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Comic Book Fans on Facebook – May 17, 2011

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It’s our third entry in our series that looks at comic book fans on Facebook and their demographics.  For this entry I’ve added a 29th like into the mix, but that only added a dozen new fans than just going with the original 28.

Total Estimated United States Comic Book Fan Facebook Population = over 1,802,500.  This is an increase of 2,220 individuals since last week.  Could the lack of a high profile movie like Thor or event like Free Comic Day account for the slower growth?  We’ll pay attention to the overall growth as more big summer movies open up.  If similar increases like last week happen around the release of a movie, we can assume this plays into it somehow.

But, onto the breakdown.

Men vs. Women

The female population actually took a dip this week by 4,000 individuals, while the “unknown” population and men both increased by about 2,000 and 4,000.  It’s interesting to see one demographic take such a dip while the others gained.  While the overall percentage of men remained pretty stable, women dropped by about a half a percent.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook Gender 5.17.11

Education also shows an interesting dip in college grads which also decreased almost 8,000 people.  The education for women also increased across the board in both raw numbers and percentages.  There’s less women, but they’re more educated.  An interesting blip that might be just that.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook Education 5.17.11Age

The age breakdown is actually really consistent from last week.  There’s not really anything that sticks out to me for sudden shifts.  There’s a loss of women age 18-21, which might explain the dip and who was lost above.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook Age 5.17.11Comic Book Fans on Facebook Age Raw Numbers 5.17.11Relationship Status

Overall more people marked down this stat.  In the big picture has changed that much and it’s all stabilized with the numbers coming in about the same as last week.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook Relationship Status 5.17.11Comic Book Fans on Facebook Relationship Status Raw Numbers 5.17.11Gender Interest

This is another one that’s a bit odd.  Men who are “interested” in men dropped by about 1,000 while men “interested” in women increased by about 7,000.  Women “interested” in men remained the same while women “interested” in women increased a small amount.  While I don’t believe these numbers completely align with orientation, it’ll be interesting to see any patterns that might develop over time.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook Interest 5.17.11
Overall, there’s still nothing that really jumps out other than the decrease in women and the decreased gain overall in the population size from last week.  It’ll be a few months before we can really start guessing as to some of the factors that might play into these numbers.

Paying Comic Creators to Tweet?


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On top of comic books, I’m a fan of mixed martial arts (notice the Bloody Elbow link to the side?).  In many ways the two industries share a lot of similarities.  Both were in relative obscurity just a decade ago, relegated to being nothing more than something overgrown adolescents were fans of.  Both were considered a “low form” of entertainment, comics appealing to those barely literate and the stereotypes of the MMA fan were rampant as well.  Over that time period, MMA has grown into one of the premier forms of sports today, surpassing boxing as the go to event to watch people pummel each other.  During that same time period that MMA exploded into a billion dollar industry, comics had a minor uptick and renaissance, but still struggles to gain  the mass acceptance or audience that MMA has.

And that’s why I found an article on Mashable about MMA and social networking so interesting.  Unlike the comic industry, MMA, especially the premier brand UFC, has embraced social networking to spread the word about the sport, interacting with fans on a level unlike any other.  According to Mashable, the UFC will be taking it a step further, by paying it’s fighters to tweet and build an audience.  From the article:

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, is going to award fighters with monetary bonuses for using Twitter, the head of UFC announced at the UFC Fighter Summit in Las Vegas.

UFC and Strikeforce (another MMA promotion company, owned by the UFC) have a unique plan on how to do that. Starting June 1, they will divide their fighters into four categories based on their Twitter follower count. Then, after every three months, three fighters from each category will get a $5,000 bonus based on how many followers they’ve gained, the biggest percentage of new followers gained and the most creative tweets, judged by UFC head Dana White.

That’s an impressive way to build even more buzz and get fighters to engage fans and build that important base.  That also got me thinking, what if the comic industry embraced this type of thinking as well?

On our Twitter account you can see in various lists, the artists, writers and industry personalities that already use the social networking tool.  So why not dive in and embrace it more?  There is only so much the press team for publishers can do (and many of those teams have a ways to go to begin with), so why not have these creators go directly to their fans to promote future releases or current projects?

