The Bendis Board ponders the future:
“Are comics dying as a medium? Someone said this to me today, and I thought it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Seems to me that the industry is doing the best it has since the crash, and the quality of most books is top notch, not to mention the big success of indie comics.”
“He must be stuck in 2001.”
“Topic closed!”
“what a tool”
But wait… Randy Jarrell from Oni disagrees:
“I think the comics industry as we know it is in a long slow death spiral.
There will be ups and down, twists and turns, but I still think it is a cancerous diseased industry. Comics will always be around, but I think the medium will never have the social significance I think it deserves.”
Luckily, “Zombie Speedball” puts the entire issue in perspective:
Well, when you consider the facts that don’t exist:
1) The only two comic book companies around today are DC and Marvel.
2) The only comic anyone reads are Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and X-Men.
3) Comic books remain a large health hazard for wildlife.
4) Several major comic book writers are quitting their jobs soon to work for ABC and NBC.
5) No one besides men between the ages of 30 and 30 1/2 read comic books.
6) Stan Lee once ate a baby.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Once every creative generation this comes up. It’s bollocks. Pamphlets might cease to be the prime format… so what? Here in Ireland there is a very small domestic publishing industry but about a third of the literary publishers produce nothing but poetry and poetry criticism. I don’t know one person who reads poetry habitually but they are evidently out there in large enough numbers to support a substantial corner of a industry. I know more people who periodically read comics– in trade form, bought from bookshops! — who have only ever gone into a comic shop to ask for directions. So if there’s a threat to the industry, there it lies… it’s not an issue of demand.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
RMC, what you’re missing is that when people ask if “comics” are going away, they mean “Marvel and DC superhero comics in the 22-page monthly format.”
And those ARE, slowly but surely, going away.
Comics as a whole, however, are tremendously popular and only growing in appeal.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I am certainly buying more pamphlets than I have in the past 5 years from both Marvel and DC. There are a lot of very good books out at the moment. Iron Fist, Captain America, Green Lantern, Thor, JSA and The Twelve to name a few.
I do see some worrying signs though. All of the Initiative titles including Mighty Avengers over at Marvel are seeing a big drop in sales only 6 issues after Civil War. This may be one of the results of the big event cycle that both DC and Marvel are trapped in at the moment. People lose interest in the product that supports the event very quickly so the companies keep pushing the next “Big” event to keep interest and sales up.
Red Hulk, BND and Ultimates 3 also seem to be indicative of the bad old days of the 90′s. Huge marketing, 2nd printings, variant covers and a belief that the books will sell big numbers anyway. But are they any good?
February 20th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
7) George Washington once dried his tears with a copy of Superman vs. Spider-Man #1, and the price has since plateaued.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
It’s dying just as much as any paper-based media. Comics will always exist, just in a different form.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Awww… I get quoted, but only half my comments. And my tongue and cheek comments come lose their sarcasm on second reading.
I also said, “I should add that I also think reading, literacy, and publishing are all in decline… not just comics.”
Maybe I am just old and cynical about the future of literacy in this country.
But, like I said, I think comics deserve to be a much more socially significant medium than they are. I love the medium and dedicated my adult professional life to it.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
There are also maybe 10,000 webcomics running at any given time, but unless you are a big webcomic fan you might only know of half a dozen.
February 21st, 2008 at 12:23 am
randyoni said:
““I should add that I also think reading, literacy, and publishing are all in decline… not just comics.””
=====
Right you are, especially here—>
“And my tongue and cheek comments come lose their sarcasm on second reading.”
Exactly what does that mean? And it is ‘tongue in cheek’, which is often written as ‘tongue-in-cheek’.
February 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am
It’s a fair point, matches. I suppose I jumped the gun but… really, its been on the cards for a while anyway. I don’t see them going away so much as reducing to a few core titles or even becoming more frequent periodicals as with the DC year-long series or the Brand New Day Amazing Spider-Man.
Look at all the events we’re seeing from the big two… they’re trying to wring every last drop of revenue out of the monthly single issues because 22-30 page pamphlets are ceasing to be the main breadwinner for the industry.
I for one look forward to the day where I can support a book by buying it every three months in 60 page chunks. Monthlies are just too expensive in proportion to what you get, which is a testament to the loyalty of the fan base.
But of course some revolutionary new priting technique could come along and the next thing you know you’re paying a quid for 40 waterproofed self-turning pages a month. ;¬)
February 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Once again reality forces me to eat my words. This is from Stuart Moore’s old Newsarama column, entry entitled ‘Books of Heaven, Comics of Hell: The Graphic Novel in America’
“[...] OGNs are now seen as a real publishing option, and I hope that market will continue to grow. But graphic novels are still in no danger of replacing regular comic books — and the reason, as always, is economic. Here’s how it breaks down:
The biggest expense for a major-company comic book is creative — writer, artist(s), colorist. It’s not unusual for a major comics company’s creative cost to add up to $600 per page. (Top creators can earn much, much more.) On a 22-page comic book, that’s a total of $13,200 — a substantial sum. But on a 96-page graphic novel, it’s $57,600. And on a 150-page gn, it’s $90,000. Before you spend a dime on production costs.”
I don’t know if the situation is much different now. So maybe a different model of pay for work is the start of the end for single issues.
*blushes*
February 21st, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Also, RMC, customers balk at paying $4 for a comic, even when that comic has substantially more story pages than a $3 comic. It is, unfortunately, a psychological block that many cannot overcome.
Standard comic is 32, less 10 pages of ads, making 22 pages of story for $3. That’s 13.64 cents per story page.
48-page comic, less 10 pages of ads, is 38 pages of story. That’s 10.53 cents per story page. Yet report after report shows that $4 comics (usually annuals) don’t sell nearly as many copies as $3 comics of the same title.
Unless, of course, they are tied into mega-crossovers.