Today two stories of some pretty douchebag behavior....
MARVEL ACTS LESS THAN MARVELOUS
Right now the two major comics companies Marvel and DC are doing their big summer "events." Marvel is doing Fear Itself, and DC is doing Flashpoint in preparation for their big reboot.
Word is that Fear Itself is outselling Flashpoint, which is understandable, since probably a lot of even the most ardent DC rats are just going to wait it out until the reboot happens in September. However, that's not enough for Marvel.
A report is out saying that Marvel is making a somewhat douchebag style offer to comic retailers. For ever 50 ripped Flashpoint covers sent into Marvel, those retailers will get a free variant cover issue of Fear Itself that they can sell for a higher price.
That don't seem right to me.
I'm all for competition, but real competition does not involve bribing retailers to destroy your competition's products. It's like GM telling car dealers that they'll get a free luxury car to sell for top dollar if they destroy a bunch of Ford sedans.
Douchebags.
But wait, there's more...
WAY TO BE AN ENTERTAINER
Dave Chappelle, famous for his Rick James impression, and for walking away from a $50 million TV deal, added another item to his curriculum vitae: douchebag.
Apparently he went on stage in Florida, hemmed, hawed, sighed, and checked his text messages, instead of delivering the laughs the audience paid good money to see. And this disaster went on for 46 minutes.
And it that's not enough, it was at a CHARITY EVENT.
Now that's a woefully unprofessional behavior, when you're an entertainer, you are supposed to entertain. That's your job. That is what you are supposed to do.
To go out on stage and act like an ass because you're allegedly too important to do the job you profess to love says that your ego is writing checks your talent can't cash. Doing it at a charity event is just the gravy on a shit sandwich.
It's also a bad career move.
Let's have a little thought experiment...
Imagine that you're a big name in stand up comedy like Chappelle. You can pack big theaters and command big fees all over. So you think: What's the harm if I blow off a gig or two, I'm a big player, they have to eat my shit and call it ice cream.
That would make you wrong.
You see the market has its own form of karmic alignment. Bad behavior, especially if it impinges on someone's work, has a way of coming out and ruining everything for you.
You act like an ass. Word gets around, suddenly the big theaters aren't willing to pay you the big fees you used to command. Why? Because they now think that you are a risk. They think that you are going to piss off the audience and make them demand their money back, which the theaters cannot afford to do.
They have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and loan sharks to keep off their backs. They don't need another headache, and don't need to look at your face and see a problem instead of an opportunity. Then your bookings begin to dwindle, right next to your bank account, and the next thing you know you're living in a scuzzy studio apartment above a bankrupt meth lab and muttering to yourself that you're still king of the world.
It's simple logic.
MARVEL ACTS LESS THAN MARVELOUS
Right now the two major comics companies Marvel and DC are doing their big summer "events." Marvel is doing Fear Itself, and DC is doing Flashpoint in preparation for their big reboot.Word is that Fear Itself is outselling Flashpoint, which is understandable, since probably a lot of even the most ardent DC rats are just going to wait it out until the reboot happens in September. However, that's not enough for Marvel.
A report is out saying that Marvel is making a somewhat douchebag style offer to comic retailers. For ever 50 ripped Flashpoint covers sent into Marvel, those retailers will get a free variant cover issue of Fear Itself that they can sell for a higher price.
That don't seem right to me.
I'm all for competition, but real competition does not involve bribing retailers to destroy your competition's products. It's like GM telling car dealers that they'll get a free luxury car to sell for top dollar if they destroy a bunch of Ford sedans.
Douchebags.
But wait, there's more...
WAY TO BE AN ENTERTAINER
Dave Chappelle, famous for his Rick James impression, and for walking away from a $50 million TV deal, added another item to his curriculum vitae: douchebag.
Apparently he went on stage in Florida, hemmed, hawed, sighed, and checked his text messages, instead of delivering the laughs the audience paid good money to see. And this disaster went on for 46 minutes.
And it that's not enough, it was at a CHARITY EVENT.
Now that's a woefully unprofessional behavior, when you're an entertainer, you are supposed to entertain. That's your job. That is what you are supposed to do.
To go out on stage and act like an ass because you're allegedly too important to do the job you profess to love says that your ego is writing checks your talent can't cash. Doing it at a charity event is just the gravy on a shit sandwich.
It's also a bad career move.
Let's have a little thought experiment...
Imagine that you're a big name in stand up comedy like Chappelle. You can pack big theaters and command big fees all over. So you think: What's the harm if I blow off a gig or two, I'm a big player, they have to eat my shit and call it ice cream.
That would make you wrong.
You see the market has its own form of karmic alignment. Bad behavior, especially if it impinges on someone's work, has a way of coming out and ruining everything for you.
You act like an ass. Word gets around, suddenly the big theaters aren't willing to pay you the big fees you used to command. Why? Because they now think that you are a risk. They think that you are going to piss off the audience and make them demand their money back, which the theaters cannot afford to do.
They have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and loan sharks to keep off their backs. They don't need another headache, and don't need to look at your face and see a problem instead of an opportunity. Then your bookings begin to dwindle, right next to your bank account, and the next thing you know you're living in a scuzzy studio apartment above a bankrupt meth lab and muttering to yourself that you're still king of the world.
It's simple logic.
That's actually not the first time Marvel has done that, D.
ReplyDeleteLast year (or was it 2), when DC was doing Blackest Night (and actually outselling Marvel for the first time in a long time), Marvel pulled a similar move.
I'm guessing the "success" of that incident is encouraging them this time around. I'm tell you, look deeper, you might find more.
Note that this was also the time DC was releasing plastic replicas of the different colored corps rings (of course I have all of them, even black & white).
Even if it's not the first time it's still pretty douchey.
ReplyDeleteOh I quite agree it's totally douchey. Just thought you'd want some possible explanations for Marvel doing this.
ReplyDelete