Jim “Mister Know-It-All” Salicrup, acts like he knows more about comicbook distribution than one of America’s largest Publishers, Marvel Comics, and proceeds to offer suggestions on how Marvel should handle their recently announced distribution deal with the 7-11 chain. He suggests that Marvel consider rejoining the Comics Code Authority, offering suitable for all-ages versions of their top-selling titles, lowering the price of comics to $2.00 per title, not worrying about continuity, creating more content-oriented covers, and bringing back such promotional tools as the Bullpen Bulletins and letters pages within the comics themselves. He also promises to offer one further idea in this installment of Addicted to Comics.

When Joe Quesada spoke a few weeks ago to the capacity crowd at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, as part of Danny Fingeroth’s Inside the Comic Creator’s Studio seminar series, he wisely addressed the question of why Marvel isn’t producing new original material for graphic novels. He explained that it’s far more profitable to serialize the material first as comics and then publish a collected edition. This way Marvel is able to essentially sell the same material several times. This is an echo of both the European and Japanese approaches to comics publishing – where, in general, comics were originally serialized in either monthly or weekly comics magazines and then collected as graphic albums. It’s not as common as it once was with European comics, but big, fat, weekly manga magazines are still going strong.

Jim Salicrup, Joe Quesada and Danny Fingeroth at MoCCA

With all that in mind, I suggest that Marvel consider publishing a comicbook-sized, square-bound, comics anthology featuring fairly recent reprints of their top-selling characters. This would not only be perfect for 7-11, but ideal for comic shops and newsstands. Similar projects are already doing well on the newsstand. There’s Shonen Jump, a nice fat, low-priced monthly manga magazine that’s selling better than most Marvel comics. There’s even the inexpensive Archie digests, which pack a lot of pages between their covers, which are sold successfully at newsstands, supermarkets, and airports. There’s also Disney Adventures, which is about 50% comics, and the new Disney Zone Digest that is all comics, and they’re both selling very well too. So, this isn’t even a particularly new idea, it’s just that Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, and the rest, just haven’t done it yet. But can there be any doubt that it would sell?

Let’s imagine one monthly magazine, reprinting entire recent issues of Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers, Daredevil, the Hulk, and more, and it’s priced at less than the cost of half of the original issues. It’s the ultimate Marvel sampler! By throwing in as many top characters as possible, Marvel would be creating a comicbook blockbuster that I’m certain could outsell Shonen Jump! Because of Marvel’s movie successes, and even their recent not-quite successes, their characters’ recognition factors are at an all-time high. If such a magazine was displayed properly at all those 7-11s, it would be irresistible to the literally hundreds of thousands of potential new comics buyers. That’s not to mention how very attractive such a magazine would be to the many fans that had to seriously cut back on their comics-buying budgets.

And just as the madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets, the more this magazine sold, the more profitable it would be, to state the obvious. But a big benefit of such a magazine to the bottom line of Marvel is that they could charge more for their advertising across their entire line, as well as just selling ads in this magazine. Unlike the standard 32-page comic that can only contain so many ad pages, this magazine, like most regular magazines, could contain as many ads as Marvel could sell.

Perhaps the best reason for Marvel to publish this magazine is that if all of the above came true, and it was selling huge numbers, this would be the ideal vehicle in which to launch new Marvel properties. Just like NBC used to have its blockbuster “Must-see-TV” Thursday night line-up, if this magazine snags a huge audience, what better place to launch something like the Black Panther or the Young Avengers? Likewise, this would be an ideal place to each issue offer a different classic reprint, which could help promote a new Marvel Essential reprint volume or Marvel Masterworks hardcover. Or even run a classic reprint that maybe isn’t scheduled for an imminent collection, but maybe spotlights a character that’s scheduled for a comicbook relaunch or an upcoming movie? Or, and here’s a crazy idea, reprint an old Marvel classic that was simply a great story, but for one reason or another doesn’t make sense to be part of a new trade paperback collection?

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Marvel were already thinking along these lines. Or DC, or Dark Horse, or Image. DC could potentially have a huge hit on its hands if it came out with such a magazine collecting all its comics based on animated shows. They’d have JLA, Superman, Batman, Teen Titans, Scooby-Doo, and the Powerpuff Girls all in one magazine! Dark Horse had the right idea for years with its Dark Horse Presents anthology, but a 32-page, or even 48-page, black and white comic just isn’t going to create that much excitement. A full-color comics magazine featuring Star Wars every issue, filled with lots of all-ages appropriate material would be a better bet, but then such top Dark Horse titles as Sin City and Conan would be left out. As for Dark Horse’s Manga Blast anthology, it simply doesn’t have the star power Shonin Jump has with Yu-Gi-Oh and Dragonball Z in every issue.

One other cool idea would be to get 7-11 in on Free Comic Book Day. Certainly there are lots of other promotions Marvel can come up with, mostly tied to their movie releases, that can make this whole 7-11 deal pay off for them.

So, there you have it. In case you’re wondering why the Editor-In-Chief at another comics company (www.papercutz.com) would want Marvel to succeed in selling comics through 7-11, the answer is simple. If Marvel succeeds, we all win. And I do mean we, not just a new publisher such as Papercutz, which is producing such 7-11 friendly fare as Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Zorro, but you too. Be here next time and find out how all this can wind up possibly putting some cold, hard cash into your pockets! It’s all in the third, thrill-packed Addicted to Comics column! Now, aren’t you glad you read this all the way to the end?

Addicted to Comics is © Copyright 2005 by Jim Salicrup. All rights reserved.