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"Each subscriber with an active subscription between July and December of 2016 will earn entries."
"Winners will be chosen at random beginning in January 2017."
So now that the sweepstakes is closed and January is over have any of those winners been chosen?
Those video's are not done by Mr Fischbach. They are simply posted by someone under the user name "Markiplier Zwagbox Unboxing." I don't think the poster is trying to deceive but it appears to be causing some confusion.
Weirdly, they've updated images in the video but left the old soundtrack intact. It's even still promoting the "July" Zwagbox.
We put in a lot of hard work. Personally, I was in charge of the ONLY thing Red Giant ever finished on time, the Free Comic Book Day books. I turned down other work when I expected RG to be a full-time gig. Yes, I got paid...but in the long run my losses exceeded my gains. By thousands of dollars. And I'm still wrangling some legal issues with the company, which will likely cost me .
I occasionally pop by and offer a tiny bit of insight. Probably not as much as I could, but I feel constrained by a desire to do no harm.
No skin off my nose to stop contributing what insight I feel I can if you're going to respond with sarcastic remarks about "little interviews and chicken wings."
It's quite possible that Mr Powell never shared with Mr Campiti his plans to attend.
Benny recently had a table at a small convention in Clermont and David only found out when he ran into him at the show.
Because unlike some people David and Chris know how to get things done. They don't claim to be geniuses. They respect the input and ideas of others. They don't discount every single idea presented to them by somebody else simply because it comes from somebody else. They study up before they undertake a project, they work at it and plan for it. Where possible they test it out before taking it live.
It ain't rocket science...though truthfully all of that would apply to successful rocket science as well.
https://www.groupon.com/deals/zwag-box-orlando
I guess any activity is a plus for you guys...though this suggests that either a desperate willingness to sell at a loss, or the contents of the box are even cheaper than they appear at first glance.
Docg, it's tough for me to say much because I don't want to be publicly bashing anyone who isn't in the room to defend themselves, and that includes Benny.
I will say he doesn't work well with others or listen to opposing opinions. I don't think that's going to change.
As to whether the whole enterprise is salvageable I'm not qualified to assess that.
I will point out though, and nobody seems to notice this, that the entire nature of the company has changed.
It began as an effort to develop and market intellectual properties for film and TV. The comics were, by and large, the means to that end.
It is now, primarily, a company selling a mystery box. Now, obviously some companies make money doing that. But even if successful the ceiling is relatively low compared to successfully marketing properties to the entertainment industry.
Tom did not work for Red Giant. He works with Keenspot, which is Chris Crosby's company.
Yeah, they share booth space with RG at San Diego. But that was actually Keenspot's booth first and RG piggybacked onto them.
Where they will surely be ignored.
I likewise wonder if Cratejoy shut them down. They surely can't be pleased and have no reason to subject themselves to the headaches caused by this one tiny, unsuccessful account.
Well, that's one way to prevent people from canceling.
I don't see any evidence there are problems with Cratejoy, Medallion, or the United States Postal Service.
And why would they sacrifice fixed monthly subscription money for streaming ad money?
How many impressions would it take for a reader to generate the $10 monthly the standard Marvel Unlimited subscription cost?
Or even the $6 per month generated by the yearly prepaid?
Even if Powfolio had hundreds of thousands of users, instead of a few hundred, I just don't see it as making sense.
The only way I can imagine DC or Marvel taking an interest in Powfolio would be if they fell in love with the technology, in which case they'd be much more likely to buy it than sign up.
But I don't see that happening either. I'm not saying it's a bad little app, but there's just nothing about it that is really that special.
They have a dedicated site that sells their digital comics but not a monthly subscription service along the lines of Marvel Unlimited.
https://www.readdcentertainment.com/
That they don't have a subscription service suggests to me they have no interest in such a format at this time. If they did I would expect them to follow the Marvel model, not sign up with a fledgling app that provides free access.
DC would add value to Powfolio certainly but what value does Powfolio add to DC?
Ties were severed long ago, save for an ongoing contractual dispute regarding an IP. I'd say we've been done since 2014.
If you figure initial Zwag subscribers were about 2000...which I think is close...that means that you're talking about .00013333333% of Mr Fishbach's online fanbase.
Perhaps this entire affair is simply a sad embarrassment that he would like to move on from?
I'm not saying $200k is pennies but but sometimes you just don't want to throw good money after bad.
No personal knowledge of their working arrangement but I sincerely doubt they are truly co-authoring. Most likely Mr Fishbach approves/suggests dialogue for his character. That's probably about it.
I likewise doubt that they are splitting the writing money, least of all in a 50/50 fashion.
Probably some royalties involved but it may be the book has to make some kind of money for that to kick in. And with the very low distribution that may not be achievable.
10 grand.
And the exact same logic...only more so...applies to his writing the comic.
He's the CEO of a whole entire company, launching a critical new product that obviously requires a whole lot of time and attention. Is scripting the best use of his time?
This isn't a real complicated storyline...Mark travels to place X by means of device Y. Go!
Not only does leaving the writing in other hands free up Benny, at least a couple of those names, Mort Castle & Larry Hama, are very well known with large fanbases.
Their names...and potential promotional efforts related to their involvement...certainly add some value.
So why is Mr Powell scripting the comics instead of applying his energy to larger issues surrounding the company when plenty of other options are available?
I was responding specifically to this comment on the comics:
"He has a comic book with red giant and if he wants to see his comic get more than 4 issues he should bite the bullet and he should have taken 2 minutes on his video and promoted a box."
