If Mark Millar didn’t exist, we’d have to invent him:
Comics are doomed! Want to know why? Read my next column in SFX in a couple of months.
And no, this isn’t the usual shite where people say GAMES will replace comics. That argument was crap and made about as much sense as CHEESE replacing comics, the two things being totally different. No, this is for real. And take it from the politics buff who noticed in 1995 an old interview by Denny O’Neil which sparked off my eye for the TRENDS in comics that had ran for three generations. The biggest boom EVER is coming between 2010 and 2013, but then it all crashes and will be as defunct as the British comics scene. For exactly the same reasons. You’ll see what I mean when you read the column and realize why it can’t ever rcover. Just like commercial British comics.
They’ll still exist in some format, but… Well, you’ll see what I mean. But this just struck me a couple of days back and I almost, as they say, shat a brick. It’s good for creators, but very bad for fans.
Fans aren’t convinced, for obvious reasons:
“I assume you mean comics in their current format? I shouldn’t get to worried Mark, your predictions arn’t always true, you did after all think Superman Returns was gonna be the biggest film since Titanic.”
Mark’s response:
It would have been with the right team.
But they won’t change format as such. In a way, yeah, but only in a small way. Marvel and DC won’t be producing even a fraction of the comics they’re producing now. It’ll be the biggest cutback ever and make the 90s collapse look like the eighties boom. There’s no way this won’t happen. Again, see what I mean because I’m right in the middle of WHY it’ll happen and can lay it all out for you clearly in my piece.
The thread devolves from there pretty swiftly, with Mark continually trying to hype his (admittedly unwritten) column for SFX magazine by simultaneously prophesizing fortune and doom for the comics industry while no-one really falls for it.
Bryan Hitch comes in to back up his mate:
I know where Mark’s going with all this as we’ve been discussing these trends for a while but it only just dawned on us what the probable outcome of these events are.
We are already on the path to what’s going to happen as creators, this is just a look at the inevitable conclusion of the trend and it’s one seen in other industries, including the British comics scene.It isn’t the END of comics per se just a major shift in the whole thingie whihc WILL result in fewer comics, it HAS to and arguably comics of poorer quiality too.
It’s like the end of the industrial revolution and the beginnings of the information age. I must say it’s hugely exciting on a personal level and I’m enjoying the heck out of what’s happening.
Watch this space and remember where you heard it all first…
And Mark returns to toot his own horn some more:
IMPORTANT!
This isn’t doom-mongering. Don’t panic. I just can’t help thinking everything through several steps ahead of what anyone gives a fuck about. It comes from being a chess-player when I should have been out playing more football. This is actually very exciting and, just like I was plotting for the boom during the last bust, this is just me thinking aloud about the next bust when we’re in this ever-increasing boom.
The next seven years are going to be amazing for writers, artists and retailers.
Enjoy.
Wait, it isn’t doom-mongering? Even if you say “comics are doomed”? How does that work? Luckily, after swearing that he won’t talk about it anymore and that people will have to go buy the magazine, Mark then starts to talk specifics:
[Y]ou’ll still be able to break in [as creators] and the success will be bigger when you go onto the thing I’m going to tell you about. But the comics you do, after 2013, will be tiny web-based things you’ll pay for yourself. I don’t think we’ll have publisher as we understand it anymore by about 2015. We’ll be a petri-dish and mostly working for free at first if we’re doing comics.
That’s right; it’s the old comics-as-intellectual-property-R&D-only theory that’s been floating around for years and years, apparently. Or maybe I’m thinking too small. Mark?
The change will make the switch from news-stands to the direct market look like a fart from an ant. There won’t be publishers paying people to produce comics anymore, except some R and D guys, I think, but the money will be much more than creators have ever seen. Will it be paper comics? No. Will it be digital? No.
These things will exist in some form, but be limited, I think, and eventually fade away. This is something else and so obvious you’ll all kick yourselves. The minute I realized it and saw what was happening to my friends I realized exactly what’s coming next. It’s cool in many ways, but comics will essentially cease to exist.
I could be wrong, but everybody who has heard this theory today seems shocked.
