Warren Ellis On Marvel’s Digital Strategy

Hot on the heels of his analysis of DC Comics’ digital strategy last week, comic book writer and resident forward thinker Warren Ellis returns to talk about the digital strategy for DC’s chief rival, Marvel Comics. He starts it off with a sizzling appraisal of the company, saying “Marvel Comics’ digital-comics strategy is that… they don’t seem to have one, really.”
 

Marvel may now be owned by Disney, but you can be damned sure attention is still paid to their quarterly reports. And it’s hard to keep your lines buoyant when everything else in your business is a constant fight against diminishing returns. I personally believe that taking much of the print line to a sales point of $3.99 will defeat growth in the print sector. I know they’re doing it to protect themselves, but I think it’s going to hurt in the long run.

Are they then, like DC, looking to digital as a way to increase reach? Well… not yet. I believe they have done some original digital comics. (By which I mean company-owned Marvel comics created for digital-first release.) But I’m not sure there was any great plan to their release. One of the things I like about Marvel is that they move pretty fast and are capable of an entirely random “hey, let’s do this thing for five minutes” move. The whole Marvel Architects cascade-of-events structure they do these days are frankly as organised as Marvel’s ever been on the macro-scale.


Ellis goes on to compare Marvel’s digital efforts as nothing sort of a back-issue bin, and he’s not far from the truth. While Marvel has experimented with standalone day-and-date-releases and some digital-first comics releases for years, Ellis states that Marvel would only follow DC’s line-wide day-and-date digital release if they are “explosively successfully” not just in the first weeks, but after six months.

One of the long-held viewpoints on the contrasting business sense of Marvel and DC is that Marvel is known for faster action and a willingness to try more risky procedures while DC is slow to change but tends to put a heavier push on initiatives that Marvel when they come around. You can see this in Marvel being first to do comics on mobile devices, but with DC getting in and getting in big with this impending line wide day-and-digital release.

The British writer also makes an astute notation that’s been lost on most people about how both Marvel and DC’s digital releases are predisposed to their original format (single issues) as opposed to collections, using Walt Simonson’s Thor run as an example. He supposes this might be due to potential bookstore conflicts, but I could foresee this changing as the digital marketplace matures for comic publishers.

Comments

  1. For readers who follow the model of buying new comics on Wednesday marvel’s digital strategy thus far seems awful, yes. But with marvel’s digital comics unlimited and their comixology offerings there are tons of comics available digitally already. Are these new readers really going to care about day and date comics?

  2. I think Ellis makes some great points here. I believe as a fan we interpret this process as slow and “how can they not see what works and doesn’t ?” But we are fans, and the only thing we do in this process is consume the finished product. These decisions invole multiple people’s requirements/approval and multiple finicial zero’s. 

  3. I think Ellis has some great points but for digital comics to work they are going to need a service (re:pulllist) comparable to the comic shop. Six months out I will still be using day-in-date digital comics only if there is a subscription model. Marvel digital offerings are pathetic and their pricing structure is driving me only to the essentials despite incomplete story archs, for example I like Dark Wolverine but I have to pickup X-23 to get a complete story which only leads to me dropping Dark Wolverine.   

  4. Both companies (DC & Marvel) need to offer one click purchase ability for complete story arcs. They must realize that the digital buyer might be pissed if they buy a singe comic book, only to learn it’s the first of a 4-6 part story that won’t update sooner that 30 days.

    Impulse digital buyers want the whole story in one simple purchase, and it’s dumb not to offer products this way.  

  5. I think the model for digital comics should follow the only other serialized medium, TV. Unlike music or movies or apps or books, TV is serialized like comics.

    iTunes and Amazon both offer a ‘subscription’ or ‘season pass’ offering, where you pay up front for the season, and instantly get each new episode. The season price is usually discounted, and I could easily see myself paying $30 (a buy 10 issues, get 2 free price) for a season, or year of a comic.

    This would work even better for miniseries, where if they could price a 6 issue mini at $15 (buy all five and the last one is free), closer to the price of a trade.

  6. @wordballoon: Exactly.

    Hell, if I suddenly decide I want to read Ms. Marvel, Spider-ManSecret Six or Birds of Prey, I might be disposed to buy the equivalent of a hundred issues in one purchase, if all the relevant material is presented in an easy-to-find, easy-to-buy, priced-to-move digital format. I think an iTunes-style interface or something similar is still the best bet. I would hope to be able to buy single issues for somewhere between 99 cents and $1.99 each, with “trades” or “arcs” available for something like $4.99 for six issues or $3.99 for five issues.

    If they start selling way more units, the price per unit could drop significantly, and people who might not otherwise purchase certain titles (both “new” readers – those who already buy comics but not that particular title or line – and new readers – those who like digital entertainment but don’t necessarily buy print comics) could possibly arrive in droves. I think it behooves them to try.

    People who still want print books, like myself, could get issues and trades at direct-market stores and brick-and-mortar bookstores, while the “untapped readership” could get a chance to try comics at a true “impulse purchase” price point.

