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How We Can Save the Comic Book Industry (pbs.org) 146

destinyland writes: For the first time in many years, the first Saturday in May won't mark Free Comic Book Day, as the worldwide comic celebration at comic-book stores has been postponed amid coronavirus concerns," reports Oklahoma's largest newspaper — saying it's been postponed to an unspecified new date in the future. But they're suggesting fans can support their local shops anyways, with some still offering limited services, while others "may still be closed but offer gift cards or other online shopping options." I think those of us who have money should observe "Not-Free Comic Book Day" — where we seek out a local comic book retailer, and ask them to mail us a bunch of comic books and graphic novels. (It also means more money going to the postal service.) Or maybe order some comic books to be sent to a younger reader who's sheltering at home.

The Associated Press reports that the pandemic "poses a particular threat to comic book shops, a pop-culture institution that has, through pluck and passion, held out through digital upheaval while remaining stubbornly resistant to corporate ownership..." They write that the whole industry "is at a standstill that some believe jeopardizes its future, casting doubt on how many shops will make it through and what might befall the gathering places of proud nerds, geeks and readers everywhere."

But it also quotes Joe Field, the owner of Flying Color Comics in Concord, California, who came up with Free Comic Book Day. "Comic book retailers are the cockroaches of pop culture.We have been through all kinds of things that were meant to put us out of business, whether it's the new digital world or distribution upheaval or Disney buying Marvel. We have adapted and pivoted and remade our businesses in ways that are unique and survivable."

Individual shops seem to be announcing their own individual celebrations using the #FCBD tag on Twitter. And at least one publisher is using the occasion to stream an alternative event online, reports CBR. "Alt FCD, taking place over the course of May 1 and 2, will feature virtual panels with comic book creators and free digital downloads of books. The event will be streamed on Facebook, Twitch and YouTube."
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How We Can Save the Comic Book Industry

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  • How can? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:37AM (#60014430)
    How about why should? And just who is this "we" to whom you refer?
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Geeks who like comic books.

      Comic Tropes on YouTube has given me a new appreciation for the medium.

    • Re:How can? (Score:4, Informative)

      by lgw ( 121541 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @12:42PM (#60014814) Journal

      We should save the comic book industry because/if the stories are good, and worth the price. Funny thing: the crowdfunded comic book industry is growing like crazy. They make books people actually want to read, or the projects don't get funded. It's the old-school model that's failing, mostly because they're publishing books no one wants, but also because the economics of monthly comics aren't great. The pandemic was just the straw that broke the camel's back, but it was already a dead camel walking.

      Of the old-school content, pretty much only Batman, Spiderman, and X-Men comics regularly sell enough to be a solid business, and nothing consistently sells 100,000 copies. It amazes me that e.g. Star Wars can't manage 50,000 subscribers, given the still-massive fan base, but that comic book just isn't worth a $5/month subscription to most fans. Compare that to the combined Star Wars fan channels on YouTube, and their combined Patreon etc funding, and you can see Marvel is doing something very wrong. And it's not the politics surrounding the recent movies, set that aside, the comics do stuff like steal fan art/designs for starships without acknowledgement, and the writing is generally uninspired. Hey, Marvel, how about you just hire the fan creators whose work you're stealing?

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Both Marvel and DC have read-all-you-want subscription services. The Marvel one is $10/month, I don't know about the DC one because it geoblocks me and I can't be bothered to go around it.

        So comic subscriptions are bound to be way down, same as cable TV ones are. Doesn't meant people aren't reading them, just that people prefer a fixed monthly rental cost and reading on a tablet/phone over owning a physical copy.

        Japan is way ahead in this regard so serves as a useful indicator as to where the rest of the wo

      • We should save the comic book industry because/if the stories are good, and worth the price.

        Oxymoron. If the stories are good and worth the price, the industry wouldn't need saving.

  • by scourfish ( 573542 ) <scourfish@yahoCOWo.com minus herbivore> on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:39AM (#60014436)
    Let the mainstream industry fail. Let web comic people take up the market niche.
    • Web comics are accessible to everyone, you can pay the authors directly, there's no paper needed, no transport needed, no physical space taken to store your comics, you'll never lose them if you make backups, etc.

