Can the American comics industry be saved or is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
Where did it go wrong?
How might you fix it, /co/?
>Can the American comics industry be saved
No
> is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
It probably won't go away 100% but it'll remain at it's current level of complete irrelevance where people groom scripts and concepts before selling the movie rights. Maybe a little weaker, maybe a little stronger, but never actually growing genuinely strong again.
>Where did it go wrong?
In the 50s with the comics code and the 90s with the speculator boom and a whole lot of other shady business shit up to and including DIamond
>How might you fix it, /co/?
Impossible. Disdain for comic books is written into America's DNA at this point. How else do you explain characters from movies that make billions of dollars starring in books that maybe sell 100K on if they're a ~BIG~ success?
>>83940822
>Where did it go wrong?
>>83940822
>Can the American comics industry be saved
No. Not as it is.
>or is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
Pretty much, yeah. Movies are giving the industry a swan song.
>Where did it go wrong?
Bloat. There's like 300 comics that come out every month, far more than one person could actually maintain interest in. Everyone has to shout as loud as they can and all it does is create a cacophony that few can penetrate.
>How might you fix it, /co/?
Fewer, better, books. The art should always be great, and the story should always feel special for being published at all.
Think how many arcs of Superman or another random character have been published seemingly for posterity rather than creative intent
Think how many eras for books are completely forgotten about or blur into vague character histories. Comics have lost their distinction as finite published works.
>>83940822
>Can the American comics industry be saved or is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
Nope. Despite the movie success, comics are still selling like shit. Expecting it to sell as well as manga does in Japan is just wishful thinking.
>Where did it go wrong?
The big2 and the notion that only superhero comics exist. The ever changing artists and writers which can make or break a book. The stigma that came with reading comics before movies made them somewhat acceptable.
>How might you fix it, /co/?
More creator own stuff. An actual beginning and ending for characters. Have editors that actually does their fucking jobs. Go the Shounen Jump route where several books are stacked together thus given readers the option to read something that they might had otherwise not had given a second thought for.
>>83940992
>How else do you explain characters from movies that make billions of dollars starring in books that maybe sell 100K on if they're a ~BIG~ success?
I know it baffles me. It just shows the power of memes or group think. People are totally okay with seeing this character in the movie but seeing the same character in a comic is somehow just totally embarrassing or something.
What the fuck is it? Why do normies act this way? I think the movies involve good looking REAL people, playing made up people, so the normie is socially allowed to like that. But cartoons involve made up people for it's own sake and this is just wrong to the normie.
>>83940822
>Can the American comics industry be saved
Yes, but only if they learn to work within their means and think. Too many people working in an industry that's too small to support them.
>is it destined to die a slow death until it's gone?
The big two are going to be stuck in this hell forever, yes, but smaller studios who aren't fucked by movies can make things better. The largest will forever be shit, and movies will supplant comic sales to keep them alive, but the small time companies will make things better.
That is, as long as there is demand. If the demand for comics is dead, then it will die. But if there are enough people who want it, and the companies who make them find a better distribution model than buying store space, then things can be saved.
>Where did it go wrong?
What >>83940992 said. Comics Code killed off the chance for comics to be anything but superheroes for the mainstream market, so most good stories were dammed to be stuck in the niche market. The Speculator Boom fucked the market for Superhero comics.
>How might you fix it, /co/?
The way I can see comics being saved is by understanding the market, and trying to expand it while changing the way comics are sold.
The first thing people need to know is that comics are a niche market. It's not something the average person wants to spend money on, outside of graphic novels at best. The cost to entertainment ratio is too bad.
So understand that you're working with a small audience, and make your costs work with that. Don't spend hundreds of thousands without being able to guarantee enough sales to justify it.
Second, expand the market. Don't just make superhero comics, make comics within other genres. Try bringing back detective comics, or adventures, or any genre. You never know what could be a hit, after all.
Finally, work with the Internet. Instead of stores being where people buy it, maybe do a Steam-like sales system, where you buy comics to download.
It can be saved, maybe.
Stop reading Marvel and DC you fucking idiots.
>>83941276
>Think how many eras for books are completely forgotten about
Yeah like all those cowboy kid comics I'm seeing in that image.
>>83941418
>everyone stops reading marvel and dc
>the american comic industry just straight up goes under
>>83941363
>What the fuck is it?
Movies have no stigma unless you're a man over 25 trying to watch a children's film alone.
>Why do normies act this way
Children are conditioned to "graduate" from picture books to pure prose.
>>83941418
This is such an asinine arguments. It's like assuming the American diet will magically improve if you shut down McDonalds and Burger King. There's still plenty of Taco Bells and KFCs out there and they're not any better.