Benny, who is paying himself $113 a page for script and lettering for 100 pages across 4 issues is making far more money off the comic than Mr Fishbach ever will.
I think you might be overestimating the financial benefit of these comics to Mr Fischbach.
A few years back I did several comic book/graphic novel projects with a very successful urban fantasy author, adapting some of her books.
Wonderful person, wonderful writer, cared a great deal for her fans. The complete package.
She enjoyed seeing the comics and the experience of getting them done. Some of them made the NY Times Best Seller list.
But compared to her books she made practically nothing on the comics. She colorfully described what it as "ice cream money."
If any of the speculation I've seen regarding his income is anywhere near accurate, I'm sure this is another case of "ice cream money." I can't imagine additional issues of of any importance to him, and based on comments he made at SDCC I don't think he has any strong interest in seeing the comics continue.
And given the delays, headaches and hard-feelings surrounding the box and the comics, I doubt he has any incentive to get more involved than he has been.
Not for ice cream money.
Jaclyn Logan Zwagbox - Any word on when the September boxes will go out? Thanks! :)
Like · Reply · 1 · September 30 at 12:39pm
Zwagbox Warehouse is already working on them.
Like · Reply · 2 · September 30 at 12:56pm · Edited
Did Diamond invoice Mark #1 yet? Isn't it completely returnable by now? If it ever ships, of course.
Are they compiling and shipping? Like the first box was on July 29?
I think everyone is misunderstanding this "2000" thing.
The website states clients ship "typically between 20 to 2,000 orders per day."
That's not a cap. That's an average client.
They clearly can and do ship a lot more than 2000 boxes a day.
If that was all they could handle in a typical 30 month with 22 business days they would only be able to ship 44000 a month for all customers.
That's not much of a business model.
I don't think that shipping dragging out has anything to do with Medallion's capacity. Far more likely they were not given complete shipping information for all customers in a timely fashion.
Yes 2000 would be a promising start in a very competitive marketplace, particularly in light of the very limited marketing.
But how do you restore trust when a July box isn't delivered until after Labor Day? Particularly after telling customers July 29 the box is shipping when clearly NOTHING went out until September 8?
I suppose it could by argued that "compiling and shipping," as it was phrased, leaves some wiggle room. But you don't build long lasting customer relationships with wiggle room. You do it by communicating honestly, clearly and on a regular basis, especially when things are not operating smoothly.
"We are in discussions with Amazon about perhaps partnering with their delivery systems."
That's pretty vague really. And you do realize that at various times RG has been in talks with GameStop, Toys R Us, Bandai, Lin Pictures, etc about "partnering?"
And that all kinds of mom and pops work with Amazon?
My guess...based on parsing Zwagbox statements...is about 2000 sold of the first box. They said thousands, they tend to spin, 2000 is the lowest number that qualifies as "thousands." I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
And with 6 weeks of waiting AFTER the July 29 announcement that boxes were already being shipping probably at least 25% of those subscribers have dropped off.
Yeah, my guess is just that...but so are your more positive assessments.
More than one reason to keep THAT comic in a bag!
How about a finger? Now that's a hell of a thing. There'd me a limited number available, obviously. Like Willy Wonka's golden ticket.
Some people say you can judge a man by his friends and I guess that's true. You can also judge a man by his enemies though, and I'm proud of mine.
And imagine if he wore the pins before they put 'em in the box. Golden!
I think a signed limited edition foil cover comic would have been about the most satisfying premium they could have offered to make it up to Mark's fans.
Actually, they probably should have offered that all along as part of the deal.
But I don't know the niceties of his relationship with his company.
Since many of the buyers are going to be Marki fans why didn't they have him autograph the comic? That might have softened the blow after all the delays. Certainly more so than an over-appraised free pin.
He lives in LA, right? That's only about half an hour from Medallion.
There was plenty of time, if the problem was an unexpected delay in the t-shirts. Since everything else should have been at the warehouse already that would mean comics were sitting there from late July until September 8.
I know it's a few hours work to sign a couple of thousand comics but it sounds like time well spent to me.
He certainly could if Mr Powell let him.
A link was posted to this on the FB fan page.
A jerk in the group referred to this young lady as a "retard" for this video.
Nice way to refer to someone who is trying to give a company money for its product and has spoken up after waiting over a month.
And completely inappropriate in strictly human terms. She appears to be a shy young woman who would probably have been devastated by the comment.
I don't say much about this company in public but I'm not ashamed to say several of us raked the guy over the coals.
Because clearly a product that would arrive at a minimum 37 days late...should it be delivered Tuesday and after, based on destination...needs to be sabotaged by a vengeful stockholder or ANYBODY else in hopes of somehow making management look even worse.
Personally, I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor.
I would agree. It is notoriously difficult for a fledgling publisher to build a strong relationship with retailers and with Diamond under the best of circumstances. If they come to be perceived as unreliable all the worse.
I will admit the timeline puzzles me. In order to hit the original delivery date the book would have had to gone to print the first part of July, long before anyone could be aware of t-shirt issues.
And likewise to hit the end of this month...if such is the case...the book would have needed to go to print early this month, before the problem with the shirts was apparently resolved.
Maybe he has especially good relations with a printer from his years of successfully running Active Media and they managed to help him out a bit here.
So at least five weeks late now? How very unfortunate for everyone.
I've worked closely with Tina & Ricardo in the past and found them to be as reliable as they are talented. I've never worked with Nigel personally but I've heard nothing but good things.
I can't imagine what could be responsible for such a prolonged delay. I'm certain it's terribly embarrassing for all involved.