for future reference

[buggery]

This will go down in history as The Week Everyone Dropped ROBIN In Disgust (Who Hadn't Already More Wisely Dropped It Months Ago, Or Who Didn't Get This Month's Without Realising Their Mistake And Will Thus Be Dropping It Next Month).

I've been buying the title despite apoplectic distaste for Willinghamfucktard's not just bad but *increasingly* bad writing. (The fact that I don't care for the style of Damion Scott's art has not helped.) Having been watching the paroxysms of rage across my friends page for the last two days, however, I've decided enough is enough.

Sales of the title have already been dropping since the new team took over. So much for the alleged marketing genius of the "stunt" a girl Robin turned out to be. The massive "War Games" crossover couldn't save ROBIN, the two-month crossover with BATGIRL that followed couldn't save it, and now that there's no other writer to pull Willinghamfucktard's storylines up, he's apparently even worse.

I'd been gritting my teeth and buying ROBIN every month largely because of the crossovers, and also because I'm a completist, but furthermore because I didn't think my boycott of the title would do any good.

That was before I saw the numbers.

Edited to Add:
As of the December 2004 sales figures, ROBIN had already dropped to #47 on the list of the top 100 best-selling comics titles. That's in contrast to NIGHTWING at #38 and OUTSIDERS at #36, both of which ROBIN used to handily out-sell. TEEN TITANS and BATMAN were at #21 and #22.

If people continue not spending their money on the title, DC will get a worthy writer on ROBIN again. (Just look at ACTION COMICS, for a slightly problematic but still-applicable example.) They have to already be seeing the writing on the wall, so every person who stops plunking down their money every month -- especially if they're taking ROBIN off a pull-list or cancelling a subscription -- will be another nail in the coffin.

I haven't been to my comischop yet this week, and I haven't read any actual spoilers for #134, but I have to have seen at least two dozen people ranting about how insanely bad it was, and nobody playing devil's advocate. I know how to read the writing on the wall, too.

I'll be making a point of saying I was warned about the new ROBIN issue, reading it in the store, letting my full boiling-rage reaction express itself, and then apologising to my comicshop guy when I ask to have it taken off my pull list. (Shops do base their orders in part on customers' pull lists, so anytime someone drops a title the shop winds up with 1-3 months of issues that customer will probably no longer be buying.) Fortunately I'll be picking up at least two if not three titles I hadn't before, this week, as well as putting in a TPB order, so I won't feel too bad about it.

Edited to Add:
If, like me, you've continued buying Willinghamfucktard's ROBIN partly because you don't want gaps in your collection? Drop it anyway. As many unwanted copies of these issues are being printed, we completists will be able to wait a few months and buy the ones we're missing at cut-rate back-issue prices.

Also, I've now been to the comicshop and read ROBIN #134 in the store without purchasing it. Expect a rant to be forthcoming...

Comments

[minim_calibre]

I have to think of a title to replace it with. Oh, wait. I can replace it with Action, as I'll be adding that. Well, there you go! No guilt.

It's not just bad, it's astonishingly, comically bad.

Ass indeed.

[calicojane.livejournal.com]

Believe me, there is no reason for guilt. No one who has actually seen this isue will hold your fleeing in horror against you. It's basic survival instinct really, meant to protect you from uncontrollable vomiting and self-inflicted eye-sporkage. It's just that bad. And I should warn you that reading it in-store will likely get you strange looks. But that's understandable, what with the turning purple and sputtering incoherently. I had one bystander ask if I needed water. If you suffer from high blood pressure, migraines, or any type of heart condition, I don't advise cracking the cover (which is horrible enough on its own) at all.

This PSA Brought To You By:
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Comicsfen Everywhere.

[sage]

Orders for mainstream titles go in two months in advance, so the books shipping in January were ordered in November. If Diamond allows stores to do order reductions on Robin, then there won't be assloads of #135-137 on shelves...but I'm not sure what the requirements are for that.

