Are comic books doomed?

Well, the main issue is the previous poster doesn't seem to think that comics have made the transition to digital format at all, when in that is the farthest thing from the truth. It's a pretty simple thing to search for comics on any digital format, and at the very least DC, Image, and Dark Horse have their own apps for selling their works. Finding digital comics is literally just as easy as finding ebooks, was my main point.

For the record, C. Spike Trotman, publisher of Iron Circus Comics, is really excited about the state of comics, and has said on multiple occasions that the industry is the strongest it's ever been. Major book publishers are getting in on graphic novels. Raina Telgemeier had a huge impact on the industry, by showing that there's a huge market for comics sold through traditional book publishers.

Iron Circus spent years making its bread-and-butter through Kickstarter, now it's really a secondary thing, because they got a distribution deal that puts its comics in way more places.

Add to that the low bar of entry to do webcomics, or to Kickstart, or to otherwise make money through online publishing, and there has literally never been a better time to be a comic creator.

People have been predicting the end of comics for decades, and they're still around, because it's a medium that is able to do things other mediums can't.

Shit, even with the direct market, rising rents are a much larger problem than sales. Floppy sales are still pretty strong.

Comic books are doing just fine.

My only real concern about comics are the state of comic book stores which seem to be in decline. But really store branches seem to be in decline ever since the rise of the online market.

Also I wish that Franco-Belgian comics were less niche.

The problem is that when it comes to comics, most people tend to focus on the Big Two, and their current sales figures are a far cry from back in the day. When people say comics are dying, with the top Marvel or DC books only selling a few hundred physical copies compared to millions in the early 90's, that's what they're referring to.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jun 23rd 2019 at 10:30:20 AM

Even if Marvel and DC as we know them vanish I doubt their characters will... Although things will be very different.

I also very much doubt Marvel and DC will disappear, considering they continue to provide IP for the movies.

Probally. They don't even make that much compared to the movies and everything else, but without them, none of that would exist. They're an ongoing series bible that just happens to make some side money.

The superhero movie craze isn't going to last forever. When they stop being popular, we'll see what happens with the comics. I think there may come a point where DC and Marvel will have to cut down the number of titles they publish, and be more selective about which characters get their own series.

And superheroes are far from all there is to comics. In many parts of Europe, for instance, Disney Ducks handily curbstomp superheroes sales-wise.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Jun 23rd 2019 at 6:02:21 AM

True, but in America they're still the main tentpole.

Ok, so the biggest two fail. In that scenario, why do we assume that others will just... not somehow fill in the niche left behind? Because it's not like there's a shortage of competitors out there who would fight tooth and nail to get that mindspace in popular culture.

Hell, you have Image and Dark Horse who have more diversified content as well as licensed properties to publish. Why are they being counted out and the "doom" of comics only focusing on two big companies? Other comic companies don't go away just because those do.

(Related, the fight for all those IP licenses would be pretty epic to see. That stuff's a LOT.)

Disney already uses IDW to publish some more children-friendly comics. Even ones involving the Avengers and Spider-Man.

Edited by alliterator on Jun 27th 2019 at 10:57:49 AM

Sure, I mean, superheroes have only lasted, what, 60 years? Total fad, due to pass aaaaaany day now.

The biggest problem facing superhero comics is actually rising rents for comic shops. That's the number one factor that causes shops to close down - not dwindling sales, but rising operating costs. As more and more comic shops close down, it definitely hurts the major floppy publishers. And that's going to require increased investments in digital and in trades. Marvel and DC have the most to lose, because they're the bulk of the direct market, and so much of their model is built on single-issue floppies. But even they'll survive as that market shrinks, even if it requires them cutting drastically.

Things will be fine.

All the comics I like seem to get canned after a year or two. The comics industry has been tricky for a long time, at least in America. Comics don't sell well compared to other media. They haven't in decades. 100k is nothing compared to even most books. The rise of free webcomics hasn't helped either.

Comics need to be more accessible in general. They're not marketed well and they're hard to find, especially physically. You can't walk into a Target and find more than one or two comics. Not everyone has a comic book store across the corner. Most people who are watching adaptations aren't reading comics.

Do you think that maybe they need to be more accessible not only in how they're sold and marketed, but also in how they're written? Maybe modern comics are inaccessible partially due to Continuity Lock-Out and Crisis Crossovers? Just a thought.

Edited by Neveratall on Sep 5th 2019 at 2:04:36 PM

Not all comics are DC and Marvel, so I don't think that's an issue. DC has tried to lessen the Continuity Lockout problem and they do have a lot of good stand-alone series like Bombshells.

Didn't that get cancelled?

From what I can tell, the original run ended. The second run, United, was cancelled 30 issues in.

Something that came up during the discussion of this week’s AT 4 W episode (the infamous Trouble, the book that re-killed American romance comics) was that the insistence on putting everything in the Shared Universe created an artificial limitation on not only the types of readers you can attract, but the types of stories you can tell because of a superhero focused Shared Universe. They had to tie in the romance to Spider-Man, confusing and driving away non-comic readers who didn’t care about Spidey’s mythology while enraging fans of the character. So it didn’t work for anyone. At all.

Here’s a random example outside of that. Let’s say someone wanted to do a sports story, like an American answer to Captain Tsubasa or Hajime no Ippo. Presuming the comics actually got greenlit, like how they try to go outside their comfort zone once in a blue moon, how long before they inevitably got completely taken over by superhero antics and we ended up with another NFL Superpro who quickly gets cancelled? Probably two issues tops. That narrow superlative forces the same stories to be made because nothing else fits.

Now I'm imagining a boxing drama with Ted Grant. At the very least they could get a decent mini out of it.

On CBR, I saw a conversation about how sad it is that DC only does superhero stuff these days when they used to be known for so much more diversity. Them shutting down their imprints like Vertigo hasn't helped.

I’ve been thinking lately. Wouldn’t it be cool if Marvel brought back their anthology titles like “Tales of Suspense” and “Strange Tales” to tell stories completely separate from the MU? Like create a space for writers to tell strong creator owned stories like what image has but in an anthology format like Shonen Jump or 2000AD.

That would be great but considering how DC cancelled Vertigo, I am not sure if that would be possible. On one hand it would allow Marvel to explore other genres as well as revive some obscure characters like Adam Warlock, Human Torch, etc. to give them own stories where it doesn't have to interact with the main continuity. On the other hand most of the original creators are gone, retired or in the case of Kirby dead and Marvel may not want to revive anything that doesn't relate to the main Marvel Universe (or the MCU) in any capacity. I would some creator owned Marvel stories that doesn't interact with the main Marvel universe but I am not sure if it would be viable or that it would make them a lot of money.

Admittedly it’s just a pipe dream. But when I say creator owned stories I’m talking about stuff like Saga, Deadly Class, or Mage stuff that’s not always Super Heroes. Although, having characters reinterpreted like Ultimate Spider-Man or Punisher Max would be great also. (Probably sell the book better.) I don’t know how profitable it would be but really if comic companies put more effort into advertising and if the distribution system was somehow fixed I’m confident that the comic fandom could grow substantially.

x5 - As much as I liked Wildcat in BOTB (Thanks R. Lee Ermey) I feel like a Ted Grant boxing series would fall victim to the exact same issues any Shared Universe story would, it would involve supervillains, a team up with the Justice Society, and the original idea for it would be buried in the requirements it connect to these supervillains and the quarterly crossover event. You couldn’t make it just about Ted or just about boxing. Not without Bludhaven crime bosses trying to fix all of Ted’s matches and an issue where Nightwing was the star. And that naturally limits who will read the story.