What I currently see on Twitter with this UFC project is fighters begging for new fans.  That’ll only go so far and only work so much.  Instead, fighters will begin to give a reason why they should be followed.  This will also be how it’d shake out if the same sort of program were extended to comic book creators.  They’d need to start teasing new projects by posting teaser art or have discussions and Q&As on Twitter.  The “making of” will be as important as the final project and most importantly build hype which will hopefully generate into sales.

Fans often factor in writers or artists when they decide to pick up a series, so why not embrace that?  Give those creators a monetary incentive to do the job that can no longer only be done by a press team.

Comic Movies Rule the Weekend. Thor Remains on Top.


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Marvel Studios Thor PosterIt was a good weekend for comic book movies as Thor remained at the top spot in the box office, something I wasn’t expecting.  The movie earned $34.5 million for the weekend, only dropping 47.5%, which is similar to what Iron Man experienced.  I actually expected Bridesmaids to be number one, but it debuted with a better than expected $24.4 million.  Thor has now earned $119.3 million, but will likely lost it’s top spot next weekend when the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie debuts.

Priest also debuted this weekend and took forth place for $14.5 million.  It’s been playing overseas for two weeks where it’s earned $25.6 million.  The movie’s audience was 57% male and 57% over 25 and hasn’t received the best ratings on sites like Rottentomatoes.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, which is another movie based on comic books, is now playing in just 34 theaters where it averaged a joke $226 per venue.

Wizard World, Inc. appoints John Macaluso to its Board of Directors

Official Press Release

Wizard World, Inc. (WIZD) appoints John Macaluso to its Board of Directors

Macaluso Brings to Wizard World a Track Record of Success as an Entrepreneur

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, May 13, 2011 – Wizard World, Inc. (symbol: WIZD) (the “Company”), a digital entertainment and event company, today announced that John Macaluso,  a successful businessman and entrepreneur, has been appointed to the Board of Directors. The new appointment follows the naming of Greg Suess to the Board, and is another step in the Company’s effort to add directors with successful track records of building and operating companies through their hyper-growth phase.

Mike Mathews, Wizard World Chairman states that, “John’s previous experience at founding and building a hundred-million dollar apparel company adds a great dimension to the Wizard World Board of Directors. His contacts and entrepreneurial skills will certainly help the Wizard World brand expand its operations and sales base.”

John Macaluso states, “The more time I spend with Gareb and his Wizard World team the more I want to be involved. After going to a Wizard World Comic Con event and seeing the excitement and sheer joy of the people attending, I was hooked. This was exactly the kind of opportunity I wanted to invest my time and money into. The Company and its team have an incredible energy in all that they do. I hope to offer them my years of experience and practical approach to growing their business.”

Gareb Shamus, Wizard World CEO states, “I liked John from the minute I met him, he was one of the most energetic and personable people I have ever met. John grew his manufacturing company from the ground up and knows what it takes on a daily basis to build a profitable enterprise. His experience and enthusiasm embodies the spirit of Wizard World.”

Macaluso’s garment manufacturing company, California Concepts, sold its products to many of the major retailers in the United States, produced a private label for Wal-Mart and Target, sold branded goods to Federated Department Stores, serviced specialty chains such as Charming Shoppes and Maurice’s and purveyed an upscale label to Barneys New York.  After achieving success in the garment manufacturing business, Macaluso sold the business in 2007, and is now pursuing new ventures.

About Wizard World:
Wizard World, Inc. produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests. Wizard World, Inc. also produces Wizard World Digital, an online publication covering new and upcoming products and talents in the pop culture world, and is distributed on a weekly basis to online and iPad users worldwide.

Wizard World’s full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com.

Facebook Comic Book Fans By State

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I promised this one to Larry’s Comics, so, as a man of my word, here is the United States comic book fans on Facebook broken down by state.  I couldn’t quite figure out a fun graph for this so I’ll just present the raw numbers and some lists.

The statistics look at the total Facebook population for the state (and DC), the comic book fans in the state and then gender breakdowns with a final stat of the amount of people who didn’t mark a gender.  There is some overlap for gender in some states due to people marking down both (no I don’t know why they do this).