>>83941283
> Shounen Jump route
This. Way back when, comics typically were anthologies with multiple stories featuring different characters. One only need to look at Batman and Spider-man as Exhibits A and B but hardly the only ones.
Way I see it, Action Comics and Detective Comics would be excellent candidates to return to this model. Every issue is double-sized, headlined by Superman and Batman respectively in full-length stories and followed by either a single full-length story or else two half-length stories which feature lesser characters who would be risky sells in solo books. Sell every issue at $4.50 or so.
>>83941428
>Yeah like all those cowboy kid comics I'm seeing in that image.
My point is exactly that. I can name some great westerns John Wayne did, but the man did over a hundred westerns.
A hardcore western fan would call me a normie for only knowing the Shootist or Who Shot Liberty Vallance, but it's not like I have the time, interest, or finance to watch all of Wayne's films.
Hollywood still makes about a dozen Western films every year, and many of they are quite fun little gems.
What I'm saying is, the industry has become a big bloated piece of shit like John Wayne and only made 1 in 20 decent films.
>>83941363
>>83940992
>>83941463
You guys have it wrong.
Normalfags don't hate comics because they're strange, or because it's for nerds.
Normal people don't read comics because they're a fucking waste in terms of money. No one wants to spend four dollars for a five minute story.
Comics are dying because they still sell too little content to justify the price. Movie tickets are from 8 to 12 dollars, and they sell you two hours of content. Video games cost 60 dollars and sell you a day's worth of content. Books cost 20 dollars and sell you 10 to 15 hours of content.
Comic books cost 4 dollars and sell you four to five minutes of content. And they can't lower the cost of comics, or else they'll have to lay off people.
So normal people spend their money on something that's cost efficient AND entertaining.
It gets worse when you realize most comics are selling you small bits of a larger story, and not the full thing. It's why graphic novels sell better than regular comics, because a $15 graphic novel can have enough content to justify itself.
Anons saying the compilation route would work are right, as it gives you more content for the same price.
In short, until comics give you more bang for your buck, people won't buy them.
>>83941647
Brandon Graham's Island anthology is basically dead at 10 issues due to lack of interest, but not lack of talent.
The anthology is dead, consider this mercy.
>>83941695
>Anons saying the compilation route would work are right, as it gives you more content for the same price.
Dark Horse's anthology and the one image does sell like shit.
People see the price and hear "comic book" and decide it isn't worth it.
>>83941283
I would've never thought of it, but the shounen jump idea sounds brilliant
>>83941695
Also a good answer.
I think costs could be brought down some if comics phased out glossy paper in the monthly issues. Take the printing costs of that paper and translate it into more pages of content per issue.
And as you say, every issue being part of a bigger story got out of hand. I say stories should become typically 1-2 parts, 4 parts being a real, super duper epic.
>>83941695
>No one wants to spend four dollars for a five minute story.
I can see the economic argument here and it's why I actually don't buy individual issues and wait until the run is collected.
However, people spend hundreds of dollars on booze or food they just shit and piss out anyway.
Or they buy a Captain America t-shirt for $20-30 dollars and won't spend a dime or even just torrent a Captain America comic?
>>83941946
You need to eat and drink. A shirt lasts for years. Not a good comparison.
>>83940822
>Where did it go wrong?
When the Industry decided to abandon newstands in favor of specialty shops. Comics were just about every where you could find magazines or newspapers then in the 70's you had people open up stores that carried back issues of comics catering to collectors. This allowed smaller publishers to easily get into the business by only selling to shops and DC/Marvel could try out more risky or experimental material only at shops.
Comic Shops were popular with distributes because they would buy the stock fully, where as newsstands, grocery stores, etc did what they did with every periodicals and return all unsold merchandise for a refund.
Comic books basically created there own ghettos.
>>83941720
>>83941764
> Dark Horse
> Image
I think one issue here is that these are smaller companies. Imagine the Big 2 releasing anthologies headlined by popular characters rather than literally who characters. Use your Supermans, Batmans, Spider-mans, etc to give the lesser characters exposure.
>>83941901
>I think costs could be brought down some if comics phased out glossy paper in the monthly issues. Take the printing costs of that paper and translate it into more pages of content per issue.
You're speaking in ignorance.
The different in cost at the industry level is negligible if they switched to lower quality paper.
Marvel pumps the price of their comics because the audience they have will pay for it.
By comparison DC lowering their prices to 2.99 makes their product look inferior.
>>83940822
American comics were never good.
Face it, /co/.
