Undoubtedly the publishers and creators both feel they are also obligated to tell the kinds of stories that will sell as much as possible to both current loyalists and new readers, but if there are non-story considerations that make a book sell better the publishers will likely go for that every time.

That said, the publishing wing of the big two companies has nothing to offer BUT their intellectual property. Surely nobody is paying $3.00 for a few pieces of paper stapled together for any reason but the content on the page. Certainly they're not paying for something because they think Editor X can edit the heck out of a comic.

It's my opion (and take this with a grain of salt) that it's a little bit off to state that the writer has nobody to satisfy but the editor or publisher when the livelihood of the editor and publisher depends upon the desire of the reader to buy somebody else's words. Whether the editor loves Writer X or not, if sales slip, the writer must go.

Of course, looking at some of DC's output, you certainly get the feeling that the friendship between an editor and writer may be the only reason some comics ever see print.

Certainly retailers play a part, but even retailers have been taken out of the loop of comic selection to some degree with the model of direct market. Comic buyers are doing their work before comics ever arrive, digging through online solicitations and through Previews deciding on what comics to buy and THEN informing their retailer to order them a copy. As I don't work in a comic shop, I am not privvy to all of the ordering side of the business with discounts, returns, etc... but as a rule of thumb, most retailers do not intentionally over order on most comics, with just a few unclaimed copies for the shelf.

Taking the pre-order factor out of the equation... But looking at another medium with writers and editors...

We all know the new Harry Potter will sell like hot cakes this summer because of a built in fan base and because JK Rowling wrote the book. Certainly Rowling isn't writing to appease editors as much as to please as many readers as possible and thus fill her pockets with money.

But I'm also no comic professional, so I could be way, way off here.

(And, frankly, that has zilch to do with the writers, and everything to do with the characters. Good stories are important, but a basic familiarity with the characters are more important, and that will come more from movies, tv, etc. The only time a writer's going to draw serious numbers of new fans in is when he's well known in a completely unrelated field - I got into comics more for the Dark Tower adaptation, and I'm intrigued that Tad Williams is doing Aquaman, since I like his novels - but again, it's not a particularly sustainable model...)

Of course, there's a corresponding problem in that the level of violence in the comics is a bit above what most parents would want to expose their kids to. There's only one title out of the ones I follow that I'd be willing to give to my little cousin; the violence, gore and adult themes showing up in flagship titles like Batman would make any parent wary.

If they want new readers, they're aiming at the wrong audience. OTOH, if they want to keep the existing audience, pissing them off isn't a good idea . Negative publicity on either front isn't gonna help...

Perhaps at some point a publisher interested in doing better than the status-quo will find a way to re-enter newstands, utilize the internet, enter the kid's section of book stores or find their way onto book orders and find new outlets and make comics available to kids. But, yeah, absolutely... I wouldn't exactly want to hand most kids "Identity Crisis", or expect kids to understand the 50 years of history embedded in the average issue of something like JLA or JSA.