10,000 dopes

From THE BEAT:

RETAILERS FEAR THE FUTURE: Comics sales were more or less stable for 2004, and yet failed to really grow. It’s gotten to the point where you wonder if ANYTHING can lift the LCS system.

Mainstream media attention? Check. Blockbuster movies? Check. Strong product shipping on time? Check.

Perhaps the problem with the LCS is what I call the “10,000 dopes syndrome.”

I base the 10,000 dopes figure on the sales for POWERS when it switched from Image to Marvel. Same interior. Same creators. Same regular shipping schedule. But it sells 10,000 more of every issue.

Now you could say that Marvel has more reach in the market place. But in theory, Marvel and Image have exactly equal exposure to the LCS system. Certainly Brian Michael Bendis is a known and loved quantity.

So maybe retailers don't even look outside the little Marvel catalog that ships with Previews? Or they know that 10,000 readers think the name Marvel is so all powerful that it automatically makes a comic good? I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's bad news. Very bad news .