State of the comic book market

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State of the comic book market

Post by StarBrand »

What are you guys' impressions of the current state of the comic book market?
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by greg »

StarBrand wrote:What are you guys' impressions of the current state of the comic book market?
Which part? New release comics? Old back issue comics? Publishers? Keys? Slabs?

Generally speaking, the comic book market is less than 1% of the revenue for Marvel and DC... so the "current state" for Marvel and DC is that they're profitable regardless of their comic book markets... they could double comic sales across the board, and it wouldn't mean anything compared to their global licensing and movie revenues. Unfortunately, that also means they probably could eliminate their comic books and not feel any pain at all, at least for a few years... and maybe decades if they kept everything already published available in trades.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by TheeBaldMoose »

StarBrand wrote:What are you guys' impressions of the current state of the comic book market?
I think I am getting what you're asking, but maybe not. I am happy to see companies like 451 and Alterna comics making quality names for themselves. Alterna sells their books for $1.99, and they are killing it. Their stories are solid, fans are taking the risk, and everyone wins. For $2, I would take many chances on books I didn't know anything about.

451 has had some real good books. Now they are designed to go straight to the big screen (or small screen), but their stories have been really good! Of course, I am a little biased about David Baron's book, but there have been more books that I have enjoyed coming from them.

Valiant has been solid, and I think will grow in the coming months (hope)
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by The Dirt Gang »

As a parent, my kids are not into floppies the way I was when I was their age. However, they love graphic novels like Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet. Super hero floppies and Archie comics from Wal-mart or the drug store were the only comics I had access to when I first discovered comics, now, there are just so many different types and genres of comics.

I also see a lot more YA book series like Harry Potter that weren't around when I was a kid and I think fill a similar escapist itch. Not too mention the evolution of video games and comic book movies.

I'm lucky if I can get to the comic shop once a month but when I'm there I see mostly adults. When I was a teenager my local comic shop was mostly teenagers. I do see a lot more women in comic shops both as customers and employees.

Basically, I think there are a lot more outlets to fill that super hero/escapist itch than when I was growing up. I don't think superhero comics are going away but I also think there is a large market for things outside of the super hero genre, e.g. The Walking Dead and Saga.

That's my rambling :twocents:
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by ShadowTuga »

My (also rambling :thumb: ) 2 c€nts:

The medium as it is today, is the most inventive and creativity-driven that it has ever been, THAT I KNOW OF. There's a lot of great, original books coming from the indies (Image above all, IMHO), AND the TPB market has never been this strong. Tons of TPBs are sold today, compared to any other era/age whatever. The 10s are ending in a high-note for creator-made comics and that is always good. Always. Like when the Beatles started getting all those #1s with Original songs. We are seeing more and more creator-owned stuff getting its share of the market, big time (jees, there's something called Millarverse coming to Netflix. A creator's comic book world is going to be a shared universe in another medium).
Comics broke the mainstream by all means available, not just the LET'S ALL WATCH INFINITY WAR EVERYBODY!!!!!! Golden Age of superhero comics getting attention in spades. Everybody knows Iron Man and Ant-Man. And Black Panther is a pop culture landmark.

It would seem logical that the monthlies' market that made this hobby what it is would be thriving in huge multi-million sales of old. Sadly (?), not happening.
At my LCS, I only see guys and some girls in their 30s/40s/50s buying american supers' comics. The younger peeps are all over popular Manga as it always has been, not caring for that US stuff besides a "is Spider-Man starting at #1 soon"? as I have heard there. If the answer is no, they don't bother again- but if they ask in a few months, they will be happier. F*** Marvel. facepalm

Long time readers of the Big 2 are seriously getting tired and - in my case personally - old enough to see what this really is, but without the tainted lenses of nostalgia; nostalgia can drive one's hobby for a few years, but on the long term... :?

