I can see the future of comics and it's a sort of acpocalypse.

[Guy Gardener]

Last September DC and Marvel went digital.

If they can generate a substantial enough profit, their next step is clear.

Close down the print division.

%100 digital.

Thus all the comics speciality shops, probably without warning, have no product.

They die.

The "industry" as we know it dies.

I say within 2 to 5 years and my vision becomes reality.

Doesn't this make Marvel and DC somewhat evil?

In DEFENCE of the threat they pose, in preparation of the economic depression they'll start, we have no choice but to foster a pre-emptive strike and save ourselves from the intellectual waste land that's going to be 2017...

Stop reading comics.

All those dinosaur outlets are already dead, we can't save them, but we can punish TPTB for raping our future by pulling them down first afterwhich the world can die on our terms, not theirs.

Or?

You could just fiddle while Rome burns.

 

[Mr Light]

I haven't had a comic book store within an hour's drive in two years

But yeah, the physical comics will be gone in a few years. And since they're not printing on paper anymore, their costs will drop substantially, so hopefully that will keep the business afloat.

 

[Santeria]

It's the fanboys that are to blame. Completely and utterly.

Deifying the artists lead to the artists demanding greater paychecks and fewer deadlines that meant anything, which lead to the companies having to increase their costs, leading to people buying fewer and fewer comics, leading to even more people just not bothering with them, leading to grocery and drug stores not bothering with them... and so on and so forth.

The only thing the companies themselves can really be blamed for, aside from caving in to the snobby fanboys and their inane worshipping over the years, is the ever-increasing habit of building company "universes" rather than letting each title exist in its own microcosm. When you have to reference a dozen different issues, each from a different title, in a single comic you've gone way overboard. But even that was more of a symptom than a cause.

If comics remained cheap and, more importantly, accessible then I have no doubt that they'd still be going strong. The fact that superhero movies are so popular demonstrates that the public still loves them. But no... it was far more important that the fanboys got their primadona artists instead.

 

[Captain Qwert Jr]

I don't even believe the digital division will be successful.

 

[Guy Gardener]

it's worse than successful.

before this.

pirates had to go to the shop.

come home.

cut up their comic book into pieces.

Scan the bugger.

Edit the bastard

Upload the fuck.

Then Sit back, and wonder why they bother?

These days however...

There's an app.

The unpiratable format dc and marvel created was cracked within hours of it's release.

Now any monkey can make a cbr formatted comic book from the raw material DC and marvel offers, and upload it onto the internet in about 20 seconds.

...Which is a bit of a laugh.

DC has put the hard working artist pirates out of business by making a near infinite number of lazy cowboy pirates.

 

[Forbin]

While I used to know the name of all the artists I liked back in my hottest collecting days (80s-90s), I really can't think of any current ones by name. I'm sort of petering out in my interest, I guess.

 

[Dream]

They should copy the Japanese and do something like manga.

Black and white drawings on cheap paper every week. It eventually gets collection into a small book that is sold for an affordable price, under $10.

That means getting rid of the overpaid writers and artists first.

 

[Guy Gardener]

that's not completely true.

The Japanese use quick geniuses who garner their own cult.

(I call them idiots.)

Besides?

I read Akira, and sometimes it would be 40 pages of no one talking.

 

[23skidoo]

There will always be a market for print. Don't forget there are still collectors out there. And graphic novels still sell. And I was in my local shop just recently and it was packed - with kids as well as adults. There's still the market out there.

Not everyone is in love with digital. It's a stupid stereotype I wish people would kill.

However I do blame the whole trend towards "slabbing" for putting a dent in people's interest in collecting. I know one collector who makes a point of "freeing" the comics he buys that are slabbed. (He wouldn't do it with, like, Action #1, but people paying $50 or whatever to slab comics that came out last week are a bit over the top).

Alex

 

[Forbin]

They should copy the Japanese and do something like manga.

