CBR: CCI: Is the Comic Book Doomed?

[CBR News]

A circle of industry experts congregated at Comic-Con International to analyze the state of the monthly comic book and get a handle on its future.


Full article here.

[Ace Grayson]

I can only hope.

Lol @ old heads clinging on to old, stale ways.

Can't wait till I'm 30 and some fresh blood does what needs to be done, management-wise.

[jesse_custer]

Short answer, no.

Slightly longer answer, doomsayers should go to hell.

[Darrell D.]

Hey, another article about the death of the comic book.
Those NEVER get old.

[Amberjack]

That's an interesting discussion. Not necessarily on whether comic book floppies are doomed, but on whether a new, independent series can survive in this marketplace once all the costs are figured in.
It appears you either do it for the love of creating and love of the medium ... or you find a better outlet for your talents.

[Ace Grayson]

Short answer, no.

Slightly longer answer, doomsayers should go to hell.

Oh, it's only a matter of time bro, trust me.

Death, in this context, =/= never to be seen again.

[Scott M Davis]

I wish the North American comic market could make the switch to the Japanese format.

One nice 400 - 500 pg collection a week for like 15 bucks. Make it black and white and when you collect it later on, put it into colour.

[Iangould]

To quote the great Keynes:"In the long run, we're all dead."

[Ace Grayson]

I wish the North American comic market could make the switch to the Japanese format.

One nice 400 - 500 pg collection a week for like 15 bucks. Make it black and white and when you collect it later on, put it into colour.

Ditch the black and white idea, and I would go bonkers for this.

[MichaelPaytonMZ]

The smaller publishers will move online eventually, as print becomes too expensive for them to maintain a profit. Its the Big Two that I feel will be the ones to abandon print monthlies before the mid-range pubs. Their corporate owners won't let them continue to bleed $ every month as both of them (especially Marvel-Disney) just flood the market hoping for something to stick. After awhile, the superhero movies will stop making money and Disney & WB will be left with IPs that can easily be maintained thru coloring books and some form of online animation that replaces static images & word balloons for those kids that think those ideas are "for old people".

Luckily, DC-WB already excels in TV animation, so while we may not have 80 floppies and 30 trades/HCs a month, the characters will live on in new material. Marvel has always struggled with bad cartoons and only the occasional gem, but their movies are popular enough that their characters will survive online and TV.

[G.I.JOSE]

The trade and digital format are the present and future. monthly books could do better if they follow the British format : weekly or bi-weekly anthologies.
If publisher are worried that nobody will buy Hawkeye or Plastic Man, it will be a safe bet if they come in the same bundle with batman or the x men.

[coy_dog0]

So, 7.1 million people bought X-men #1, and only 100,000 are buying it now?

Not true.

First, most buyers bought one copy each of the 5 covers, so that brings the number of BUYERS closer to 1.42 million.

Now take away the thousands of copies that you can still buy in quarter bins because no one bought them, and I imagine the number is closer to 1 million even. That's slightly above what X-men #2 sold, which is a more accurate example.

Why cite a multiple covered gimmick as an example of how healthy sales were in the early 90s? Instead, use the a legitimate sales figure like, say, 800,000, for a top selling comic of that era?

How can I take this debate seriously when the the argument rests on a lie?

[Steve Broome]

You know who likes 32 pagers? Kids. I make it a point to buy comics for my friends' kids, they all have the same reactions. The brighter the books the more likely they arre to enjoy it, and if it's too long they will not read it they'll just flip through it. You know who doesn't read comics? Kids.

[Scott M Davis]

Ditch the black and white idea, and I would go bonkers for this.

B&W and grey tones to keep cost down. But yea, like 15-20 bucks for a massive phonebook of comics? Hells YAEH!

[Nevets F]

So, 7.1 million people bought X-men #1, and only 100,000 are buying it now?

Not true.

First, most buyers bought one copy each of the 5 covers, so that brings the number of BUYERS closer to 1.42 million.

Now take away the thousands of copies that you can still buy in quarter bins because no one bought them, and I imagine the number is closer to 1 million even. That's slightly above what X-men #2 sold, which is a more accurate example.

Why cite a multiple covered gimmick as an example of how healthy sales were in the early 90s? Instead, use the a legitimate sales figure like, say, 800,000, for a top selling comic of that era?

How can I take this debate seriously when the the argument rests on a lie?

It's the same way today...100,000 copies are sold to stores. Nobody knows how many of those are actually sold to customers. It's the trend that's important, not the actual number.