Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 - running time 01:08:34
Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis meet face to face in Baltimore to debate creator-owned comics!
It all began when fan-favorite writer and new Image Comics partner Robert Kirkman posted a video manifesto calling on more established comic book creators to leave Marvel and DC Comics behind and make creator-owned comics. That lead to a pointed response from fan-favorite writer and Marvel Comics mainstay Brian Michael Bendis on the Word Balloon podcast.
And then the comic book internet world ripped in half.
On September 27, 2008 Robert Kirkman and Brian Michael Bendis met face-to-face on a dias at the Baltimore Comic-Con to bring the debate in person and in front of a standing room only crowd. They discussed everything from their own impoverished beginnings in creator-owned comics to the current sales of their own work to the effect that mainstream exposure has on independent work. It's the most talked about comic book panel of the year!
Who do you think won the debate?
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I think that tends to be how people use statistics, for better or for worse. Make an argument, then look for evidence. Unless somebody's going to commission an objective marketing study of the comics industry -- which could be interesting project, but probably not worth what it would cost in terms of marketing payoff -- amateur interpretation is what we're going to get.
The thing is, I don't think it really matters what numbers Kirkman used. Because he's arguing for a career path that, from what I understand, hardly anybody has really followed: get in mainstream comics long enough to build yourself up to be a big name, then get out completely, so you're not competting with your own work. Is there anybody who's really done that and made a success of it? Mike Mignola comes to mind, but I don't know how established he was in mainstream comics before he went on to Hellboy and such.
As far as those charts go, both parties were reverse engineering. They started from their own viewpoint and worked backwards to determine how the numbers might help their case. While I think the trending disproved some of the immediate bump that Bendis implied, the trade numbers for the first Trade overlaid over the 4 months surrounding Marvel Zombies' release would be nice since, as people here have pointed out, that's the logical place to start.
But here's another point I haven't seen talked about:
Kirkman claims that his numbers show no boose or boon to Powers' sales as Bendis' Marvel work is released. Now, while this is based with no knowledge of how the market typically functions, isn't it also possible that Powers is buoyed by those Marvel titles? As in, if it weren't for his name being so consistently recognizable, might his quality work have fallen to the wayside long ago, as many other very good creator-owned titles have?
This portion of the argument was based on the claim that Mainstream books help give a boost to sales, but they also might stave off failure by slowing a downward trend.
As I said, though, I have no idea how the market reacts to stuff like this, but there were a LOT of possible conclusions to draw from those thrown-together graphs that weren't even brought up -- maybe they just made too much evenhanded sense for either to touch them.
Either way, there's always this cry of "sinister deeds" and they're just dudes talking about some stuff that affects them. I wish the presidential candidates would be half as earnest as these guys are.
"Both Kirkman and Image will have access to The Walking Dead trade sales. There's no reason for them not to.
Warren Ellis noticed that when he did Marvel work, the trade sales of Transmetropolitan increased.. and that's partly why he keeps going back to Marvel. Obviously the publishers and authors have these kinds of figures."
He might not be at liberty to give that information out like he can with Image information.
Both Kirkman and Image will have access to The Walking Dead trade sales. There's no reason for them not to.
Warren Ellis noticed that when he did Marvel work, the trade sales of Transmetropolitan increased.. and that's partly why he keeps going back to Marvel. Obviously the publishers and authors have these kinds of figures.