While Superhero comics can be a huge fun-fest, these are factory-made, market driven stories, now added the factor that they are potential multimedia properties. I hate this. I hate that GREAT comics like Imperium and X-O Manowar '12 were ignored because there were no movies/tv shows. No movies, not important, right?

The constant reboots by Marvel in the last 6 years, and the weird "it is/it is not canon" mess that DC put themselves over the years after that huge boost to the market (nu52), is also getting tiring for many, I assume, like others mentioned. I once in a while visit those "comics" :lol: websites like CBR or Newsarama and I feel that the current Big 2 superhero comic book fandom is now mostly idiots. Hungry-for-the-same-s*** idiots (it takes one to know one :thumb: ) but worst, those other idiots who only get interested in a character if it is going to be in a movie so they can pose as connoisseurs for their buds. That's why I see articles like "the 5 stories you have to read before watching....", every other day. And 30 yo mom's basement-warriors claiming they know every Batman villain, but they don't like comics "I love Batman, brah! Comics? Nah, I finished all of the Arkham Games and saw the movies, like 3 times each".
Seriously. facepalm #2

When I get to read a comic book masterpiece (as I did recently with Grendel and years ago when I discovered Usagi Yojimbo), I usually have this "third eye sight" that makes me see what the US superhero comicbook industry really is, right now. Artistic is not a word I would use, save for a few examples.

And we are back to a IMHO stupid mindset (don't mean to offend anyone) of 90s-nostalgia with all these variants and what not that sunk the ship in the, well, 90s. I hate the variant-driven market, hate it. Like me, there's a lot of readers who just don't feel a certain book as much because you can't put a definitive cover on it, when remembering the said book. That "minor, but important" bit is gone, sadly. Whatever...

And, finally, I will not be surprised if the singles market goes to a place where it is not just profitable to publish montly 22 page stories anymore (some series have already changed this midway through their runs, like Dark Horse's - very successful on trade - "Blade of the Immortal"); the Classic Big 2 most popular comics/characters will survive in monthly format for a while more than the rest, but I can totally see more and more series being published in TPB format only coming soon from the DC/Marvel dudes.

My kid (13) loves to read TPBs and HCs with a complete story, beginning to end. Floppies, not so much- he wants to read a story, not a chapter.
So, there's a generation of readers growing up who don't give a crap about bagging, boarding and boxing books, not to mention put them in plastic coffins :P, but love reading anyway.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by The Dirt Gang »

I’ve been thinking more about the state of comics and my more personal take on it. Sorry, this is my extra long :twocents:

With many collectible things (comics, records, sports cards, etc), I’m reminding of something I once read about Kurt Cobain and the thing he missed most about his pre-fame and money days. I’m paraphrasing but it was along the lines of when you have a lot of money you can buy whatever you want but prior to having a lot of money finding a gem of a $4 dollar sweater at a thrift store meant the world. Hopefully, that makes sense.

I kind of get where he is coming from. As a kid without a comic shop in my town, it was such a special thing to go to Wal-Mart or find a spinner rack that had comics. I could almost never get a complete run of anything.

We often traveled between FL and NC and would go through Atlanta and stop at this massive bookstore that had a comic shop in the basement. It was such a special treat for my brother and me. You’d see all these comics that you never saw at Wal-Mart and which is ultimately what introduced me to Valiant. They would only allow you to purchase 1 copy of VH1 Unity #1. I thought it must be special and it looked really cool and different from everything else I’d read.

I’ve always been a collector first sports cards, then comics and then comics & vinyl records. As a music buff, it was cheaper way to listen to a lot of older music. I loved crate digging. I loved the hunt.

Same with VH1 comics (mainly the Shooter era). Even in the early days of eBay, I wasn’t interested in buying them online (which looking back was a mistake). I was interested in finding them in the wild in some aging comic shop, a used bookstore, or flea market. I again I loved the hunt.

Long box digging and crate digging were meditative for me.

In my teen years, we got a comic shop in my town for a few years. I loved it. It was a great place and I have a lot of fond memories from there. It was run by a Southern Baptist minister who had no interest in comic books but that is for another post.

