DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

10.31.2005

Here's the Thing... #15: Think Like a King

(Ok, I know I do these on Friday’s but this is a bit of a timely article and I feel I should get it out now.)

Robin and I have three cats. Every morning one of our cats hangs out by our bed and waits for the alarm clock to go off. When it does, she starts crying in our faces until we get up and feed her – she even learned how to hit the radio bar on the alarm clock to make it go off constantly. One day I accidentally left my alarm clock on and at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning after a night of intense partying it goes off. I turn the alarm clock off and crawl back to bed, head pounding, when my cat gets in my grill and starts crying. She won’t stop, I’m pushing her away, throwing glasses of water at her, holding her mouth shut and she just wouldn’t quit her bitching. Finally I turn to her, half-asleep and scream, “You just don’t get it, do you?” Obviously, Robin makes fun of me to this day because I was yelling at our cat who doesn’t even comprehend what “getting it” means.

I honestly feel what I am about to do is as futile as me trying to shut my cat up by making her feel guilty but someone needs to say it.

Stephen King is going to be continuing his adventures of the gunslinger from his popular Dark Tower series in comic book form for Marvel comics.

As a fan, yeah I’m a little lukewarm towards the announcement. I never read The Dark Tower, I really don’t even know what the story’s about (although I might check it out now that I at least know there are some Western elements in it). I like a good amount of King’s books but I tend to read them on recommendation, I don’t buy every book of his just because it’s a King book.

And if you’re a comic fan and a comic fan only it is perfectly fine to stop right there.

If you’re a creator or a potential creator (which I assume you are if you’re reading this) you should understand that King’s coming to comics, particularly when taking into consideration what he’s writing, presents one of the biggest opportunities we have seen as an industry in quite some time.

For starters, one of the biggest writers in the world, who sells millions upon millions of copies of EACH of his books (8-figures worth of copies for a good portion of his catalogue), is COMING DOWN to a medium in which you are at THE TOP when you break six-figures. This is the equivalent of Roger Clemens pitching for your company baseball team. The amount of press and attention this book is going to get is going to be astronomical.

And here’s the thing, unlike books like Sin City and Spider-Man, which had critically acclaimed movie adaptations, the King move represents the fact that many millions of people are going to be talking about a COMIC, not the ADAPTATION of a comic. Many millions of people are going to be reading a COMIC, not seeing the ADAPTATION of a comic. And due to the way Marvel is releasing the books, first in serialized form followed by trade paperback form; many millions of people are going to be seeking out a SERIALIZED MONTHLY COMIC. They will have to turn to comic stores; more book stores will begin to populate their floor with spinner racks. You are going to walk into a Barnes & Nobles and the first thing you are going to see will be a friggin’ COMIC BOOK DISPLAY. Not a display that has some graphic novels and say, “The book that inspired the hit movie Sin City.” It is going to say, “Here is Stephen King’s new book, the only way you can get it.”

And even if I’m being over-optimistic – even if only 10% of King’s fanatical audience seek out this book – that’s still a million people. That is still four times the amount of people that currently care about our insular medium.

And you know what else? The best part? King’s comic is a Western with horrific elements. Think about that. There are going to be millions of people talking about a comic with subject matter you currently can’t get a lot of at Marvel and DC (although I’m sure they’re both going to push out some new Western and Horror books, Marvel already launched their “Marvel Horror” line or whatever it’s called).

King is writing a book that caters more to the indie market. A book that, if we can get the attention of some of these people, we can make a name for ourselves. Here we are bitching about Diamond cutting us off because we’re not selling well – we get this blessing in disguise – and everywhere I look people are already complaining about how this whole thing won’t do anything for the industry.

Of course it won’t! You’re not planning on taking advantage of it!

Comic creators, with few exceptions, are the laziest, least innovative and unimaginative group of people on the planet. You have to work for this. Nobody is going to come up and hand it to you because you’re art is pretty or you have a half-way decent hook. You have to hustle, and not just the way everybody else is hustling. You need to look for the openings and attack them because they’re out there. Don’t bitch and gripe about how something like King coming to comics is great for Marvel but it’s not going to help you, as if Marvel is supposed to run some sort of welfare program and hand cash and customers over to you.

Grab them.

Millions of people reading a comic.

A good share probably haven’t even read comics before.

They don’t know what’s good, they don’t know how to find what they’re looking for.

