See You in the Funny Pages

“They're bringing comic books back! Are these reprints?”

Those were the kinds of remarks Jerry Magner heard at August's New York International Gift Fair. But Magner, who is director of business development at Diamond Select Gifts, a division of Diamond Comic Distributors Inc., Timonium, Maryland, knows comic books never left. As glossy magazines proliferated, most supermarkets, newsstands, and drug stores did stop selling them, yet comics flourished in specialty stores that attracted the kind of dedicated fans (mostly men age 18 to 34) who might want every issue of the Ultimate X-men, or be willing to spend $300 on replicas. In other words, collectors.

Diamond's August test market found strong interest among gift retailers. So starting this month, the company is launching a full program in the gift sector, providing participating retailers with a choice of merchandisers that offer family-friendly titles. These “Family Comics Centers” will highlight comics' cross-merchandising potential, displaying comic books and graphic novels next to action figures and other tie-in merchandise.

While classic properties like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Archie, and Spiderman still flourish thanks to TV, mo-vies, and licensed merchandise, the comic books themselves have languished as specialty comic shops go after edgier material to attract adult male collectors. As a result, comics are no longer reaching the audience they were created for: kids. To that end, Diamond decided to take classic comics where the moms are — specialty gift stores.

“We're bringing a product that appeals to moms, kids, and grandmas to the place they shop,” says Magner.

The conventional wisdom has been that licensed tie-in merchandise such as action figures, collectible figurines, and even decorative accessories are too closely linked to new movie releases to be a viable market for specialty retailers. After all, tie-ins require retailers to spend cash on spec, because if they don't have the product when they movie debuts, they'll miss the merchandising window. And if the film bombs at the box office, retailers can get stuck with bad merchandise.

But there's another category of pop culture concepts whose evergreen fan base can last more than 40 years. These are the “cult” properties. Comic character favorites are high on that list, but they're not alone — there's also what's often referred to as cult movies, TV shows, or bands (such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Star Trek, and Phish). Once considered the province of a nerdy minority, these days consumers with extensive, highly specific pop culture knowledge are viewed as normal and even cool.

“I wouldn't call it pop culture, I'd just call it culture,” says Magner. “These characters have become part of society. You used to have a Spiderman comic book — now you have Spiderman clothes and movies, as well as TV shows and toys and mugs.”

The trend toward retro pop culture is most visible in fashion, which features logos of everything from Atari to classic rock to vintage advertising. And continuing strong sales of licensed merchandise from the '80s and '90s, including the brands of long-ago cancelled television shows such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reflect consumers' nostalgia for lately lost pop culture phenomena. Star Wars is today's Mickey Mouse — just as iconic, just as evergreen, and just as steady a seller. The Discovery Channel is even producing a new series called Pop Nation: America's Coolest Stuff, which brings an Antiques Road Show appraisal model to assessing the value of 1960s–'90s era collectible movie posters, record albums, and, yes, comic books.

Lee Dawson, publicist for Dark Horse Comics, Milwaukee, Oregon, explains what gives a product good crossover potential: “It has to have a broader appeal. It doesn't have to be as broad as, say, Snoopy, but there has to be a larger awareness.” Dawson's examples include Dark Horse's Tim Burton toys and Weta workshop collectibles based on films from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to King Kong.

“You've got the literary crowd, the fantasy crowd, horror movie buffs, people who love movie icons, and Peter Jackson fans,” notes Dawson. “You can find these products in a specialty comic store. But you can also find them in Tower Records.”

Dawson says Dark Horse has no “grand plans” to target the gift market with comic books. However, the company's been exhibiting selected portions of its line, especially stationery merchandise, at gift shows for years.

For gift retailers whose collectibles sales are shrinking, broadening the collectible selection to include pop culture items has the potential to appeal to a lot of Baby Boomers, and even more Gen Xers. After all, they already collect this stuff, albeit in a different manner than their predecessors. EBay research shows that an emotional connection to a theme is particularly important to younger collectors — and what better connection is there than the stories and icons that shaped their youth?

Pop culture products are not necessarily low-end, either. Though usually made of resin rather than porcelain, the quality of sculpture, workmanship, and materials are impressive. And in many cases, the marketing system of limited editions, artist proofs, signings, and exclusives are already in place.

Perhaps most important, these products make good gifts for men, and can bring the dollars of mothers, wives, and girlfriends into a gift shop, rather than the consumer electronics chain down the street.

Says Magner, “Our core market is the comic book store, where the majority of purchases are self-made by [male] collectors. What we're doing is exposing the [female] gift-giving consumer to this product.”

Comics and pop culture collectibles have the potential to bring the elusive male shopper into a gift store as well. And because they're affordable, available, and have a strong emotional appeal, they make great starter collectibles for kids.

This kind of merchandise gives gift stores a chance to start their collectors young, and tie-in merchandise from impulse to high-end price points will help grab the new generation of adult collectors — the ones who don't think being a grown-up is any reason to stop playing.

The comic book market is larger than most people realize, with comic shops selling more than $325 million in comic books and longer, “graphic” novels in 2004. Adding tie-ins such as action figures and statues brings the retail total to $550 million, according to Elissa Lynch, spokesperson for Diamond. But those stores reach deep, not wide. In fact, says Jerry Magner, outside the comic book channel, the general consumer has forgotten about comics.

But there are plenty of reasons why gift retailers should consider carrying comics and comic-related merchandise. Foremost is the ready-made audience for a product that people remember fondly and can't find elsewhere. That's a better bet than trying to build demand from scratch.

As for tie-in merchandise, the industry is already geared to preserve the distinction between mass market and specialty retail, so gift stores won't have to worry about competition from the big boxes. “For the most part, licensing restrictions don't allow us to sell these items into the mass market,” says Magner. “Nearly all the items [in Diamond's gift sector program] aren't available anywhere except comic book stores — and now in the gift industry.”

Comic books also create repeat customers, with frequent new issues bringing collectors back to your store. In addition, comics promote reading (exactly the kind of education-friendly gift that specialty store customers value), and their low price points allow for self-purchase by kids.