Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 20, 2017, 04:47:32 AMQuote from: irishmoxie on April 19, 2017, 05:05:53 PM
I hope non superhero stories keep getting published. I think there are a lot of girls out there who are hungry for slice of life type comics or even Image/Saga type stories. I've tried reading superhero stories but none have hooked me yet. I'll read DC Super girls or whatever it's called if it's free but it's not the first thing I reach for or look forward to each month. I like that there's a variety of stories in comics nowadays. To reach girls, EMET has been doing well with posting webcomics on Tumblr. EMET has also had a few successful Kickstarters.
What I'm trying to get at is that there's an inescapable tyranny of numbers in effect when it comes to the ordering of titles by comics retailers, because once ordered and paid for (before he resells those comics to his retail customers), the comics a retailer orders belong to him -- he's stuck with them if he can't sell them. There are hundreds of titles in every monthly order catalog from Diamond Comics Distribution, so most retailers (unless they have a large chain of stores, or one very large store located in a major metropolitan area) can't afford to order even ONE copy of each and every title offered. Variety is a good thing for a store, but there are realistic limits to that variety based on the retailer's financial resources (he pays for all his comics before he's even sold a single one), so his ordering patterns are dictated by an informed knowledge of his customer base's buying patterns, and some speculation on his part. For the most part, he's got to be careful and not take too many risks that might cause him to wind up with a lot of unsold comics at the end of the week or month, because the more time that goes by, the less likely he is to sell those comics.
This is where the domination of the superhero genre is coming into play, because that's a large part of what's informing his ordering decisions. He knows he can sell certain titles, and other titles/publishers/genres are much more of a gamble, so he's got to be somewhat conservative, or he may wind up out of business. He just can't afford to have a lot of slow-moving (or totally unsellable) stock in his store, and he's got to service his most regular and biggest-spending customers first, and worry about the people who might buy only a few titles or genres that are less popular afterwards. If, at the end of any given month, a retailer adds up all of his bills spent for new product from Diamond Comics, and compares that figure against all the money taken in at the register that month, and checks his inventory to see what product he was invoiced for that month that remains unsold, then the money he spent on purchasing those unsold comics has to be subtracted from whatever profit he made on the comics he was invoiced for that month that he DID sell. But of course the remainder doesn't equal the profit he actually made that month until he then subtracts his overhead costs for employees, monthly rent or mortgage, utilities like heat/air conditioning and electricity, phone and internet bills, etc.
Kickstarters and webcomics are fine, but that only relates to print comic books that your retailer orders far down the line (if at all).
Makes me miss my comic book shop in Missouri which was run by a female. It had all the superhero stuff but also girlie, animal, and tons of kids comics. She actually made most of her money from selling figurines. And had tons of leftover Archie variants (guess she made the wrong bet on those) that she always tried to sell me. I discovered EMET comics there before seeing it on social media.
Female comics will probably never be the mainstay in comic shops and that's fine. I only hope to see more of these comics in places where girls like to be i.e. bookstores like Barnes and Noble, Kindle, tumblr, etc. Hopefully they will start generating more of a profit.
