Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics | Tagged: dan buckley, wednesday warriors
Marvel President Dan Buckley said “We have to find a way to get people in the habit of going to the stores more”
Article Summary
- Marvel aims to revive the tradition of weekly comic store visits.
- DC Comics intends to return to Wednesday releases, aligning with Marvel.
- Marvel’s Dan Buckley highlights the drop in frequent store visits and browsing.
- New Marvel tactics may include weekly incentives and serialized stories.
Talking to ICV2, Marvel President Dan Buckley laid out gameplay for Marvel and the direct market side of the comic book industry, saying, “We have to find a way to get people in the habit of going to the stores more: let’s get the Wednesday Warriors back.”
Traditionally, new comic books have been published on Wednesday though of late, DC Comics has moved to Tuesdays when they switched from Diamond to Lunar Comics Distribution. At the ComicsPRO Summit earlier in the month, DC Comics recommitted to Wednesday again.
Dan Buckley looked at another change in consumer buying practices. He said “I do think a lot of those people are still shopping in stores, but they’re not browsing as much. What we’re hearing is that people aren’t coming in every week. They’re coming in every two, three, four weeks, picking up their bundles.”
Which means Marvel wants something to change, to encourage frequency of attendance and frequency of an opportunity to buy something. Buckley says “We have to get them to start coming to the store more often, start browsing more often. Yes, we have to get new readers in there, but we have to get the ones that have been habitual readers, or are lapsed readers, to come into the stores more often than they are.”
What might that be? The details are scarce. Certainly, recent issues of Spider-Woman or Blood Hunt, have demanded to be read or bought in the week of purchase. But might some weekly attendance reward be in order? Might the weekly serialisation of the upcoming Weapon X-Traction, starring Deadpool and Wolverine, running across eight Marvel comics this summer in special backup stories timed for the release of the Deadpool & Wolverine/Deadpool III movie this July help? Weapon X-Traction will begin in July’s Incredible Hulk #14, and the additional pages will be added with no increase on each issue’s price.
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