      TL;DR paper is (mostly) dead, get over it.

    • Also, let them go back to comic books. With a movie every once in a while.
  • No thanks (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

    After how they monopolised distribution and basically nailed comic book shops' balls to the floor while flooding the market with utter libtard crap nobody wanted and then calling their customers basically incels for not buying their crap....

    Seriously, in what free capitalist market should this industry survive?

  • by Quakeulf ( 2650167 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:41AM (#60014444)
    The comic book industry has had a few dedicated fans like myself for many years, but when they started pushing agendas that I am bad, that I should be replaced, that I am worthless and should not belong on this planet, as well as doing it with art styles that look lazier than anything before in history of the medium, I just don't feel the need to spend my time and money on this.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      So basically it's YouTube and Reddit nonsense that is killing comics, poisoning people's minds against them.

      It's a self fulfilling prophecy too. The fewer people like you buy comics the more they will have to look for new audiences which means diversifying. A lot of comics from the golden and silver ages had young boys either become the hero or be the hero's sidekick because that sold well, so of course they are going to do that with the changing demographics.

      • So basically it's YouTube and Reddit nonsense that is killing comics, poisoning people's minds against them.

        How about some support for the contention?

        • If random people on YouTube or Reddit can poison people's mind against a person, I have a feeling that says just about as much about them and how people are reacting to that person already. If you're even going to spend two minutes listening to someone rant about another person, I think it means that you already have a tendency to agree with what they're about to say anyhow. Most people are just looking for someone else to provide validation for their own beliefs.
      • So basically it's YouTube and Reddit nonsense that is killing comics, poisoning people's minds against them.

        It's a self fulfilling prophecy too. The fewer people like you buy comics the more they will have to look for new audiences which means diversifying. A lot of comics from the golden and silver ages had young boys either become the hero or be the hero's sidekick because that sold well, so of course they are going to do that with the changing demographics.

        There is no diverse new audience out there. If they haven't been buying the books already why would they start now?

    • I generally try to separate the art from the artist because something is good regardless of how much of a plonker the creator might be or how much I disagree with their views. Frankly, I don't have the time or desire (and I'm not certain how anyone else does either) to research into every little opinion a musician, author, etc. has.

      It seems pretty doubtful to me that the entire industry and every creator in it has somehow managed to alienate you. If you feel strongly enough about it, just vote with your
    • Foundation from Asimov had an agenda, Starship trooper had one, slaughterhouse 5 had one. I can't think of any great book with conflicts, which did not push an agenda directly or indirectly by having "side" to the story, even if care were taken to stay semi neutral. Having an agenda is not the problem. I don't mind right wing/left wing agenda in a book or comic book, as long as it is acompagnied by a nice story. Heck I don't even need to relate to the story. I read a small autobiography by a lesbian once.
  • How? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:43AM (#60014456)

    Dude, you're working in the comic book industry. Surely you know how to call Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Thor and all the others. They'll save you - it's their job!

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:49AM (#60014472)

    Where does it say that the comic book industry needs saving?

    • Most of the comic books have heroes that keep on saving people, cities, planets and galaxies. In their mind, "needing saving" is a basic need just like you and I need oxygen to live.

  • It is not like Marvel or DC has any monetary problems at this point in time. The movies keep them quite profitable. And they will not ditch comic books because it is through comic books that characters / plots / and other ideas are tested. These big players could give the books away for free and it would still be worth it for them purely from the perspective of market research and brand development.

    Emphasis should be on big players... The other smaller players will have a much harder time because the

    • Movies are a different part of the companies. And comic books have been fertile soil for artists and authors to learn how to tell a story, to see dozens or hundreds of examples of very good and some truly awful stories, with a veyr small investment in money.

  • It takes a certain kind of individual to visit a comic book shop
  • by Vandil X ( 636030 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @10:52AM (#60014486)
    I was into comics in the 80s. The problem was that they constantly rebooted characters. Yes, I know Batman from Detective Comics would be super old now as would his villains, but having him rebooted every couple of years takes the version you grew up with and tosses it out in favor of this new one.

