• Home
  • About
  • Listen Now
  • Community
  • Links
  • Buy Our Books!

Marvel's 'Comics For Comics' Program Is Classless

7/30/2011

 
Picture
by Brian LeTendre

This week, Marvel announced their latest 'Comics for Comics' initiative, which allows retailers to send in covers of unsold comics to Marvel in exchange for a rare variant cover edition of Fear Itself #6 that they can sell in their store. That may sound pretty cool on the surface, except it’s not unsold Marvel comics retailers are being asked to return--it’s unsold DC comics.

For every 50 covers of selected Flashpoint issues that retailers submit, they get an Ed McGuinnes variant cover issue of Fear Itself #6. So, Marvel is asking comic retailer to rip the covers off of 50 DC comics and send them in to get a free Marvel book.  Here’s what Marvel Senior VP of Publishing, Sales and Circulation says about the initiative:

“In these tough economic times, we feel it’s our duty to help. After the overwhelmingly positive response to our Comics For Comics programs, through which we received tens of thousands of covers, we’re excited to provide retailers with the chance to help their stores through selling an ultra-rate variant."

Personally, I think that’s a bunch of garbage. For some reason, Marvel thinks it’s cute to design incentive programs that are a direct attack on DC, and then coyly act like they are doing this to support retailers (they did a similar promotion with Blackest Night and Siege). No one falls for it, least of all retailers, and fans are getting sick of it too. This type of move just comes across as childish. Marvel is already the market leader in terms of comic sales, and these types of arrogant stunts will potentially have the exact opposite effect Marvel is hoping for. I’ve read a lot of forum posts this week about fans dropping Marvel books in the wake of this, and a lot of retailers are railing against it as well.

If Marvel wants to truly support retailers, they should use their own books in these incentive programs. How about for every 50 Fear Itself tie-in covers you send in, you get a free copy of a Daredevil #1 variant? Support the retailers that support you, don’t undermine them by having them take another company’s books off the shelves. Retailers need to sell those books to survive, and you’re forcing to take a gamble that your “ultra rare” variant will bring in more money than the comics they destroyed to get it.

I’m not sure Marvel is aware of this, but no retailer is going to survive in the comic market by selling only Marvel books. If DC disappeared tomorrow, Marvel would follow soon afterward. I would much rather see Marvel focusing on improving the quality of their books in order to justify the $4 price point, than taking shots at DC, who is actually making bold moves and shaking up the status quo (i.e. $2.99 comics, day-and-date digital and the upcoming relaunch).

I have been a lifelong Marvel fan, but in the past couple of years, I’ve felt like DC has gone about their business in a much more professional, fan-friendly way. Marvel spends too much time patting themselves on the back, and not enough time on making sure they are putting out a quality product. They should pay more attention to their own house, as they might not be number one for much longer. They certainly won’t be in the month of September, and fan backlash against Marvel could give DC the momentum it needs to keep the top for some time to come.

Mark Mundy
7/29/2011 10:56:28 am

Wow..thats harsh. And 50? thats alot of books to eat for a retailer for 1 variant.

Dumerill
7/29/2011 11:06:28 am

Jajajajaja That's genius! LOL! Basically Marvel is saying that 1 of their books is worth the same as 50 DC books! Jajajaja That's crazy funny! At the same time, it's a business strategy, companies do this everyday, this is probably the funniest one I've ever heard of though.

matman
7/29/2011 01:01:01 pm

yea...this is horribly childish and classless! you would think that in this day and age, marvel would be a little more aware of what bad press can do. but they can always say "the mouse told us to do it."

wonder how ed mcguiness feels about it?

lungs
7/30/2011 02:25:33 am

I'm with dumerill. This is hilarious. i'm interested in seeing how this plays out for them. a gutsy move.

Mark Mundy
7/30/2011 07:34:56 am

Seems like bass ackwards thinking. Like Matt says, without one the other would have a hard time existing in the same capacity they do. How about these companies rewarding people for selling so many copies instead of rewarding them for not selling.

John Cordis
8/2/2011 08:58:38 am

Like Mark said, you'd think it would be more respectable to reward a retailer by selling a certain amount of books, but it's a cutthroat business world these days. I'm not sure how I feel about it to be honest.


Comments are closed.

    Sponsored by:

    Picture
    Picture

    What's New?

    Here's where we post news, reviews and show notes, and you get to comment on them!

    Archives

    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    Books
    Comics
    Games
    Movies
    Music
    Secret Identity
    Toys
    Tv

    Get Social With Us

    Picture
    Picture

    Subscribe To Our RSS Feed

    RSS Feed

    Looking For The Old SI Website? 

    Look no further! You can visit the old site and read through the article archives by clicking here!
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.