For God’s sake people, quit your bitching and try to fulfill these people! Us indie guys crap our pants when we break a thousand copies. A THOUSAND COPIES! .01% of King’s audience. Are we, as an industry, so lazy and unmotivated that we don’t feel like we can grab at least .01% of an audience that’s excited about a comic?

Seriously, people, either start thinking like a King or stop making comics. You’re making the rest of us look bad.

Jason at 10:51 AM  |  link to this     

20 Comments

You're wayyyy overestimating if you think 10% of King's audience will get the comic because how would they even know? My friend Chuck is the biggest King fan around and I told him about the comic - it was news to him. Now he will pick it up but he is completely unaware of where to find it and when it comes out so he's relying on me to inform him.

Don't get me wrong. I am psyched for this comic. It will sell very very well, no doubt about it. But it won't bring THAT many folks and it won't do much for crossover appeal to other comics. Otherwise, Batman, Spider-Man, Sin City, Identity Crisis or Ultimate Iron Man would have brought in new readers. And really, they just had good sales on their own.

Chris at 10/31/2005 11:06 AM   

They just announced it last week.

Do you not think Marvel and King are not going to let people know how and where to get the comic by the time it comes out in April? This is going to have a major press roll-out in mainstream periodicals, I’m not talking some back corner of a newspaper or a magazine – this is front page stuff. This is one of King’s more lucrative properties being offered only in comics. This comic is going to have prime real-estates in bookstores and huge displays in comic shop windows, write-ups in the paper – the Wall Street Journal is going to be talking about the potential impact on Marvel stock and the industry as a whole as well as the risk King is taking.

And as far as “cross-over appeal” you’re thinking small. No-one is going to read this book and say, “Oh, hey comics, what else do they got?” You need to find these people and show them what else we got. These are new customers. This isn’t big-comic cross-over incest love-fest that turns off the majority of comic fans let alone the people who think we’re dorks. This is something that already has mainstream appeal. To compare this to Infinite Crisis is nuts. Who outside of comics gives two craps about Infinite Crisis? Who within comics is going to say, “Hey, if you like convoluted story which require years of continuity knowledge try this?”

This is bigger than what most people are thinking because most people can’t see beyond what’s already there – it’s why our industry is so messed up.

Jason at 10/31/2005 11:19 AM   

I just can’t stop – I’m really fired up over this.

Chris – this is a great example of the negativity. Three days after an announcement for a book that’s coming out in 6 months and your friend Chuck hasn’t heard the news. Hence no-ones going to know about the book.

Jason at 10/31/2005 11:40 AM   

And due to the way Marvel is releasing the books, first in serialized form followed by trade paperback form; many millions of people are going to be seeking out a SERIALIZED MONTHLY COMIC. They will have to turn to comic stores; more book stores will begin to populate their floor with spinner racks. You are going to walk into a Barnes & Nobles and the first thing you are going to see will be a friggin’ COMIC BOOK DISPLAY.
This is what I don't buy, Jason. I think the serialization is an example of a dinosaur not knowing it's a dinosaur. Ditch the freakin' floppies for a project of this magnitude .. aim straight at the heart of the bookstore and land a Marvel OGN on the front display table smack between Rowling and Brown.

I don't have numbers - but is King's current fanbase all that bigger than Joss Whedon's? How many people were watching Buffy? And how many of those headed into the LCS? I think we're going to see that the Direct Market is capped - this will do All-Star Batman numbers ... maybe a bit more. 300,000 maybe.

This isn't really in-continuity Dark Tower - it's sorta "Untold Stories Of ...". Furthermore, his involvement seems like it's a lot more ideas than any actual writing.

Why am I negative? Not because I don't like the idea of King coming, but that I think trying to revolutionize the Direct Market by doing Business As Usual is foolish, and represents a wasted opportunity.

This is bigger than what most people are thinking because most people can’t see beyond what’s already there – it’s why our industry is so messed up.
I completely agree .. and I think Marvel's included in "most people". And that's the problem.

Mark Fossen at 10/31/2005 11:57 AM   

This isn’t Joss Whedon, this is Stephen. Friggin. King.

You can’t find a Stephen King equivalent in television. If you expand the scope to TV and Film you can make an argument for Steven Spielberg being the Stephen King equivalent. This is a man with millions of fans who eat up everything he does. Do we need to get into Serenity?

If Marvel were to release King’s book solely as a Graphic Novel it would kill us. That would be Marvel trying to make a quick buck. Because people would go to the bookstore, buy it and the novelty would be done with. By doing it in a serialized structure it brings an awareness to the comic which is the only form most of us indie guys can afford to print in. Whether you think Marvel’s decision is smart or not is your call. The fact that their decision helps us indie folk a little bit more isn’t even up for debate.