    Rinse and repeat for every character ever.

    Some publishers try for a "multiverse" or "infinite Earths" way of having different versions of the same hero, but meh.

    And now in modern time, the joys of politically correct virtue signaling has taken any spirit left out of the comics.

    All that's left for comic stores is a healthy dose of card games like magic, Think Geek and Hot Topic -like pop culture gifts, and D&D supplies.
    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by CronoCloud ( 590650 )

      And now in modern time, the joys of politically correct virtue signaling has taken any spirit left out of the comics.

      I take it you haven't been paying attention to comics. Comics have always...repeating ALWAYS, had social-justice elements.
      The first issue of Captain America had him punching Hitler on the cover..BEFORE the US entered WWII.

      Or the Superman anti-racism poster: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/... [dccomics.com]

      Or when Superman battled the "Clan of the Fiery Cross" on the radio show in 1946

      Or when Marvel comics showed African-Americans as police officers, doctors, or assistant editors of newspapers in the 60's.

      Or basically the

      • by poptopdrop ( 6713596 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:21AM (#60014558)
        You got yourself riled up thinking fighting Hitler was ever the same as your pathetic misandrist Social Justice, when it isn't.
      • by Brett Buck ( 811747 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:31AM (#60014576)

        I take it you haven't been paying attention to comics. Comics have always...repeating ALWAYS, had social-justice elements.
        The first issue of Captain America had him punching Hitler on the cover..BEFORE the US entered WWII.

              What the hell are you talking about? "Social Justice" is about demonizing everyone who has done the hard work of building modern civilization and dwelling on past perceived slights, and punisheing people who never oppressed or enslaved anyone at any time. When the phrase "color-blind society" is perceived as racist, you have lost any sense of proportion. You note that no one in the SJW community ever talks about "equality" - they want revenge. Against *people who had nothing to do with keeping them down in the first place*.

        If Social Justice was about showing how blond white Americans should go around punching the bad guys in the face, I don't think you would have much of a problem selling comic books about it.

    • And now in modern time, the joys of politically correct virtue signaling has taken any spirit left out of the comics.

      If the spirit of comics requires political incorrectness and don't-ask-don't-tell avoidance of enlightened morality then maybe that spirit shouldn't be preserved.

    • I used to dislike the reboots, it felt sort of like someone invalidating my investment in a character or something. At some point I reflected and realized super hero comics were a lot like mythology. In myths there's a lot of common elements to any individual being or individual but rarely some canonical telling. Retellings in different regions take on some local flavor.

      Looking at comics through that lens I learned to enjoy and appreciate reboots. Sometimes they're entirely money driven cash grabs or I just

  • by raind ( 174356 )
    Who cares?
  • The comic book companies make their own branded, high-quality, loss-leader, e-book readers. All comics go full digital - with no DRM.

    Big e-book reader companies like Amazon and Barnes&Noble hop on board with full software support and no sneaking in evil.

    Also, know that this plan is inevitable, and the longer you resist it, you do so at everyone's mutual loss. You're welcome.

    • by Briareos ( 21163 )

      The comic book companies make their own branded, high-quality, loss-leader, e-book readers. All comics go full digital - with no DRM.

      Why would they even need to make their own e-book readers if there's no DRM?

      Also, Image Comics has been doing that for years already - buy any of their releases on Comixology, and get both the title to read in the Comixology app/site (yuck) and a high-res, un-watermarked PDF to download (as it should be).

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxruby@ c o m c a s t . net> on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:01AM (#60014508)
    Seriously, why would we save the comic book industry? It has become extremely woke and intolerant of anyone that isnâ(TM)t. They pointedly chose to alienate a significant part of their fan base over identity politics while failing to realize the very people they alienated (white males) were there customers. They threw out canon and rewrote history of pretty much every character to make them politically correct. They did this despite their fan base pleading with them to focus on story instead of their personal politics. Damn the torpedos, full steam ahead! The singular focus on putting woke politics over everything has slowly destroyed their fan base. They foolishly thought they could replace the old geek crowd with a hip new crowd only to discover that the hip new crowd was fickle. The comic book industry was foolish at best, they did this to themselves. They do not deserve to be rescued.
    • Trying to target a different demographic with an industry like comic books is like trying to make the 1950's seem cool to millennials.

