This interview with Frank Miller from 1986 is a great reminder of how different the Comics Industry is now, compared with the era that created The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen et al (and how similar it is, too):
The two priorities I see that the industry should have right now are: to improve the material that we’re producing and to seek readers outside the marketplace, as it’s constituted at present. Speaking with people who have just begun to read comics, I have found that one of their largest problems is that material that would hold their interest is generally unavailable at any price that a curious or casual reader would be willing to pay… I would like to see permanent editions of every piece of work in comics that’s significant… I think there’s room in the comic book field to include books as well as magazines.
Man, remember when it seemed as if the bookstore market could change everything…?
November 29th, 2012 at 11:05 am
The bookstore market did change everything. Just not the way people thought it would.
November 29th, 2012 at 11:19 am
And, as someone who mostly reads comics in trades, I will say that, in many ways, what Miller is asking for here still isn’t met. Marvel still can’t keep their best stuff in print, and can’t seem to find a way to properly price their material for that market, and they wonder why they have little to no presence in trade sales. If we maintained the same level of DC trade sales, and put Marvel’s trade market share at up so that it matched their comic market share in comparison, how much healthier would the trade business be overall?