Well, this is just upsetting. Pardon me while I report and rant a bit.
As reported at Bleeding Cool, as of today, issue 8 of the Image anthology book will be the last, out in January — despite solicits going through to February. Some of the stories that have appeared in the book so far will be collected as one-shots, while those that had yet to come will be retooled potentially for Kickstarters.
As explained by co-creator Jimmy Palmiotti,
First, I think the idea that people thought they were getting fewer comics in the book since there were so many articles and interviews when in fact there was the same amount of comic pages, if not more, each month. I was told that new characters cannot work in an anthology format, I was told the names involved were not big enough, how the logo didn’t work and how there were to many articles and so on. We took all these comments to heart and as you look at each and every issue, you see that we moved the logo, shrunk the logo, added comic pages, moved the placement , added new talent, and so on. Some very generous pros gave me advice and others told me the book would never find an audience because the big two companies are putting out too much product, ect. The reasons go on and on and I am sure the posts after this piece will show what each person thought killed the book. It will be a variety for sure. Creator-Owned heroes is something Steve, Justin and I thought would be a fun change from a quick 22 page read and we felt since so many people enjoyed and wanted to make comics, that we would offer advice and insight into the process as well in the book. In the end, it was a failed experiment that we are really proud of. If people wanted it, it would have sold more…and if it only sold a few thousand more per issue…we would have had this going for years, but even adding bigger names didn’t help…so in the end we figured we would do better just putting our energy into other projects.
While this is touched upon in the BC article, it would appear that anthology comics just don’t have the same market that they do in the US versus what they do overseas. Despite the talent on the book, despite Darwyn Cooke joining in the last issue and having a story featured in today’s, it still can’t sell even close to something like “Before Watchmen: Minutemen.” That statement boggles my mind; not as a disparaging remark towards the quality of “BW” (which I admittedly have not read a single issue of), but “Minutemen” sold over 50,000 units in October. Why wouldn’t fans of that series not check out Cooke’s other work currently be released? Where are the people who praise Palmiotti/Gray’s work in “All Star Western,” or anyone who has ever read a Steve Niles comic before? Steve Niles.
It would seem the most prevalent answer is that it’s because we’re given shorts instead of a full comic, but that’s not true. “Dark Horse Presents” does alright. Vertigo publishes anthologies every other month. Marvel’s Point One issue sold well enough to do a sequel of sorts. It’s more than the fact that this was an anthology that caused it not to sell and we all know that: “Creator-Owned Heroes'” cancellation happened because the belief we have of the current comic climate is false, and it’s nobody’s fault but our own.
Bear with me.
I say this with no inherent disdain, but Marvel and DC both are doing a great job of flooding the market with titles, with DC insisting on 52 books and Marvel double-shipping regularly. Everything is a can’t-miss relaunch with all-star creative teams that changes the face of everything we’ve ever known about life, the universe and everything. Events! Crossovers! Your favorite writer working with your favorite character!! It’s an up-hill battle for everyone else, and we all help feed into this aspect of comics (even me, with my copy of “Avengers” #1 sitting next to me on my desk right now).
Continued belowDon’t get me wrong: I’m not saying this is bad. Most of us came to comics through X-Men and Batman, right? I like Spider-Man, and there is probably very little in this world that could happen to prevent me from wanting to buy Spider-Man, including the character having his mind replaced with a villain’s.
But, and maybe this is just me, 2012 was supposed to be The Year Of The Creator, wasn’t it? We at MC called it that when we named Image the Publisher of 2011 in our Best Of… articles last year, but we’re not the only ones; CBR ran a “Year of the Creator” article in January and I can’t even begin to link all the people making that remark on Twitter throughout 2012. And given the budgets people are assuredly on, a gamble like “COH” is just that: a gamble. Why buy something like this, with shorter bursts of content and characters you don’t know, when you can get a full issue of your favorite characters doing stuff you’re used to?
I’m not sure how often the average person looks into comic sales, but I frequent the Comics Chronicles by John Jackson Miller for sales charts and commentary. It’s a great site, and highly recommended. Just a tertiary glance of the October sales charts posted tells you everything you need to know: Only 1 comic series that is creator-owned made it into the Top 50 selling comics, and a second just barely skated into the Top 100 (those being “Walking Dead” and “Happy” respectively, with “The Walking Dead” very much being the exception to the creator-owned world, not the rule, as it has a high-profile television show). Creator-owned titles become more prevalent the further down you go, but the more of those you see the less Marvel and DC titles you’ll see, because those are busy claiming the top spots. All our favorite creator-owned titles we love to support are selling under 20,000 units outside a few exceptions, and “Creator-Owned Heroes” can barely hit 5,000 hits in September despite debuting in June with almost 13,000 units sold.