The whole “dinosaur” argument people use isn’t the end-all-be-all. The fact that Marvel is distributing to the direct market does nothing to defeat the fact that people are going to be talking about a comic. That you, as an innovative and crafty son-of-a-bitch, can find a way to direct these people to your book in any number of ways.

Again, this isn’t about Marvel but that’s all people like to talk about. This is about the opportunity it presents for someone who can get their shit together and take advantage of it.

I’ve been dragging on this cowboy/dinosaur project for some time. I have this idea anyway, I’ve been working on it, do you think I’m not going to try to get it finish to time it with the King project? Do you think I won’t be getting table at horror conventions where the real-estate is cheaper than the inflated table price at comic-cons and where I’ll be the only person pushing a comic book, a comic book that I can parallel to King’s comic.

This isn’t about Marvel. For the fan, yes it is. For the creator it doesn’t matter at all. What matters is Stephen Goddamn King is releasing a monthly comic based on one of his most popular properties.

If Rowling did a Potter comic do you not think it would sell millions of copies? Do you not think Barnes & Nobles would have midnight release parties? Do you not think you can potentially reach these kids with fantasy comics of your own.

Come on, people, this is nuts.

Jason at 10/31/2005 12:13 PM   

If Rowling did a Potter comic do you not think it would sell millions of copies? Do you not think Barnes & Nobles would have midnight release parties?
No.

Not if the comic in question was written by Rowling's assistant with "ideas" by Rowling. Not if the comic told stories of Harry's childhood before Hogwart's.

I hope you're right, Jason. I hope it's an opportunity for you and every other creator. I want it to work out that way.

Mark Fossen at 10/31/2005 3:53 PM   

The “King’s not writing it” thing is kind of funny and a lot of people are going to that as one of the many reasons as to why it will fail.

And it comes from a comment Joe Quesada made about how King gave a bunch of story ideas which Joe and Robin whittled down to page break-outs, essentially acting as editor, following the same process that those hacks Stan Lee and John Romita SR used to use.

It’s just kind of funny; it’s as if people want to Stephen King to do “Page 1, Panel 1”. That comic would suck. Who would assume that Stephen King knows anything about sequential storytelling, let alone enough to create layouts. Most comic writers (and artists, really) don’t know dick about layouts, unfortunately, and their books don’t have the pressure on them to do as well as this book.

And there’s been no statement on the dialog, just a statement from Quesada saying they’re doing this “Marvel style” which traditionally means:
a) Writer gives a detailed plot
b) Artist/editor/writer lays it out
c) Writer fills in the dialog/suggests changes to the artwork

Will he eventually do his own layouts? Maybe, once he gets the hang of it. Is it essential to call him the “writer”? No. Big misconception is that the “writer” is the only storyteller in comics. It’s a collaborative process and a lot of times one of the creators will need to bow to the superior knowledge of another. They even brought JRJR on to work with Jae Lee to make the comic more accessible to mainstream audiences which makes sense because JRJR knows what he’s talking about.

Until someone comes out and says the only input Stephen King had to this script is that he spewed out a story idea, it’s safe to assume Stephen King is writing the book.

And, again, it's not a matter of "working out". It's a matter of going after it.

Jason at 10/31/2005 4:16 PM   

So far all I see is people wailing and gnashing their teeth about why this is nothing special and why WE'LL NEVER BENEFIT. Any so-called creators (theoretically creative people) willing to look a little foolish and venture forth some ideas on how INDY COMICS MIGHT ACTUALLY, POSSIBLY, CONCEIVABLY BENEFIT? Besides Jason, I mean? I'll go:

How about approaching local book store owner/managers with an offer to help educate them about this market they probably know little about, and give them a list of other trades/pamphlets they migth be able to sell in the wake of King's book?
They are looking to sell product, nothing more, nothing less, but many of them probably know jack about the comics field in general and indy field in particular and won't know how to capitalize on this book's potential. How about being an ambassador even if you don't personally have a comic with related subject matter? If you do, how about contacting a local store about doing a signing the day the comic's released? If nothing else, this will probably help them sell more King comics because a signing table attracts attention.

Okay, so now I've thrown down the gauntlet. Anyone else have the balls to not nitpick why this MIGHT NOT work, but to instead brainstorm a few ideas of their own on how it might?

