Comic book publishers dismiss Marvel exec's comments as 'rubbish'

Comic book publishers have slammed the recent comments made by a Marvel executive who blamed the inclusion of more diverse and female characters for its declining sales as “ill-judged” and “a load of rubbish”. Instead, many have argued that because the audience for comic books is “varied and diverse”, reflecting this in the subject matter only benefits sales.

Some publishers have also commented on the endemic lack of diversity in the industry but said that this is “slowly changing”.

In an interview last week, Marvel's vice president of sales, David Gabriel, blamed declining comic book sales on the studio’s efforts to promote diversity and female characters, arguing that readers “were turning their noses up” at them and “didn’t want female characters out there”.

Sam Humphrey, sales and marketing manager at SelfMadeHero, dismissed Gabriel's comments as being a "load of rubbish". He told The Bookseller: "In the US, as many women as men are creating comic books and buying them. I think even more women are enrolled in [comic book] courses. A hugely increasing number of women are reading comics, they’re probably just not reading Marvel comics. He’s missing the point entirely.”

Humprey added that having diverse characters “absolutely does not” affect sales, citing the publisher’s “incredibly popular” artist Tillie Walden, whose first long-form graphic novel Spinning is coming out in autumn, and is about her "growing up and coming out". Walden was chosen by the Guardian as one of '20 talents set to take 2017 by storm'.

Humphrey added that the situation is a part of a wider issue about diversity in the industry. “In any corner of publishing you look at, there isn’t enough diversity in creative teams and business teams", he said.

Ben Smith, heads of books and comic books for Rebellion Publishing, also dismissed Gabriel’s comments.

“The reverse [is true]", he said. "A broad range of titles is only helpful in a growing marketplace. We are seeing no pushback on any of these fronts from readers, what they want are good stories from good storytellers. We also recognise we have more work to do as a publisher but we have no intention to change the rich panoply of lead characters and series we can push in our comics.”

Smith added that the publisher has been “conscious in seeking to add other voices to our publishing”, and cited South African novelist Lauren Beukes, creator of "one of our most famous female characters", Durham Red, as one of the publisher's key creators.

Michael Molcher, publicity and marketing manager at 2000AD, added: “I can confirm that diverse and female characters have never affected our sales – as Ben mentions, what our readers want are good stories from good storytellers. We’ve got work to do to broaden the appeal of 2000 AD to a wider range of readers, but all the signs are that this is a good business strategy”.

Ricky Miller, co-publisher of Avery Hill, a graphic novel publisher which was founded five years ago, said the audience for his books is “very liberal and diverse.”

“We’re actually in a position where over 50% of our creators are female and so our books are very balanced in terms of male/female protagonists", Miller said. "While I’d say we’re still untypical of publishers in general in this regard, the grassroots of the UK comics scene is made up of at least 50% women. You can see this in the people tabling at every major UK comics show and reflected in some of the bigger names in UK graphic novels, such as Isabel Greenburg, Karrie Fransman, Hannah Berry and Rachael Smith.”

He added: “Our top four or five best-selling books are by women. Our number one best-selling book, I Love This Part by Tillie Walden, is a lesbian love story about two girls of different races.”

Miller said the publisher would “definitely” continue to publish diverse books. “Our audience actively seeks out and embraces diverse characters and creators," he said. "There have been many excellent rebuttals of Marvel’s statement but what it comes down to is that if Marvel just goes back to leeching the ever-decreasing circles of its core audience then it will never get the sales it used to get. The comics industry needs new audiences and those are to be found in bookshops and shows and they come from all kinds of backgrounds, genders and races.”

Miller also praised “increased access to the bookshop market” and “higher visibility with comics retailers” as reasons for an increase in sales.

“From everything I’ve seen, more people are reading graphic novels than ever before in the UK and we’re in exactly the right position and putting out exactly the right kind of books to benefit from that,” he said.

In the UK, 2016 was the best year ever for graphic novels according to Nielsen BookScan, with 2.6m titles selling for £29.8m—up 12.7% in volume and 13.5% in value compared to 2015. However, the category has declined slightly for the first eight weeks of the year - down 5.28% in value and down 11% in volume on the same period the year before.

Christopher Murray, professor of comics studies at Dundee University, argued that Gabriel's comments were “troubling” and “ill-judged”. He also agreed that the lack of diversity in the industry means that attempts to respond to the need for more diverse representation in comics may be "doomed to failure".

“Comics have long had a problem with diversity. It's not unique to comics, but it’s also the case that both the stories told in comics and the industry that produces them have not adequately reflected the world as it is, in all its richness, difference and complexity, or as we might want it to be, as a place of equality and respect", Murray said. "The comments offered by the Marvel executive indicate a belief that a downturn in sales can be attributed to attempts to represent more diverse characters. This is troubling in many ways, but most important is the message that this comment sends, that attempts to bring more diversity into comics is a fad, or a sales initiative. This is ill-judged, and the attempt to clarify the comment shows an awareness of this, but representing diversity of gender, race or sexuality in comics should not be a sales tactic."

After his initial comments, Gabriel issued a clarifying statement later, saying that some retailers felt that some core Marvel heroes were being abandoned, but that there was a readership for characters like Ms Marvel and Miles Morales who “are excited about these new heroes”. He told magazine ICv2:  “And let me be clear, our new heroes are not going anywhere. We are proud and excited to keep introducing unique characters that reflect new voices and new experiences into the Marvel universe and pair them with our iconic heroes. We have also been hearing from stores that welcome and champion our new characters and titles and want more!  They've invigorated their own customer base and helped them grow their stores because of it.  So we're getting both sides of the story and the only upcoming change we're making is to ensure we don't lose focus of our core heroes."