Anonymous asked:

My opinion on diversity is this. If you want more diversity in comics, then promote Storm and Elektra more so you don't wind up canceling poorly marketed titles and give us new ongoings for Jessica Jones, Black Panther, Wasp, Scarlet Witch, Luke Cage, War Machine, Mockingbird and Rogue. With enough promotion, it isn't hard for these titles to sell well enough to not get canceled.

brevoortformspring answered:

It doesn’t really work that way.

STORM didn’t not sell because people were unaware of it. It didn’t sell because not enough people were interested in reading a Storm solo series.

While you might be able to promote a particular plotline at a given moment, just general “promotion” isn’t a panacea. You can’t trick people into buying a series that they’re not interested in.

[elanabrooklyn]

People weren’t aware of the Storm comic outside of the tiny bubble of comic store visitors. I know because I asked a lot of people outside our bubble and no, they had no idea.

What I would’ve recommended would be for Marvel to do some ad marketing on Facebook to people who list X-Men as an interest or favorite movie and are women or people of color. Let them know that a title that might be interested in is launching via sponsored Facebook content. It can be very inexpensive to do this. I work for a nonprofit and we use this strategy all the time.

I’m not saying there was any ill will from the publisher. But it’s time for Marvel to consider new forms of marketing to reach new audiences. The success of your films is creating an enormous opportunity that has not been capitalized on yet. The new Avengers movie including free digital comics with your ticket purchase was a step in the right direction.

Maybe we can see strategies like Facebook contextual ads to support marvels new titles. Ads for Daredevil comics to people who like the show. Ads for Luke Cage to people who will like that when the new show comes out. Etc