Key: Green – highest stat, Red – lowest stat

Facebook Comic Book Fans By State 5.13.11

Top 5 States by Overall Population

1) California
2) Texas
3) New York
4) Florida
5) Illinois

Top 5 States by Comic Fans

1) California
2) New York
3) Texas
4) Florida
5) Illinois

Top 5 States by Comic Fans Percent

1) New York
2) Nevada
3) New Mexico
4) Maryland
5) California

Top 5 States Male Comic Fans

1) California
2) New York
3) Texas
4) Florida
5) Illinois

Top 5 States Male Comic Fans Percent

1) Delaware
2) North Dakota
3) Michigan
4) Nebraska
5) Connecticut

Top 5 States Female Comic Fans

1) California
2) New York
3) Texas
4) Florida
5) Illinois

Top 5 States Female Comic Fans Percent

1) Alaska
2) Montana
3) New Mexico
4) Oregon
5) Arkansas

Comic Book Fans on Facebook – May 10, 2011


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Last week we posted the second entry on our look at the demographics of comic book fans on Facebook.  You can check out the previous entry as to how it was gone about.  Since the last week we had Free Comic Book Day and the opening of the movie Thor in the United States.  Numbers have moved, but unfortunately, we don’t know why and two weeks does not make enough data sets to look at patterns.  We’ll see if similar increases happen around the releases of other blockbusters like Green Lantern and Captain America.

Total Estimated United States Comic Book Fan Facebook Population = over 1,800,280.  This is an increase of 39,900 individuals since last week.

Men vs. Women

The percentages and raw numbers of both men and women increased as those not giving a gender decreased since last week.  Men still make up the majority with 66.41% and women have 33.22%.

Education was generally the same with a little movement, but not much.

Age

There were some shifts in the ages.  21 and under increased for instance while the 22-25 age demographic decreased.  That was the only age bracket that decreased, all the rest saw gains.

Relationship Status

There was actually a decrease in married women who are comic book fans on Facebook.  Everything else increased, while that one decreased.  Is spring the season for divorces?

Gender Interest

The numbers for what gender people are interested in remained fairly stable percentage wise.  This statistic is not to be confused with orientation as people can be interested in certain genders for friendship or activities as well as romantic relationships.

While there were some changes in the raw numbers since last week, two weeks does not indicate anything in particular.  It’ll be interesting to see if we see similar bumps as other summer movies open.

Wizard World Inc. Appoints Greg Suess to its Board of Directors

Official Press Release

Wizard World, Inc. (WIZD) appoints Greg Suess to its Board of Directors

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, May 9, 2011 – Wizard World, Inc. (Symbol: WIZD) announced today that Greg Suess has joined Wizard World’s Board of Directors.  Greg will help facilitate the planned growth and strategic direction of Wizard World, with the goal of leveraging Wizard World’s intellectual property assets across the entertainment industry.

“Greg is a well-respected and accomplished executive with a strong business development skill set,” Wizard World CEO Gareb Shamus said.  “In working with Greg, we will also benefit from the association with ROAR, the entertainment and media-focused management company that Greg co-founded. It represents an amazing group of talent, several of whom have played characters relating to our world, including Julian McMahon as ‘Dr. Doom’ in Fantastic Four, Ken Watanabe as ‘Ra’s Al Ghul’ in Batman Begins, Chris Hemsworth as ‘George Kirk’ in Star Trek, and ‘Thor’ in Thor and The Avengers, Cobie Smulders as ‘Maria Hill’ in The Avengers, and Yeardley Smith as ‘Lisa Simpson’ in The Simpsons.”

“Wizard World has a deep database of loyal, engaged and passionate fans, sponsors, talent and media partners in a specifically defined, multi-billion dollar category,” Suess said. “There is an opportunity to profitably mine that database to create new events, sponsors, content and applications, particularly via Wizard World’s new digital platform.”

Greg is also a shareholder of Wizard World, further aligning his interests with those of Wizard World’s shareholders.

In addition to serving as a founding partner of ROAR, Greg is Of Counsel to Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen & Shapiro, LLP (glaserweil.com), a leading Los Angeles law firm.  He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Derycz Scientific, Inc. (DYSC.ob), TicTock Studios (tictockstudios.com), and Camp Southern Ground, Inc. (CampSouthernGround.org) – a non-profit organization founded by Grammy® Award-winning artist Zac Brown.

About Wizard World:
Wizard World, Inc. produces Comic Cons and pop culture conventions across North America that celebrate graphic novels, comic books, movies, TV shows, gaming, technology, toys and social networking. The events often feature celebrities from movies and TV, artists and writers, and events such as premieres, gaming tournaments, panels, and costume contests. Wizard World, Inc. also produces Wizard World Digital, an online publication covering new and upcoming products and talents in the pop culture world, and is distributed on a weekly basis to online and iPad users worldwide.