Cartoons > comics
>>83942156
Honestly that's what Action Comics should be. A Superman story with a back up for another character. If you get enough positive fan response then give them an ongoing
Also a new Brave and the Bold
>Can the American comics industry be saved or is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
The big two will eventually fade into (even more) pale imitations of their former selves, though its unlikely they will shut up shop for good. Image is making some nice strides forward, hopefully that pulls some other smaller publishers like Oni with it.
>Where did it go wrong?
Comics code. Solidified comics as a kids thing and for the most part comics have been struggling against that ever since. Theres also an argument for the direct market also hurting by putting comics in a place where only comics fans would see them, but im not sure that would be the case if comics hadnt become 'kids things'.
>How might you fix it?
Theres solid material coming out from smaller publishers, the issue is exposure and perception. For most people comics are just a synonym for super heroes. Not sure how id change that, maybe Image (only non big two publisher with enough bank behind them) should strike up some sort product placement deal with some popular tv shows. It seemed to work crazy well for those Green Lantern shirts that were on Big Bang Theory. Also that iPhone game Monument Valley got a massive bump by being mentioned on House of Cards.
>>83942000
I have to ask, have you ever read a comic book? What comic books do you like?
Because I'm really baffled about what marxist menace you're railing against.
>>83941946
For the food argument, it's necessary to life, so yeah, people will spend money on it.
For booze, it's because the stuff is addictive. It physically hurts to not buy it, so they do.
The t-shirts are conversation starters, and people attempting to fit in with the latest fad. Stupid, yes, but the reason is to impress.
Comics aren't addictive, necessary to life or helpful for fitting in, so they won't likely be bought unless people are interested in them.
>>83942000
Politicization of comics isn't a cause of the problem, anon, it's an effect.
Comics really started failing around the 2000s. So the industry got fucking desperate to find any way to sell their copies.
Eventually, with the era of political slactivists becoming prominent in the early 2010s, the comics industry decided that pandering to them would help with sales. It worked, but it doesn't ever last.
The common way this works out is that they take a character and make a massive superficial change to their image, hoping the slactivist crowd will buy their comics in support of the message, instead of the content. It also banks on the controversy getting into news shows, so curious people who watch the news will buy it to see what happened.
It sells #1 Issues like hotcakes, but it doesn't last, and sales drop like a rock soon after, just like with Thor and Squirrel Girl. So they have to do it again and again, with bigger and bigger characters.
It's just an extension of the entire industry turning from a story-focused medium, which it could afford to be in the 20th century, to a sales-focused medium when the 21st century came with a lack of interest in comics, even among the niche crowd. Just like how the Crisis Crossover format changed from a rare, extreme event into an every single year event, shock comics became the norm, instead of the rarity.
Hell, it probably started with the Death of Superman, and got worse and more common from there.
>>83942217
>Also a new Brave and the Bold
I loved the last time DC did Brave and the Bold but it sold like shit and was cancelled quickly despite high quality work.
People are still fucking triggered by the Barbara Gordon/Zatanna/Wonder Woman issue.
>>83942268
>sales drop like a rock soon after, just like with Thor and Squirrel Girl.
Thor and Squirrel Girl are still selling well.
>>83942353
Squirrel Girl has been rebooted to give it a new jump in sales, and Thor comic sales dropped over half of it's readers in the first four issues.
They may be selling decent for the current comics industry, but they are selling poor.
>>83942423
>Squirrel Girl has been rebooted to give it a new jump in sales
Every comic after Battleworld was renumbered.
>and Thor comic sales dropped over half of it's readers in the first four issues.
Normal decay because issue 1 has abnormally large orders from television exposure.
>They may be selling decent for the current comics industry, but they are selling poor.
That's a contradictory statement.
Squirrel Girl had no prior sales history, and Thor with Jane Foster is selling proportionately.
Squirrel Girl has proven to be bankable and popular and most importantly to Marvel, controversial.
The latter with Thor as well.
Ultimately, it's a ticking time bomb, and it's not tied to comics itself.
Comic book movies aren't going to last forever. They're drawing dangerously close to blowing their loads (2019), and if any of them fuck up after that it's all over.
The death of comic book movies means that we'll see a mad dash for television and alternative media, which could work, but probably won't work as well as they hope it will.
After that, comics will probably continue to dwindle until either the medium dies or the medium reboots itself.
>>83940822
There will always be a market for graphic novels. Monthly comics are going the way of Saturday morning cartoons, though.
>>83941164
Seriously fuck the CAC. It killed entire genres of comics and is the primary reason why only capeshit sells now.
>>83942530
We're talking about the industry. The medium is something else.
You should lurk more until you learn what these both are.