    • Seriously, why would we save the comic book industry? It has become extremely woke and intolerant of anyone that isnÃ(TM)t.

      Yeah I can't believe the infested the X-Men with clanging, obvious allegories about racism and shit. How could they do that?

      (for the hard of thinking/reality yes this is sarcasm)

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Phydeaux ( 82550 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @05:11PM (#60015906)

      Reading some of the responses to your comment is hilarious. All the woke scolds going on about the "poor poor persecuted white males" and how they welcome the SJW change to comics. Instead of creating their own space and characters in comics, SJWs can only see taking over established characters and "fixing" them. The funny bit is that they actually don't buy any comics. They're gleeful to take away Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man from those nasty white males in an attempt to put them in their new place, but they don't actually support it with their dollars.

      For 20+ years I pumped $120-150/month (at 60 to $2.50/book) into comics from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Image because the art was fantastic, the story arcs were spectacular and it was great entertainment. Then the writers/artists started to change and comics weren't fun and interesting anymore. The industry played to what they though was their new audience, but their new audience had no interest in buying comics; just using them as a bludgeon against "white males", the "patriarchy" or any other stupid cause du jour was in fashion. Comic's decades-long revenue stream vanished and the industry was left with crazy, purple-haired writers/artists no one wanted to read. Happened in comics and Sci-Fi fantasy and is currently happening in movies and video games.

      Sure, I'm going to miss it. Those were good times, but a good thing can't last forever. Just like comics, don't expect me to support your lunacy with my dollars. I can't wait until the crazy SJWs burn it all down and blame it on CIS-het white males (again). We're already building something better and this time you're not invited.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • You have mixed political issues with woke issues. I checked out your link and it reinforces my points about the old comics not having woke values. The quotes on your link share a theme of condemning identity politics, something woke culture is obsessed with. I will take this quote from Stan Lee on the page you provided.

          You wanna dislike someone? Be my guest. Its a free country. But do it because he or she has personally given you a reason to feel that way, not because of skin color, or religion, or foreign

  • SJW comics (Score:5, Funny)

    by Way Smarter Than You ( 6157664 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:07AM (#60014522)
    I was a big comic reader in college until I learned better in my liberal school that all the heros were white males with a few women and black tokens so I stopped supporting this racist and misogynistic industry.

    Now that we get innovative and modern heros like having an African-American, MtF Trans Lesbian non-gendered, alternative citizen Thor fighting against the capitalist oligarchy and for socialist utopia (in a non-violent way), I'm all in again!

    As soon as the government fully socializes comics so we can all learn to be as edgy as me, I'll start reading them again. Only by boycotting the current CIS white male dominated comic power structure can we destroy and rebuild comics for everyone!
  • There is not enough demand, so it dies. End of story. You don't keep a lame horse suffering, you put it out of its misery!
  • the industry should die.
  • Content creators everywhere need a working micropayments system.
    • Otherwise known as sales, which are quite easy to implement for yourself. You do not need a comic publisher to publish a comic. Do the work yourself, print it up via an online publisher and sell it online.
  • by Socguy ( 933973 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:36AM (#60014592)
    There are so many things that have gone wrong with the comic industry. Lets run down the list of things that need to be fixed:

    1. Stop making endless comics that suck.
    2. Stop swapping artists and writers a few issues into the run.
    3. Stop relaunching titles with a new #1 issue whenever you want to goose sales. In reality, that's a jumping off point.
    4. Reduce the price, increase the value. I stopped buying comics years ago because they simply got too expensive. I've tried the digital ones but it's not the same.
    .....a. Go back to what was successful: cheaper printing techniques on cheaper paper like in the early years of comics.
    .....b. Simplify the artwork. That way each issue can be longer. That makes the overall experience more satisfying for a kid.
    .....c. Fancy artwork and paper should be a specialty item not intended for the masses. Keep that exclusively in the comic book stores for the hardcore fans who have 'outgrown' the kid friendly formats in wide circulation. This is where you can try alternate takes on characters or weird one-offs.
    5. Make sure you're focused on the next generation of readers. I.E. kids.
    .....a. Keep the kid focused characters and titles in a wide swath of corner stores. Kids cannot be expected to bike halfway across town to pick up the latest issue. Dedicated comic book stores are great for older readers but you always need the next generation to have a convenient, organic way in.
    6. Slow down how often company wide 'event' storylines occur. It can be fun once and a while but being required to buy a range of titles just to get the full story is off putting.
  • by DevNull127 ( 5050621 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:43AM (#60014614)
    You could also pay for an online subscription to your local newspaper.

