Via Newsarama, we share with you an open letter to retail partners from IDW’s Chris Ryall. You may remember that management changes, concluding with Ryall’s return to IDW as President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer which we first revealed earlier this month, counted among the reasons that IDW Media Publishing cited for their cash needs in recent disclosures.
The text of the entire letter awaits you below after the read more, so check it out and then discuss on the 2005 boards!
Dear Valued Retail Partners,
The comic industry has always been one of constant change — that’s one of its many strengths – but even I have to admit, this year has been a bit crazy at IDW in that regard.
There have been so many comings and goings and different faces in similar roles, you’d think that we had all entered the Spiderverse. And I fully appreciate that the view from outside these walls was one of “The Order Changeth” fatigue.
Change is always an odd thing, since we all tend to thrive on normalcy. The fact is, though, that sometimes people just move on. But, as Stephen King once wrote, “Sometimes They Come Back.”
When I first joined IDW in 2004 as their second Editor-in-Chief, the company was only two years into its comic-publishing history but five years into its existence. What I learned from the start was that I loved the company: its employees, its properties, its mission, its approach to doing business in a fair, equitable way. It all emphasized my lifelong love of this industry.
In March 2018, after almost fifteen great years here, it felt like time to stretch a bit. Then co-founder Ted Adams decided to take a well-deserved break and President & Publisher Greg Goldstein opted to go see more of the world than is visible between these walls. That was when the chance to return came about, and I realized that as much as I was very happy at Skybound, IDW is my comic-universe family.
So I’m back just as IDW is getting ready to enter its 20th anniversary. Rather than celebrate ourselves, we want 2019 (and the years beyond) to be a celebration of the retail community who is likewise our extended family (to that end, I know Dirk and Joel are your primary and super-helpful points of contact here but I also invite any of you who have questions, concerns, comments, or just wants to talk comics, to e-mail me directly. I’d love to hear from you on what is going well and what we could do better.); a feting of the fans who have supported us all these years; and an honoring of the creators who made so many dreams come to vivid visual life.
Some of the projects I presided over in my near-decade-and-a-half included bringing in Transformers; launching Locke & Key; co-creating Zombies vs Robots; and bringing in a wildly diverse and talented creative pool! For 2019, not only will you see one (or more…!) properties revitalized and multiple fan-favorite creators returning, but we also have a year-long party planned and many retail initiatives in mind to help you strengthen the business that is our industry’s very lifeblood: exciting new projects designed to drive fans to comic stores; sales programs and incentives to offer you additional support; and great, inventive product to keep people energized and engaged.
Times of change are also always times of reflection, and what this coming-and-going has reminded me is how much I appreciate the opportunity to have such vital partners as our retail community, and I look forward to many more years of changing and growing with you all.
Happy New Year!
Signed,
Chris Ryall,
IDW President & Publisher/Chief Creative Officer
K2flygurl
My bad on calling January a year.
I know it’s unnecessary, but that still doesn’t mean they can’t have them. They shouldn’t though. Having a mouth is unnecessary for them, but they have them. I didn’t say they need to have a physical childhood, but if they’re going to have one, it needs to be done right.
And yes they’re robots and are built to jobs, but that doesn’t they have to start out as teen/adults. The young bots from Rescue Bots Academy proves you wrong. They are children, but have a job and are able to do them. Nowhere did I mention that they have to start out helpless. Physical childhood is not needed, but mental childhood is. They aren’t program to know everything.
Why can’t the kidformers work alongside with the parents as soon as they come online or shortly after? They’re children, but not human/organic kids. It’s too dangerous for our kids to work, but maybe not for their kids. The kiddieformers will be small for sure, but that doesn’t mean helpless and useless until much later in their lives. They may need their parents for somethings, but can mostly handle themselves and that includes the newborns.
Why have kids? I don’t know why. Why have genders? There’s no reason for them to have children, but then again there’s no reason why they couldn’t have them. It would make sense if only a minority will have them and only a minority start out as kids. I don’t think it will make their society like ours depending on how it’s done. Actually there might be a reason. The spark is small and putting in a bigger body can mess the bot and the spark up, and the bot or bots want to be parents.
exhibit A
Robotic men, women and children will too human
exhibit B
Genderless bots with kids will not be too human. You got the human part with them being adults and kids, but having no genders (expect like in voice and pronouns) makes them alien. And who’s to say that they use gender pronouns when speaking in their language. They probably don’t and will sound neither male or female when speaking in robotic sounds. If the kids are built or forged, there’s no reason for the bots to have actual genders. Most will probably come from one parent since there’s no reason to have more then one. This doesn’t mean that single parent families will be common. Extended families mix with coming from one parent could be the most common.
We may see robotic men, women and children, but that’s our perspective. In reality they’re genderless bots of different ages and stages. The kids may call them parent, mom or dad depending on their preference. And their life cycle maybe different from ours. Yes I know bots don’t have a life cycle, but neither do they have genders.
Autobot Burnout
January isn't a year, it's a month.
Like, you're trying to develop cybertronian society so they have kids. It's entirely unnecessary. Transformers are built to do a job, simple as that, especially given that's the underpinning of what causes the Great War anyway.
K2flygurl
January? I didn’t pay that much attention to it. I need to start paying attention to the year.