Caleb Monroe at 10/31/2005 4:30 PM   

Thank you Caleb, I always loved you. To make your plan more attractive I’ll add going outside the box, going around Diamond and offering retailers that are carrying King's book similar books on consignment and encouraging him to see if the quality of work is up to par before staking his reputation. By giving it to him on consignment (with a 60% share of cover for him, you’re still making more than through Diamond) there is hardly any financial risk to the retailer and you move some of the hundreds of book that are sitting in your closet onto a comic shelf.

Jason at 10/31/2005 4:38 PM   

Anyone else have the balls to not nitpick why this MIGHT NOT work, but to instead brainstorm a few ideas of their own on how it might?
Well, I think there are two different debates here ... and no one's the enemy.

Do I think this King thing will be an industry-redefining proect that will see a top seller at 400% of what we see now? No.

Do I think it'll be the biggest title in the market at a level of 300,000? And that it is finally a banner-carrier that doesn't wear a cape? Hell, yeah.

Approaching booksellers - especially independent ones - is a great idea. Beyond talking to locals, you might approach national indy stores that specialize in Horror/Sci-Fi? Stars Our Destination in Chicago ... Dark Carnival and Other Change Of Hobbit in Berkeley ....

Mark Fossen at 10/31/2005 5:40 PM   

I hardly think creative people have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a messiah to come. (I can see Jake now: "Holy shit! King's in the game! Now I better start picking up my output cause the industry is gonna take off!")

I don't think King or his fans will have a huge impact on comic readom--unless we're talking about King's younger readers. Cause let's face it, you tune folks on to comics in their teen or younger years. Seriously, how many comic readers to do you who started reading comics as adults?

Sure they'll be a initial influx--as is always the case with celebrity creators in comics (like directors and such)--but I don't think it'll carry over into a permanent readership.

But it'll be interesting to see how Marvel/King market it.

Dembicki at 10/31/2005 7:56 PM   

Wow, that's rich Jason. People should stop making comics if they aren't in it for the money 'cause it's making "us" look bad. So you're saying then Jason that any of us involved in the DCC or any other aspiring group aimed at fostering the creation of comics should simply put down their pens and say the hell with it if we don't think like a King. And who exactly is the "us" that is being made to look bad? I understand your point as far as not being so self-defeatist and not taking advantage of a somewhat golden opportunity but you need to realize that that is simply not everyone's concern. Not everyone sees things the way you see it and that doesn't make them a slacker or lazy. If making comics about horror in the desert is your thing and you want to move more units, more power to you. But if you're happy pressing a few hundred copies of a self-published mini-comic and selling it at expos, then that too is perfectly fine as well--absolutely nothing wrong with that. That's where you might not get it. Again, I don't discourage aggressive marketing when it comes to comics, but that is not what everyone needs or wants and you need to respect that.

I couldn't help but find your closing statement arrogant and elitist. Are you an artist? Do you make art at all? Do you have a clue as to how fulfilling it can be to simply create and that creation being the ultimate satisfaction and reward. If you sell something, that's a bonus. You've got some good advice for a lot of aspiring comic artists and I often enjoy reading it, but to sit there and tell someone to quit doing their art because their methods or approach doesn't fit into what you perceive as correct is plain wrong.

"The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell"

--Confucius

"I think that there is nothing more opposed to poetry, ay, life itself, than this incessant business."

--Henry David Thoreau

steve at 10/31/2005 8:37 PM   

I couldn't help but find your closing statement arrogant and elitist. Are you an artist? Do you make art at all? Do you have a clue as to how fulfilling it can be to simply create and that creation being the ultimate satisfaction and reward. If you sell something, that's a bonus. You've got some good advice for a lot of aspiring comic artists and I often enjoy reading it, but to sit there and tell someone to quit doing their art because their methods or approach doesn't fit into what you perceive as correct is plain wrong.

Over the past 8 months I wrote close to 150,000 words of an online novel that has been enjoyed by a decent amount of people but I’ll never see a dime from. That’s about 2 and a half industry standard novels. I have three months to go and will likely end up somewhere around 3 industry standard novels. This month, November, I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month where I fully plan on writing a 50,000 word novel over thirty days (although secretly I’m pushing for 60,000) which will likely also never see a dime. That’s 4 industry standard novels in one year that I’m doing just to grow as a writer. Sure, there’s a self promotion aspect there, but I probably could have done that with around 60,000 words this year instead of 200,000.

On the flip side, yes, I do want to create comics that get seen by a lot of people and in the process at least break even. The King deal is good for that side of my creative output. Every column I put on this blog has been written for people who are on this side or who have a portion of their work and their desires on this side so to fault an article for being what it is isn’t entirely fair.

