Weird that comics are not a bigger deal across the world?

[Sven the Returned]

Don't people across the world want visual depictions of their specific stories originating from their culture? Outside of the US, Western Europe, Australia, Japan and pockets of continental Asia people don't have a lot of home made movies and tv series besides the art house stuff. Why wouldn't people latch onto comics more considering how much cheaper are compared to moves and neat looking tv series?

[Thomas]

Why wouldn't people latch onto comics more considering how much cheaper are compared to moves and neat looking tv series?

I would say comics are more expansive. You can get the DVD of a movie for 5 to 10 euro and it will take more than an hour to watch it. A standard trade costs 12 to 20 euro and takes just about as much time as watching the movie.
In germany no one cares about comic books. It's not integrated into the culture.
The cost is probably one of the reasons why people don't care much about comics. I don't think it's the main reason, but it contributes to the indifference towards the medium.
Also one of the main causes is that most people, atleast in germany, think comics are just for kids.
Mangas are big here. But the problem with that is, that people strictly differ between comics and Mangas. Manga is seen as more adult and comics just as kids crap. Eventhough manga and comics are the same medium.
The comic book movies don't help that much. Most just care about the movies since if you have seen the movie, why read the comic.
That's how a lot of people, I met, really think.

[Sven the Returned]

Wouldn't the costs go down if people would be buying much more comics? Instead 100000 being the top number it would be 500000 for a comic?

[Thomas]

Wouldn't the costs go down if people would be buying much more comics? Instead 100000 being the top number it would be 500000 for a comic?

With inflation, I think it would already be a good thing if the prices stays the same for quite some time.
The companies won't make it cheaper because there is no guarantee that the amount of readers they would gain with the price drop, which are probably not many, exceeds what the company gets with the current prices.
I think the biggest problems are:
1. Comic books are not part of the popular culture. Yeah people talk about comic book movies, but like I said the movies don't really help that much, because most people only care about the movies.
2. Comics are seen as kids stuff, nothing for adults.
3. Western comic books have to compete with Manga, mostly japanese, eventhough it's the same.

Btw:
100000 comic copies beeing sold is insane in germany. That won't happen. Only kids magazines sell that amount, with the exception one comic brand that imprints italian topolino stories that is called Lustiges Taschenbuch, which is also, from the marketing, targeted at children. Eventhough some adults collect LTBs.
Getting sale data in germany isn't that easy. What you will find are posts made by people on some forum, but that's not what I would call a realiable source.
According to the owner of my local comic shop variants that are limited to a 1500 print run are not even real variants, you can get them years after they have been published. The publisher should be happy that they are able to sell 1500 copies in general. Even Variants limited to 111 are nothing special. There aren't more than 100 people in germany who are really hardcore collectors who would pay extra to get all the variant covers. So a print run of 111 means, everyone who wants one will probably get one.

[Sven the Returned]

Wouldn't the costs go down if people would be buying much more comics? Instead 100000 being the top number it would be 500000 for a comic?

With inflation, I think it would already be a good thing if the prices stays the same for quite some time.
The companies won't make it cheaper because there is no guarantee that the amount of readers they would gain with the price drop, which are probably not many, exceeds what the company gets with the current prices.
I think the biggest problems are:
1. Comic books are not part of the popular culture. Yeah people talk about comic book movies, but like I said the movies don't really help that much, because most people only care about the movies.
2. Comics are seen as kids stuff, nothing for adults.
3. Western comic books have to compete with Manga, mostly japanese, eventhough it's the same.

Btw:
100000 comic copies beeing sold is insane in germany. That won't happen. Only kids magazines sell that amount, with the exception one comic brand that imprints italian topolino stories that is called Lustiges Taschenbuch, which is also, from the marketing, targeted at children. Eventhough some adults collect LTBs.
Getting sale data in germany isn't that easy. What you will find are posts made by people on some forum, but that's not what I would call a realiable source.
According to the owner of my local comic shop variants that are limited to a 1500 print run are not even real variants, you can get them years after they have been published. The publisher should be happy that they are able to sell 1500 copies in general. Even Variants limited to 111 are nothing special. There aren't more than 100 people in germany who are really hardcore collectors who would pay extra to get all the variant covers. So a print run of 111 means, everyone who wants one will probably get one.

I was talking about the world as the marketplace. I don't see why there could not be any country where comics could go truly ''viral''that have big populations.

[Thomas]

Wouldn't the costs go down if people would be buying much more comics? Instead 100000 being the top number it would be 500000 for a comic?

With inflation, I think it would already be a good thing if the prices stays the same for quite some time.
The companies won't make it cheaper because there is no guarantee that the amount of readers they would gain with the price drop, which are probably not many, exceeds what the company gets with the current prices.
I think the biggest problems are:
1. Comic books are not part of the popular culture. Yeah people talk about comic book movies, but like I said the movies don't really help that much, because most people only care about the movies.
2. Comics are seen as kids stuff, nothing for adults.
3. Western comic books have to compete with Manga, mostly japanese, eventhough it's the same.

Btw:
100000 comic copies beeing sold is insane in germany. That won't happen. Only kids magazines sell that amount, with the exception one comic brand that imprints italian topolino stories that is called Lustiges Taschenbuch, which is also, from the marketing, targeted at children. Eventhough some adults collect LTBs.
Getting sale data in germany isn't that easy. What you will find are posts made by people on some forum, but that's not what I would call a realiable source.
According to the owner of my local comic shop variants that are limited to a 1500 print run are not even real variants, you can get them years after they have been published. The publisher should be happy that they are able to sell 1500 copies in general. Even Variants limited to 111 are nothing special. There aren't more than 100 people in germany who are really hardcore collectors who would pay extra to get all the variant covers. So a print run of 111 means, everyone who wants one will probably get one.

I was talking about the world as the marketplace. I don't see why there could not be any country where comics could go truly ''viral''that have big populations.

Similiar reasons. It's not integrated into the culture and comics have to compete with other media like movies, video games, books, etc.
A good video game can give you over 600 hours of entertainment for 60 bucks, probably less if you buy it from something like a steam summer sale. Can't beat that value with comic books : I
I think digital comics will help the comic medium adapt to modern times, but I don't think that comics will take off like they did in the 20th century. It will be a niche hobby.