Are Comics Dying?

[uatu13]

I'd have to say yes, or at least definitely in their current form. I just returned from 4 different comic stores trying to find one issue that came out last week! This highlights just one of the many problems currently with comics, the death of actual brick and mortar comic shops. I remember (and I'm not that old!) when I could walk down to the neighborhood comic store, say hello to everyone, and pic up my weekly fix. Nowadays, the only real option for getting comics is to order online. Issues are print at such a low run that unless you order then MONTHS in advance you have absolutely no chance of picking them up. This means that new comic readers don't have a chance to actually try out new, well written titles. Couple this with the fact that prices of comics are rising to such ridiculous levels that there is no new market for undiscovered readers (you're going to have a hard time convincing a kid to spend $3 on 22 pages when he can get a video game for $30 or so). With all these problems it's sad to say I can't see comics being around for the next 50 years.

[pureclint]

So you think they are dying because you went to 4 stores and the issue you wanted was sold out at all four (or three of the four not sure if you eventually got it)?

Controlling your print runs is not a sign of a dying buisness it is a sign of proper managment. Heck they even reprint the issue 2, 3 or 4 times if it is a key book. And while yes Comics and Reading in general has slowly eroded from the mainstream population it by no means equals death as of now.

Your also missing a few things: Video games range from a few bucks to 60 AND you have to invest in a system for 100 to 350. Graphic Novels, 10 to 20 dollars for a hundred plus pages and the fact that it is much easier to have 3 dollars as disposable income hten 30, 50 or more.

[AlanScott606]

I think comic's seem to adapt pretty well to whatever the situation is around them at the time. I can not even count all the times I have heard that the death bells are tolling for comic's.


This form of entertainment has always been a survivor and will continue to be long into the future IMO.

[Michael P]

Bollocks, Chicken Little. Comics may be changing (and I think we can all agree that there's room for them to change for the better), but death is another thing all together. Barring the total collapse of human civilization, I don't see the art form going anywhere anytime soon.

[Clear]

Issues are print at such a low run that unless you order then MONTHS in advance you have absolutely no chance of picking them up.

Exaggerate a little?

Rather than planning months in advance, just go to the shop on the week the issue comes out. I have never missed a comic that I was interested in buying doing that.

[icctrombone]

The comic industry might survive , but the problem is that they are gouging the faithful readers that are left to survive.
While circulation goes down , they raise the price and we shoulder the burden.

[pureclint]

Supply and demand!

Regardless, that is a very simpilistic view of why the price has gone up. I am certain many other things have affected the cost of a average comic: ink prices, paper prices, inflation, salaries, retirement plans, health care, shipping cost, taxes (payroll, corperate, and more) etc...

[RedBaron]

Not dying. They don't sell as well as they did in the pre-and-post war eras or during the unfortunately bloated 90s era of comic collecting, that's for sure. But even during the most recent comics boom in the late 80s and early 90s when comics were big sellers, sales weren’t based on great quality product, but a collector culture fueled by greed and variant chrome foil covers. Comics are not as wide-read as prose fiction, or as widely viewed as movies or DVDs, but comics (at least from the big production companies) are a definite part of our cultural landscape. Today, comics are still a very palpable cultural product despite their sales, and I would think they are better off in terms of quality than in the previous years.

Outside of sales figures and how popular comics are, I also think that right now comics are on a pretty high plateau when it comes to the quality and variety of the work they showcase. This observation goes beyond just the major publishers too. Although the bulk of the medium's products are derivative shite (but how is that different from movies or television?) you can find most any genre in comics today (romance, horror, crime, fantasy, sci-fi, political, adventure, etc.) whether in serial format or in original graphic novels. There are some great artists and writers out there in the field putting out great work (just take a look at the last few Eisner award nominees). Based on this alone, I can't see how comics are dying.

[glennsim]

In any discussion like this, it helps to clarify what you mean by "comics". Some people consider any books filled with sequential art comics, which includes manga, original graphic novels, indy books, etc. Others basically only mean the super-hero comics published by DC and Marvel.

The future of the general format is probably not at risk. But the future of super-hero comics might be on the wane, due to a number of different reasons.

I'm just amused that you had 4 comics shops to potentially visit. Some people don't have ANY shops near them.

[The Shadow]

Issues are print at such a low run that unless you order then MONTHS in advance you have absolutely no chance of picking them up.

Why not set up a pull list at your local comic shop? I get around 40 titles monthly and they've only missed one issue for me that I got the next week on reorder anyway.

[Lorendiac]

Couple this with the fact that prices of comics are rising to such ridiculous levels that there is no new market for undiscovered readers (you're going to have a hard time convincing a kid to spend $3 on 22 pages when he can get a video game for $30 or so). With all these problems it's sad to say I can't see comics being around for the next 50 years.