>>83942596
I wonder what it might be like if the monthlies were 1-2 part stories and anything longer was published as a trade that was written without monthly constraints. That is, they have no 20 page quotas per part to fulfill and no cliffhangers to segment the story. They're all written as a whole piece.
>>83940822
>Can the American comics industry be saved or is it destined to continue to die a slow death until it is gone for good?
it needs a shot in the arm but it can live without it, just not well
>Where did it go wrong?
>>83941164
>How might you fix it, /co/?
all this for the big two
get better writers and artists who aren't there to push a agenda for one thing.
get some new talent and ideas flowing who actually want to be there.
try other things then cape comics, get some variety going. the indie guys are holding the majority there but barely anyone knows about it.
>>83940822
>How might you fix it, /co/?
Create a new company. Steal all of the best ideas from all other capeshit. Create the perfect capeshit universe, with planned arcs for several years.
>>83941901
They could not color them, and just print lots and lots more as fast as they could. Get some evolutionary forces working for them.
>>83940822
Tigerdog!
>>83941395
They're making a Concrete tv show. Nothing is safe. Everything will become the same old shit.
>>83943574
Kek. Release pencils + inks for the monthlies, color them for the trades.
I gotta say that there is a certain admirable brutality to the idea but something tells me that it would be a bridge too far.
>>83943591
I'd buy a tiger-dog in a heartbeat if they were real.
> any big cat-styled dogs would be cool
>>83941695
I cant find the logic in justifying a book but not a comic, considering the comic is cheaper, and both the book and comic are meant to be re-read, while a movie ticket is a 1 way 1 time only affair, unless you spend some dough on the DVD, which is also meant to be rewatched.
I think the anon talking about oversaturation is more on the ball- its not "just" the captain America comic, or "just" the superman/batman comic- theres like dozens for just the one character. Theres like lets say 3 different superman comic book lines, and then the superman batman combo, etc etc. and thats not even counting all the dozens of other characters and teams and shit.
back in the day, people went to the newsstand, saw the newest superman and thats it. there wasnt much more of a selection for the "superhero comic" outside of more pulpy stuff, and that stuff was far more diverse in content anyway.
>>83944309
They would sell so many damn comics, though, if they were a dollar for 40+ pages of cheap ink on cheap paper. Plus they would basically be crowd sourcing editing for when they printed trades, or even floppies. Imagine if floppies only came out for things when people responded to the story before hand?
>>83944391
Well, you probably buy comics. The hilariously overwhelming majority of consumers disagree with your assessment about relative value.
There are definitely too many books tied together though. One major selling point of manga is that titles almost never share a universe unless they're short spin-offs, so keeping up is cheap and easy.
>>83944559
>cheap ink on cheap paper.
Again, this is erroneous.
At the production level, it's not cost effective to switch to 'cheap' paper or 'cheap' ink because most manufactures are setup to produce 'high' quality pages.
>>83945146
So you use a different printer for the pre-run. Cheap, low quality printing services exist.
>>83945208
And again, people within the industry have already said on record that publishers wouldn't be able to meaningfully drop prices.
I am talking cents on the dollar in difference. The drop in quality will lose more readers than the tradeoff.
>>83940822
Can they be saved?
Maybe, however, the only thing keeping it alive are retarded capeshit movies, but eventually they will go away, and with them the comics industry. Its not like comcis sell well, they are mostly popular with a tiny audience. In order for the industry to thrive there needs to be less focus on capeshit.
>How do you fix it?
Th more indie companies should try to market to a younger audience/new generation of readers. Make it no different than reading a book, where you have all kinds genres, one thing Ive noticed is that kids still go crazy for books, the insane love people had for Twilight and Hunger Games is prove of that. Comics could have that love if capeshit didn't dominate everything. The other companies need to get stronger and again, target new generations of readers. Not by selling with teen dramas, but by giving a wide range of choices with their comics. I think many young people are turned off, because while watching superhero movies is now considered cool, reading superhero crap is still considered something only autistic dorks in school read.
>>83940822
They will never grow back into Golden Age relevence ever again.
HOWEVER
There's a lot of things they COULD do that would really shake things up and get them back into the public conversation again. At least moreso than turning Captain America gay or whatever for the couple months that angry fanboys lash out.
Step 1:
Wipe the slate completely clean. 100%. Let Iron Man and Captain America and Thor and whomever else play around in movie and TV and action figure land where they're most exciting and profitable, but completely dump them from the page. All characters, all settings, any mention of them whatsoever, gone. Make an event of it if you have to, "THE END OF 616", or whatever, it doesn't matter, just stop making comics of them.
Step 2, ditch Diamond. They're the second thing holding back the big 2, behind their fanbase.
