Call for Backup
Posted by Don MacPherson on March 17th, 2009
When DC announced that a price hike from $2.99 US to $3.99 US for titles such as Booster Gold and Teen Titans would be accompanied by expanded content in the form of backup features (Blue Beetle and Ravager, respectively), fan and industry-pundit reaction seemed fairly level-headed. Many were understandably relieved that readers would at least get more value for the extra buck. Others questioned the viability of such an approach. I can understand such skepticism, as the addition of backup features in conjunction with a price increase has been tried before. In fact, DC’s did exactly this in 1980, and the experiment only lasted about two years.
A couple of years after the infamous “DC Implosion” — which saw the cancellation of a number of new or short-lived titles, launched as part of what the publisher previously billed as the “DC Explosion” — DC announced it was raising prices from 40 cents to 50 but was adding eight-page backup features pretty much across the board.
In an in-house ad campaign portraying the various backup features as non-existent collectible stamps, DC touted these additions as reasons to get really excited about its comics. It worked for me, as many of these features spotlighted characters I’d never heard of before. I ended up reading a lot of these features, and through them, I was introduced to an even more diverse array of weird and wonderful characters.
Among some of the more noteworthy features DC launched in comics carrying the September 1980 cover date was Nemesis in The Brave and the Bold. Nemesis, by Cary Burkett and Dan Spiegle, was the only wholly original character to be featured in one of these backups. His storyline culminated in the main pages of the series as he teamed up with Batman. The character was revived a few years later as part of John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell’s Suicide Squad. He turned up in cameos in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon, and today boasts the prominent role as Princess Diana’s love interest in Wonder Woman, penned by Gail Simone.
Some titles had rotating features. The Super Friends backup alternated among the well-known Wonder Twins and the lesser-known international heroes Jack O’Lantern and the Seraph. Action Comics alternated between the Atom and the new Air Wave, later added Aquaman to the rotation and occasionally featured a couple of those characters teaming up. Superboy backup stories alternated between Krypto the Super Dog and Superbaby. Even the non-super-hero titles got in on the act, with Scalphunter featured in the back of issues of Jonah Hex, Enemy Ace in Unknown Soldier and O.M.A.C. appearing in Warlord.
Probably my favorite of all of these eight-page backup features was the one that never spotlighted the same character twice. A regular feature called “Whatever Happened to…?” appeared in most issues of DC Comics Presents, the publisher’s monthly Superman team-up title, for two years or so. Most of these short features offered endings to the stories of lesser-known or used DC characters. Most were various Golden Age super-heroes, but it also turned its attention to obscure genre-adventure properties of the past, such as Western lawman Johnny Thunder, private eye of the future Star Hawkins and the joint future of Mark Merlin and Prince Ra-Man.
So this year, DC will take another stab at it, not only with Booster Gold and Teen Titans, but with its upcoming Doom Patrol relaunch, which will carry Metal Men backup stories. It would seem this is something of an experiment for DC, though it’s already dipped its toes in these waters recently. Chapters of “The Sinestro Corps War” storyline that ran through the Green Lantern titles not long ago featured “Tales of the Sinestro Corps,” featuring origin stories of various Sinestro Corps members. And Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s Dr. Thirteen backups from Tales of the Unexpected eclipsed the main Spectre feature and were collected in a well-reviewed and solid-selling trade paperback (Architecture and Mortality).
While I’m at a loss as to why DC Editorial thinks there’s a demand for a solo Ravager feature in the back of every issue of Teen Titans, the decision to give Blue Beetle a second lease on life in the pages of Booster Gold is a good one. Whether or not there’s sufficient potential in the character to sustain an ongoing series on its own is arguable, but clearly DC recognizes that the Beetle’s newfound popularity on television (see the new Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon) merits a move to maintain the character’s visibility in its comics.
My hope is that DC approaches this renewed initiative more aggressively and markets it accordingly as well. It’s not that I think a stronger effort will yield different results than what we saw in the early 1980s. Quite the opposite. I see this latest kick at the can being as short-lived as those before it. And that’s OK. The reason I want DC to push this endeavor is that there could be a payoff, but it’d be an emotional one for a younger audience that’s just now discovering comics and the colorful world of super-heroes. Memories of the backups of the 1980s evoke a warm, nostalgic response in my heart, and I relish the notion that another generation has the chance to experience something comparable.
Just for the nostalgia factor, I’d like to see DC launch such backup features throughout its main line of titles. How about restoring Adam Strange and Scalphunter to the pages of Green Lantern and Jonah Hex, respectively? What about a Penguin serial in the back of Secret Six? One of the strengths of a shared-continuity, super-hero universe is discovering or rediscovering new characters and worlds, and expanding the line of these monthly shorter stories offers more opportunities for such discoveries.
