The 2020 Comic book crash

[Captain Crimson]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

So, even if the books were fantastic, you'd give up on the medium entirely if said fantastic books weren't printed on physical paper? Really?

I get into this debate a lot with my family and digital vs paper photographs. What's more important: the container or it's contents?

You should have learned by now, that the content does not matter on anything. It's the packaging that sells the product to the vast majority of the customers.

This is the most real comment I've ever seen about modern society.

[Mecha82]

Whole "packaging matters more than content"-thinking can be seen in 90's speculator boom and variant covers having been priority to publishers back then.

[Captain Crimson]

Well, it's always been kind of an age-old reality that capitalism kills creativity. Tale as old as time.

[ProfessorDetective]

Whole "packaging matters more than content"-thinking can be seen in 90's speculator boom and variant covers having been priority to publishers back then.

Agreed. What matters more: the BOOK or the STORY?

The answer should be the story, obviously.

[Captain Crimson]

There's also an innate issue where the more people have at least a passing reference to it, the more people will pay, thus there's more money on the line and more stakes. It's why we as a society tend to give more credence to novels than we do TV shows and movies in the modern era, even if they tend to be kind of trashy, because it's that fantasized view of the singular author, sitting down to pen a story, fueled by imagination and not greed. Even if the reality is nothing like that.

Repackaging has its downsides, too. Take Pokemon. The soft reboot that BW gave the show didn't really help it in the end, and poor Iris became the walking avatar to the reset button they were asking fans to accept, with the deflection tactic how "it's for kids." Nice to see they have such a low opinion of people of a certain age. But kids are not idiots. Idiots are idiots. Kinda Captain Obvious, but there it is. Back to point, XY tried to reverse that, giving Ash a character from his past as a new companion, and hyping up how he was so great after all, and just generally treating him with more respect... right up till the final battle where he lost, accepted it instantly, and let Greninja go. Repackaging surely didn't help Pokemon in that regard, because they just really feared change, since it's an unknown quantity, which may mean less money, especially with a worldwide cultural event.

[Gekired]

Hmmm i've been wondering on this issue myself for a while. The future of the Industry especially with the crash going on. I don't see Digital working out as well as many think. Many comic collectors such as myself prefer having a physical object to store and put away. To have something to collect basically. Something we can touch and feel. Not just stare at through a screen.

Many myself included would bail if that was the future of the industry.

So, even if the books were fantastic, you'd give up on the medium entirely if said fantastic books weren't printed on physical paper? Really?

I get into this debate a lot with my family and digital vs paper photographs. What's more important: the container or it's contents?

Honestly both but its like Music. Some people prefer Vinyl and will only buy Vinyl. MP3 and CD could be proven to be so much better but to many Vinyl is how they enjoy music and to take that away from them would greatly diminish the amount of music.

Same with comics. Ya it could be cheaper to buy comics digitally and take up far less space. But for many going down to the local comic store, chatting with other fans picking up new comics or back issues. Then heading home sitting down and reading the comic in the comfort of your own room and then storing it away with your vast collection of comics. That's a tradition that means a lot to many collectors. Going digital would greatly impact that.

Also theirs just an .. well for a lack of a better word.. an "Intimate "connection for many with Physical comics that just isn't there with Digital. I don't know why this is so controversial that people wouldn't carry over if this shift happened.

[JoeThree]

The comic crash in 4 words: "Get woke, go broke"

[Gekired]

The comic crash in 4 words: "Get woke, go broke"

Well ya pretty much. I'd argue its more their effort to introduce diversity in comics being so badly done and just seeming to mess up at every turn that really screwed up a lot. Throw in every creator suddenly becoming stuck up jerk wads who attacked fans and told them that comics didn't need them and so on.
That pretty much shoved us down this path.

[Robovski]

Marvel basically squandered the whole synergy of 10 years of hit movies. People looking for the heroes they saw on the big screen could not find them in the current comics. There were several popular animated series that resembled the movies, but the comics? Hard pass apparently. Captain America is a secret Nazi. Iron Man is dead and is now a black girl and Dr. Doom? I feel bad for the LCS, as I feel they are much like the LGS and they are places special to me, but comics can fail. Something better may come from the ashes or the indies may rise up or digital will be the future but I do not see buying a basic monthly comic book again. Last "comic" I bought was a hardbound anthology and I don't see changing that. Digital is the future otherwise IMO.

[Captain Crimson]

Marvel basically squandered the whole synergy of 10 years of hit movies. People looking for the heroes they saw on the big screen could not find them in the current comics. There were several popular animated series that resembled the movies, but the comics? Hard pass apparently. Captain America is a secret Nazi. Iron Man is dead and is now a black girl and Dr. Doom? I feel bad for the LCS, as I feel they are much like the LGS and they are places special to me, but comics can fail. Something better may come from the ashes or the indies may rise up or digital will be the future but I do not see buying a basic monthly comic book again. Last "comic" I bought was a hardbound anthology and I don't see changing that. Digital is the future otherwise IMO.

It is the future, but IMHO, I would like to ask you... when do you foresee that happening? I mean, because there are literally millions of pages of comics out there, no hyperbole, and the sheer economics in scanning them, downloading them into a PC, and then uploading them onto a home page is just mind-boggling for an entity that owns an IP. Several web sites have already popped up in the absence of that. Wouldn't it just be easier to seize control of something, like, say, RCO and make them pay them more money? Sorry if I'm being a bit slow here. I'm just curious!