Hear, hear gentlemen.
The concept that the computer and the internet are going to replace every other medium on Earth and those who espouce it always ignite a small amount of rage in me. It makes me want to smack them upside the head.
The Death of the Superhero Comic
- Thread starter Norrin Radd
- Start date
Hear, hear gentlemen.
The concept that the computer and the internet are going to replace every other medium on Earth and those who espouce it always ignite a small amount of rage in me. It makes me want to smack them upside the head.
Here are some better sales figures for comic books the past ten years:
Number of comics sold (millions):
1999: 78.08
2000: 69.26
2001: 66.42
2002: 73.72
2003: 73.02
2004: 74.14
2005: 76.13
2006: 81.85
2007: 85.27
2008: 81.34
The way people talk on the internet, you'd think comic books sales were declining by 20% every year. While the numbers are nowhere near (and never will be) what they were twenty or thirty years ago, sales seem to have been pretty stable for the last decade, with a big spike in 06 and 07, probably due to Civil War. The fact that sales had been steadily rising, even before then is something for the industry to build upon. It will be interesting to see how the economic downturn affects sales this year.
Number of comics sold (millions):
1999: 78.08
2000: 69.26
2001: 66.42
2002: 73.72
2003: 73.02
2004: 74.14
2005: 76.13
2006: 81.85
2007: 85.27
2008: 81.34
The way people talk on the internet, you'd think comic books sales were declining by 20% every year. While the numbers are nowhere near (and never will be) what they were twenty or thirty years ago, sales seem to have been pretty stable for the last decade, with a big spike in 06 and 07, probably due to Civil War. The fact that sales had been steadily rising, even before then is something for the industry to build upon. It will be interesting to see how the economic downturn affects sales this year.
You could buy him Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, which is one of the cheaper books, not encumbered by multi-title crossovers, is written for all ages and is perfectly fine and enjoyable.
The supermarkets dont want them.
Of course there is. Plenty of comics tell a story a month, and even the ones that have multi parts of a larger story, still tell a good story each month.
I never got interested in the DC universe but have been buying Marvel comics for more than 30 years now.
There was a time not that long ago when I spent a lot of money on new Marvel comics and could not wait to read them. Unfortunately times have changed. At first my interest in the X-Men faded and sometimes I am wondering why I still get the comics. The biggest blow to my interest in Marvel comics is the incredibly stupid and annoying stunt that destroyed what I enjoyed about Spider-Man and I feel cheated because I will never be able to read how the Civil War story actually ends. It feels someone pushed the panic button, determined to go back to the same old formula instead of continuing the (mostly) really intelligent stories. I don`t like being treated like a fool and there is hardly anything left from Marvel I am getting these days.
Hopefully a shrinking market will result in some changes. I am not only talking about the writing but also about the distribution of comics. Adapt or die – I hope the comic producers and market forces will act and it won`t come to the death of superheroes.
I read some of the Spider-Man comics by JMS with my six-year-old daughter and she loved them. She was very sad and disappointed when I explained to her how the chapter ended and that people high up at Marvel decided that marrying Spider-Man was a mistake and that Peter sold his relationship (and his daughter!) to the devil.
My daughter and me are now spending time together watching and reading Bleach, an Amine/Manga series I discovered recently and I am enjoying immensely. Bleach has some excellent female characters and she was very happy when my husband bought her a Rukia figure. Not all Anime/Manga is suitable for a six-year-old. For example, we don`t let her watch D.Grey-Man, another series I grew to like very much although I don`t know yet how it ends. Another favourite she likes is Oban Star Racers. She likes strong female characters but she grew fond of many male ones as well.
I am old fashioned and that I am a bit of a technophobe doesn`t help either. I got quite a few DVD-ROM sets but hardly ever used them. I prefer the feeling of real paper.
Amen. And irony that it is to say it here, it's good to get away from the monitor and experience life elsewhere, both outer and inner.
Me too. I'm still with Vertigo (for the Fables books) and Wildstorm (until Ex Machina ends), but other than that everything I read is Marvel, Image, Avatar or some other, smaller company.
Dude who wrote this article needs to give the following current non-superhero books a look:
Doktor Sleepless
RASL
The Walking Dead
Resurrection
Fables/Jack of Fables
Mice Templar
Bad Dog
Strangehaven
The Damned
Mouse Guard
And if he needs to fall in love with superheroes again, as I feel he might, he should check out:
Immortal Iron Fist
Invincible
Astounding Wolf-Man
Secret Warriors
Astonishing X-Men
Deadpool
Thor
Captain Britain and MI:13
Well IMO, the "death" (or at least decline) of the superhero genre probabyl can be traced back to 1985 and the appearance of both Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.
These two books called into question a lot of the conventions of the tights and spandex setting. since then the superhero genre has spent more and more time exploring (or exploiting these questions). Thus you get Marvel's Civil War and DC's Identity Crisis where the heroes aren't necessarily heroic or correct in their actions. In some ways this was a welcome expansion of the genre, IMO, but in other ways it has just served to alienate a lot of fans. Looking at the sales figures upthread, though, maybe the two groups just balanced each other out for the most part.