Now with the digital age and the internet, it’s so much easier to get whatever it is you want without ever leaving your house. You don’t have to bounce from town to town, shop to shop, or convention to convention to complete your run of Unity books.

For these reasons, perhaps comics have lost some of the wonder they held for me as a child.

TL;DR – The oversaturation of comic properties and the like have perhaps made them less special and wondrous.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Elveen »

I don't know about modern issues sales and profits and all that.

But the "industry" surrounding "comic books" (really "comic characters") is SUPER strong.

Every show I've done for the the last few years I talk to peeps that say, "so...... um, this is my first con and I don't read comic books, but I want to. What should i do?"

EVERY SHOW!


If the comic companies could figure out how to get new stories to the peeps that would be interested in them, WOW, it would be massive.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by The Dirt Gang »

Elveen wrote: If the comic companies could figure out how to get new stories to the peeps that would be interested in them, WOW, it would be massive.
Distribution is a big problem. I miss the days of being able to "stumbling into" comics at a convenience store, drug store or Wal-Mart. You just don't seem them around like you did when I was a kid. Now you have to go to a comic shop to really see what all is out there.

I do think libraries have more graphic novels now.

This is part of the reason I don't understand the out cry over diversity. I feel the more diversity in any market the more likely you are to attract a large audience. Heck, I used to work with an old Southern lady who was reading the Walking Dead GNs because she liked the show.

But the weird thing is that there has never been more diverse storytelling in terms of characters and genre in comics but in a way it's become an even more niche market since you pretty much have to go to a comic shop to see all that comics have to offer.

I know Marvel and DC did those multi packs at Wal-Mart a while back but I think they were mostly snatched up by collectors. Does anyone know if they are still doing those?

By the way, StarBrand, I love this topic. :thumb:
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by TheeBaldMoose »

I think one thing comics should focus on is their world wide distribution. I've heard that getting books into Europe can get tricky, sometimes being a week late. Other places (Central and South America) only a day or two, but Australia can get pretty silly. Cost for regular comics can become outlandishly expensive due to shipping, and they usually get there extremely late. I used to think that the problem lied with Diamond (and maybe some of the blame still does), but getting this through customs seems to be the bigger problem. Don't know if it's even solvable (maybe online is the only way to go), but clearing that hurdle (and getting into China) would be big scores. Who wants to read a floppy when its two weeks late, and all you'll have to do is wait another 2 weeks, and you could get the TPB?
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by The Dirt Gang »

TheeBaldMoose wrote:I think one thing comics should focus on is their world wide distribution.
I don't know anything about international distribution but just a couple of my experiences overseas. I think Europe is likely a hard market because they have a strong history of producing their own comics same as Japan. Years ago, I was in France and my French friend took me to a book store with a large selection of graphic novels since he new that was my thing. It was really interesting because there were so many different ages and types of people sitting there reading graphic novels. I think they capture a much broader audience there.

As for South America, years ago I was in Quito, Ecuador and found a small magazine/convenience store that had a couple of Identity Crisis floppies in Spanish. Ecuador uses the US dollar and these books were at least $8 each. There is no way most of the people in Ecuador were going to be able to afford them.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by nonplayer »

Valiant is the only comics I get and it looks bleak.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Chiclo »

The Dirt Gang wrote:I know Marvel and DC did those multi packs at Wal-Mart a while back but I think they were mostly snatched up by collectors. Does anyone know if they are still doing those?
I saw a handful at the Wal-Mart in my town when I was there two nights ago.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Cyberstrike »

I would say that physical comics, TPBs, and hardcovers are dying out due to price, availability, and general storage with digital comics being cheaper, easier to find, and taking a lot less space. I think between 5-10 years most, if not all, physical comics will be specialty items sold online to "hardcore" collectors at higher prices than they are now. I think the majority of the major comic publishers will go to digital with Diamond's premier publishers which is Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, IDW, Image, Boom, and Dynamite along with major "indie publishers" like Archie, Valiant, and Titan all leading the charge to digital comics which we already seeing with Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

Local comic shops will be either be gone or close to it.