Wait, so all printed comics will fade away? Shit! I AM shocked. ALL comics, you say?
No, [Japanese and European publishers will] be absolutely unaffected by this. It’s an interesting point, but it won’t matter a jot to them and the bulk of their sales aren’t through comic stores in US and UK so even if those stores go away if won’t make any difference.
This is entirely US and UK, mainly US. The guys who will close the industry down (aolmost by accident) don’t care about those other two markets.
So, let’s get this straight: Comics are doomed, except this isn’t doom-mongering, and comics aren’t doomed anyway because it’s only the US Direct Market that will be affected. Okay. Glad we’ve sorted that out.
August 30th, 2006 at 11:42 am
Folks didn’t listen to Tony Stark, either, and look how that ended up.
Futurists are never appreciated in their own time …
August 30th, 2006 at 11:45 am
“Folks didn’t listen to Tony Stark, either, and look how that ended up.”
I can’t; it’s been delayed for two months because Mark is doing his part to delay the end of the comics industry.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I sets ‘em up, and Graeme knocks ‘em down!
August 30th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Millar needs to remember that you’re only supposed to predict the death of the comics industry on Thursdays. Tuesdays are for the death of comics blogging and Wednesdays are for griping about how trades and manga are killing the industry. Mondays are exlusively for stories about how publishers are disrespecting fans and Fridays are complaining about film and television tie-ins.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
I think by 2013, we’ll have cybernetic laser arms and flying cars, making escapist fantasy obsolete.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
That whole discussion is hilarious. Millar starts with another hyperbole filled post in order to get people to buy some magazine and then ends with him personally insulting some 15 year old kid.
August 30th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Yeah, by the time he starts banning people for calling him out on his hypetastic ways, things are getting really odd.
And Spencer – You’re not supposed to give the game away like that. Try this: “By 2013, travel and limbs as we know them are doomed! Want to know why? I’ll explain in an article I haven’t written for a magazine you don’t want to buy. I’d tell you more, but everyone I’ve already told has dropped dead from the mind-numbing inevitability of what I’m saying!”
August 30th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
He’s wrong. Cheese is going to replace comics, and I’ll tell you how, once I’ve written the article! I tell you, once you’ve read and eaten a comic printed on cheese, it’s all over!
August 30th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
In 2013, Mark Millar will come to your house and tear up your comics.
It’s so simple, how did no one think of it before?!?
August 30th, 2006 at 12:51 pm
By 2013 Mark Millar is going to be replaced by one of George Lucas’ computer animated characters and no-one will know the difference.
Anyway, he’s probably talking about bookstores and book publishers which, you know, is something we all knew for the past couple of years. Mark Millar “saw the future” when he read a column written five years ago, most likely.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Seems like a monkeys-with-typewriters version of Nostradamus: if you make enough predictions, some will come true (by happenstance, as it were…), and you can wave your knowledge of the future under people’s noses. While sweeping all your wrong predictions under the rug.
Of course, that means you have knowledge of the future, in the future, which only means you get to say you were right.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
By 2013, all monkeys will have typewriter laser arms and no comic script will ever again be late.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
By 2013, Marvel will have learned better and not allow any of their writers to have their own message boards!
Get back to work!
August 30th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
I like his reasoning on how “Superman Returns” could have been the biggest movie of all time. It’s sort of like “Batman can beat anyone… if he has enough time to prepare” or “Gigli would be great, if it was directed by Steven Spielberg and was about cloned dinosaurs.”
August 30th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
I think George Carlin said it best when he said, “The sun did not come up this morning, large cracks have appeared in the Earth’s surface, and big rocks are falling from the sky. We’ll have all the details for you tonight at eleven o’clock on Action Central News!”
August 30th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
He seems to be saying that something will replace comic books. To do that, it would have to tell the same kinds of stories that comics tell now, except in some way that people find more intrinsically satisfying. The reference to the British comics industry implies that this new medium will become a commercial juggernaut, drawing writers and artists away from the comic book industry in much the same way American comics draw British creators – that is, by offering them higher salaries and greater exposure.