    Seriously. They also need our support, and also play an important role in society.
  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @11:49AM (#60014638)

    Personally, I'm way more interested in figuring out how we save comic book stores rather than the comic book industry...

    I'm rather feeling like Marvel/DC do not need my help, where the local store I actually get comics and memorabilia from, does.

    How we can help them is re-opening things ASAP (lets be honest, have you ever seen a comic store crowded? Never) and then each of us doing something to support them.

    • My local comic book store is 1/4 comic books, 1/4 Magic The Gathering cards, and 1/2 board games. It's the board game players who kept the business afloat.
      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        Unless it's an outlier, it's actually the MtG cards keeping it afloat - don't judge by shelf space. MtG is the only thing keeping most hobby, comic, and game stores around the country alive, because people spend a lot on it and it keeps appealing to new generations.

        • Unless it's an outlier, it's actually the MtG cards keeping it afloat - don't judge by shelf space. MtG is the only thing keeping most hobby, comic, and game stores around the country alive, because people spend a lot on it and it keeps appealing to new generations.

          Would be interesting to see if a congresscritter ever realizes that loot crates have been around a lot longer than electronic micro transactions.

  • How can we save it? Buy more comics. If that doesn't work, then let it die.
  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @01:37PM (#60015032)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ... put the BDSM theme back in the Wonder Woman series.

  • by chthon ( 580889 ) on Saturday May 02, 2020 @02:57PM (#60015406) Journal

    Two companies, and a whole lot of identical comic books, for a market of 350E6 persons in the US, and they have financial problems?

    Here in Europe, actually, the region France/Belgium/Holland, we have much more publishers, much more titles, and they even get translated, and there is no problem here with the comic book (strip stories/bandes dessinées) industry, actually for a much smaller market.

    Are US comic book publishers incompetent, or what?

    • Based on their decisions, yes.
    • I wrote multiple paragraphs about what was wrong with comic book stores in the US, just the shops themselves, before I realized that was only a small part of what you were asking here. This is a big question, maybe look here [sfdebris.com]. This is an internet "reviewer" who did a long series on the history of the comic industry in the US. It's video only, but this guy is thorough and I think he does a pretty good job of explaining things.
  • When the Comic Book industry pandered to the SJW's last year with the superhero 'Snowflake' and his non-binary twin 'Safe Space', it turned off a significant majority of their loyal fan base and marked the sudden downturn of the industry. Basically, it was the beginning of the end for the Comic Book industry. Why should it be saved?
  • I am not a Bible thumper but I never understood this comic book fixation. They were great when I was kid. But I grew up.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Over the last several years, the writers at marvel have turned the books more into cause ceibre for SJW issues, than adventure stories for chidden. It has been well followed, well warned about, and well described on various YouTube channels like midnights edge. After the politics were added, sales began to fall off precipitously. Many titles are selling less than 5000 issues. For example, check out the new warriors, and see if you really think that will sell.
  • There's a lot of grumbling about politics in comics elsewhere in this thread, but no-one seems to be considering some other factors.

    What about just plain competition? People today are swamped with entertainment. It's not just comics - it's television, movies, computer games, TV series. Really, there are some incredible TV series out over the last decade - we might be in a golden age for that medium right now, as the rise of on-demand services and boxed sets lets writers focus on long-running, complicated st

  • Seriously. Give up the wokeness and the reboots and altering characters beyond recognition. Reboot one last time, into every comic's classic form. Then maybe, just maybe, you can recover that vanishing audience.

    Or maybe it's too late and indy comics have eaten your lunch for good.

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