Friday, August 18, 2006
A Personality Quiz You'll Never See in Cosmo
David Welsh has a great post today about how a publisher's corporate personality can impact a consumer's perception of their product. Logically, I know that the former shouldn't necessarily affect the latter (except in extreme cases where corporate philosophy is very top-down, as in the Bill Jemas era) -- that the work should be able to stand on its own merits, independent of the attitudes and atmosphere surrounding the creation and promotion of said work -- but I also know that a publisher's antics do influence how I view their books. With that in mind, I decided to attempt to uncover my feelings about various publishers and catalog them as honestly as I could. Here's what I came up with:
Granted, this is just a first pass based on my current impressions. Perhaps with more thought and additional refinement (not to mention input from others), this "Publisher Personality Profile" chart could become the basis for a new Internet fad: Which Comic Book Publisher Are You? (I'd say I'm some sort of mix between DC and Drawn & Quarterly, but that might just be my inner Tokyopop talking.) 11:12 AM | |
David Welsh has a great post today about how a publisher's corporate personality can impact a consumer's perception of their product. Logically, I know that the former shouldn't necessarily affect the latter (except in extreme cases where corporate philosophy is very top-down, as in the Bill Jemas era) -- that the work should be able to stand on its own merits, independent of the attitudes and atmosphere surrounding the creation and promotion of said work -- but I also know that a publisher's antics do influence how I view their books. With that in mind, I decided to attempt to uncover my feelings about various publishers and catalog them as honestly as I could. Here's what I came up with:
Comic Book Publishers: A Field Guide to Understanding Their Quirks and Complications
| Publisher | Typical Behavior | Overall Impression Created |
| DC | - Is it Monday? Time for a new creative team and/or reboot/relaunch of our entire superhero universe! - We just know this beloved character who has never been able to attract an audience will finally succeed this time - But we also have Vertigo, CMX, and Wildstorm | Strangely ambivalent about own rich history: sometimes proud of quirky characters, embracing their inherent goofiness; sometimes attempt to cover up embarrassment over silly characters by changing everything about them except name (bipolar / manic-depressive?) Compartmentalizes. |
| Marvel | - Endless announcements of upcoming and/or delayed projects, always involving excessive, near-delusional hype - Announcements of exclusive creator contracts - Subtle digs at their main competitor, followed by some insincere praise for same competitor - Underlying tone of hostility toward fanbase | Arrogant; narcissistic; possessive; bully |
| Dark Horse | - Very little in the way of hype - Also very little in the way of updates: Cancellations or delays only discovered when online retailers inform me that my order will be delayed | Uncommunicative; aloof; mysterious; unreliable |
| Tokyopop | - Barrage of press announcements bragging about latest innovation that will transform the industry that week - Redesigned website hoping to catch some of that MySpace buzz | Insecure: needs to exaggerate own accomplishments while also copying what it sees as "hot trends" |
| Viz | - Dominates Bookscan charts - Lets others report on the fact that they dominate sales charts | Quiet performer secure in own abilities |
| Drawn & Quarterly | - Announces intriguing-sounding projects that are neither too artsy nor too low-brow, but work never materializes; consumer wonders, "Did I just imagine that project?"; finally, work does show up years later (but looking beautiful) after audience has forgotten about it | Perfectionist |
| Fantagraphics | - Experiments with formats and content - Occasionally rages against stupidity of rest of industry | Unpredictable; challenging |
| First Second | - Sends out dozens (hundreds?) of comp copies to blogosphere to promote initial launch - Works in small, manageable bursts | Confident and generous; professional |
Granted, this is just a first pass based on my current impressions. Perhaps with more thought and additional refinement (not to mention input from others), this "Publisher Personality Profile" chart could become the basis for a new Internet fad: Which Comic Book Publisher Are You? (I'd say I'm some sort of mix between DC and Drawn & Quarterly, but that might just be my inner Tokyopop talking.) 11:12 AM | |