Withe ComicsPro over, the thoughts of store owners as to the state of the “comic industry” and the past year have trickled out. Some of what I’ve heard discussed is building communities and better dialogue between stores, publishers, and fans, and that some of the blame for current struggles is due to lower cover prices (we showed that was the case a month ago). Add in news DC will again be partnering with stores to include ads in front of movies (something we’ve brought up numerous times on our radio show), and I’m left here thinking this all sounds familiar. Add in how we were ahead of the curve about “women comic fans” not due to opinion or anecdotes, but with numbers, analysis, and trends.

It sounds familiar, because, these are things we have directly reported and analyzed or some of the articles we’ve run for years now.

So, instead of just repeating “we told you so” over and over for a 1000 words, I decided to put together a recap of key articles so that it won’t be a few more years before folks catch up with what we’ve already been saying now for a while.

• Comics Meet Micro-targeting – this article from 2010 discusses why data is important in finding new customers and tracking your current ones.
• Too Damn Many Superheroes? The Solution is Marketing What Else is Out There. – Also from 2010, learn a bit more about marketing your comics to niche that might be interested.
• The Art of Organizing in a #Comicmarket – What We Can Learn From The Voice – From 2011, lessons can be learned from other entertainment in how to better engage with fans.
• Counting Crows + BitTorrent Team Up – A Lesson for Comic Creators – From 2012, maybe there’s new ways to distribute comics?
• Third Eye Comics, Facebook Advertising Done Right – From 2014, Third Eye Comics is a prime example of how to use Facebook advertising.

And, for those that enjoy these columns, there’s a few months worth to catch up on.