Of course, that a simpler time couldn’t sustain these backups for any extended period (and at a cheaper price, at that) would seem to signal the same approach isn’t going to work today. But in a quarter century or so, I’d like to believe some grown-up lover of the comics medium will think back on the backup features of 2009, smile and wax poetically about them. Probably in his telejournal on the binary brainscape or something.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Don wrote:
“While I’m at a loss as to why DC Editorial thinks there’s a demand for a solo Ravager feature”
I’ve been asking for more Ravager. And I know people who enjoy the character. After “One Year Later,” Ravager and Kid Devil were the only Titans I liked. I’ve been once again thinking of dropping the Titans but now I’ll check it out.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
The Metal Men feature just put Doom Patrol on my buy list. I really don’t care about the DP, but I love those wacky robots.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Jack of Spades wrote:
The Metal Men feature just put Doom Patrol on my buy list. I really don’t care about the DP, but I love those wacky robots.
Actually, it’s the fact that Kevin Maguire is illustrating the Metal Men feature that’ll get me to buy the book.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
…there could be a payoff, but it’d be an emotional one for a younger audiences that’s just now discovering comics and the colorful world of super-heroes.
I’m not optimistic that a younger audience unfamiliar with the back-up characters is going to be motivated to shell out an extra $1 to try them out. If they’re already hooked on the main series, maybe they’ll stick around; but if they’re just plain new, I imagine they’d be more likely to try another $3 book.
Hate to be such a naysayer, but I’m guessing that DC will find very quickly that this move is a money-loser. Revenue goes up 33% (assuming they get the same share of the cover price), and there’s no increase in the cost of producing the cover, but paper and printing costs for the interior are up 25%, writer and artist costs are presumably up 36%, so you don’t have to lose too many readers before you’re in the red. Oh–that’s assuming these are 8-page backups; maybe they’ll only be 6 or 7 pages, with the other 1 or 2 going for ads? (Making it only harder for the writers to get any kind of story momentum going…)
March 20th, 2009 at 10:16 am
I’m going to be positive here and say that DC is doing the right thing regarding the price increase issue. Let’s face it: It’s an economic reality that soon all comics are going to be at least $3.99 (and I’m as baffled as anyone else why we had to have such a large increase – why not $3.25, why not $3.50? Greed, that’s why), so there are two options:
1) Do what DC is doing and add another story to justify the additional dollar. That makes for a thicker book for the money, more story and more exposure for their characters that might not be able to support a monthly.
2) Do what Marvel is doing and charge $3.99 with no more story pages and the occasional useless “backup” material like previews for other comics, sketches, interviews that you can easily find online, script pages, etc.
Me, I want more story for my money. Marvel started the whole price gouging thing, as they almost always do, and DC has to follow suit in order to compete, but at least DC is trying to give people more for their money, as opposed to the Marvel “shell game” approach.
Bottom line is, I will indeed be trying out several of these DC books with backup stories, while I will never buy a Marvel comic for $3.99 without any additional STORY material.
Honestly, while I am getting many books from Marvel in trade format, I am buying no single issues from them. In contrast, I’ve started picking up more and more DC books monthly and look forward to many of their upcoming releases. The Superman books are looking good right now, I’m excited for the new Batman direction and titles in June, Blackest Night is shaping up to be a hell of an event comic, maybe the one we’ve been waiting for all these years, plus they just announced this nifty sounding Wednesday Comics.
In short, while Marvel is controlling the largest share of the money, DC is definitely pushing the boundaries more and taking bigger chances, especially when you factor in Vertigo, the most creatively fulfilling imprint in comics, and the slowing waking giant of Wildstorm.
March 20th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
On the Ravager thing, Teen Titans sales apparently spiked every time Ravager appeared on the cover, which was the motivation for launching the Terror Titans mini in the first place. It’s all probably priming the pump for a solo series for the character (and this is a good way to dangle their feet a little bit, in much the same way they used to do in the ’90s via the various Showcase titles that convinced them, amongst other things, that Nightwing had potential as a solo title).
March 20th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Stephen wrote:
On the Ravager thing, Teen Titans sales apparently spiked every time Ravager appeared on the cover, which was the motivation for launching the Terror Titans mini in the first place.
A look at Teen Titans sales figures don’t bear that theory out. Issue #57, the most prominent cover spotlight for Ravager, sold almost a thousand fewer copies than the issue before it.
March 21st, 2009 at 5:09 am
If you guys haven’t heard, they’ve announced Question backup stories by Rucka in Detective and Mahunter stories by Andreyko in Streets of Gotham.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:33 am
I hadn’t heard about that, Evan. Thanks for letting us know.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Awesome. I was already planning on picking up the debut issues of each,so that’s even more incentive to do so. I do hope I don’t have to know too much about the Montoya Question. I haven’t really been following her story since Gotham Central ended.
March 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
How about on-time monthlies? How about “event” books like Final Crisis including ALL the comics relevant to that “story” in the sequential numbering? How about clearer, cleaner stories without all the “padding” inherant in “writing for the trade”? How about “done-in-one” stories? How about no more of Dan Didio’s “you don’t understand” excuses when DC’s books fail to make “sense”?
Adding to that: How about no more “I believe in the “iconic versions” of DC’s core characters”, when, based upon the books Didio publishes, he clearly does not?
