There was a conversation on BlueSky the other week that talked about how Marvel and DC’s back catalog developed differently over the years and their business practices have different strategies to keep things available. DC previously took chances with standalone stories that paid off for them and now are always in print (e.g., Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Kingdom Come). Marvel on the other hand, developed comics in a soap opera subplot style heavy in context that rarely have clean beginning and endings and, wanting to avoid having back stock taking up warehouse space, rarely keep comics in print making it hard to pick up revered stories from the past.
…And just yesterday, Marvel announced a new line of books called “Renown” designed to be kept in print. Timely! (Pun intended.)
If you were in charge of DC, Marvel or any other company, what comics would you have collections of available on every store shelf? What deserves that and what would sell well enough?
Last week, we conversed about human space travelers.
Next week, we’ll converse about families in comics.