Marvel and DC will be making movies, TV shows, video games, and cartoon shows based on their characters to varying degrees of financial and critical success and both will have their financial and critical failures as well.

I think some comics that aren't published by Marvel and DC will be made but most of these will be action or sci-fi movies. I don't see a Valiant Cinematic Universe for example happening anytime in the near future. I think MCU will be the only successful cinematic universe, DC should just focus on making individual film franchises (since they suck at trying to do a movie universe) and build on the success that they have with TV namely with the Arrowverse and their animated features, both are areas where Marvel have struggled with. Marvel at the movies have been hit after hit, but on TV it's been hit-and-miss with Agents of SHIELD being good every even number season and horrible ever odd number and while season 1 of Agent Carter was really great, Agent Carter season 2 was a complete and total bore. The Inhumans was still born. And the Netflix shows other than Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have been boring slogs.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by depluto »

It would be interesting to compare comics to video games, which started a digital shift before comics. Are stores like GameStop still doing pretty well, and do a lot of people still prefer actual copies of the games they can trade or sell? I used to pay a lot of attention to stuff like this and I always, always preferred an actual physical copy of a game to a digital one.

But I guess books and games can look nice on shelves, while comics just go in a box.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by geocarr »

Cyberstrike wrote:And the Netflix shows other than Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have been boring slogs.
I know it's a matter of opinion and personal taste but I disagree about the Marvel Netflix shows. I think Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and the Punisher were very well done with Jessica Jones being the best. I thought The Defenders and Luke Cage were good but not great. I thought Iron Fist was mostly bad (which was torture for me since he was my favorite character of the group above from the books). But overall I think Marvel's Netflix shows are of equal quality and viewing satisfaction as DC's Arrowverse and Supergirl, just in different ways.
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by nwoslave »

Marvel is stuck in a quagmire of their own making.

Variants are out of control.

DC has earned a lot of goodwill back and then some.

Independents are killing it but it seems like many only want to talk about this week's hot variant book.

Speculators are jumping on any movie news to increase prices and inflate the hotness of books that have long been dormant.

Also gobbling up books with first appearances of any mish mashed character like weapon f-en H, voyager and Frank "cosmic" castle so they can flip it to the customers that can't show up on Wed every week at a higher price than what they would have paid otherwise.

Who knows why movies haven't translated to more sales of books. With the computing power of our cell phones it's not hard to search out comic book stores. It leads me to believe that comics are still seen in a negative light. Toss in the price of them maybe sprinkle on top the sheer volume there is to read and normal people can get lost not to mention discouraged by it all. And no reset re-numbering reboots seasons will change it.

Whatever factors it is the medium is dying. I don't care how socially acceptable books marvel or anyone creates like A-Force, America, Iceman, *SQUEE* planet, alters it's clear that the tumblr sjw crowd don't show up for these books nor do many others. They just want to change anything with any resemblance to a boys club because of their daddy issues and their need to take down the perceived bastions of patriarchal enclaves.

The future is bleak. But there is a lot of good stuff out there to enjoy. I have added more indie and dc books recently and dropped more marvel titles than I ever have. I find marvel mediocre due to marvel time.

I think comic books will survive in the future but not as we see it today. Not at the lcs'maybe not even online stores like mycomicshop and cbcs. Maybe through the individual companies.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by ShadowTuga »

depluto wrote:It would be interesting to compare comics to video games, which started a digital shift before comics. Are stores like GameStop still doing pretty well, and do a lot of people still prefer actual copies of the games they can trade or sell? I used to pay a lot of attention to stuff like this and I always, always preferred an actual physical copy of a game to a digital one.

