Guest Author - Travis Belk

Just how do comic book delays impact comic sales? Are the delays worth it for a higher quality of comic? Are the fans and retailers ok with it? Can quality and punctuality go hand-in-hand? A lot of questions swirl around when it comes to the topic of delays in the business of comics. And if you are to believe Marvel Comics Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort, fans are willing to trade punctuality for quality.

In his Marvel, June 27,2006 blog, Mr. Brevoort posted “With the rising costs of most comics, readers as a whole demand a higher level of quality from the books they buy, and they're more likely to be willing to wait for them (or just wait for the inevitable collection.)”. This was in response to a post that I had made regarding the problem of continuity in comics due to delays. My post had taken a stance that editors should enforce deadlines and replace creators that could not meet them. Mr. Brevoort’s response revolved around the idea that the powers-that-be at Marvel believe fans, per the feedback they receive, aren’t as concerned about delays as they are with quality.

These conflicting opinions came to the forefront with the recent delays of the Marvel cross-over event, Civil War. This is an event that is running through all their titles and having an impact on their whole universe. It is now an event that saw a delay of over a month in the next chapter of the title. And the delay in that book has caused the whole event to be delayed. This of course has negated the momentum the event had built up. And the reason for the delay is because the artist, Steve McNiven, fell behind. Though per reports, Marvel gave him little lead time on the book to get ahead. So the question now becomes, did Marvel shoot themselves in the foot releasing the event too soon and having to delay the whole event in the middle of it? And Marvel stands by the decision believing fans would rather have delays over a fill-in artist.

This is a line of thinking that Marvel has taken in recent years on many of their titles. One of the delays was an approximate year delay between issues 4 and 5 of their Secret War mini-series. A delay caused by the artist again. The Ultimates is consistently delayed many months between issues because of the art. Its delay has become a joke amongst many fans on message boards. Their most notorious delay in recent years has to be Spider-man/Black Cat- The Evil That Men Do. This time however, it was the fault of the writer. In this case it was famed director, Kevin Smith, who fell behind. It was a six-issue limited series that Smith started in 2002 and finally finished in 2005.

Now it must be pointed out that Marvel is not the only comic book company which has delays in their shipping schedule. They get a lot of focus though because of the extreme delays of their titles. Jim Lee, the artist on DC’s All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, took the blame for the title’s tardiness in an interview in Wizard #180. Joss Whedon took from 2001 to 2003 to finish the eight-issue Fray from Dark Horse Comics. And when the Cliffhanger imprint was launched Crimson was the only one of the three launch titles that published regularly. Danger Girl was late on numerous occasions as a result of the creator, J.Scott Campbell, taking on other work. And Battle Chasers was so delayed that the fans and media speculated that Joe Madureira had disappeared from comics completely.

So just why do delays matter? Well the obvious reason is it interferes with the reader’s enjoyment. Imagine waiting from May until September for your favorite TV series to resolve the cliffhanger it ended the season with. Now imagine that and then extend those 4 months to a year or longer. Would you care anymore what happened? As we learned in the case of Civil War, the delay of one title can also affect many others. This in turn leads to continuity errors. Delays also affect retailers. They base their orders on projected release dates and how they can best fill their shelves. Limited store space means they must plan their orders wisely. Large delays such as the Civil War caught retailers unaware and left them with unfilled shelf space. This of course cuts into their profits. My local comic book store has gone so far as to ask shoppers, via their website, to email their dissatisfaction to Marvel.

Knowing what delays are and how they impact the comic world, what is the solution? Well the obvious answer is to give more detail-oriented artists enough lead time to stay ahead of their schedule. A lesson we learned with the recent Civil War delays. Another answer that many companies are trying is treating comic books like TV series. Essentially they are treating comic books as seasons. They will typically run for twelve-issues and then the creative team will take a few months break. We have seen this recently with DC’s Hard Times series and Marvel’s Astonishing X-men. This gives the fans the uninterrupted stories they want and the creators the time they need to do quality work without falling behind.

This in turn leads to punctual AND quality comics. There is no reason we should see multi-year delays on titles. No amount of quality is worth that to the fans or the retailers. With some better planning on the part of the companies and enforcement of deadlines by editors, we all get comics on a more punctual basis. This in turn leads to sustained reader interest and more money in the pockets of the comic book companies. This is a scenario in which all parties are winners.