REEDING INTO THINGS #27: FAN APPRECIATION DAY

[Joel Phillips]

<img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/columns/ritlogo.jpg" align=left width=115 height=100 border=0 alt="Reeding Into Things">By Joel Phillips

Fan Appreciation Day… Kinda


I can’t decide whether or not having die-hard fans of given characters and franchises is good for comics or not. I’ve been thinking about it, weighing pros and cons. Here are the sides, as I see it.

Pro: Having a loyal fan base helps sustain franchises over time. Creative and sales droughts that would kill less popular brands can be weathered with the help of a stable body of consumers who will always be there in support of a given property.

Con: There is a tendency amongst the most loyal of franchise fan bases to be loyal exclusively to one title/character set. This means that someone who is a die-hard X-Men fan, for example, may not be open to any other kind of comics at all. Though good for the X-Men and Marvel, that’s bad for the industry as a whole. What’s more, the single-minded loyalty to one or two major franchises encourages companies to milk those franchises, often to the exclusion of other kinds of titles and stories.

Pro: Loyal fan bases tend to be vocal, and when they are large that means their opinion can carry some weight. This, ideally, provides a quality control for a given franchise. If quality slips, there should be a sizable portion of the readership that will voice their dissatisfaction, hopefully leading to positive change.

Con: Many, if not most die-hard fans are so loyal that they continue to support a franchise even when they are dissatisfied with it. This has the opposite effect from the earlier “pro” point: by continuing to support something they are dissatisfied with, they send an implicit message to the creators and companies to stay the course. This makes companies resistant to change, which can cause franchises to stagnate over time. It also makes companies slower to react to any fan outcry that does come their way, since the sales are not necessarily reflecting the negative fan feedback.

Pro: Fan bases allow franchises to exist, period. The entire difference between a franchise and just another title is the franchise utilizes characters and ideas that have been used, repeatedly and (usually) constantly since their creation. Titles get that longevity from popularity, and sustain it by developing a fan base. Without readers forming long term attachments to characters and titles, no title would survive long past the run of its creator.

Con: Fan bases sustain franchises indefinitely, regardless of the continuing viability of the product. Were purely creative interests the sole consideration, many if not most major comic franchises would have died out already, having long since run their course. But the existence of a fan base that wants (for example) stories about Batman, ANY stories about Batman, ensures that such stories will continue to be produced indefinitely… even if those stories are of inferior quality and little original thought.

Pro: The stability provided by loyal fan bases allows companies and creators freedom to try new things. If Marvel is having great success with their X-Men and Spider-Man lines, then they can afford to go out on a limb with some little known or unknown product. This, in turn, encourages market diversity.

Con: Some companies take the stability of their key franchises not as a sign that they are free to explore other concepts, but as a sign that they are free to exploit those few franchises to their fullest. Rather than trying new things, taking advantage of the space provided by franchise success, major companies simply ride those franchises for all they are worth and ignore any and all possibilities for trying something new.

Pro: Fan bases make comics a more enjoyable experience for its readers. Across all media (movies, TV, books, sports, etc.) half the fun of the experience is in sharing that experience with others and making it into a topic for discussion. Comic books are no different. And just as knowledgeable sports fans are more fun to talk sports with knowledgeable comic book fans are more fun to talk comics with.

Con: Sometimes fandom goes too far, and that seems amplified in comics sometimes. The emotional extremes and the unconquerable personal indignation that some fans experience as part of being a fan is, ultimately, damaging to the fan/creator relationship and to the integrity of fandom as a whole. The tendency towards “taking it too far” seems to occur far more often amongst comic book fans than amongst, say, movie or TV fans.