And keep in mind that the Marvel and DC titles that do wind up in those lower spots are considered books that don’t sell well enough and are cancelled, whereas that kind of sales numbers can mean a success in terms of a creator-owned title.
The point being: for all the proselytizing people seem to like to do on the internet, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, their blogs, wherever, all in trying to get people to support creator-owned projects, a book titled “Creator-Owned” couldn’t remain sustainable in this market (and if you’re curious why, Jim Zubkavich has an excellent write-up breaking down the economics of it all). That’s the depressing reality of the cancellation, and why this announcement admittedly puts a rather large frown on my face – one large enough to result in me taking the time to write this “we’ve all screwed up” piece. We as a community appear to give our support to this push for different comics, but — and I’m admittedly in a mood here — it just feels like a front, a face the community puts on to “look cool.” It seems people spend more time arguing about whether things like fake geek girls exist or not than they do just helping to publicize the aspects of the industry that need support, and while I support the opposition towards idiotic and elitist behavior — man, wouldn’t it be nice in general to see more discussion of which creator-owned titles are kicking ass that week in between? We’re seemingly so used to accentuating the negative that sometimes we forget to highlight the positive.
These books need more support than they get, more than anything else done in comics right now, because they are literally the future and the homes of non-Ouroboros movements or cheap tricks to boost sales — and they just don’t get them.
Honestly, I’m reminded of when I used to be really “into music” back in high school. I don’t think it’s too unusual to state that I hung around with a crowd that considered itself part of The Scene, and that the bands we liked and the concerts we went to was primarily made up of music that 90% of the population of my average suburban high school didn’t know about. But it would honestly always bug me when a friend would say they loved the new record by The So And So’s, and when I asked to borrow the CD so I could check it out, they’d tell me they just pirated it and that I should do the same. These were the kind of people who would love to shout “support local music!”, but they wouldn’t even buy a CD from a band at a show. (There’s a particular memory of this occuring that still makes me a bit peeved from a Cassino show I can tell you about if you like, but it honestly doesn’t matter.) That’s what this feels like to me: everybody is happy to tweet out things like “support creator-owned comics,” but they still pirate the comic in the meantime. I can’t prove this in any specific instance, mind you, but the low sales numbers certainly don’t hurt that thought.
Continued belowMaybe they’re just bad comics. Maybe I have horrible taste. Or maybe, while this might be a defeatist statement, perhaps we’re not in the creator-owned friendly market so many online like to pretend we are. When names like Niles or Noto or Cooke or Mellon or Palmiotti and Grey aren’t enough to move the book at a sustainable level … well, then clearly something is off.
But still, me sitting here attempting to throw the blame everywhere else doesn’t help, and probably looks a bit silly. Who am I to tell anyone else what to buy? I’m the crazy guy on the soap box with “THE END TIMES ARE NEAR” placard slung over my chest. Yet still, “Creator-Owned Heroes” being cancelled truly and honestly bums me out, perhaps more than any other book I’ve seen relaunched, cancelled or re-purposed in the last year, if only because this seems like a signal fire.
I’ll say it one more time: a book from Image Comics, the most popular creator-owned publisher, with a title featuring both “creator” and “owned” in it, full of extras galore and quality stories and released into a world that pretends to celebrate the idea of creator-owned books could not find an audience and will no longer be with us next year. And I am sad.
But to each his own. I’ve got my issues of the book, and I’ve found each one to be worth more than the cover price easily. With two comics per issue, interviews, recommendations and more, “Creator-Owned Heroes” was a great comic magazine, and I’m happy to have bought it. If they go for a second volume, I’ll happily get that too.
I don’t know. I’m rambling. Pre-order the books you want to see. RIP “Creator-Owned Heroes.”
Check Bleeding Cool for an ending-announcement/exit interview with Palmiotti.
(And, if it helps, I’m particularly excited by the return of “Luther Strode” this week, as well as “Invincible,” new “Hellboy,” “Stumptown,” “Womanthology,” “Storm Dogs,” “Guarding the Globe,” “Colder” and, of course, “Creator-Owned Heroes.”)
