Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 17:27:26 -0400 From: [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu] (Metroplex) Subject: FTP 556 ==== FIT TO PRINT by catherine yronwode for the week of January 29, 1996 THIS IS FIT TO PRINT NUMBER 556: All the talk these days is about the cutbacks at Marvel and Diamond, of course. Fans are calling the recent Marvel layoffs "Marvelcution," in honour of the company's over-hyped "Marvelution" ad campaign. This is the same kind of ironic fannish word-play that brought us the term "DC Implosion" many years ago, when DC cut back its line after a much-publicized "DC Explosion" ad campaign. Even though "Marvelcution" is a bit of tongue twister, it will no doubt go down in comics history as the word most often used to describe the 1996 cutback at Marvel. Diamond Distributors, on the other hand, had not previously pumped itself up with a big ad campaign and so it is not susceptible to sarcastic phrase-turning. For that reason, the closure of 2/3 of Diamond's U.S. warehouses is, in fannish terminology, nothing more than "downsizing," a rather lackluster and journalistic description of the bare truth. The official listing of Marvel's cancelled books will be old news by the time this sees print, and i wouldn't want to hash it over anyway, but one thing about the whole sad event is worth noting: To the best recollection of the old-time fans and professionals with whom i have spoken, Marvel has not suffered such a severe setback since 1957. That year, according to those who were there, the line was scaled back so far that many artists left the comic book business entirely for lack of work. It took Marvel about five years to recover from those 1957 layoffs and resume its former level of production. Such a protracted recovery period is unlikely this time, due to the larger amount of capital currently invested in the company, but still, this cutback is not going to be overcome rapidly enough to save the skins of those retailers who depend on a steady flow of Marvel product to keep their cus-tomers happy. Some industry insiders predict that we will lose "up to half" of the retail comic book stores in the United States due to the fact that many fans would rather give up reading comics altogether than switch to DC or one of the many independent publishers. It's not difficult to imagine a number of "Marvel Zombies" dropping out of the comic book hobby when they find their favourite Marvel titles have been cut off. I know what that feels like; i myself refused to buy any new Marvel comics from 1969 through 1973 because Dr. Strange and Sub-Mariner had been cancelled. But fanatics like me are few and far between, and since the best-selling Marvel titles of the current era - the X- and Spider-Books - were unaffected by cancellation, i doubt that many hardcore Marvel Zombies will use the Marvelcution as an excuse to walk away from the publisher they love. No, the real problem is that by cutting away the so-called General Entertainment line - the licensed titles with connections to television and film - Marvel is eliminating the entry-level books from which young fans graduate to full-blown Marvel Zombiehood. It's a short-term dollars-and-cents move that may bring trouble in the end unless rumours i have heard are true, and Marvel is planning to inaugurate a revamped licensed line in the near future. Who, if anyone, stands to gain from the Marvelcution? Well, DC and Image and the rest of the larger publishers will certainly pick up market share and they may even add some new readers. I would like to think that small, long-running independents, such as my own employer, Claypool Comics, and self-publishers, like B. C. Boyer, for whom i freelance as an editor, will also prosper in the brave new world where rack space will go empty unless retailers order books from a variety of publishers. But will retailers up their orders from the indies in the next few months or are they, as some folks have claimed, "the worst Marvel Zombies of all"? Are retailers, as i have been told, "near-suicidally fixated on Marvel as the source of all profits"? Those are questions for which i have no answers. All i know is that if you tell your retailer you intend to buy DC, Image, independent and self-published titles - and ask for them by name - the comic book industry will have a better chance of surviving the Marvelcution with your local store intact. ==== Fit to Print appears in print each week in Comics Buyers Guide and is available via e-mail. Tell your friends! To subscribe to Fit to Print via e-mail send a request with the words "Subscribe FtP" in the subject header and your address in the body of the message to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] You will be added to the list and receive the next available issue. Back issues are available. FTP to nspace.cts.com and look in the Comics/About Comics/Comics News/Fit to Print directory. FtP is also available on the World Wide Web at http://www.scar.utoronto.ca/~91mithra AND http://www2.csn.net/~searls. Responses are welcome and should be directed to [g--l--n] at [bgnet.bgsu.edu.] Fit to Print is Copyright Cathrine Yronwode. All rights reserved.