    Just my humble opinion. 

  7. 100% digital baby!

  8. @wordballoon  –comics alliance did an article a week or two back which points out a lot of what you said. An example they used is that currently if you want to read ‘Batman Year One” and you search that, you get nothing…you have to search by the Batman/Detective issue # which is really difficult. Also there are no clear notations what books come next to finish that story off. I think part of the point was that offering a robust product line is part one. Having a very search friendly and cross reference browsing system with one click shopping is part 2 for success. 

    Marvel for as big as they are, seem like they are content with the way things are right now and are convinced they can grow through the direct market or “death” gimmicks. The Roman empire who doesn’t want to see the Barbarians coming over the hill. 

    @player1  –i think you underestimate how many current readers (like me) are overwhelmed with the amount of floppies we own, no longer find the wedensday comic shop run very fun, and want to transition to all digital just to make life easier. 

    @Thursday  –subscriptions are cool as long as they offer ala cart as well. I don’t want a digital direct market where i’m forced to pay for things i no longer am enjoying. 

  9. Part of DC’s idea here is New.
    New readers- new stories.
    Putting easy to consume stories and quickly understood character in the hands of more people.
    Those are new people who didn’t buy a comic partly bc they would Never walk into a comic shop.
    So subscirptions may be in the works but I dont think a heavy part of this push for a while.

    As Wordballoon has mentioned- Marvel is doing something right by hooking up with starbucks
    and getting on their digital front page.
    Another chance for a new reader to have the opportunity to take a chance on a nostalgic favorite but in my opinion might be only half right b/c either lapsed readers or new casual readers are not going to have to wade through kneep deep into continuity to figure out wtf Ms. Marvel and Spiderwoman are talking about who Hawkeye slept with for. 

  10. @wallythegreenmonster  Yeah, both iTunes and Amazon offer both options for TV shows. You can buy each episode or the season as a whole.

  11. Ellis nailed it when he states that Marvel’s approach is sort of a back issue bin. I’m checking my fav. app(comixology) and the lead Marvel release is Avengers Forever? WTF?! It’s  a 12 issue arc that Marvel sells for $1.99 each ! Really?No thank you. I’m sorely jealous of Image digital releases as they are more current and to boot you can get a trades worth of isssues for $9.99! Walking Dead and Invincible fans have to feel great about this!

  12. @Jesse Ouch. That’s more (by $5) than the most recent trade packaging of Avengers Forever.

  13. @Thursday  I totally agree.  I’ll be honest, you can download most back issues a week after they are put into print in pdf or convertable format.  I’ve got an iPad2 and they look amazing.  I don’t have stacks of comics anywhere in my house, and I just save them to hard drive.  Marvel and DC are going to have to compete with this, and I think their apps are too involved.  Just put the page there and I’ll make it bigger if I want.  This is just another case of the publishing industry not coming up with a sustainable economic model in the face of new technology.  It killed the newspaper and has led to the growth of wholly internet news sites.  I don’t think that will happen to comics, but I do think they can fall into that kind of irrelevancy if they don’t make themselves digitally savvy. 

  14. @wallythegreenmonster: You’re right. I didn’t include the many people who would transition to digital simply to get away from physical copy in my above statement.

    Which only means more potential digital customers for Marvel and DC, and bolsters my argument that a price-point reduction and a more intuitive Amazon/iTunes type of interface could lead to potential huge profits for these companies if they were willing to try something truly new.

    Cheers.

  15. @player1  –totally. I mean i’ll be honest…a 2.99 price point for digital is rough, but the convenience factor is huge for me and to not have to run around to 3 shops before they close to find one book is kind of added value. The guys have talked about .99 pricepoint being unrealistic. I don’t necessarily agree with them, but accept their expertise on the subject. I suppose the undercutting of the direct market is a big deal right now and maybe its too much to unleash all at once. 

  16. @wallythegreenmonster: No doubt. As gas prices increase it will be ever more convenient to get our books virtually, and at a deeper discount than print.

    I can see where publishers have painted themselves into a corner with their co-dependence on a direct-market partnership with retailers, but as more and more shops close, it’s going to be painfully obvious to the accounting and marketing people that they need to try a fresh approach.

    I can definitely see the price coming down in the long run to entice more readers away from print and into digital, as oppose to people just dropping the comic book buying habit altogether.

    I know that with the economy the way it is, I’m one of many people who are always looking for a good jumping-off point for any title, line, or publisher, for buying comics books at all, and often for reading certain genres of graphic sequentials entirely.

    I’d also like to add how nice it is to have a new virtual friend and fellow comic book geek to share ideas with.

    Cheers. 

  17. I’m sure Marvel would have ALREADY taken many steps had their digital ventures been successful. But those ventures (free digital comics, 99-cent digital comics, original digital comics, webcomics, digital back-issue logs) just haven’t proven that successful. Period.