And regardless, neither my 200,000 words in one year side nor my want to create comics for a large audience side will ever say the King deal is bad for comics, which was ultimately the point of the article.

Jason at 10/31/2005 9:40 PM   

JEEZUS people!

This seemed to get really personal really quickly. I think we all agree that since everyone here has thought so much about this upcoming event to write paragraphs of debate that this is a momentus occasion. But the problem is that it's on the horizon. It's hard to make out. It's primed for speculation. Is it the new arc, set to deliver us all into a new golden age? Is it an atom bomb, set to blow up in the industry's face?

Maybe it's both. The truth is, we won't know until we get to it.

But until then, I have a bigger question...

Matt, where did you plant the listening devices in my apartment?

Jacob at 11/01/2005 9:12 AM   

a teeny, tiny microchip planted in those pages i gave you. and i have a mini cam in the books you have on your desk right now. wave 'hello', jake! ;)

Dembicki at 11/01/2005 9:39 AM   

Nah, it’s cool Jake, I can understand where Steve’s coming from – it’s just not the angle this column has ever come from.

There’s two things here, really, that I just want to make sure people understand.

1) If someone is hand-pressing comics and creating for personal fulfillment, he or she honestly doesn’t care about this column. And if they read this for some reason and my saying “stop making comics” gets them to stop making comics – they really don’t love doing it. You can’t write a comic for all people – I have a specific audience I write to and that brings me to my second point…
2) The majority of the people who read this article (and there are a good amount of people who do) are writers. The very first Here’s the Thing… said this was a way to help writer’s get something going. With writers, like I consider myself to be, comics have to be a business. You see it every time I talk about working with an artist and keeping an artist happy and almost every artist that reads this column all agree the best way to do it is to pay the artist. At that point, comics can be a passion but it’s a passion that’s automatically costing you a chunk of money which, unless you’re rich, you’d like to make back at least some of.

So, like I said, I took no offense to Steve’s position.

Jason at 11/01/2005 11:57 AM   

It's cool Jason, you're a good and smart fella with a lot to say. The whole "stop making comics" thing seemed a bit strong to me(though there are people who really should stop now)and so you got a strong reaction. Thanks for clearing a few things up for us there. So, it's cool--the Steelers won (barely), I'm happy, you're happy, as long as we all keep kicking ass with whatever we're creating. So anyhow, best of luck on your writing endeavors.

steve at 11/01/2005 12:13 PM   

Mark Fossen said...
... and no one's the enemy.

In all fairness, you're right. I just get riled sometimes. The word you hear the most from people in the comics community every time someone suggests a new idea is "won't." That just gets to me.

Caleb Monroe at 11/01/2005 1:58 PM   

Caleb –

I can understand where the “won’t” comes from, though. For the past bunch of years we’ve been operating under the assumption that people actually care about comic books. No data to support that, no proof that we’re picking up new readers. We bring guys on like Joss Whedon and he writes X-Men and we can’t figure out why his legion of Buffy fans aren’t coming over with him – the whole thing wears you down after a while.

Which is why this might be viewed as the same old shit. But King’s writing a book for his fans – not Marvel’s fans. No comic fans. And yeah, true, we’re all going to buy it but it wasn’t made FOR us. That’s a big difference. Joss’s X-Men was for us. Identity Crisis was for us. Black Panther was for us. All these books where you have people with minor cross-over potential have been written for us.

This King thing was written for King’s fans and features a genre most comic fans don’t even read. That’s huge, and if people can get around the knee-jerk “won’t” they’ll see that.

Jason at 11/01/2005 2:32 PM   

Ok, so I understood what you wrote (from the cartoonist/writer persepective) as a call to action in the same vein as when graphic novels took off, I remember thinking...boy, if my ever-expanding book was finished, it would be an easier sell to publishers contemplating that same kind of material. It's true that this Malingerers book was made for my own pleasure and I couldn't have gotten this far or been happy with it if I was actually trying to think about jumping on a bandwagon or about what is saleable, but the reality that is coupled with completing a project is that eventually, it will be either self-published or published by one of my hoped-for publishers, and it's cool that Jason pointed out the obvious, that any huge sales involving illustrated books, comics, or graphic novels FREAKING helps.

All this being said, I think Jason writes things like "then stop making comics" because he likes that scared-straight kind of language when he talks too---it's just a good writer's ability to set up a polemic.

Deb at 11/07/2005 1:54 PM   

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