So what’s the verdict? Are die-hard fans good for comics, or bad? Probably a little of both. There are many ways that being a super-loyal fan is damaging, but many ways that it is beneficial. It’s worth noting that most of the benefits are derived by comic book franchises, while most of the damaging effects are suffered by non-franchise titles and small press publishers. As with most things, moderation seems to be the key. Unwavering loyalty to one franchise or another is almost certainly a negative thing, as it provides no room for consideration of anything but the name on the cover. But fan loyalty, tempered by personal taste and a commitment to quality above all else, is definitely a good thing.

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Joel Phillips sells sea shells by the sea shore. Yeah, that doesn’t really work.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.

[Jas0n22193]

awesome artical!!!! for me personally i love epics... following storylines for years is fun. with the little projects u know its harder for them to stay longer so its a hard choice if to get it or not. LoL some good complaing is always good (lol mainly with continuty hahhaa) but during the dark ages of a title it always pushes me to follow new titles just starting. lol it happened with impulse. Started impulse when marvel wasn't really doing it for me anymore. and than Young Justice came out and loved it. and than at the end i was reading a good deal amount of DC. im very much a 50/50 kinda guy in life and totally 50/50 on this. ill complain good amount for lil than just quit the title. Marvel now (in my own personal opinion) for me is geting better. Ive seen some pretty good issues come out lately. I totally agree with you complaing, sticking with a title during its dark ages, or checking out other titles all have good points. LoL u always need radicals on each side for the balance. LoL all i got to say is complain as much as u want but dont take it to serious and also compaines dont take readers complaints to seriously just do ur thing. lol

[Dylan McKay]

My personal opinion is very simple. Hardcore fandom negates the fundamental forces of market economics. And in a capitalist society, industries rise and fall based on market forces. Having comics opperating outside the normal economic forces of our society is what is killing the industry.

[NicholasRogue]

I probably have an unhealthy obsessive compulsive fixation on Rogue....but I'm okay with it:p

[Patrick James]

Hm...Joel, this article left me kind of indifferent. Not sure what it lacked that you usually provide. Maybe an answer of some kind, or a full on selection of sides. By choosing sides, you at least give me something to talk about. As it is...you've presented both sides evenly and come to no conclusion.

Well, no conclusion that was satisfying. It felt like you played it safe and went with the politician's method instead of picking a side and playing hard ball. Hm...don't know what to say really.

Well, better luck next column:)

[brownfirex]

You were a bit redundant, but preaching to the converted fanatic or fanboy sustains the money machine.. Though I beg to differ with fanboy opinions, I respect these diehard fans for sustaining the company and profits!!!! :evil:

Ironically though, despite their opinions they would still buy the book edven if they disagreed with the writter or editors at large even if they had a faint hope of having their expectations met.


I tip my hat to the die-hard fanboy! :p

[Jim Lemoine]

Originally posted by Nalyd Psycho
My personal opinion is very simple. Hardcore fandom negates the fundamental forces of market economics. And in a capitalist society, industries rise and fall based on market forces. Having comics opperating outside the normal economic forces of our society is what is killing the industry.

Whether one agrees with that or not, very well said.

You could write a whole SERIES of columns based on that statement....

[dopplegager]

Great article. But there are also another kind of fan. The Collector. I've been collecting comics for a long time and my collection is quite large. Some collectors continue to buy a title since they need it for their collection. I thought uncanny was in a creative slump but I still bought the titles anyways (except the draco). I'm sure that "X-MEN" (vol 2.1991) is going to go into a creative slump but I'm going to continue to collect since I am not missing an Issue. Some people also enjoy reading about a character and the changes that they go through. My favorate character was turned into wall paper but sometimes you buy a title hoping that they will be written well.

[Goon]

Nice article.. Only thing is that I think all of us are fans of something.. and everyone has there own opinion.. Plus it will never change their will always be die hard fans, its just human nature...