Wizard World’s full event schedule can be found at www.wizardworld.com.

International Comic Book Fans on Facebook – May 9,2011


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On Friday I grabbed the data for comic book fans outside of the United States on Facebook.  It’s been a busy weekend, so the post took a bit to write.  Future editions of this will be posted on Saturdays going forward.

The Methodology

You can find out the general gist of how I went about getting the information in this post.  For the “international edition” I focused on just a few countries, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Brazil, Canada and Mexico.  I think out of the two editions, this one is more flawed as foreign languages would need to be taken into account, something that wasn’t done with this inaugural post.

Much like the last post focusing on the United States, this one also has the statistics for Facebook in general in these countries.  The total population of self-identified “international” comic book fans on Facebook is over 1,480,060.  The total population total is 168,050,240, making comic book fans a little over 0.88% of the population, less than those living in the United States.

Men vs. Women

Women still make up the majority of the overall Facebook population with 50.12% to men’s 48.12%.  Women actually make up a higher percentage of comic book fans but men still dominate.  International male comic book fans make up 61.19% and women 39.39% (no idea why that’s over 100% and yes I ran that number multiple times).

Much like in the United States, comic book fans are more educated than the general population.  Women are the majority in college or high school, but aren’t the majority with college degrees.

Age

While the 18-21 population makes up the largest segment for the general Facebook populace, it’s under 17 that’s the majority of comic book fans with a drop off as people age.  The general Facebook population is similar to that of the United States.  There is an interesting uptick of women age 42-45 making up a larger percentage of comic book fans as well as men 34-37.

Relationship Status

For the general Facebook population, relationship status is much more even, but for the comic book fans “single” dominates with “married” making up a sliver compared to the United States stats.

Gender Interest

Gender interest isn’t available for some of these countries, we’re guessing due to privacy or discrimination laws.

Comic Book Fans on Facebook – May 3,2011

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Last week I launched a regular report that will look at the demographics of comic book fans on Facebook.  This weekly column will now appear on Tuesdays to coincide with the #comicmarket discussion that occurs on Twitter (seems appropriate).  For this second entry, I’ve done two things, expanded the universe examined and also grabbed the data to compare how comic book fans compare with the Facebook community as a whole.

The Methodology

Questions on how I went about gather this data left a lot of people questioning the results from the inaugural entry.  That entry was rushed, I more wanted to prove it can be done, than really going all out.  The methodology is simple, Facebook allows individuals to identify their interests/likes.  In the inaugural entry, I used nine points of interests.

This second entry sees that expanded to 28.  I’m not going to list all of them, but they are general comic book companies/publishers/lines and what I’ll call the “medium,” so manga, comic books, graphic novels, etc.  I stayed away from individual books and personalities as well as related comic book tie-ins like movies, video games and toys.  What’ll you’ll see though is as the total number of identifiers tripled, the volume increase wasn’t that much.

These statistics are also for individuals on Facebook who are marked as living in the United States.

Total United States Comic Book Fan Facebook Population = over 1,760,380 – this is the total number of people who identified themselves through these 28 items.  There are a total of 160,549,620 Facebook users who are identified as living in the United States.  That means on Facebook a little over 1% of those located in the United States are comic book fans.

Men vs. Women

There was a flaw in my original graphic, those who are “unknown.”  These people have declined to give their data.  For purposes, I’ll now include that when applicable.  Here is the first major break from the general United States statistics.  In the general US statistics, women make up the majority with 51.06% versus men at 42.39%.  Comic book fans fall into the steroetype with men dominating almost 2 to 1 at 64.14% to women at 33.12%.

Comic Fans on FacebookUnited States Facebook Population

When breaking down education you also find that comic book fans are more educated than the general populace.

5.2 Education Comic Fan

5.2 Education Facebook User

Age

The age breakdown of both comic book fans and Facebook has been greatly expanding.  Ages are now in a four year span.  Though the breakdown somewhat matches as far as the largest segments for each (18-21), that age group makes up 31.81% of the universe for comic book fans but 19.95% of Facebook users.  You’ll also notice at age 40, the number of comic book fans halves with each grouping, but there’s a more gradual decline in Facebook fans.  Almost 80% of comic book fans are under the age of 30 while just under 55% are in this age range for the general Facebook populace.

