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Now that the Darkwing Duck and Uncle Scrooge / Ducktales comics are being released, I went on to look for more information on the Disney comics books, out of curiosity.
And it seems the situation is...desastrous in the USA. I honestly had NO idea it was THAT bad...(remember, I don't live there)

First, the publisher of the classic Disney comics (Mickey Mouse & Friends, Uncle Scrooge, ...) Gladstone went out of business in 1999, and another company Gemstone, was then given the licence to release the Disney titles in 2003. Which made a 4 YEARS gap in distribution of these comics, which had never happened before! Yes, 4 years without any Disney comics

Second, the same happened to Gemstone recently which stopped publishing Disney books in Novembre 2008, but Boom! Studios was given the licence in . (I didn't know them only a few months ago...now I do!) At least Disney was more reactive this time, so there wasn't the same gap...

BUT, these are some recent sales figures for the comics released in the USA :

http://dcf.outducks.org/viewtopic.php?id=590

Not only will you notice that the top is crowded with super-heroes stuff (which I expected, but still...:O ), but the Disney classics are selling around 5000 copies each month, and the Pixar/Disney "new" series around 1000 copies each month.

1000.........
.....
..
.
.
You've got to be kidding me.

1000 COPIES, when there are 300 MILLIONS of people living in the USA??? (My fansites attract more visitors than this each day...) I would have thought that the Disney comics would sell something like...1 000 000 each week!

To me, EVEN the "popular" DC/Marvel stuff are doing very poorly. The best one is doing 100 000...yes, the TOP 1# is only bought by 0.03% of the whole population of the US!!! Compared to the DVD sales, or video games sales, that's plain...disastrous. Especially when you compare the price of a comic book to a video game.

All this comes at a complete surprise to me, as I live in France and here, the Disney comics are the most popular ones. They are sold in many places, and I have been a HUGE reader of Disney comics myself when I was 7 to 13. I had almost filled up an entire room with comics books at my parents, in fact...
And it seems they STILL are selling well. According to the French publisher, the 5 most popular Disney comics are selling around 100.000 copies each week in France, with around 1 000 000 readers. (yes, you read that right...) : http://www.dhpregie.com/



See?

Not only this, but in the USA, the sales are steadily decreasing...look at the sales figures again, and compare each month...it's getting worse and worse.

Now, Disney is trying to lean towards digital distribution, which is a VERY good idea IMO. But so far, they release their comics only on I-phone and Sony PSP. I'm really NOT sure that kids do have I-Phones and PSPs...I would have targeted the Nintendo DS, the Wii or just home computers/PC instead. IMO that would ensure much more success.

In any case, NOW I understand why Boom! is trying to find new ways to sell more comics books. I DO understand the reasons behind the Darkwing Duck comics and the attempt to change the Uncle Scrooge to Ducktales to move the sales. Though, it's more an attempt that will attract nostalgic readers, than getting new readers (even though I certainly hope so!!!)
But in that situation, I honestly don't think they'll survive for very long.

(That also makes me think that they really have nothing to fear from doing a Tale Spin Comic book, I bet it would easily sell 1000 copies at the VERY least...Heck, I think I could even buy 100 copies myself if it helps, lol)

So, to summarize that...it seems there's something rotten on the "classic" part of Disney And them buying Pixar or Marvel will surely not arrange that. (but I understand better their reasons though...) Gosh, I really hope Epic Mickey will help change that...

Wowzer! I can't believe this!? My husband is a total comic book freak. I cannot tell you how many he has! His idea of a great date night is going to the local comic book store. He is not the only person I know INCERDIBLY interested in comics. Maybe there is just more trade of the older comics going on than the newer ones being bought.

And what was bound to happen is happening.

http://newsandviewsbychrisbarat.blogspo ... anned.html

Only the beginning...

Is everything cancelling? I went up to our local Comic Book Store to buy the DarkWing Duck comics and they were all sold out? Of course that is just one comic store.

Me too! My local comic book store has sold out twice! Of course, they only stocked a small number (~25 total), but still. I plan to go tomorrow after class to try to pick up a copy or two.

But yeah, comics aren't that popular here in the US because kids are lazy and don't like to read. Also, the Internet has made it so easy to get things for free it makes the act of paying for something seem crazy. I think an idea I had for a business model for the music industry could work for the comics industry. (And many others.)

I like many artists and types of of music, so many in fact that there's absolutely no way I could afford to buy them all, so I pirate them instead. If I was a millionaire (or billionaire) I would buy them. The music industry seems to think that a person should have money before they are allowed to enjoy the music. I disagree with that idea. I think all musicians and artists, etc should provide the media in a digital format for free download so that underprivileged peoples' lives can still be enriched. An inexpensive, no-frills physical copy could be provided for people who want a hard copy. (Like a CD in a paper or cardboard sleeve for about $3.) Additionally, a collectors' edition could be produced for the fans that order them. (Like a CD in a very nice hard cloth or leather case for ~$35. Possibly with other frills like a music video DVD with special features and personalization like the customer's name engraved on the case.)

The idea is for CDs but could easily be used with any media that can exist both digitally and physically.

In this way, a poor college student like me could download the movie/music/game/whatever for free initially. When they get their first entry level job and have a little money to spend on nonessentials, they could go for the economic $3 disc. Once the person moves up the ladder of success and has plenty of money, then they could buy the collectors' edition disc or book.

I haven't accounted for all the details, but I think the basic idea could work.

Your theory is flawed. I, myself pirate music, but once I start working (very soon I hope), I will start buying songs from iTunes. One song costs a dollar or two for god's sake. An album costs around 10 bucks. It's not that expensive. Another problem is that the iTunes Store was not available in my country.
If you're an indy musician, sure, release your music for free. But when you're a recording artist and your album and songs cost a lot to make, then you have every right to ask for a price to paid for your work.

Well currently, I think the biggest problem with Disney comics (in the US) is that they're not available in a large scale. Apparently, only specialized comics books sell them, while they would do much better if they were sold in supermarkets (like Walmart?)
And they would ALSO sell better if they released them digitally. So far, it seems they're experimenting that in some countries, but again, that's not a very large scale. (they should allow to sell them on computers, not only IPad/Iphone and not only in several countries)