But I guess books and games can look nice on shelves, while comics just go in a box.
I'm on that camp also (physical disc), and honestly, don't know anyone who prefers the convenience of digital games over a boxed copy. That's why games still get a second life in the used market, imho.
And limited edition stuff always sells if the franchise is strong enough (CoD, TES, Arkham, AC, etc, etc, etc), lots of loyal fanbases out there who have the pockets (middle age peeps, mostly) to put this hobby where it is right now.

And I will just add: a game can give you your money back in the form of entertainment very, very fast, and you'll never complain for paying 60 dollars or something for it, never; today's comics with their 3.99 (for the most part) entry price are not satisfying enough to many people, and that leads to some sort of resentment, sometimes, if one only reads crap every month. I can't imagine a well-read comic book fan paying 60 dollars of current Big 2 books and feel that he/she got their dough's worth in fun. And, honestly, even indies- the overall generall book-cost is way high for the industry's own good, long term.
Younger people who like the shows and movies that have these characters... they buy Funko's and Minimates- NOT US comics. At least in my country, the demographic is really clear, save the occasional exception: adults in their mid-late 30s/40s/50s/60s will read superheroes out of loyalty for a character or company or plain habit. The teen/20 something crowd is the current Funko crowd. Their interest in a character is limited to a specific version of a character (THE TV show, THE movie, THE game, etc), or merchandise.

When I first played Arkham Asylum and registered on some forums, some 10 years ago now, I was really weirded out by the number of Batman "fans" who had never, ever read a single comic with the guy.
But I was mostly baffled by the fact that they did not intend to read comics in the future ("superhero comics are stupid, games are adult entertainment" that type of mindset.)
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Cyberstrike »

ShadowTuga wrote:
depluto wrote:It would be interesting to compare comics to video games, which started a digital shift before comics. Are stores like GameStop still doing pretty well, and do a lot of people still prefer actual copies of the games they can trade or sell? I used to pay a lot of attention to stuff like this and I always, always preferred an actual physical copy of a game to a digital one.

But I guess books and games can look nice on shelves, while comics just go in a box.
I'm on that camp also (physical disc), and honestly, don't know anyone who prefers the convenience of digital games over a boxed copy. That's why games still get a second life in the used market, imho.
And limited edition stuff always sells if the franchise is strong enough (CoD, TES, Arkham, AC, etc, etc, etc), lots of loyal fanbases out there who have the pockets (middle age peeps, mostly) to put this hobby where it is right now.

And I will just add: a game can give you your money back in the form of entertainment very, very fast, and you'll never complain for paying 60 dollars or something for it, never; today's comics with their 3.99 (for the most part) entry price are not satisfying enough to many people, and that leads to some sort of resentment, sometimes, if one only reads crap every month. I can't imagine a well-read comic book fan paying 60 dollars of current Big 2 books and feel that he/she got their dough's worth in fun. And, honestly, even indies- the overall generall book-cost is way high for the industry's own good, long term.
Younger people who like the shows and movies that have these characters... they buy Funko's and Minimates- NOT US comics. At least in my country, the demographic is really clear, save the occasional exception: adults in their mid-late 30s/40s/50s/60s will read superheroes out of loyalty for a character or company or plain habit. The teen/20 something crowd is the current Funko crowd. Their interest in a character is limited to a specific version of a character (THE TV show, THE movie, THE game, etc), or merchandise.

When I first played Arkham Asylum and registered on some forums, some 10 years ago now, I was really weirded out by the number of Batman "fans" who had never, ever read a single comic with the guy.
But I was mostly baffled by the fact that they did not intend to read comics in the future ("superhero comics are stupid, games are adult entertainment" that type of mindset.)

I prefer physical media as well but it's a simple truth that digital takes up a less space and in some cases with movies in particular they often cane be pre-ordered the week the movie hits theaters (for example I already bought a digital HD deluxe version Black Panther a week after it was in the theaters) are often released about 2 weeks earlier before they hit Blu-Ray and DVD, if they come out in physical formats at all I mean Amazon is just streaming all of their productions and shows on Netflix vary wildly depending on who owns the rights and when they can get around to it.