    Marvel is known as being more forward-thinking and quicker-to-innovate than DC. And yet they seem to have been “dragging their feet”. Maybe they know something the rest of us don’t. Maybe they know that there really isn’t much of a future for comics, digitally or otherwise. And they certainly have access to profit returns for the digital material they’ve already put out. Obviously, there hasn’t been much profit in it, because they haven’t been in any hurry to go fully digital.

    Basically, after years and years of a company behaving as if the current middle-aged generation WILL BE the final sizable group of people to read American comics in America, maybe we should get the hint: We probably WILL be the last generation to read a wide array of comics. And it doesn’t seem like any sort of different packaging (trades) or distribution (digital) is going to change that, because no matter how they put the product out there, the only group that ends up wanting to consume it is the same aging group of customers. Younger generations don’t have much of an interest in this. Digital won’t change that. Debating otherwise is like bluegrass fans debating over why teenagers aren’t into bluegrass music because after all they can get it in mp3s and put it on their iPods now.

  18. all of this just really scares me. like right to my core. I don’t have kids now but i wonder if my son or daughter will be able to read new spider-man comics once they’re old enough to read. i don’t know if they’ll ever get that oppurtunity

    this is the thought that wakes me up in the middle of the night

  19. I’m a MDCU subscriber, it has saved me hundreds of dollars for back stories I’ve always wanted to read.  I’d love them to start putting stuff up day and date or less than 6+ month old books, but for the time being they are safe with my yearly subscription expense.

    If DC had a similar subscription based model, I’d be on-board in a second.  I can’t justify paying MORE for digital issues than TPB equivilents, so I’ve been holding off of DC books until they implement something different.

  20. @wordballoon On the buying in bundle issue I recently sent a feedback message to the Dark Horse app and mentioned this issue because the website version allows bundles at a discount and the iPad app does not. Their response was that bundles are not supported by Apple’s in app purchasing system. Of course you also have the Image app selling The Walking Dead in trades so this is probably just one way they are trying to not kill comic/book stores on the trade sales.

  21. @froggulper  –Marvel i’m sure is using the “we tried and no one liked it” excuse, just like American car makers did with hybrids after they kinda half-assed an initial attempt. Really Marvel didn’t go all the way in with current product, and its really hard to get consumers excited about something or gain any momentum when the publisher doesn’t seem to have any interest in it. Who wants to eat in an empty restaurant?

  22. Forggulper comparing an entire medium to an genre- Comics to blue grass is gross over simplification.
    Marvel held back on a successful launch of any attractive digital venture for one reason-The direct market and their relationships with brick and mortar retailers.
    Marvel was among the first to dip a toe in the digital pool but since then they have held the reigns wayyy back.
    Comics have Never been more popular than now across demographics.
    The difference in generation is how people shop- few people went into comic shops before fewer people do it now- with book stores closing even fewer will buy like that.

    Digital sales of current stories withought a lot of continuity will be the equvalent of putting spinner racks back in grocery stores.

     

  23. @wordballoon Darkhorse is doing a great job with selling entire story arcs. They just released a huge $19.99 deal that collects three of the last Hellboy story arcs into one download.

  24. Darkhorse is releasing the Sin City trades for $5.99 each as well, that seems like a good price to me. Now if they can only put Buffy on their app (why no Buffy?).

  25. @wordballoon I wholeheartedly agree. Publishers need to stop thinking about what we would like and focus on what the rest of the reading public would like. And moreso the digital reading public would like.

    Will digital readers wait for a new issue every month for a new issue?
    Would they rather read their stories 22 pages at a time or would less pages be more suitable?
    Do they care about continuity?
    Would readers like to be able do more with the comic book art than just read it?
    How strict should the DRM policy be for readers to upload and share digital content?
    How much would digital readers be willing to pay for this?

    If this venture fails it won’t be because of the content (doubtful) it’ll be because they tried to sell buses to people who fly.

  26. Nobody asked but if you asked me DC should not try to sell themselves as the publisher of 52 titles but as a single publisher of the DC Universe.

    They should think of themselves as a single publication like a newspaper where users can come back to day after day for new content. With 52 titles you have 1.73 days of content to give your readers every month. That’s A LOT of content, more if you count out the weekend (more than two comics a day). That’s EYEBALLS on their site (optimized for tablets & mobile devices of course) every day. Throw in twitter feeds of the artists and writers, live chats & interviews with everything DCU related (actors, directors), message boards and user reviews and that’s eyeballs on their site for HOURS. EYEBALLS + HOURS = Advertisers

    Now how much would you pay per month to read every single issue of the DCU starting at issue #1? $155.48 a month ($2.99 x 52)? Nope. Ain’t going to happen.

    How about $20 per month? How about a tiered pricing model where readers can opt in and out for back issues? $20 per month for the latest 3 issues, more $$$ for full backfile.

    How about launching it around Christmas time for free so every kid who gets a new iOS or Android device can download the DCU and start reading?

    Could it work?