classic Marvel characters—which is getting a big push with a new Ultimate Spider-Man #1. But Marvel's focus is on getting more stores to open. "What everyone is feeling is we need to get more of you guys and more stores and more customers going into stores," he said. To that end, Marvel has announced a recent initiative to offer merchandise at a discount or consignment to new shops, or existing stores opening new outlets. The response has been small but immediate, he reported.
Adams recapped statistics he announced at the ICv2 conference earlier in the week—despite all the problems, IDW's sales are up a "surprising" 15% in both the book and direct channels—digital sales, where IDW has been aggressive about trying new platforms, have doubled since last year. Adams admitted that much of the growth is due to big media tie-ins hitting this year, including the Transformers and Star Trek, and doesn't expect it to be sustainable.
Stephenson said Image was way up from last year and mentioned The Walking Dead as a periodical comics that comes out regularly and helps bring customers into the stores. In addition the series features versions at different price points to satisfy a range of customers.
At Diamond, Fletcher praised the resiliency of the comics retailer market sales, which have only been down a bit in the continuing economic doldrums. He reported that thus far in 2011, comics sales are down about 8%, graphic novels are down about 4%; toys, games and apparel are way up, however. The most hopeful statistic was that Diamond's number of accounts is up about half of a percent. "Some people are out of work and decide it's time to pursue their dream," he said. A survey of the room revealed that perhaps 10-15% of retailers were thinking of opening another store. Fletcher said several programs are in place to help with openings, including discounts on backstock and credit available on a case by case basis.
Atkins noted that Dark Horse has been running lots of sales, and working on communicating with retailers. Periodicals in the popular "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" universe continue to bring in customers, and new books with novelist P.C. Case, Hellboy irector Guillermo del Toro and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello—announced on preview night and at a panel on Thursday—are also expected to do well.
The overall tone of the panel was "Things are not as bad as they could be," and signs of improvement were eagerly sized upon. For instance, Fletcher reports that the initial orders for June which includes DC's much vaunted New 52 plan—were higher than orders have been in a year so "maybe things are looking up."
Wayne said that sell through in book stores has been up, but that could be a temporary bubble as Borders liquidation clears out merchandise. "I think we’re still going to put some reasonable numbers out. Book numbers are up, periodicals are soft but September numbers looking strong right now."
Among retailers, the need for continued hard work to get in new markets was a common topic. "If you can't work twice as hard as you did two years ago, you need to get out of the business," said one. "The biggest challenge is the market, we’re not getting kids in. We lost older readers who are tech savvy years ago. We need new customers."
Wayne suggested that DC's initiative to relaunch their line with 52 new #1 issues in September, all with simultaneous digital release was just such an attempt at outreach. "Our goal is instead of cutting the existing pie up, we need to make a bigger pie. People will migrate between print and digital," he said.
Although retailers were anxious about the continuing trend towards digital sales, Dark Horse's Atkin pointed out that they have just launched their digital sales and two months in, he asked if anyone had seen a decline in Dark Horse's print sales. Only a single retailer indicated this might be the case.