Black and white drawings on cheap paper every week. It eventually gets collection into a small book that is sold for an affordable price, under $10.

That means getting rid of the overpaid writers and artists first.

Are they really overpaid?
Seriously, I really have no idea how much a comic artist or writer makes.

 

[scnj]

I only buy in trade now anyway. And I Amazon those. Comics are at the point where they're too expensive for too little content. That weekly trip to the LCS became too much to justify any more, so I stopped.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

What's a comic book store?

 

[C.E. Evans]

They should copy the Japanese and do something like manga.

Black and white drawings on cheap paper every week. It eventually gets collection into a small book that is sold for an affordable price, under $10.

That means getting rid of the overpaid writers and artists first.

Are they really overpaid?
Seriously, I really have no idea how much a comic artist or writer makes.

It depends on the particular artist and writer. The big names get big paychecks. The lesser known ones are either getting by or aren't at the point yet where they can quit their day jobs.

But one can't blame just the writers and artists. There's also the various companies involved--in management, production, and distribution--that also like to have a nice profit margin.

In a real sense, perhaps the main reason why Marvel can charge $3.99 for their biggest titles is simply because they can. They know that many of their readers will pay that price for their favorite books--regardless if it's print or digital, really.

 

[Professor Zoom]

What's a comic book store?

A place where fantasies grow old and die....

 

[FordSVT]

it's worse than successful.

before this.

pirates had to go to the shop.

come home.

cut up their comic book into pieces.

Scan the bugger.

Edit the bastard

Upload the fuck.

Then Sit back, and wonder why they bother?

These days however...

There's an app.

The unpiratable format dc and marvel created was cracked within hours of it's release.

Now any monkey can make a cbr formatted comic book from the raw material DC and marvel offers, and upload it onto the internet in about 20 seconds.

...Which is a bit of a laugh.

DC has put the hard working artist pirates out of business by making a near infinite number of lazy cowboy pirates.

The eBook business is booming, with or without piracy. Do you think comics would be so different? I think as long as they are reasonably priced ($2-3 bucks an issue), people will pay for them.

They should copy the Japanese and do something like manga.

Black and white drawings on cheap paper every week. It eventually gets collection into a small book that is sold for an affordable price, under $10.

That means getting rid of the overpaid writers and artists first.

The manga market in Japan is shrinking too, it's not a solution.

 

[Captain Craig]

I do my reading in about a 75/25 type split.

I still get about a dozen books at any given time from the LCS depending on what is being cancelled, what mini is ending or I am dropping. Usually most of those are books that I suspect are a high risk for being cancelled if not supported monthly. Example Moon Knight, Ghost Rider, Demon Knights are some I get.

I'm big on TPB and get those via Amazon or comic shows for 35-50%. Also, InStockTrades.com is a good outlet and their packing is the best of any outlet I've purchased from. Titles such as Spiderman, Hulk, Batman, Avengers, JLA that are in no fear of ending I wait for in trade. The price per issue is then usually $2 or less depending on the discount I find. Making the run not only complete in one sitting but cheaper overall than had I bought digitally even, let alone off the rack.

 

[Ethros]

Re: I can see the future of comics and it's a sort of acpocalypse

The Age of Apocalypse?

 

[TheSeeker]

I can tell you if comics go completely digital I'm done.

 

[the G-man]

Doesn't this make Marvel and DC somewhat evil?

No more than, say, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos.

 

[Agenda]

It could easily happen, and I don't know if it's something that DC or Marvel should necessarily be blamed for. Everybody's doing it. We're seeing it now with music stores and movie rental stores. And not only is your local comic book store endangered, but so too is your local generic book store. As soon as IPads and similar devices become more affordable, all physical media could go the way of the Dodo. It won't be much longer until you don't buy video games at a store, but just download them directly from Microsoft or Sony.

Interestingly, I wonder what this will do to the collector's market? I don't think there'd be much value in old digital editions of comics. They're just bits and bytes.