The important thing is that people grab a shelf copy of something of equal or greater value. I mean, we can always reorder more of anything that's still in print and we can always donate large amounts of overstock to charity. What we can't do is make up that income if people simply choose not to spend that allotted $2.50. On a title as large as Robin, that can add up to quite a lot of money for a locally owned/operated small business.

Interestingly, in the Dan Didio interview at Newsarama today, he says the following about fans voting with their pocketbooks:

Fans speak to us very simply – they buy our books. If they buy our books, we know we’re doing the right thing. If we don’t buy our books, we know we’ve gone wrong somewhere, and we will continue to try and improve ourselves until we’re creating what people want to buy.

Of course, Didio's totally known for his doublespeak, but even he understands that money is the bottom line.

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

I was dicussing Robin with my FLCDude - he's already halved his Robin order. Even so, there was a huge chunk of unsold issues sitting on the shelf.

[anothersuperboy.livejournal.com]

Might also suggest writing DC directly, telling them you are dropping the title (how you are a long time fan, yadda, yadda) and tell them why. Maybe if they get enough of those letters coupled with dropping sales they will replace the team. Otherwise, I would wonder if they would just drop the title all together, figuring people are getting their Robin fix from Teen Titans and his other Bat guest appearances.

[danielleleigh.livejournal.com]

I recently dropped Powers and I felt guilty but when I went to actually tell the shop-keeper I still had *two* books ready for me. I really, really, REALLY did not want to pay for them but I would have because like you I felt like I made a committment. The guy just shrugged and assured me he would just put them back on the shelf.

Dropping a title sometime seems embarrassing but it is a product that *we* buy so if we don't like the product we shouldn't feel quite so guilty about doing the equivalent of subscribing to buy it (which is what a pull list really becomes - a subscription).

Or so I tell my self...

link me to a rant?

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I'm not deeply emotionally invested in Robin, so I'd like to stare at the train wreck. Where can I find a rant/review/explanation of the current issue?

[some-stars.livejournal.com]

The numbers involved in everything comics are so *tiny,* compared to what we're used to with TV and books and that sort of thing, that it's very startling--to me, anyway--to realize that, say, you and all your friends doing something can have an *actual effect.*

But it can! So stop buying books you hate, everybody!!!

[karabou.livejournal.com]

You know, thank god. Everyone has been so bitter and rude about buying Robin that it made me *want to buy it* just to spite them. I'm really glad to know I'm not the only one who was buying it so I'm not made to feel like I'm the only retard out there (and that's not me saying you are one, just that it's how other people have made me feel about it). I've been buying it for the very same reasons you listed. (Also, as much as I dislike Robin right now, it's still *canon*, and I like to keep up with what's going on.)

But yeah, 134 was about as awful as it could be, and if sales really are that bad, and getting worse (where did you find the sales numbers? I haven't seen anyone link to that) than I will take it off my pull list. I really hadn't thought little old me buying a comic would make a difference (and I thought writers were contracted for a certain amount of time.. although, I suppose if they were and sales were bad, they wouldn't re-contract them). But hey, if this actually helps get Willingham gone, I am all for it.

Re: link me to a rant?

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Check dc_clocktower for a selection of glorious vitriol. Really, it's been outstanding this month.

[sanitylapse.livejournal.com]

I had already made the decision to stop buying Robin now that New Blood is over. (and really? you're not missing much if you just skip them.)

However I have this terrible fear that, when sales drop drastically as they are bound to, instead of doing the smart thing and pulling Willingham off the title, they will cancel it.

Still won't buy anymore Willingham titles though.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Te recommends WONDER WOMAN, which I'm considering adding to my own pull-list.

Re: Ass indeed.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

I wasn't really worried about feeling too guilty, but as it does inconvenience the comics retailers, if mildly, when customers drop titles from their pull-lists, I felt an apology for that was appropriate. And I'm more than making up with it with other purchases.

