DC Comics All In: How Writer Scott Snyder Manufactured A Hit Comic Book
There's never been a marketing campaign like this in DC Comics history, and Scott Snyder is showing the comic industry how to survive.
DC Comics has a legitimate hit on its hand with DC All In Special and Absolute Batman #1 as a follow-up. It’s something the comic book company hasn’t had in a long time, and it appears to be changing the model of what traditional creators have to do to be successful; Scott Snyder is showing the way.
For independent creators, “you get what you give” is a motto many live by. Whether it’s a comic shop model or putting a book on Kickstarter, those creators often put more work into promoting the product than the creation of the book, making it a full-time job to get good at marketing in addition to other talents, something creatives are notoriously bad at.
In traditional publishing and corporate comics, creators have relied on the IPs to sell themselves and let the companies do the hard work for them. Marvel and DC set up panels at comic conventions blast out their promotional materials, and creators may give a few tweets about the work coming out, but on average, they don’t do much promoting.
When DC All In was first announced, it was meant to be just that—they’re all in. All the chips are on the table, and according to sources inside the company, they have no ideas after this. And when the announcement came about, it looked like just another event that was going to hardly move the needle for the comic book giant.
Over the last several years, DC Comics has killed its brand with countless reboots, poor continuity care, and a focus on identity politics, which has caused many readers to walk away. Batman titles are pretty much the only thing that sells, which is why more and more comics simply put Batman on the cover rather than trying to do anything else. This has caused a problem for the countless other IPs DC Comics has.
They also have a talent problem, as most superstar writers at this point aren’t willing to create for DC Comics since they won’t get much on the back end for their creations. If they do, they often phone in their work to provide less-than-optimum stories for the company.
With the All In relaunch, it looked to be much the same. Initial sales numbers were not nearly what they projected, and DC Comics feared they’d have another failure.
Enter Scott Snyder, writer and architect of the Absolute Universe and DC All In. Once those initial numbers came in, Snyder went into overdrive, making quick videos, posting constantly about titles, and drumming up interest. A promotional campaign like this has never existed within mainstream comics from a creator.
With his hard work, he drove Absolute Batman sales from something that was in the acceptable range, urging fans to pre-order the books up until the last cut-off date, to a book that sold over 250,000 copies as of a week ago, and reports show it sold out its second printing even prior to the first printing’s release.
It’s a new model showing the way for creators to build their hype for their books, which independents have done for a long time but mainstream professionals have shied away from. In the modern internet era, it’s necessary, and if Scott Snyder can keep up the momentum, he might be able to create a lasting impact at DC Comics.
It also helps that the DC All-In Special was a high-quality book, which generates interest and serves as a great introduction to the brand—something we haven’t seen from DC Comics in a long time. Still, marketing is the magic, and seeing how long this lasts will be interesting.
What do you think of Scott Snyder's push for marketing for DC Comics All In and Absolute Batman to change the industry? Leave a comment and let us know.
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