[seth_raditz]

interesting article, as always.

i'm passionate about many things: films, music, games, sports, but i only feel the need to voice my opinions about comic books. if i was pushed to give a reason why, it would probably be because i've been visiting these characters every month for the last 11 years. nothing else gives that warm feeling inside when you've been waiting all month for the next issue of your favourite title(s)... it just can't be beat (or is that just me?).

i guess what i'm tryin to say is being a fan is important to me. i know i wouldn't enjoy my comics so much if i weren’t involved in them as much as i am!

['zel-J]

Heheh, you know us so well, Joel! Now you've guilted me out- I might actually go read something that isn't an X-book. Or maybe even not a comic at all!;)

[Dylan McKay]

Originally posted by Jim Lemoine


Whether one agrees with that or not, very well said.

You could write a whole SERIES of columns based on that statement....

Thanks, not a bad idea, but it'd require loads of dry research.

[cindercatz]

You left out the third way. Fandom is, ultimate conclusion, a good thing, so long as you're smart about it and independent minded. I buy X-Titles. I've bought nearly every X-Book since '89, and every X-Men book since '87. When I've stopped collecting for a few years here and there (it's happened a few times), I always go back and fill out my X collection. ' guess that makes me an X-Fan, right? The thing is, if I'm enjoying my X-Books, I also buy other books on the market, including indies. When I'm enjoying my X-Books very much, I buy nearly every book Marvel makes, and prior to Zero Hour, in that circumstance, I also bought nearly every book DC made, and every book Image made, and Valiant, and plenty of Indies, and so on and so on. If I'm not enjoying my X-Books, I don't buy much else. If I stop reading my X-Books, I stop reading comics. What brings me into the shop and spurs me to read the books is my connection to the X characters and Spiderman/Mary Jane (not one apart from the other). While I'm there, I pick out other stuff that might entertain me, that I might enjoy or get a bit of creative inspiration from, maybe something I can learn from, or play with, or other characters I have a lesser affection for/interest in. If the X-Books and SM/MJ, for which I have enough affection to go out of my way to find their comics, weren't so great a draw for me, I would not, under any conceivable scenario, even be at the store. I wouldn't be able to buy the rest of the books, third parties and indies included. The X-Men pulled me into comics, along with Spiderman, and if not for them, I wouldn't (and don't in those occasions) maintain a comic readership, because I don't have a personal, emotional attachment to every random book out there. Nor should I. That's not healthy. ;)

You want to increase industrywide units sold and mainstream interest? You have got to lower the price of comics, just like Grant said in his interview. If I don't have an emotional connection to draw me in, there is no way I'm paying $3 per book to maintain a peak/trough hobby, even if I'm working in the industry. I bought (completely serious) about 95% of what was out there to buy when the books were 75c an issue, and there were more books on the market. Now I've got to have plenty of extra cash on me and be very satisfied with my X-Books/SM-MJ to invest the money to buy maybe 15% - 20% of what's out there on a particularly good week. Now take the majority of readers that don't have the extra cash I've got to spend, or the coveted new readers with no connection, or the even more coveted young readers with no money, and you see the dilemma in finding an audience for all these books out there. They need to pull in some of their movie profits and use it to blunt their losses from lowered prices, couple that with an exceptionally strong market push to readers (the pop. segment, not the comic term) and young people, then watch the market grow. If the audience doesn't expand, and if units don't improve for the industry overall in a year or two, then nothing can save it. I bet the market would grow, and you'd see "comics" and "Mainstream" legitimately used in the same sentence again.

-cin

[Alex Groff]

On the other side of the fence, Joel, I think this is my favourite columns of yours. You look at both sides, on all of the issues, and leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves. I am not certain there is a straightforward answer pro or con.

Originally posted by Nalyd Psycho
My personal opinion is very simple. Hardcore fandom negates the fundamental forces of market economics. And in a capitalist society, industries rise and fall based on market forces. Having comics opperating outside the normal economic forces of our society is what is killing the industry.

Uhm, I know almost nothing about economics, but I was curious: is there a simple explanation to "what are the fundamental forces of market economics?" and "how does hardcore fandom affect it?" The state of the industry is a question that always comes up, and I am interested in it so long as I can understand it.

