Traditional Comic books are dying

[clearspira]

Here's a sad fact: the ENTIRE non-film American comic book industry, and that is everything, trades, digital, paper, the lot, is now worth only 1.1 billion a year. That may sound a lot but that is only what Avengers Endgame made in its opening week.

One film is now worth more than the entire industry that spawned it.

In addition, sales per month are at their lowest ever. Your average book now sells in the low thousands as opposed to the hundreds of thousands twenty years ago (even notwithstanding the speculator crash). And speaking of the crash, comic book stores are dying out at a rate not seen since then, and the ones that are doing well, really are not comic book stores any more. They are part coffee shop or part hobby store etc. It is actually incredibly difficult to make money now just selling books. There are even rumours that AT & T are going to scale back DC Comics because they are just not profitable.

One must also factor in Manga, which is doing great, somewhat putting down the idea that we just are not interested in reading any more.

Frankly, with how good the films are doing, the comics should be making mad money. And yet people who go from film to book just are not staying for some reason.

[Admiral X]

Hmmm... I wonder if the politics these comics have been pushing lately have anything to do with their drop off in popularity...

[Mecha82]

Comic book industry has always been small compared to movie industry and most people just aren't interested from reading comic books even if those have something to do with they favorite movie properties. After all movies are big reason why there are DC fans that are actually Batman fans because that's only character they know and care about thanks to movies while ignoring large cast of other superheroes and supervillains that DC has. Also video game industry has become bigger than either pf them with more people spending money on video games and in game purchases that so called triple A video game companies like to have in they video games. Comic books just are unable to compete with all others.

[Karha of Honor]

Hmmm... I wonder if the politics these comics have been pushing lately have anything to do with their drop off in popularity...

Marvel and DC had such costumer loyalty that it was inevitable that they will start doing idiotic things...

As group comic book fans are the biggest bitches in the history of fiction pimping.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Not surprising considering the fandom rivalry between DC and Marvel. Unless we learn as a society to not hate each other for being different, then we will get nowhere.

[Yukaphile]

Speaking purely from the perspective as a left of center liberal, I can honestly say they've made some pretty fucking stupid choices that strike me as "diversity for the sake of diversity." Again, I like diversity, I think it's a good thing, but... look what Marvel did. Replaced Hulk with Totally Awesome Hulk, aka Asian Hulk. Now, having a new Asian Hulk is not a bad idea. He could even get his own series. That said, how they approached this was completely wrong. They drained the power out of Bruce Banner and put it into Totally Awesome Hulk, so in effect, he was being shoved to the side for a new, ethnic minority character. That's just so mind-bogglingly stupid, I don't know how they got that passed simply other than, as I said, "diversity for the sake of diversity." You can have your Asian Hulk, and he doesn't HAVE to be a sidekick to fit into that stereotype (thank you again, Silver Age Hal Jordan), but for God's sake, don't treat the old characters so badly! Speaking purely as a fandom nerd, I HATE treating these legendary characters that way. I see it in tons of other favorite franchises of mine that aren't even about diversity controversies, but I feel insulted they chose this route that fails to understand the core essence of this person I love, whose stories I get invested in.

[Admiral X]

Hmmm... I wonder if the politics these comics have been pushing lately have anything to do with their drop off in popularity...

Marvel and DC had such costumer loyalty that it was inevitable that they will start doing idiotic things...

As group comic book fans are the biggest bitches in the history of fiction pimping.

Except in this case, I think the problem is that they tried to appeal to a different audience, alienating their existing one in the process. And the joke was on them, because that new audience they were trying to appeal to doesn't buy comic books.

[Mecha82]

While Marvel surely could had handled it better I didn't really mind what they did. Then again I have unpopular opinion that Jane Foster with Mjölnir was more interesting character than actual Thor regardless of them calling her transformed state Thor which was mistake. Granted when it comes to comic books I am more DC guy than Marvel guy but still.

[Darth Wedgius]

I wouldn't be surprised if comic books sales were low in part due to SJW politics, and there is some evidence of that. A high-ranking Marvel executive(*) said that the audience apparently wasn't appreciating diversity, though that was after Marvel did "diversity" in almost the stupidest way possible, taking away beloved characters and putting "diverse" ones in their place. Apparently they were under the impression that what people liked about "Ironman" or "the Hulk" were the names "Ironman" and "the Hulk."

But that might be coincidence. There are a lot more entertainment options out there than there used to be, and I would expect comic book sales to suffer from that, all other things being equal. But that can't be all of it, either. A high-ranking DC exec(*) said reprints of old comics were outselling their new stuff, and from that concluded that the problem was that the new stories aren't new enough. Regardless of his logic, that suggests there are comic book buyers out there, and DC is having a hard time reaching them.

It could be a combination of the two, or there might be other, more subtle causes. The Maunder minimum for this solar cycle is pretty severe. Maybe cosmic rays give people the superpower of not caring about comic books.

It would be interesting to compare the sales of less "woke" publishers such as Antarctic Press or Alterna Comics, and whether those are tending upward over the last few years or following the rest of the comics publishing industry.

(*) I have a tough time remembering names, but people insist on using them.

[Beelzquill]

Comics have been dying since the nineties.