I'd point in a different direction to find the problem.

I'd say: "Nobody is even trying to convince the kid to spend $3 on the newest Titans issue, for instance, so he doesn't even have a choice to make! When he goes to the nearest Wal-Mart, he knows he can find the hottest new video games for sale. As he walks past a magazine rack, looking for video game magazines that might have good reviews and interesting cheats and hints and stuff, his eye is not caught by the newest issue of the Teen Titans, because it's never sold at Wal-Mart.

"He doesn't know where the nearest comic shop is, and doesn't see why he should care. But if the comics were actually sold in places he regularly visits with his allowance burning a hole in his pocket, such as supermarkets and drugstores and Wal-Mart, then he might actually notice their existence, and then he might actually buy one or two, and some of the kids who bought them might actually become regular customers for awhile. That's how it happened to me in the early 1980s."

Now, if the current Teen Titans series and a bunch of other Marvel and DC superhero titles were being sold at Wal-Mart every month, and if sales did not benefit from that, then I would have to concede that the current comic books were either too high-priced, or too short on the amount of storytelling contained in each monthly issue, or both, to be "competitive" when a kid is deciding how to spend his money that month. But right now the problem doesn't come up. If you hide your products in an obscure ghetto known as "the local comic shop" where most young people will never even see them, then of course you aren't even "competitive"! You're simply invisible!

[RedNave]

I don't have any sort of set up with my local retailer to keep comcis aside, even though they offer that service, I go in and pick my issues off the shelf each Thursday or Friday and I have yet to miss an issue in the last year. A good example is Flash #220, went in on Saturday 3+ weeks after it had came out and managed to pick up a copy with no hassle. I would say it is because the shop is quiet but that is a lie, it is on the Busiest street in the city and always packed and I am constanly surprissed that they have enough comics in stock to met demand.

Just read the above post, thats how I got into comcis about a decade ago. I think the UK has a good set up that the Uk reprints of both DC and Marvel comics are aviable in all major stores and newsagents, that certainly helped me back then, instead of going for the games magazines I actually went for the reprints, then of course I moved onto getting the American imports from a proper comic shop.

[Dave Cote]

Why not set up a pull list at your local comic shop? I get around 40 titles monthly and they've only missed one issue for me that I got the next week on reorder anyway.

What Shadow said.You can't blame retailers for not carrying huge quanities for the shelf its not cost effective for them.If your interested in something you should be able to ask for it up to a week before it comes out and they get it for you on time.Or get a reorder within a week or so.Plus the addeed bonus is if you have a file you get a discount and are not obligated to purchase something if you decide you don't want it.

[tricksterpup]

Ok here it goes, Comics are not dying.. The problems with Comics are the shops that went out of business. Partly to blame on this was Capital, Diamond and Marvel comics trying to claim on to the bigger piece of pie. Due to Diamond getting all the exclusives and Marvel distributing their own comics well, this caused a monopoly and caused a lot of smaller stores to go out of business during the mid 90s. It was during the time of the great crash and yes, Marvel and DC were the cause of this. Marvel selling their own books and DC selling straight to DC. This did not just hurt the comic shop owners but other smaller comic distributors such as Friendly Franks and Capital both from the Chicago Area, just to name a few. These guys could not compete since the other 2 mentioned had all the exclusive stuff and deals. The industry is slowly getting better, with Diamond on top now but it is slowly getting better. With the deal with Marvel selling comics at 7-11 will help the cause as well. More books being published and getting out there will help lower the eventual cost of comics. At least that is the theory. Why do you think comics were so cheap for so long until after the 90's crash then prices just jumped. It was there way of trying to survive a market that just cut its own throat.
So who was to blame Marvel? DC? Diamond? or was it the spectators of the 90's that went crazy and bought everything? But it was a tough market then and still is to some point.
As stated before here, Go to your local shop and ask if they can pull the books for you. Many stores do.

[uatu13]

I used to have a pull service, but frequently missed issues and had to ultimately switch over to a mail order service. I'm not saying comics are dying because I personally couldn't find one issue, but that over the past 4 years I've seen at least 5 stores close in my city (Chicago), and the comic stores that do exist have changed from being a place you could walk in and pick up issues to a place where you had to order them far in advance in order to even have a chance of picking them up; stores just aren't ordering comics for walk-in or new customers.

Also, I'm an avid comic fan, but the prices of new comics have seriously discourged me from trying any new series out, simply because they cost too much and will get cancelled by issue 12 (especially with Marvel). With the way things are I can't imagine any new readers joining the fold (how do you get hooked on issues you can't find and prices you can't afford?), which is why I said as the new generations take over I feel they'll be going away or seriously changing their format.