Happy New Year!

If your experience with 2008 was anything like mine, I'm sure you're ecstatic that 2009 is here.

Let's sum 2008 up from a strictly comics-oriented perspective...

First, 2008 was the year that confirmed for me that the major publishers are no longer concerned about the quality of the comics they're pushing out. With some limited exceptions, we've seen that Marvel and DC are not paying attention to the editorial content of the books that focus on their core characters. Instead, the focus is on the next big event comic, or feeble attempts to force their readers to spend more money on pointless and unrewarding crossovers or tie-ins to get the whole story in their "event du jour."

Strictly speaking, this isn't a bad idea if you're trying to squeeze some more bucks out of your core readers except for a couple of things - their core readers, like everyone else in the current economy, don't have the money to purchase every crossover and tie-in (especially when the publishers seem to think they can only make money selling comics at $3.99 to $4.99 an issue). And since they KNOW they can't afford it, they just skip the whole darn thing. C'mon Marvel and DC - you can't expect a federal bailout for our industry - so stop acting like it's coming! Worse, from where I'm standing, is the near impossibility of getting new readers to pick up books when the core characters are being neglected and 'event' comics are so complicated from a crossover and tie-in perspective that new readers avoid them with a 10 foot cattle prod.

Second, 2008 saw the end of the most popular alternative titles and they haven't been replaced yet. Normally, if the major character storylines are weak, we'd point customers in the direction of popular alternatives, like Y the Last Man or Lucifer or...yeah, you guessed it. Most of the popular alternative titles ended in 2008 and nothing has really stepped up to replace them. Sure, there have been marginal increases in things like Hellblazer and we've seen some real increases in titles like DMZ and Matt Fraction has been a hit around here... But I think you probably agree with me, there has been a real dearth of good alternative titles. I haven't found anything that peaks my interest quite as much.

Third, 2008 is the year that the publishers decided it was better to have weekly titles, because even if the readership dropped to a third of the monthly title that was fine because revenue was higher since the title was sold more frequently. Of course, the fact that losing readership can't be sustained or replaced by making the shrinking pool of readers spend more money. You have to get out there and get new readers and you do that with good stories and advertising.

Fourth, 2008 is the first year since I've been involved in this industry that I haven't seen a new indie title pop up in strong volume sales. There was no Blankets or Persepolis equivalent in 2008.

Finally, 2008 is a year that many comic retailers have decided to pack it in. I think we'll see a tremendous culling of the comic retailer herd early in 2009. I talk with other retailers around the country on a regular basis, and what I'm hearing isn't good. It seems like 2008 saw a perfect storm of bad comics, bad economics and short sighted publishers. A lot of retailers have just lost their desire to keep at it, others are in such a bad financial position that they have no choice but to close up shop. I wouldn't be surprised if 2009 saw the number of comic retailers drop by 15 to 20 percent.

So I'm all doom and gloom - that's what you're thinking. But actually, I'm not. I have a lot of optimism for 2009. I think the best retailers will see their way through this storm, and the retail segment of the industry will be stronger because of it. I think smart retailers are already diversifying their product lines, not just because of the weakness in the industry, but because of other things on the horizon (not the least of which is the eventual sale of monthlies as electronic downloads direct from the publishers). When all is said and done, the retailers that are left standing will be stronger than they are now. The publishers will hopefully begin to appreciate some of the changes they need to make on their focus and we might even see fewer events and more good stories focusing on core characters.

So welcome 2009! Glad to meet you, look forward to working with you!

-b