Interestingly, my behind-the-counter guy (the actual shop owner is only in 1-2 days a week) hadn't yet read the issue himself -- he's more a Marvel guy -- but after my loud, incredulous "*WHAT*?!" when I got to *that* page, and the news that I was going to stop buying the title, he decided he had to suffer through it himself. We'll see what he thought next week... or sooner, if I wind up calling to confirm my TPB order.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Well, what we don't want is for ROBIN to be cancelled -- though that would be marginally preferable to the current team remaining on the title. So I'll be writing a letter to DC editorial telling them exactly why I dropped the title from my pull list, and assuring them that I'll pick it up again with great delight once they get a series writer who's competent and doesn't insult the very medium with his disregard for the characters he's writing about.

For those who also wish to write to DC, you can do so through the website or via snail mail -- the address is on the site as well as on the indicia page of every DC comic. Michael Wright is the editor on ROBIN (along with BATGIRL and one or two other of Gotham's ancillary titles) but I recommend addressing your comments both to him and to Bob Schreck, who edits almost every title that begins with "BATMAN:" -- Schreck also edits GREEN ARROW with Wright as his associate (or assistant?) editor, so I think it's a fair assumption that the two of them can work together.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

"Good news, everyone!"

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Indeed, all good points -- and, well, see my response to sageness above.

I really don't want to have to get my Robin fix from TT and guest appearances in other titles, though. It seems unlikely that they'd cancel a title like ROBIN (though if anything could make that happen, it would be the way Willinghamfucktard has succeeded in hacking away at everything that made the title what it was) but best not to run that risk.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

To a degree, yes. But since comics retailers are almost all small businesses, most often very much so -- unless you're buying your comics from a 'newsstand' or grocery store, in which case find a local independently-owned shop or a more distant one which will ship to you -- they tend to be closer to their break-even than may be apparent. Think about how much shelf space in your store is taken up by back-issue inventory, and how slowly those issues move compared to current ones. And remember that retailers have to pay up-front for every issue they buy and hope enough sell that they can make their rent and payroll.

Re: link me to a rant?

[buggery.livejournal.com]

What Te said.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

It's true. I've edited the entry to include a link to Diamond's website -- all comics are distributed by Diamond, so their sales figures are all there is.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I hadn't thought we could make a difference DC would see, but it's already happening. I added a link to the entry, so you can see for yourself now. (I don't know why more people don't link to Diamond when they discuss the figures.)

Willinghamfucktard is under contract, yes, but contracts can be re-negotiated. Let's do our part to convince DC that they should.

[buggery.livejournal.com]

I have this terrible fear that, when sales drop drastically as they are bound to, instead of doing the smart thing and pulling Willingham off the title, they will cancel it.

Which is why it's important we tell DC directly why the sales are dropping, and that we'll buy ROBIN again with almost anybody else writing it.

[sage]

I agree completely. We *don't* want the title cancelled, but the likelihood of that is extremely unlikely. Tim Drake has a fanbase that solidly puts him among the top five most popular DC characters. Top three, if you exclude Batman and Superman. This isn't a situation like Impulse or Superboy, where sales had dropped consistently to nil, despite changes of both direction and creators.

What I *don't* get is why DC's got such a thing for Willingham. I don't understand why he was given Batman titles during War Games. I don't understand why he's being given the upcoming OMAC book. I suspect it's all down to Didio, since we've all been told that Bendis will *never* write for DC as long as Didio works there...even if he were willing to do it for free. I think Schreck manages storylines but doesn't actually have any control over who's writing. That's speculation on my part, though.

I'm sure the DC website has been swamped with Robin hate-mail this week. I've been telling all my customers who've bought it that they should write DC and tell them exactly what they think of it. My own letter focused mostly on sales figures and subscription drops, plus a paragraph of the ten people whom I'd most prefer to see writing. I didn't say anything about Scott's art, though I should've. It was less garish on Batgirl, but...I'm not a fan.