The Four Color Media Monitor

In a further confirmation that DC's falling back on a step that signals more cost-cutting than success, IGN's reported that more of these half-page advertisements of yesteryear look to be turning up in DC's pages:

At the end of May, it was revealed that DC Comics would be putting Twix ads on story pages in all of their June comics, which earned the ire of the comics community and created the hashtag of a lifetime, #TwixGate. Ads have been part of comics since the beginning, and it's not uncommon for 10 full-page ads to be found in your standard Marvel or DC comic these days, but for many, putting the ads on the same page as the story crossed a line.

Even in the olden days, it's not we all wanted ads halving the panels above them, and while the stories 50 years ago were far better than DC's output today, I'm sure quality would've been even better without the ads on the same page as the panels. Returning to the approach so many years after both DC and Marvel did away with them only attests to their financial situation, which they brought upon themselves via so much awful storytelling accumulated since the 90s. Let's also remember the prices of 4 dollars today.

...After some fans expressed that they didn't want to buy DC's comics because of the ads, [Greg] Capullo tweeted that readers shouldn't punish the creators because of ads that are out of their control. [...]

Ahem. Their scriptwriting - and sometimes the artwork - has not been worth reading in a long time, so a sensible audience won't be punishing them for ads. Rather, they'll be punishing them for bad writing and artwork, not to mention foisting crossovers on the reader that cost a lot of money and take away any chance of stand-alone storytelling. Why are they surprised it's reached this point after all the horrid steps they've taken?

But advertising is how the comics are made possible, and so on the other side of the coin is DC Comics Co-Pubilsher Dan Didio, who we talked to in a different interview. He thinks the on-page ads are a compliment to the material and they will help DC monetize the steadily-growing digital market.

"The idea that we have ads in our print books is a testament to the strength of our material. The fact that so much of advertising has migrated out of print over to digital and the fact that we're able to rebuild some of that back in our books I think is a strength of what we do," Didio said.

This is a curious statement given that the infamous Twix ads do not appear in any DC digital comics out in June so far -- the non-intrusive "DC You" ads at the end are the only ones to be found. It's possible that the print version was an experiment that, if successful, will mean ads in your digital books, too. Indeed, when we asked if DC would continue on-page advertising, his answer was a tad ambiguous but read as a yes.

"We are in the business to have ads in our books," he said. "We've always been the best with ads in our books, and now we have companies interested in buying ads in books. So I think that's a good thing."

Didio understands that ads can be annoying, but he has faith that the stories DC produces will make it worth it to readers.

Did he have faith in his own occasional writing efforts a few years ago? Because much of the audience certainly didn't, and whatever books he wrote, like a few issues of Outsiders, sold very few copies. They already have so many pretentious writers working for them, along with formerly talented who're now nothing more than yes-men, that they only succeeded in alienating much of the readership. Whatever he said about their digital products suggests the computerized platform isn't doing very well, and they need more money to keep it afloat. This is just another example of the slow plummet taken by a company that's been taken over by uncaring people.

And I never liked the Twix candies. I once tried eating them and they nearly broke my teeth with their hard material. If they think they've got themselves a good source for advertising, they are mistaken.

Labels: bad editors, dc comics, sales