My guess is that he’s referring to direct to DVD animation, or animation streamed on the Internet. Some form of animation, anyway.
In the last year or two we’ve seen Marvel make their deal with Lions Gate, and now DC is developing a closer relationship with the animation arm of their parent company Warner Brothers. Animated movies and series can tell the same kind of stories comics do, but with the addition of moving images and sounds that create a closer simulation of reality. And animation requires less mental effort on the part on the part of the consumer, since you don’t have to imagine the story and can instead just let it wash over you. Those are attributes that many people may find superior to comic books.
Maybe Mr. Millar is predicting that western pop culture will develop our own form of anime that’s just as popular as the stuff that comes from the east. But because comic books are sold mainly through the direct market here, they won’t survive the animation onslaught like manga has in Japan.
August 30th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
It has something to do with Eminem, doesn’t it?
August 30th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
In 2013, Grant Morrison will have sex with your household superheroes.
August 30th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
What about Superheroes? Did he say anything about the superheroes?
August 30th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Wally Wood once said essentially the same thing to me in a letter. In 1977.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Millar: Pretty good writer, but absolute dickhead. If you ever head over to the Millarwolrd site you’ll see the exact same uber-ridiculous crap.
Here is why Millar is wrong: There will always be around a half-million or million people in Canada/US/Europe who will want to read comics in there current form. That will keep the industry going forever. And when you think about it, a million people out of the 500 million or so that inhabit these areas is not much. Millar’s a dick.
August 30th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I’m wondering what Millar is basing his “almost every comic pro will be filthy rich” prediction on. Sure, some will make money from the optioning of their creations (as they are now), but I just can’t see what’s going to generate this Society of the Filthy Rich Millar goes on about.
Again I ask: What is it about these Brit writers and their “Legend in Their Own Minds” tendencies? Yeah, yeah..there’s arrogant jerks on both sides of the Atlantic, but there’s just something about the Brits that seems predisposed to this “Pop Cultural Oracle” schtick.
And the arrogance. Like someone’s going to actually take out a 2013 calendar, and jot down “reflect upon Millar’s 2006 predictions” when January 1st, 2013 finally rolls around?
Millar WISHES we’re all going to keep his predictions on file until 2013. He’ll be lucky if I can remember them a month from now.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:51 am
See Monday’s LITG for a little… context.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:52 am
I think the pop-culture stuff probably comes from reading and contributing to stuff like … Deadline. Was it Deadline?
I only bought it for Milk & Cheese. And Tank Girl.
August 31st, 2006 at 6:58 am
He’s put the column in question up on his website – Everyone in comics is off to Hollywood.
August 31st, 2006 at 8:38 am
DAMN YOU HOLLYWOOD! Is there nothing that you will not destroy in your mad rush for profit?!
August 31st, 2006 at 9:55 am
I doubt it will happen as he says. Even
now, guys that are ALREADY at Hollywood
want to work in comics!
And Millar’s paralel with 2000AD doesn’t
work. Some 2000AD creators from times past
are STILL on the book (like John Wagner,
for example) and A LOT of talented
newcomers (way, WAY better than Millar and
his contemporaries were at the time) don’t
seem to be following the siren’s call of US
comics (or do it in a very limited fashion,
like Robbie Morrison, Gordon Rennie and Ian
Edginton).
What I do think is that US comics need to
be more creator-friendly, like european
comics are.
Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)
August 31st, 2006 at 10:05 am
See Monday’s LITG for a little… context.
Super.
//\Oo/\\
August 31st, 2006 at 11:57 am
I speculate comics may have to move toward anthologies in Magazine format. They could sell a $6 magazine that includes 3 or so stories. Magazines traditionally have something like a 60:40 ad to editorial ratio, so this format allows for you to still get a decent amount of story but because of the magazine format you really wouldn’t feel over run with ads.
August 31st, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Maybe we need to put this in the same box as Millar’s story about the Orson Wells BATMAN movie.
KS
August 31st, 2006 at 5:43 pm
The best part about the end of comics is that it looks like it’ll be done after I stop reading them.
C’mon Planetary 27, get here so I can quit cold turkey!