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Don wrote:
A look at Teen Titans sales figures don’t bear that theory out. Issue #57, the most prominent cover spotlight for Ravager, sold almost a thousand fewer copies than the issue before it.
Hey, its the cover that brought me back into reading Titans. The Question back ups sound good. I’m not too familiar with Streets of Gotham so i doubt I’ll be following Manhunter.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Kirth, how about staying on topic?
March 24th, 2009 at 1:59 am
How about banning my IP so even if I feel the compulsion to come here, I won’t be able to?
How about hanging prepositions? How bout them Cubs?
March 30th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I love the idea of backup features, but I’d like to see them go one further.
Cancel all the monthly titles and go with a big fat weekly mag, like those 300+ page manga mags in Japan. Run a 20-40 page Supes story, a 20 page JLA story, 20 page Wonder Woman, some Titans, etc. Then, while you’ve got the readers there, try out your Ravager story for a few issues, or your Blue Beatle. Give them time to find an audience without making them cary a book. Bats and the Big Red S could cary all kinds of B-C grade features.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Jay wrote:
Cancel all the monthly titles and go with a big fat weekly mag, like those 300+ page manga mags in Japan.
I think we can all agree that’s not going to happen, but your post (as well as the resurgence of the backup feature in general) reminded me of another experiment DC attempted in the 1980s: Action Comics Weekly. From #601 to #642, Action became a weekly anthology title. Each issue had a two-page Superman feature (by Roger Stern and Curt Swan) as well as five other eight-page serials. Among the characters spotlighted in the series were Green Lantern, Deadman, Phantom Stranger, Catwoman, Black Canary, Wild Dog, Nightwing, the Secret Six and Blackhawk. It didn’t even last a year, obviously, but it was a nice weekly bundle of variety.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
Of course they’re not going to cancel all the floppies, but they have to find a way to put butts in the seats, so to speak, drive people towards new features by drawing them in with established characters. A fat comic with many stories anchored by an in-continuity Batman tale would be good reading and good value.
The problem with Action Weekly, and it will probably be what kills this round of backups, is weak editorial guidance. The Action Weekly backups were bland, uninspired space fillers. I mean, did someone really think Wild Dog was going to take off? It was bad.
This is the age of interactive media. Make creators compete for these spots, then run a survey like Shonen Jump and let readers decide which features get to continue. Man, comic fans love to argue on the internet, and getting people to argue up support for their favorite new characters is a great way to drum up readers and keep them engaged. How does DC plan to judge whether these features are a success? I’d bet they have no plan for this.
Backups could be a great tool for developing new talent, and new properties. But not if you half-ass it, as DC probably will.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Jay wrpte:
The problem with Action Weekly, and it will probably be what kills this round of backups, is weak editorial guidance. The Action Weekly backups were bland, uninspired space fillers. I mean, did someone really think Wild Dog was going to take off? It was bad.
While I wasn’t a Wild Dog fan, I think DC had reason to think readers would appreciate it. The character was launched in his own limited series, and anti-heroes such as the Punisher were still in vogue at the time.
I also think you underestimate what some creators did in the pages of ACW. Peter David explored the notion that Hal Jordan wasn’t really a man without fear. Roger Stern created a cult of worshippers who saw Superman as a god. Nightwing and Catwoman were revealed as characters who could headline their own stories.
As I stated in the main essay, I’m doubtful of the staying power of DC’s renewed backup (or “co-feature”) initiative, but I still like that it’s trying. Furthermore, when one looks at the recently announced Wednesday Comics weekly project, one can’t suggest it’s not trying new and innovative approaches.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:58 am
Creating a cheap Punisher knock-off is a perfect example of weak editorial guidance. It’s pale imitation trying to capitalize in a fad. That not creation, it’s pandering. As interesting as Stern’s Superman idea was, it was unlikely to lead to a “Superman Cult” monthly. Nightwing and Catwoman already had established followings. And if the Action Weekly format had been successful, it’d still be around, right?
I can’t knock them for trying new things. I think it’s great, and new approaches should be encouraged. But they don’t seem to be approaching it in a strategic way. While the Wednesday Comics project is neat, I seriously doubt fans were clamoring for a weekly, broad-sheet style series. These are ideas that are thought up in a vacuum. This is DC deciding what people want without asking them.
What does it say that, apparently, neither of us think this is actually going to last?
Good discussion, BTW. Thanks!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I know I’m late to this discussion (and therefore these comments will probably go unseen), but I just want to point out that DC used the back-up story idea fairly well in the early ’70s with a Green Lantern back-up in Flash. They also had Metemorpho, Atom and Green Arrow back-ups in Action Comics and World of Krypton and Private Life of Clark Kent stories in Superman. Plus, there were Hawkman and Elongated Man stories in Detective Comics. There were probably more, but this gives the idea.
Additonally, both the early ’70s and early ’80s projects led to at least one ongoing series each – Green Lantern in the 1970s and Firestorm in the 1980s.