Direct market or newsstand distribution for Philippine Comics?

The direct market of mainstream comics distribution in the U.S. may not be selling as much due to high cover prices, severe reduction in number of comics specialty shops and the distribution business monopolized by only one comics distributor: Diamond Distributors, but it is a relief to know that there are some mainstream comics titles that are NOT sold in the direct market and, are doing better. We find them, of all places, in the newsstand market.

We are talking about the “Archie” mainstream comics line. From the “Comics worth reading” blog by Johanna Draper Carlson and friends (at http://comicsworthreading.com/2008/01/20/archie-sales-figures/) we find that Archie Comics is the only major mainstream comics publisher that still publishes its Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation, a U.S. post office requirement for the use of certain mail classes. This public disclosure is the primary source of circulation information for Archie.

The Archie comics line publishes two types of comics formats for the newsstand market: 32 page single issues (i.e., Archie, Archie and Friends, Betty, Betty and Veronica, Betty and Veronica Spectacular, Jughead, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Sonic the Hedgedog) and the thick 96 to 192 page digest format issues (i.e., Archie Digest, Archie Double Digest, Archie’s Pals and Gals Double Digest, Betty and Veronica Digest, Jughead and Friends Digest, Jughead’s Double Digest, and Tales from Riverdale Digest).

As of February, 2008, the circulation of Archie single issues nearest filing date are: Sonic the Hedgedog (34,696 copies), Archie (28,885 copies), Betty and Veronica (18,083 copies), Betty (13, 295 copies), Archie and Friends (13,143 copies), Jughead (12,319 copies), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (12,029) and Betty and Veronica Spectacular (11,457 copies).

The circulation numbers for the Archie single issues approximate the best-selling DC and Marvel comics titles distributed by Diamond in the direct market. However, when we look at the circulation figures nearest filing date for the Archie Double Digests, we see them doing better than the single issues: Betty and Veronica Double Digest (108,354 copies), Archie’s Double Digest (104,056 copies), Archie’s Pals and Gals Double Digest (98,753 copies), Archie Digest (96,788 copies), Jughead’s Double Digest (91,261 copies), Betty and Veronica Digest (61,628 copies), Tales From Riverdale Digest (59,486), and Jughead and Friends Digest (48,842 copies).

Draper Carlson and friends make the following observation and explanation of why this is so:

“As expected, the digests do better than the comic-format titles, and the bigger books are more popular than the smaller. Digests are 96 pages for $2.59; double digests are 192 for $3.69, making them the best deal out there in newsstand comics, especially now that DC and Marvel are pushing the $3.99 barrier (for 32 pages, usually with “upgraded” cover). The top-selling digest sells roughly three times the top-selling comic, and in issues, Sonic sells 6-7,000 more than the top Archie book.” (Emphasis Ours)

One will also note that unlike the highly specialized and expensive mainstream comics of the direct market, the ARCHIE comics line are still printed in “cheap” newsprint paper, contain really amusing storylines for their type of audience, do not have fancy computer colored covers or interiors, contain reprints, are ubiquitous and are reasonably low-priced. Add to this the fact that ARCHIE’s comics line are distributed mostly in newsstands, drugstores, supermarkets, toy stores, gas stations, transport terminals and other high traffic commercial establishments in the U.S. that are not closed clubhouse hangouts for comic geeks, and you have a successful comics publishing business unaffected by the now shrunk direct market, or the rise of alternative electronic and interactive entertainment media.

Is it not any wonder then that the Archie comics digests are America’s possible answer to the best-selling, reasonably priced or “cheap”, book formatted, and widely distributed Japanese Shonen and Shojo manga?

There is hope beyond the self-enclosed direct market. To survive, mainstream comics publishers have aggressively entered the U.S. bookstore market by reprinting their single issue comics formats into expensive trade paperback compilations being passed off as respectable “graphic novels”. And as shown in the previous entry, their foray into this new distribution channel has resulted in a $375 million graphic novel market, outpacing the slow moving Japanese manga. The circulation of these trade paperbacks is still unknown, but with their high prices it can be reasonably, if not safely, assumed where the $375 million increase came from.

But seeing as how mainstream comics publishers, particularly Marvel and DC, have been known to ultimately destroy their distribution systems, i.e., the newsstands in the 1970s and the direct market in the 1990s, is it not too farfetched to consider the same fate happening again in this new bookstore distribution system? Many seem to think so.

These publishers also face the predicament that the newsstand market still adheres to the dreaded Comics Code Authority requiring comics publications to be “wholesome” and “family friendly” like Archie’s comics line.

By going into the direct market in the 1980s and ignoring the Comics Code Authority, mainstream comics publishers have ventured into writing more intelligent and challenging material for their niche’ audience of older, hardcore comics enthusiasts. The material however, would be considered inappropriate and sometimes offensive when brought into the conservative newsstand market that still adheres to the Comics Code Authority.

Yet, there have been attempts to re-enter the newsstands as shown by the “wholesome” newsprint single issues of DC and Marvel’s cartoon shows and child versions of their superhero characters, i.e., Marvel Adventures, X-Men, Superman Adventures, Batman the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, The Batman, Superfriends, Supergirl, Justice League Unlimited, Spider-Man, Krypto the Super Dog, Looney Tunes and Legion of Super Heroes. The re-entry has been slow, cautious, and the word is still out on the results of this maneuver.

Meanwhile, in the backwaters of the Philippine comics scene, so-called “indie” or "globalized" male dominated comics creators still emulate the American direct market distribution model. Expensive, mostly in English, using high priced book or glossy paper, low circulation, essentially following stereotype superhero, action or fantasy concepts and storylines of U.S. and Japanese mainstream cartoons and comics, focusing mostly in the illustrative aspects of the medium, Pinoy globalized "indies" sell their wares in the few handful of imported comics specialty shops in Manila, an annual “Komikon” held in an ivory tower University, 200 or so branches of National Bookstore, a few high end book and magazine shops, and college/ university stores. Many doubt whether sales of these “indie” globalized Filipino comics publications actually provide some livelihood to the establishments selling them. But the “indie” elitist creators do not care. They’re not businessmen. They’re “artists”. They just “love” what they do and that’s all that matters. To hell with reciprocity.

At a time when we do not have a local comics code authority like the Roces managed KPPKP Code regulating the creation of comics works, when our local newsstands are boringly dominated by newspapers and songhits magazines, the opportunity to create new, indigenous, exciting pieces of comics literature affordable to a great many people is set aside by “indies” and narrow-minded publishers for reasons of artistic ego and a perceived quick buck in the high-end niche’ market.

Has an industry risen in the last 15 years since the westernized “indie” comics came to the fore? Some seem to think so but many doubt the claim when we compare their paltry achievements with what was accomplished by a local comics industry of yesteryear.

Why their aversion to the newsstand market? Why their reluctance to print their black and white works of art in newsprint? Why their seeming inability to write in Tagalog and be original for a change? Why their seeming ignorance of the fact that with the great sum expended by them in the printing of an issue of their expensive black and white book paper comics, they could get two issues of that in newsprint, and in color from some newspaper printers open to sub-contracting work? Why their reluctance to actually “work” and be serious in putting out their product on schedule without compromising its quality? Why this seeming lackadaisical, laid-back bohemian attitude?

The problem, it seems, is not the prevalence of television, the internet, radio, cellphones or a depressed economy. It is a question of priorities, orientation, competence and the will to actively create a local comics industry which is sadly not part of the agenda of the players in this present vacuum of creative activity they inhabit.