This year’ s EMC World , at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas May 19- 22 promises to be the event to showcase EMC’ s products around hardware, software and solutions. Having attended last year, it’ s the best place to get access from EMC’ s engineering…

Pity.

LL

Actually, this is what Big Head Press is doing. Our results, financially, have been less than spectacular so far, but we’re learning, and applying the things we’ve learned to every new project. And we’re on the slow-build track.

Image took established famous names from Marvel and launched their line. Maverick tried something similar, but with less success. (Although three movies for such a small line is pretty successful.)

Dark Horse and D&Q started with anthologies (the DC model), which allow readers to sample a variety of stories. Fan response then suggests which characters are best suited for spin-off success.

Then there’s the import model, used by D&Q and NBM (and Gladstone and Tokyopop and Viz…): production costs are lowered as the art and story are already finished, and only need to be formatted and translated.

The collected reprint editions model started Pantheon’s line (Maus, Life in Hell).

Although comicstrip collections no longer sell in the millions, they are a stable section of most bookstores’ humor sections. There is also a (mostly) silent majority of comicstrip fans out there… everyone reads them in the newspaper, and there are many people willing to try a new strip. (Omaha never carried Bloom County, but I became a devoted fan when I discovered it at the local Waldenbooks.) While most modern strips have been collected, there are many older blockbusters which have yet to be reprinted. (Joe Palooka, Barnaby, Katzenjammer Kids)

The only model not yet exploited: starting a title online, and using that instead of paper periodical publishing. This is unlikely, as most titles are creator-owned, not part of a collective or publisher website. Since creator owned, book publishers can license the property without needing to create a line of titles.

I really liked Walk-in by Jeff Parker. It was highly entertaning.

However I had to Wiki “Dave Stewart” the expected B-list celeberity attached to the title as it’s ‘idea man’. You know, “Dave Stewart’s Walk-In”

He’s the dude from the Eurethmyics, who if not for Marilyn Manson covering Sweet Dreams in my mispent youth of the 1990’s i would have also had to Wiki.

I wonder if the book would have sold better in trade only format (not floppies!) and was “From the awesome writer who brought you Marvel Adventures Avengers and Agents of Atlas.

I woulnd’t have sold better by much… but maybe just a little.

This, then, is the Holy Grail for comics or for anything really: to create a product that doesn’t suck. But how do you do that? How do you know when something sucks and when it doesn’t? What’s the criteria? What are the clues? What reality checks can one use to go from suck to success?

“For the 100th issue of WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, we want him to wear armor that we can sell as a separate action figure. Quick, write a story where that happens. And hey, that Spawn character at Image is doing well, so let’s also introduce a new character in that same issue who looks exactly like Spawn. We’ll call him Nightwatch and then put him in his own series and act like he’s a spin-off character. Quick, go write! We need to make money!”

If it was that easy to guarantee marketing success, we would not need writers at all. The fact that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man have not been forgotten and replaced by “edgier” pretenders is all the proof you need that you have to be more creative than just asking “Hey, what’s selling today?”

And props to my girl Laura for continuing to kick ass. I knew there was a reason I liked her.

Never mind the fact that Dynamite’s been around as Dynamic Forces for how long now so at least they always had a better idea of how to handle the market.

I’m assuming they’re banking on (some or all) Hollywood execs to be too stupid to know the difference and have the “its a comic” bullet point in the movie/TV/Videogame pitch mean (to someone who doesn’t know any better) “It’ll make Dark Knight/Iron Man money” without having to put in that annoying 40-50 years of fan base building. That’s just gambling… It’s dumb as hell but at least I see the angle.

But, if they actually need to have a truly successful publishing division, as a requirement to sustaining their business and/or business model… most see the doomsday a mile away because it seems none of these companies never seem to plan for anything other than Batman/Spiderman success right out of the gate. If I’m going to put up x amount of money to start a widget business… Isn’t it dumb to assume (and bank my money on the idea) that my first attempt a widget manufacturing will instantly be successful and make me a player in the widget market littered with 60-year veterans. Shouldn’t I start small and bank on building off of smaller goals.

What I want to know then is how Rob Liefeld has been able to do it? :^D

What I want to then, is how Rob Liefeld has managed to do it? :^D