[Dylan McKay]

Originally posted by Alex Groff
Uhm, I know almost nothing about economics, but I was curious: is there a simple explanation to &quot;what are the fundamental forces of market economics?&quot; and &quot;how does hardcore fandom affect it?&quot; The state of the industry is a question that always comes up, and I am interested in it so long as I can understand it.

It's not a short answer, but hopefully it's clear enough.

The suppliers/publishers respond to the desire of the consumer. What they do is based on what the consumer wants them to do. An ideal market place has consumers attracted to the best value, value in this case meaning a combonation of cost and quality. This makes the market accessable to new consumers because what is readily available is the best, or at least the most likely to be enjoyed/useable to the consumer. (Granted many markets have been manipulated so that the suppliers tell consumers what they want, major problem from a societal point of view, but not relevant here.) But the comics market place is skewed in that because of hardcore fandom, what the consumer desires is the same characters, same villains and different takes on the same basic premises that they enjoy. Or in the case of collectors, no real care at all for the actual story. (And even if you do want better stories involving your favourite characters, as long as you don't move on to other comics, the message sent is that you don't care about story quality, vote with your wallet.) This means the best course of action for a publisher is to keep things very steady, and ultimately very bland. And since fans don't react to that, the most readily available comics remain bland and uninteresting. Rather than newstands carrying comics that could get kids into comics like Runaways or Invincible, they have comics that even if the child reads, they very likely won't be interested in spending their allowance or begging their parents for again. What is readily available should always be that which is most likely to attract new consumers, but when the consumer market is so inclussive a publisher can't stay afloat or is an indy publisher if they publish comics that the majority or plurality can enjoy. And I highly doubt that a large portion of X-Men or Batman or Spiderman older fans wouldn't enjoy Preacher, Y: The Last Man or Walking Dead and the younger fans would very likely enjoy Invincible, Runaways and Plastic Man. Yet because of hardcore fandom, they never try the titles and thus those mass consumerable products don't reach the masses. And I think we can safely say that everyone knows of Spiderman and the X-Men, so if people have any desire to read them, they would be. The same cannot be said for other, arguably better titles.

And another side of it is that hardcore fandom seems to cause people to identify as fans of a character rather than simply being a comics fan. How many people stopped watching TV when Buffy went off the air? Sounds like a silly idea right? Then why isn't it equally silly that people stop reading comics when Hal Jordan dies or their favourite title stops interesting them? Did anyone stop seeing movies between 1998-2002 because Quentin Tarantino didn't make any films then? Again silly. Yet alot of people returned to comics because Jim Lee returned? Why is this not silly? Rather than look outside what they are already a fan of, people quit. Because they are a fan of a character or a creator rather than comics. This is another way hardcore fandom kills comics. And it is relevant to my argument about how fandom warps the marketplace into inaccessability. The reason, if everyone who dropped comics for silly reasons instead dropped those books and went out in search of new comics that suited their needs, we would get a much more accessable marketplace.

[Alex Groff]

In essence, the market is no longer geared for expansion or growth of any kind because it is catering to a narrow, myopic demographic: hardcore fandom.

Because the market is marginalizing those not familiar with comics or not interested in non-franchise titles or even non-superhero titles, it is in essence guaranteeing (sp?) that its readership will not expand to any great degree, if it expands at all. Outreach cannot work because it's based on a flawed premise: that what sells is what people want.

Right?

(I'm taking this idea and running with it.)

Many fans will not try books that are not franchise titles. Because of the comic shop system-- which is, I believe, somewhat flawed-- dealers are unwilling to carry books that they're not convinced will sell, because they don't want to be left with thirty copies of a book and missing that much money. Because of this, many non-franchise books do not get the exposure they need to survive. Because of that, they are cancelled. Because of the likelihood of books being cancelled, publishers like Marvel and even DC to a certain extent (see Automatic Kafka and Wildcats Version 3.0 as my main examples) are reactionary and will cancel a title before it has a chance to develop a fan-base. Runaways is the perfect example: the book is cancelled before it becomes obvious that the trade paperback sales outweighed the monthly sales.