Also with movies it is often cheaper, (TV shows vary greatly), it cost me $20 a piece for the deluxe HD digital releases for Thor: Ragnarok and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi with all the special features and it cost me at Wal-Mart $25 for the Blu-Rays of the same films with the same special features. With the 4K Blu-Ray can go as high $30-$40 depending on the movie and $20 just for the basic DVD with little or no special features.

The price of monthly comics are too damn expensive and just not just Marvel and DC, I mean just about everybody is guilty and I would say IDW is a lot worse than Marvel and DC in content-to-price ratio, but believe me that same argument has been said about video games as well with some games being $60 plus DLC, season passes, microtransactions, pre-order culture, and so on.

The price of new AAA games like The Order (and FTR I don't have or played this game) from what I read and seen by most critics and fans that I trust said that this game most people could beat in about 20 hours cost and didn't feature a lot of re-play value and some people thought the game should have $40 due to it's short length, instead of the $60 launch price. Of course games that can takes months to complete and feature huge amount of content but be at certain points can be more of a chore than fun to play, (I'm looking at you Horizon Zero Dawn), can make the games feel over-priced.
Know this: I would rather be hated for being honest for my opinions, than being loved as a liar!

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slym2none
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by slym2none »

ShadowTuga wrote: Long time readers of the Big 2 are seriously getting tired and - in my case personally - old enough to see what this really is, but without the tainted lenses of nostalgia; nostalgia can drive one's hobby for a few years, but on the long term... :?
I am a perfect example of this. I stopped collecting comics over 15 years ago, no less. Only comics I bought were speculative purchases, and of course, I still have quite a few I bought that are not and probably never will sell for what I paid for them.

Anyone looking for a CGC 9.4 Southern *SQUEE* #1 Charlotte ComiCon edition???

:(



-slym
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by IMJ »

Soooo many good observations in this thread, especially the last several just before my post here.

A couple thoughts about patterns I've seen innnnnn..... hmmmmm.... 30? years of legit comic buying and collecting? They are likely dead when we are. I mean that I think Gen X buyers are the threshold generation for print comics. Sure, there may be some younger outliers to this buying pool, but my observations at stores and cons and even online are that those younger buyers are a true fringe group.

Some thoughts on the Direct Market.... if you look at the Direct Market every step of the way, we might find in hindsight that it was great for "pulses" of short-term growth for the hobby (20-30 year window), but bad for the long term (post 2020's). First with books dropping out of supermarkets and other places that curious young hands could have grabbed them (i.e, cessation of spinner racks and magazine stock), second with the price increases and "hobbization" (i.e., bags and boards for every book, microchamber paper, etc), third the gimmicks to bolster Direct Market sales (i.e., variants and extreme ratio covers), and lastly -arguably for most here- our generation sustaining the market means a reliance on a model and a buying window that basically can't continue. Think what happened to baseball cards, although comic buyers are perhaps more addicted to persisting than that hobby is.

Some thoughts that counter all of this..... For as long as I can remember online, and then in the LCS before, people have talked about the diminishing market, and comic books have always pulled through. Always. Even after the 90's crash.

Some thoughts as to why that thought means nothing....Because of that generation threshold I mentioned earlier. Basically, the model is unsustainable. We all just saw it in real-time. When Marvel *SQUEE* off the significant majority of readers in the last 4 years or so, their publishing arm went through such a decline that they had to do emergency directional changes (what we are seeing now with the newest relaunches and leadership changes). And during this time, the neo-reader didn't step in to save them, even with Marvel's targeted, liberal hi-jacking and politicizing of their books - the neo-reader wasn't there.

Some thoughts on digital comics.... But this is also a sign for things to come when we give up altogether. Eventually we will see more and more mainstream digital-only comic companies being launched. Once one of them gives the Big Two an "Image Comics-like" run for their money, the Big 2 digital publication will begin to surpass print publication.

