By MATT SCHORR
I’ve glimpsed behind the veil of comic book publishing. And the view…well…it ain’t good.
Comic book sales have been in a steady decline for nearly a decade. The LA Times recently reported the number of retailers offering comics has dropped from 7,000-9,000 in the 1990s to roughly 2,000 today. Most of those that remain are just specialty shops. Comic books themselves have also seen their sales figures, which were already dropping, dip roughly seven percent this year.
A number of publishers at the San Diego Comic Convention this year informed me that most companies are currently hinging their bets on Hollywood. Several of them said they could no longer sustain themselves on comic books sales alone. A lucrative media deal—film, television, or other—is essential.
This is a problem since the movie industry, like so many other industries in America, is also hurting. Starved for positive financial returns, studios are more apt to bid on a project likely to draw big numbers (i.e. Batman, Spider-Man, The Avengers) rather than a smaller, riskier one (like, say, Warlash by Asylum Press). This only serves to make the opportunities for new artists, writers and publishers to prove themselves fewer, farther between, and harder to find.
If this vicious cycle continues, the industry will continue to shrink.
So who’s to blame for this? A significant number of loud fans like to point the finger at Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. After all, he’s the one who decided to reboot Spider-Man with the much-derided One More Day/Brand New Day saga. It’s all his fault! Right? RIGHT!??
This is all your fault, Joe!! Isn't it...?
Well, not so fast.
Like so many things in life, the comic book industry’s plight isn’t black and white. There isn’t one devil ruining what would otherwise be a profitable business, nor is there a team of fools who continue to make stupid decisions just because they’ve garnered some sort of top tier status.
In my view, the industry’s current troubles boil down to two simple things: the recession and an inability to draw in new readers.
The recession, likely the biggest culprit, is pretty much unfixable right now, at least as far as comic books are concerned. Until consumers have more money to burn, they’re going to hang on to their money for more important things like groceries or an electric bill rather than comic books. Quite frankly, the industry, like to many others, is just going to have to tough it out.
However, that’s not the only problem. Even without a recession, comic book publishers have been due a day of reckoning for a long time. For almost thirty years, publishers have focused more and more on adult-centered concepts and storylines, while foregoing titles geared toward younger audiences. This is all well and good, as it keeps readers interested long-term rather than “growing out of it,” but unfortunately, they aren’t drawing in new, younger readers.
For years, comic book retailers have said they don’t see any new customers. The regular ones just get older.
The problem is those readers aren’t going to be around forever. In a sense, the industry is pulling the same stunt NBC did not too long ago. Rather than planning for the future and keeping Conan O’Brien as the host of the Tonight Show, they went back to Jay Leno to maintain their audience and ratings. All fine and dandy, except Leno’s audience is roughly at least sixty-years-old.
New 52!? Brand New Day!? What's all this newfangled stuff!??
Comic books aren’t much different. Stan Lee himself once said publishers need to bring back the young readers. (And he did it in a Marvel production, no less!) He’s not alone. Retailers, writers and many more are incline to agree. For whatever it’s worth, so am I.
So is there a bright spot? Well, yes, actually. The Superman Homepage reported this week that DC’s “New 52” campaign has, in the short run, proven very successful. The company’s flagship title, Justice League #1, already has more than 200,000 pre-orders. Six other new #1 titles already have more than 100,000 ore-orders. DC has managed to reverse the current slump for a month, but the big question is whether or not the company can maintain that momentum or end up in the same position next year.
Likewise, the new wave of digital technology has the potential to drastically reduce the cost of publishing, thus paving the way for new, smaller companies to take a shot at the medium. Time will tell, but should digital comics prove successful, there is a chance many new artists, writers and publishers will have a chance to prove themselves they might not have had otherwise.
Will Steve Jobs be the superhero who saves comics???
And if that happens, once the economy finally rebounds, we may very well see another resurgence for the industry. Probably not a boom like the 90s, but a resurgence nonetheless.