So the question becomes: where is the problem?

Is it the dealers who won't stock non-franchise comics? (I often go to three different stories to find books I hadn't preordered.) I've seen shop owners who leer at customers and consider it a major effort to order a book.

But at the same time, the owner of my current shop, Bump, orders a wide variety of independent books-- and a lot of them sit on the shelf. He picked up at least a dozen copies of Brian Wood's DEMO I believe-- and he ate more than half of them. With so many small press or independent books, he orders a variety and I still have to go elsewhere to look for the books I want-- because there is such a large selection to chose from.

Is it the publishers who are unwilling to let a book built a fanbase? X-Men sold poorly until its relaunch. (Maybe even later, someone else will probably know better than I do.) That's 90+ issues. Soldier X was cancelled before the first trade paperback came out; if I remember correctly, before issue #7 was released.

But at the same time, those publishers are dealing with the constant threat of bankruptcy (see Marvel mid-90's, Crossgen, Fantagraphics, and I'm certain there are others I'm forgetting). Franchises offer economic stability in their merchandising and films and tv shows. (Although Global Frequencies has managed a tv show without being a major franchise, simply a good idea.) Jemas' efforts to build readership with original ideas was only so effective-- and it seemed like the entire comics community wanted his head on a platter.

And fans-- as I said, there are so many things to try-- but at the same time, there are many people who don't try anything.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's not the monthly format or the distribution system. How many other product-based industries work on that kind of a time schedule? Newspapers. That's about it. And how many miniseries newspapers are there? How many small press newspapers are distributed nationwide? A shop owner has to order the third issue of a book before he knows how the first sold. If there is an economic russian roulette, that's it right there. (And let's not forget some publisher's tendencies to not send any information about the comic other than the title to keep readers and shop owners from making an informed decision.) If a book takes a year to build up a fan base, 12 issues have passed. Can a reader seriously read ALL of Previews (which is full of a lot of good info, and an equal or greater amount of crap) and learn enough from paragraph long blurbs to spent $3 or $10? (A lot of smaller presses go straight to $10 ogns, which is both good and bad.)

I don't have an answer: I'm just thinking aloud.

[Dylan McKay]

Originally posted by Alex Groff
In essence, the market is no longer geared for expansion or growth of any kind because it is catering to a narrow, myopic demographic: hardcore fandom.

Because the market is marginalizing those not familiar with comics or not interested in non-franchise titles or even non-superhero titles, it is in essence guaranteeing (sp?) that its readership will not expand to any great degree, if it expands at all. Outreach cannot work because it's based on a flawed premise: that what sells is what people want.

Right?


Yup, that's a more concise way of wording my hypothesis.

I agree with all your problems. Another is the no returns policy. If 25% of orders can be returned, you'll see retailers order 25% more. Like you said, no retailer wants to be stuck with 20 unsold books that'll go straight to the dollar bin.

The problem is that an overhaul is needed, and an overhaul means short term loses. DC is the only publisher that can afford short term loses. If the problems had been identified in the first half of the 90's the industry could be healthy today, but they were ignored, as corporations almost uniformly do.

I definatly agree that OGNs are a very positive step forward. Image, Vertigo and small press companies are moving forward here, but will the slow progress be enough?

I don't know, that's why I want a nice stable job like military test pilot rather than getting into the comics industry...

[§tormy]

I have to agree, there's very little new to come out of the Marvel franchise, everything seems to be based around the same things. Either new merchandise for different characters or a new book for the same character, nothing new seems to happening. What ever happened to Epic? That might have offered something new, but alas, it seems to have disappeared.