5.2 Age Comic Book Fan5.2 Age Facebook User5.2 Age Breakdown Comic Fan

5.2 Age Breakdown Facebook User

Relationship Status

By a slight majority comic book fans are “single” with 51.27% while only 33.24% of the Facebook population is.  The single population is overwhelmingly male (68.33%) while more even for the the general populace.  For comic book fans, this comes at the expense of the “married” status which is 17.77% for comic book fans and 39.4% for general Facebook users.

5.2 Relationship Comic Book Fan5.2 Relationship Facebook User5.2 Relationship Numbers Comic Fan

5.2 Relationship Numbers Facebook User

Gender Interest

There’s been some comments about what words I use for this statistic.  Facebook labels this as “interested in.”  To me this is different than orientation.  People can be “interested in” the same sex for friendship for example.  While this is an interested statistic, I don’t believe it necessarily denotes these users’ orientation.  As far as the overall percentages of what users are “interested in,” comic book fans have slightly higher percentages when it comes to same-sex.

5.2 Gender Interest Comic Fan

5.2 Gender Interest Facebook User

With this data we now have a base for future comparison.  With Free Comic Book Day and numerous movies based on comic book franchises on the horizon, we’ll see if these numbers shift at all.

Up later this week is an international edition.

Who Are the Comic Book Fans on Facebook?


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During yesterday’s weekly #comicmarket chat a discussion about data and the cost to reaching new customers arose.  That got me wondering, who are self-identified comic book fans?  One of the easiest ways to find this is through Facebook, who along with Google is one of the kings of consumer data.  Below is what I found diving in.

The Methodology

I’m not going to give away the complete method to the madness but I looked at various ways folks could identify they enjoy comic books on Facebook (this was done through Likes).  I found nine likes that comprised this universe.  Beyond the nine, the overall universe didn’t expand too much.

Keep in mind, this is self identification, I’m sure there are numerous other fans of the medium who have not marked themselves as much.  The second major thing is, the data below is for those living in the United States.  Moving it beyond this one country created a data set too large to handle through the way this was gathered.

I played with some ways to get a large base to work from and found 9 key identifiers.  Going above this nine added to the universe, but not to the point that it mattered much.  In my eyes, this nine were some of the top identifiers covering fans of mainstream comics and indie comics.  I then took this universe and broke it down numerous ways.  Here’s what I found.

Total United States Comic Book Fan Facebook Population = over 1,215,960 – this is the total number of people who identified themselves through these nine items.

Men vs. WomenComic Books Men and Women

The first look was to see how this population broke down through gender.  The second part was to look at their education.  Keep in mind that totals might not equal the complete universe as not everyone identifies themselves in every category.

College Grad In College In High School
Total 1,215,960 336,260 141,680 79,020
Men 905,100 249,260 94,800 57,580
Women 304,700 84,780 46,000 21,200

27.65% of the individuals marked themselves as College Graduates.  With 27.54% of men having a degree and 27.82% of women.  As a whole according to this data, the women outperformed the men when it came to education.

Age

When you see the age Comic Books by Agebreakdown things get interesting with the majority of the population falling into the 18 to 30 year old range.  31 to 45 year olds out-numbering the 17 and under crowd.  It seems there’s tons of potential growth in that 17 and under crowd but also would worry me as generations age and fans die off.  Get them while they’re young.

Men Women
17 and under 168,280 118,920 49,020
18-30 771,340 558,340 208,900
31-45 233,240 195,200 36,720
46+ 43,080 32,600 10,060

Relationship Status

Are comic fans really the stereotypical lonely nerd living in their parents basement?  By a slim majority out of a total population of 966,620Comic Book Relationship status individuals, 50.27% are either engaged, in a relationship or married.  A whopping 49.72% mark themselves as single.  I’ll bring future analysis of how this breaks down by age and gender.

Single 480,600 49.72%
Engaged 42,740 4.42%
In Relationship 256,580 26.54%
Married 186,700 19.31%

But who are they interested in?  I dove in deeper to see how individuals identified themselves as to which gender they’re interested in.

Men Women
Men 14,940 616,640
Women 152,320 27,940

811,840 individuals identified what gender they’re interested in.  5.28% marked same gender preference.  We’ll break this down in the future based on age and relationship status.

That’s it for now.  I’ll be making this sort of information a regular feature and we’ll see how things like this summer’s numerous comic book movies and events like Free Comic Book Day moves these numbers.  But, I throw this to you, what would you like to see?  More regional information?  This expanded to international figures?

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