I didn’t care about answering anyone’s questions, nor did I care if someone wanted the questions to be answered or not. I didn’t came here to answer people questions. I posted it not because I want to answer a question, but to stated my opinion. And no I don’t care if anyone care about that or not. Also what questions? I didn’t see anyone ask any questions.
Autobot Burnout
You are finding answers to questions that did not need answers and nobody wanted answered.
Additionally, it's ironic that you said you wanted to get a word in before the thread became a zombie thread…even though that's literally what you did. This thread had been dead since January, so you have in effect already made this a zombie thread.
K2flygurl
Let me post my thread before this becomes a zombie thread.
I think that Cybertronian children are possible if done right. They have to born the same way robots are and grow in a different way form us. They can grow in a few different ways:
1)Like us
2) having metal plates unfold
3) Metal expends under heat, so the body produces heat to make them grow.
There are adult minibots, but as the person before me said, children do have different body portion then the adults. Not only that, but a child’s facial structure is different form the adults. Form a distance you couldn’t tell a minibot from a sparkling. Maybe kiddieformers can have about two or three white dots in their optics or visor. The adults have one or two.
Having kiddieformers means that they’re society will look like ours, but that doesn’t their biology and culture will. Matter of fact you don’t need two bots to build a child. There will be some who are really did start out as a single parent. In our world, we have toys for girls and toys for boys. On Cybertron, dolls and trucks are seen as genderless. Human boys and girls play differently. It probably won’t be the same for transformers.
@SMOG
Soundwavers idea of a kidformer would make them too human. However if done right, it could work. Them being built or forge form the parents or parent instead of born. Also growing by having the metal plates unfold or by having the body heat up to make the metal expand. Non of that nanotechnology. And since that they can’t have sex there’s no developing male and female characteristics.
As a I said above, although their society will look like ours, their culture and biology will not.
GoLion
No worries.
General message to thread: Oh, and Osenator is an outlier. He doesn't prove anything. People can still dislike this book or find fault in some of the stuff present within this book and not be… Osenator.
ProtectronPrime
I actually have no idea why I quoted you. However, the post was on a Saturday, which is I day I usually take a break for this site. I probably tagged you by accident when replying to @Nelomaxwell as the only way I can post here is from a mobile site on a Saturday..
GoLion
Yea, man. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of the book and the way it sold. I'm not interested in making some declaration or choosing some side that doesn't matter or has no real meaning.
That 'get woke go broke' stuff is just as dumb as the people who say that this book was actually somehow selling really well and all the dissenting opinions were being made by some sort of 'ist that is just being a hater. Both extremes are idiotic. I'm interested in the numbers. Pure and simple.
Sometimes it's just a numbers game. If a book is doing well and is being well received it will sell more. If it isn't, it won't. I don't need subjective opinions or biases being present. I am just interested in the numbers. The rest is stupid, and the 'sides' are equally annoying.
Huh? I'm just interested in the numbers. I know that digital only makes up around 11% of the market, but if LL was going so well digitally, why not go full digit with it?
Man. It's a shame we can't see the actual numbers. It's strange that it was doing well digitally but not selling all that well in physical copies. If anything, maybe that is speaking to a changing trend in the buying audience… Thanks for the screen grab.
It's just weird that there is such a contrast between floppy sales and digital sales.
So we know that digital only makes up about 11-12%. The book really did seem to speak to a segment of the digital buying audience.
Yea, when you look at physical copies and their movement, the book was in the gutter. It never did well. HOWEVER, it DOES appear that it did fairly well digitally. I'm trying to figure out why there was such a difference between the two.
It just goes to show that the digital audience isn't the same as the shop audience.
These are the trends that companies should investigate more. See if there is an untapped audience that could work for a digital exclusive book.
I guess digital could say the opposite. That so few people buy digital books that LL could, by contrast, look like it's doing well on a site that isn't selling all that much because people still vastly prefer to buy their comics at the shop. In reality it's not selling all that well, it's just selling well on a site that isn't selling that many books in the first place. So LL doing 'good' on comixology is just an artificial number that really doesn't mean anything, and that the standard we should stick to is still Comichron and/or Mile high.
raindance773
It’s one of the largest comic book retailers on the Internet, of both current issues and back issues.
But I misspoke. The sales records are here:
Comichron: Comic Book Sales by Month
Omegashark18
I don’t think it was that Justice League, I believe it was referring to the spinoff starring a team consisting of Batman, Atom, Black Canary, Vixen, Lobo, and Killer Frost.
Nelomaxwell
Why does that name sound familiar?
raindance773
It’s also two years out of date, and coming off an artificial “reboot” to get new people to buy the book. Try Mile High Comics and you’ll get a picture of at least hard copy sales.
Nelomaxwell
Just surprised is all. I know a few people who only buy digital for various reasons. But even for one site that's a big step.
NanakoPreame
Don't get too worked up about it. It's only one site, that doesn't reflect the entirety of digital sales.
Nelomaxwell
How could they be doing that well? AMS sells like crazy. How are they above JL?
Probe
Amazon has never released sales numbers for comixology and likely never will, but MTMTE and LL frequently showed up in the weekly "top ten best sellers" tab on the comixology store, occasionally even being above some mainstays such as Batman. Amazon also does not keep records to these, but there are screenshots to be found such as this one:
Nelomaxwell
They also seem extremely resistant to change.
ProtectronPrime
Seriously. Can't have anyone telling you the way you like your fantasy world is wrong.
Nelomaxwell
Sounds like all comics fans everywhere. They tend to whine.