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Future of Archie?
shaneb
Posts: 109
Its interesting to hear about the new Archie revamp with Fiona Staples and Mark Waid, which seems like a real push to jump on the recent spotlight on Archie. There has obviously been both Afterlife With Archie and Sabrina, which have been incredible, plus the high-profile Death of Archie storyline in Life With Arche(and Life With Archie in general). I wonder what effect this is going to have on Archie broadly. As they mentioned in the podcast, Archie has maintained itself as an outside-the-direct-market leader where by digests and random issues still sell well and broadly at mini marts and grocery stores. Does this new move mean that they are going to take that ongoing brand into the future across all titles?
When Archie was first created it was meant to show teenagers characters that were much like them, and though they have added gay characters and people of color, it certainly hasn't moved out of the white, upper middle class, middle American view. Will they begin to integrate a more diverse Riverdale?
With the new turn towards the darker side of Archie, what else will be next? The most logical seems to be Casper, but are there anything else? I personally would like to see Richie Rich taken into a Occupy Wallstreet conflict, but that may just be dreaming...
I also think there are a few things in this changeover that may be unfortunate. We see Mark Waid and Fiona Staples on the new title, which is enough to drive me to actually read it, but it really does shut out the more traditional Archie creators. Some people have been drawing Archie for decades, and instead Archie may fall back into the trendy space of shuffling between big names.
Anyway, these were just some random thoughts on the new Archie announcements, what do people think the future holds?
When Archie was first created it was meant to show teenagers characters that were much like them, and though they have added gay characters and people of color, it certainly hasn't moved out of the white, upper middle class, middle American view. Will they begin to integrate a more diverse Riverdale?
With the new turn towards the darker side of Archie, what else will be next? The most logical seems to be Casper, but are there anything else? I personally would like to see Richie Rich taken into a Occupy Wallstreet conflict, but that may just be dreaming...
I also think there are a few things in this changeover that may be unfortunate. We see Mark Waid and Fiona Staples on the new title, which is enough to drive me to actually read it, but it really does shut out the more traditional Archie creators. Some people have been drawing Archie for decades, and instead Archie may fall back into the trendy space of shuffling between big names.
Anyway, these were just some random thoughts on the new Archie announcements, what do people think the future holds?
Comments
That being said, this is a business, and for all the negatives, Archie also has a lot on the positive side. If these new titles and they attention they are bringing the company can continue on pace, it should help the longtime creators in the end, as it will keep the company in business and perhaps get them growing again rather than shrinking.
The buzz they are getting for Life With Archie, Afterlife with Archie and other things is selling stuff in comic shops (which are much more profitable) and on their app.
As they move the property into TV and movies, they are positioned to have a lot of kid stuff and stuff aimed at an older audience. They have a new ownership team who want to bring the property into the modern era and monitize it the way other comics companies are doing so with movies, TV, animation, etc...
Myself, I am LOVING their new approach to the digests and trades with the Jumbo digests, 1000 page digests and things like that. And with the updating...their single issue sales can't really get WORSE
Am I missing something here?
http://comicsworthreading.com/2014/05/02/archie-sales-figures-for-2013/
According to the non-direct-market figures provided here, every Archie digest sells 40,000 copies... after they print 150,000. The sell-through rate is like 30%, meaning that 70% are returned at the publisher's expense. Maybe something has changed, but back when more comics were actually on newsstands, the rule of thumb was that if you sold half the copies printed you were doing very good, and if you were selling even a third of the copies printed you were at least operating sustainably. All six of the Archie digests are under 33% sell-through.
We think of the direct market as a relatively small pond, and we think of the newsstand as some sort of big pond that we WISH comics could get back into. But Archie titles are only hitting 40,000 if they're lucky in that bigger arena. I guess it's economically feasible because they're using mostly reprint material anyway? 40,000 is a decent number for a direct market title these days. But in terms of mainstream non-direct-market success? People are bragging about these sales??? 40,000 is nothing in the real world of magazines.
And that's not even getting into how abysmally Archie has done in the direct market, with the exception of Afterlife with Archie, which has done okay but isn't setting the charts on fire.
I've liked the handful of Archie comics I've read over the last few years. I especially liked the free Afterlife with Archie #1 that I read on Halloween. And I'll very possibly check out the first issue of the new revamp to see what Waid and Staples do with it. But as far as pretending that Archie has been carrying the torch to reach new readers in territories where other comics can't go? I'm not buying it. It all sounds like propaganda spin to me: the company still trying to pretend that it's more popular and relevant than it actually is. In actuality, the numbers just aren't there. I bet most of those 40,000 copies of reprint digests go to baby boomers who pick it up casually the same way they used to. That's nice that things like that are still happening in our culture, barely, but it seems silly to celebrate it since it's all obviously in decline and is a shadow of its former mainstream self.
THIS is the worst thing ever:
Actually, I REALLY liked Afterlife with Archie, and the Waid/Staples looks interesting.
I do however plan to get the next tpb of Afterlife with Archie so I'm not completely put off by the modern take either.
I still see them in grocery stores, drug stores, and book stores in my area. Sometimes they're placed on the magazine rack instead of up front by the register, but they're in the stores. And they still make money, though not as much as they used to. Just a few years back, they put a year-or-so-long hiatus on commissioning new stories for the digests. They used inventory stories and more reprinted material to make up the difference.
You mentioned Archie in the direct market, and I think it should be pointed out that Archie has always had to fight for any type of presence in comic book shops. While more shops these days have kids' sections, there has always been a bias against humor titles and kids’ titles in the direct market. Put the two together and forget it. You can argue over whether that's the fault of the comic shop owners and/or their clientele or just the nature of the business, but the fact remains. I know the shop I worked at and still shop at has carried very little in the way of Archie over the years, outside of Sonic. Now they’re stocking multiple Archie titles, and they even had to reorder the first three of four issues of Afterlife because they sold out so quickly.
What Archie is doing now with their standard comics is trying to overcome those old biases and provide content that will be stocked and sold in the direct market. And as far as I can tell, they're have more success with this approach than with any of their past efforts. Seems like that’s worthy of a little celebration.