Some thoughts on Slym's Great Grandkids.... Then 100 years from now, if the society is still around there might be some kind of back market resurgence for existing print media, because you'll have people interested in trying to complete "full publisher print sets" even if they don't read nor care about the books. Then they can sell his 9.4 convention edition of whatever whatever....

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by slym2none »

Joke's on you - I will never have kids, much less grandkids. No women will let me get near enough to them to ever do anything untoward enough for them to bear me children. Females are wary, cagey creatures with a great sense of self-awareness and danger. I have no chance in ever passing on my genes to another generation.

#foreveralone



-slym
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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Dr. Solar »

An Avengers movie based on the Infinity Gauntlet comic just became the movie with the highest grossing opening weekend ever. I think it is hard to say that the state of the market is anything but incredibly strong.

If you want to talk about the distribution of that strength within the overall market, that may be a different matter.
Image

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by IMJ »

Dr. Solar wrote:An Avengers movie based on the Infinity Gauntlet comic just became the movie with the highest grossing opening weekend ever. I think it is hard to say that the state of the market is anything but incredibly strong.

If you want to talk about the distribution of that strength within the overall market, that may be a different matter.
The state of the film and pop culture market is strong. Not necessarily the comic market. There has basically never been reliable, long-term readership spillover from the films.

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by Elveen »

Elveen wrote:I don't know about modern issues sales and profits and all that.

But the "industry" surrounding "comic books" (really "comic characters") is SUPER strong.

Every show I've done for the the last few years I talk to peeps that say, "so...... um, this is my first con and I don't read comic books, but I want to. What should i do?"

EVERY SHOW!


If the comic companies could figure out how to get new stories to the peeps that would be interested in them, WOW, it would be massive.
I have two comic shows coming up the next 3 weeks. One (what I believe will be a big show) and one MASSIVE show.

Trust me, the interested is there. New readers and (more importantly) new BUYERS of comic books ARE there. I deal with them all the time. Will the industry change and morph? Of course, everything does.

Will there be a sudden (or even less sudden) lack of interest in comic books and comic book stories and comic book characters? NO!

I think we are about to experience another boom in the industry.

The kids that grew up watching the Batman cartoon between 92-95 are about to get to that age where they have lots of disposable income. and the kids that watched the Teen Titans cartoon about about to get out of college and get their first real job.

Again, I have a different perspective, I deal with REAL people as my job in the comic industry.
About to be another boom.

(and I didn't even mention the movies like Doc said)

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Re: State of the comic book market

Post by IMJ »

Elveen wrote:
Elveen wrote:I don't know about modern issues sales and profits and all that.

But the "industry" surrounding "comic books" (really "comic characters") is SUPER strong.

Every show I've done for the the last few years I talk to peeps that say, "so...... um, this is my first con and I don't read comic books, but I want to. What should i do?"

EVERY SHOW!


If the comic companies could figure out how to get new stories to the peeps that would be interested in them, WOW, it would be massive.
I have two comic shows coming up the next 3 weeks. One (what I believe will be a big show) and one MASSIVE show.

Trust me, the interested is there. New readers and (more importantly) new BUYERS of comic books ARE there. I deal with them all the time. Will the industry change and morph? Of course, everything does.

Will there be a sudden (or even less sudden) lack of interest in comic books and comic book stories and comic book characters? NO!

I think we are about to experience another boom in the industry.

The kids that grew up watching the Batman cartoon between 92-95 are about to get to that age where they have lots of disposable income. and the kids that watched the Teen Titans cartoon about about to get out of college and get their first real job.

Again, I have a different perspective, I deal with REAL people as my job in the comic industry.
About to be another boom.

(and I didn't even mention the movies like Doc said)
I like this thought...
But what makes a "boom"? New back issue buyers? Or new numbers in readership as outlined by distributors?


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