The direct market now accounts for “over 60%” of publishing for Marvel Comics, according to a presentation made by Marvel Studio Chairman David Maisel at the Merrill Lynch Media Fall Preview Conference on Wednesday.  Assuming it’s not a lot over 60%, that’s a significant drop from the 89% of sales that the direct market represented in calendar 2001, and 84% direct market share of publishing in 2002 (see “Marvel Issues 2002 Annual Report”).  Maisel mentioned the growing sales in Borders and Barnes & Noble as an important source of growth for the company’s publishing division in recent years, and that growth in bookstores certainly accounts for the bulk in the drop in share for the direct market.

For the future, Maisel sees digital publishing taking an increasing share of Marvel’s publishing business.  Maisel said he expects a “renaissance in publishing over the next few years” from the opportunities presented by interactive media (Internet, cell-phone), allowing Marvel to “take the content, which is relatively distribution constrained now, to anybody that has a screen.”  Although digitizing Marvel’s library will be part of that opportunity, Maisel said Marvel is “even more excited about evolving comics for the new medium.”  That includes animation, voiceovers, and video-type techniques applied to comic-based content delivered to computers or cell-phones. 

As expected given the media focus of the conference, Maisel spent considerable time talking about Marvel Studios’ movie business, including its plans for the next few years, which have previously been well-documented (see “Iron Man Sequel in 2010”).  Maisel pointed out that Marvel’s ability to greenlight its own features gave it a competitive advantage in the increasingly crowded superhero movie business, because it is able to stake out key opening weekends long in advance (Marvel Studios has announced releases on the first weekend in May for both 2010 and 2011). 

Maisel did reveal that the Spider-Man musical (see “Spider-Man Musical”) could premiere as early as 2009, depending on the availability of the right theater and other factors.  The songs by Bono and The Edge have been completed, and the show has been workshopped.