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will comic book be around in the year 2038 superman 100 bday

Probably.

Characters like Superman and Batman have survived World War 2, changing styles in story telling and art etc. Comics have evolved as an art form and have become highly respected.

Superman in 70 this year and is as much of an icon as he always was. His symbol on a t-shirt still sells, even to people who don't read comics.

Batman is 70 next year and has a similar iconic status.
it's only thirty years to their 100th anniversaries. It's not really a long time.

Superman The Movie is 30 this year!!! (and it looks pretty good for its age!!)

Tim Burton's Batman is 2o next year!!!

Who know what the next 30 years will bring?
 
If comic books are around, they may be a niche market - limited to small, expensive graphic novels and web versions. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up going the way short story sci-fi magazines are going now - all but disappeared.

But for sure, Batman and Superman and many of the other big heroes will be around just as strongly in other media. They've successfully transitioned to TZ, movies, novels, and video games, and will continue to do so.
 
If comic books are around, they may be a niche market - limited to small, expensive graphic novels and web versions. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up going the way short story sci-fi magazines are going now - all but disappeared

Comics are already a niche market. Today's top sellers are at levels which would've gotten the title's cancelled in the 1980s. It's in a pathetic state. The big two basically mine their universes for licensing and as franchises in other media. They publish comics out of habit. Rather than trying to grow that publishing medium, they work harder to appeal to aging fanboys, do less and less to keep "creators" meeting deadlines, support maintaining a dying retail monopoly and come up with ever more outrageous crossover stunts. It's a sad, sad thing.

Will comics be around in 30 years for Superman's 100th? I'm going out on a limb and say NO.
 
Marvel's newsstand and (to a lesser extent) subscription numbers suggest where the industry might go if comics enjoyed wider distribution outside comic shops and the graphic novel sections of bookstores. These numbers are from last March.

Newsstand:

  • Civil War Chronicles: 7,824
  • X-Men:Legacy: 5,094
  • Franklin Richards: Spring Break 4,987
  • Marvel Adventures Two-In-One: 4,819
  • Uncanny X-Men: 4,683
  • Marvel Two-In-One: 4,630
  • Amazing Spider-Man: 4,621 (average/ 3 issues)
  • Nova: 3,937
  • Ultimate Fantastic Four: 3,922
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: 3,848

Subscription:

  • Marvel Adventures Spider-Man: 31,479
  • Amazing Spider-Man: 11,936 (average/3 issues)
  • Ultimate Spider-Man: 7,875
  • Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four 6,761
  • New Avengers: 6,739
  • X-Men: Legacy 6,561
  • Uncanny X-Men 6,358
  • Marvel Adventures Avengers 5,332
  • Wolverine 5,183
  • Hulk 4,834
Included in this list are two X-Men titles, an early years X-Men title, the Civil War event, three Spider-Man titles, the Avengers, two Fantastic Four titles (neither of which is the moribund main-universe title), a comedy title, and a space adventure title. Given that Marvel's subscription numbers tend toward a similar pattern (note the success of the Marvel Adventures titles), I suspect that a successful pair of lines of Marvel and DC in a wider comics market would look something like this (I'm extrapolating DC's numbers based on what seems to sell for Marvel and Archie):

Marvel (All Ages):
Amazing Spider-Man
American Dream (?)
Avengers
Captain America (?)
Fantastic Four
Franklin Richards
Giant Girl (?)
Hulk
Iron Man (?)
Nova
Silver Surfer (Not currently produced, but a space character with a much higher Q-value and much more popular than Nova.)
Spider-Man (He looks able to support more than one series)
Spider-Girl (Given her previous - until very recently, when Marvel changed the production methods - success in the broader market, and Spider-Man's clear popularity.)
Thor
Uncanny X-Men
Wolverine (?)
X-Men
DC (All Ages):
Batgirl
Batman

Birds of Prey
Detective Comics (Batman)
Flash
Green Lantern
Impulse
Justice League
Legion of Superheroes
Robin
SHAZAM
Spirit
Supergirl (?)
Superman
T
een Titans
Wonder Woman
Zatanna (?)
 
If comic books are around, they may be a niche market - limited to small, expensive graphic novels and web versions. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up going the way short story sci-fi magazines are going now - all but disappeared

Comics are already a niche market. Today's top sellers are at levels which would've gotten the title's cancelled in the 1980s. It's in a pathetic state. The big two basically mine their universes for licensing and as franchises in other media. They publish comics out of habit. Rather than trying to grow that publishing medium, they work harder to appeal to aging fanboys, do less and less to keep "creators" meeting deadlines, support maintaining a dying retail monopoly and come up with ever more outrageous crossover stunts. It's a sad, sad thing.

Will comics be around in 30 years for Superman's 100th? I'm going out on a limb and say NO.

Said as well as it needs to be said.
I think that limb is fairly sturdy so move over some I'm stepping out there with you.
 
Well, it's changed from when I was a kid. Comics used to be found in the spinner racks at the drug store or supermarket and you rarely or never saw adults perusing them. Now you've got the comic shops which are almost exclusively frequented by adults.

I predict single isues going away and the market going more to the trade paperbacks with a self-contained story arc per volume. Or possibly the dead-tree format disappearing totally for on-line based formats.
 
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