Personally, I had stopped buying/reading comics from the late 1980's until the movie The Incredibles came out and rekindled my intrest.
These two books called into question a lot of the conventions of the tights and spandex setting. since then the superhero genre has spent more and more time exploring (or exploiting these questions). Thus you get Marvel's Civil War and DC's Identity Crisis where the heroes aren't necessarily heroic or correct in their actions. In some ways this was a welcome expansion of the genre, IMO, but in other ways it has just served to alienate a lot of fans. Looking at the sales figures upthread, though, maybe the two groups just balanced each other out for the most part.
Personally, I had stopped buying/reading comics from the late 1980's until the movie The Incredibles came out and rekindled my intrest.
Sales decline isn't really content-related, I don't think; it's an issue of access. Comics got priced out of newstands in the late 70s, and comics stores were the answer, which have a lot of advantages, but they also allow for isolation, and, after the speculator boom ended, it shrank the pool. The comics Marvel & DC currently produce as their main line, aimed at teen/college/older readers, could be very successful in that market, if they had broader access (which would also, at a certain point, allow for lower prices, thus more readers, etc.). They've also got plenty of comics aimed at the younger readers which would more than suffice for them, if, again, access.
To echo what's already been said, I stopped buying comics altogether when I realized I was buying up to five different titles each month just to follow one storyline that would eventually be reset anyway. All the different crises at DC have taught me that none of their stories, no matter how good, mean anything because it's all going to be undone every few years. And the yearly crossovers at Marvel just feel like a ripoff. Civil War was the final straw for me. I only read the main title and didn't bother with any of the individual titles, just because there were so many of them.
That's why right now I'm reading nothing but Ex Machina and Buffy Season 8, because I know I'm not going to have my pocket picked; and I won't have to buy random book B and make sure I read it after random book A but before random book C just to get one complete story.
That's why right now I'm reading nothing but Ex Machina and Buffy Season 8, because I know I'm not going to have my pocket picked; and I won't have to buy random book B and make sure I read it after random book A but before random book C just to get one complete story.
Every time I hear the death of something, the novel, the newspaper, and the comic book, I just ignore it. I've yet to see any of these happen.
What are these things "newspapers" you speak of?
Because people are idiots that think the next new thing will 'replace' everything else. They said the same thing with TV, it'll replace radio. Guess what morons, radio is still here. CDs will replace records, okay for a time yes, but lookie lookie snookie, Best Buy sells Vinyl again! MP3 will kill CD sales, well... it hurt it, but its still here. Web will kill print. Bullshit. Comics will never totally die. Unless fucktards like Joe Quesada and Dan Dildo over at DC think that we should all read our comics on a computer screen and stop production of something that has endured LONGER THAN THEIR OWN MISERABLE LIVES!
Comics will never die. Count on it. They'll be here when your kids have kids. Unless our grandkids are so stupid they can't read because they can't understand anything that doesn't talk and move by itself.
Comics will never die. Count on it. They'll be here when your kids have kids. Unless our grandkids are so stupid they can't read because they can't understand anything that doesn't talk and move by itself.
Yep. Depends on the store but some even have between 4 and 8 feet of nothing but records, some have the records merched above the CDs. Depends on the store's layout. New stuff as well as re-released old stuff too. Even the new GnR album actually came out with a record - with free digital download of the album with the record.
So if Dildo and JoeQ think the cybercomic thing is the 'way of the future', then at least sell the cybercomics on a cd/dvd in tradepaperbacks or something or package them in the toys or something, but I still think a comic, even with the 4 dollar price tag (what the fuck is up with THAT? Asshats) Honestly 4 bucks for a standard sized comic is stupid. We need to fight back!
So if Dildo and JoeQ think the cybercomic thing is the 'way of the future', then at least sell the cybercomics on a cd/dvd in tradepaperbacks or something or package them in the toys or something, but I still think a comic, even with the 4 dollar price tag (what the fuck is up with THAT? Asshats) Honestly 4 bucks for a standard sized comic is stupid. We need to fight back!
Vinyl is pretty huge right now. You can pretty much get any new release on vinyl, and record stores are popping up all over the place. People like them because they sound really good and are fun to collect. At least that's why I like them. Also because while it's nice to be able to take your music anywhere, there's something to be said for kicking back, putting a record on the turntable and just listening to a whole album. Besides, you can buy the vinyl and download the album to put on your ipod.
And as for digital comics, I wouldn't buy them. That's boring to me and takes all the fun out of it. Every once in awhile I try to get back into comics, but I find myself paying 4 bucks for an issue that takes about ten minutes to read. Remember when comics cost a dollar and had DIALOGUE? I will say, though, that I'm pretty impressed by the Astonishing X-men.
Also because a great deal of House/Electronic/Hip-Hop DJs prefer the sound of vinyl over CDs when they spin at clubs, events, and so forth. When me and my cohorts were big clubbers in the late 90s/early 00s, vinyl was the medium of choice. Still is.
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