The BID Poll Revisited, Part 3

Originally published January 25, 2002, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1471

We’re continuing with the poll of ten years ago which ran in BID and endeavored to get a feel for what the readership saw as the state of the industry ten years hence… that is to say, now. The year 2002, which at the time seemed so far in the future as to be ludicrous. Well, no one’s laughing all that much.

Moving on:

The following person will be the editor-in-chief of DC Comics (should there still be a DC Comics)

Mike Carlin                             37                                16.89%

Paul Levitz                              36                                16.44%

Jim Shooter                             30                                13.70%

Peter David                             17                                7.76%

John Byrne                              10                                4.57%

Tom DeFalco                          9                                 4.11%

Who cares?                              7                                 3.20%

Rob Liefeld                             6                                 2.74%

Joey Cavalieri                          6                                 2.74%

Chris Claremont                      5                                 2.28%

Mark Gruenwald                     5                                 2.28%

Bob Harras                              5                                 2.28%

Todd McFarlane                     3                                 1.37%

Frank Miller                            2                                 0.91%

Denny O’Neil                         2                                 0.91%

Well, this was a slam dunk for the readership. Not only that, but it’s a fairly intriguing comparison to the Marvel list. Because of the fourteen possibilities on the Marvel list, as noted in the previous column, none remains in an editorial capacity. Not so with DC. In addition to Carlin still in place as the EIC, Paul Levitz is still there doing that job that only he can do… namely, answering the phone by saying, “Paul Levitz.” Joey Cavalieri is still in place, Denny O’Neil’s departure as full-time editor is only a very recent development, and Frank Miller may not be an editor, but if he walked in tomorrow and said he wanted his own line, they’d probably give it to him.

 

The following person will be revealed to be the Anti-Christ:

Rob Liefeld                             78                                35.62%

Todd McFarlane                     20                                9.13%

Tom DeFalco                          14                                6.39%

Peter David                             12                                5.48%

Jim Shooter                             11                                5.02%

John Byrne                              10                                4.57%

Bill Clinton                             6                                 2.74%

Respondent                             3                                 1.37%

Fabian Nicieza                        2                                 0.91%

Gary Groth                              2                                 0.91%

Tony Isabella                           2                                 0.91%

Ross Perot                               2                                 0.91%

Remember when Ross Perot was interesting enough to warrant being considered the anti-Christ? Those were fun days.

I’ve always regretted this question slightly, because Liefeld—a devout Christian—found it personally upsetting. So I felt kind of bad that he not only won, but did so by such a huge margin. That aside, it’s interesting that most of the top bad boys of ten years ago remain controversial, loud-mouthed annoying boors… except for DeFalco, who seems to have lost the hostile vibes he accrued during his editorial tenure, and of course me, because everyone adores me and I haven’t an enemy in the world.

I should note, though, that of the people on the list, the only one with the stones to bad mouth Neil Gaiman instead of keeping his word is Todd McFarlane. Does that fill the bill? Dunno… we might have to wait another ten years or so to be sure of this one, but keep those inverted crosses handy.

 

The following title(s) will probably be just about hitting the stands.

Youngblood #4                                                      108                  49.32%

An X-Men title that doesn’t exist yet                   103                  47.03%

Cerebus #300                                                        68                   31.05%

Ms. Mystic #8                                                        36                   16.44%

Tom DeFalco’s Two Fisted Adventures #6           6                     2.74%

Well, let’s see. Youngblood #4, Volume 1, came out in October of 1993. However, the series is currently up to Volume 3, and there’s no #4 of that run as of yet. The X-title that doesn’t exist? The following mutant titles (culled from the December Diamond list) weren’t around ten years ago: Origin, Ultimate X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, X-Treme X-Men Savage Land, Nightcrawler, Iceman, Elektra and Wolverine Redeemer, Cable, X-Men Evolution. Cerebus #300 is about two years down the line, and man, what an achievement that’ll be. Ms. Mystic #8 has not yet, I believe, surfaced. As for Tom DeFalco’s Two Fisted Adventures, hey… scoff if you will, but they did indeed do that series. They just called it the MC2 line, that’s all.

 

The standard Marvel comic book is 32 pages for $1.25. Ten years from now, should there still be Marvel Comics, the standard one will be:

 32 pages                                        99                    45.21%

24 pages                                        53                    24.20%

16 pages                                        38                    17.35%

48 pages                                        20                    9.13%

64 pages                                        3                     1.37%

A disc                                            3                     1.37%

 

And will cost:

$2.50                                             80                    36.53%

$3.95                                             40                    18.26%

1500 yen                                       16                    7.31%

$1.75                                             12                    5.48%

$2.95                                             4                     1.83%

$4.95                                             4                     1.83%

$5.00                                             4                     1.83%

$2.00                                             4                     1.83%

$10.00                                           3                     1.37%

$1.00                                             2                     0.91%

$1.25                                             2                     0.91%

$1.50                                             2                     0.91%

$3.75                                             2                     0.91%

 

Well, now how about that. No one got it right. No, not even the folks who thought the average book would be 1500 yen (which is about eleven and a half bucks American, in case you were wondering.) A good chunk of you intuited that the 32 page package would remain the format of choice, but you foresaw an increase of 100 percent in cover price, and that hasn’t happened. Not exactly, at any rate. These days prices are all over the map, true. But the average—or I guess we should say “typical”—Marvel Comic goes for $2.25. Only a couple of ongoing monthlies have reached the rarefied heights of $2.50, including Captain Marvel (which couldn’t possibly have any correlation with the staggeringly difficult uphill climb sales on this book have had, right?)

We’ll wrap up this view from the past of the future of the past next week.

(Peter David can be written to at P.O. Box 239, Bayport, NY 11705.)