The big dirty secret of the printed comicbook industry is more than half of comic book readers don't even read physical comics. They either read the online editions or they just pirate them. The comic books themselves aren't profitable and are basically just glorified ad-copy on their own at this point, so let's just go whole-hog and completely ditch printed media entirely. Throw up all comics on the web. Print out digests and trades, but all monthlies are now bi-weekly installments on your website. The money you save on publishing fees, in addition to online ad revenue will more than outweigh the profits lost by phasing out floppies.
Step 3: Switch to author-owned contracts, to attract actual, legitimate artists and writers. Bring in some new blood with new ideas however you can.
Step 4: New stories. New universes. NO INTERCONECTIVITY. The emphasis should be on GOOD STORIES and GOOD CHARACTERS. Go back to the way things were in the Golden Age, when comic books were basically a trial-by-fire for new, high-concept ideas and stories. Back when a story had to be compelling or it would die.
>>83945252
Okay. Online distro, but still released in anthology format by individual purchase or subscription. It's material that a home scanner could capture at a reasonable quality anyway, so just drop the printing step entirely, and pump hundreds of hastily drawn and inked stories onto your pre-run service, and get some ad revenue to boot. Considering that final, colored versions might have different endings or substantially different dialogue anyway, it needn't even be a spoiler for people who still buy floppies. Show just how much more efficient a company can be at generating content than a collective of freelancers like Hiveworks, and build up a huge archive of stuff. Race to make literally hundreds of new pages a day online. No filters, just more and more stuff. People will pick it apart for you, so you know what to bother printing. Give every single character an ongoing. You could even still offer limited printings of these early versions on shitty paper, because some people would still buy both versions.
>>83940822
MAKE
NEW
SHIT
>>83940822
they must die
>>83945669
Fella, maybe you should star a homebrew craft beer company or something, maybe take up a hobby.
Anthologies will still always fail as long as the market is oversaturated and dominated by collectors.
>>83941463
It's also the fact that many people like self contained stories i.e. 1 book =1 story. Comics become this crazy journey through multiple titles and issues and events in order to follow one storyline for one character. It's insane and so inefficient that it immediately scares off most newcomers and potential buyers. Good lord knows I had difficulty when I started and don't go saying it's easy to do or get a hang of. It's a high bar entry and it's a relic from the past
>>83941164
i prefer to blame seduction of the innocent itself
>>83942643
To be fair killing horror is the best idea ever.
I wish it happened to cinema too. Horror deserves the same fate as spaghetti westerns, except spaghetti westerns are actually a good genre/subgenre.
>>83940822
save it with tie in comics to films not the sort we normaly get stuff that comes with merchandise like that suicide squad hair dye one
>>83950763
i agree with this to an extent
>go to comic store
>buy a comic
>it's part #4 of a 12 part story
>go back to the store and buy the first 3 parts
>attempt to read comic
>have to research the events of a previous comic so I can fully understand the comic i'm currently attempting to read
>finish my research and enjoy my comics
>I have to wait weeks just for another small bit of the story that will take me 8 minutes to finish
>and then I have to wait weeks after that for another small bit of the story that will to make 8 minutes to finish
>overall I will have spent months waiting for what amounts to an hours worth of content overall, distributed in tiny pieces throughout the months, just for 1 coherent storyline
vs
>go to theater
>get more than an hour's worth of content
>don't need to wait weeks for the story to slowly progress over the course of several months, the entire story begins and ends in the time I spend there, no need for me to keep going back to the theater so I can see 8 minutes of the movie
>can understand the movie without research, watching the previous movies beforehand is a bonus
The comic industry is fucked and will continue to be forever, and autists willing to support a completely fucking retarded model featuring the same characters that have been rehashed for the past several decades are going to make sure it never gets bad enough so that companies decide to unfuck it.
>>83950781
>To be fair killing horror is the best idea ever.
>I wish it happened to cinema too. Horror deserves the same fate
While Horror is one of the lesser film genres it has produced works of substance.
>>83951137
>it has produced works of substance
Good joke.
>>83951137
Ignore him. I remember this happening in a previous thread.
>>83951210
>being paranoid when someone criticizes your shit genre
Kek
>>83951224
I don't care about horror, I just wanted to avoid derailment via unimaginative shitposting.
>>83951478
>any opinion I disagree with is shitposting
Oh, you're one of those.
>>83951148
>>83951224
>>83951503
There are numerous examples of Horror used well across all kinds of media. It doesn't necessarily have a robust pedigree, but it's earned a place.
It's a little bizarre to single out an entire genre as though it could somehow be policed.
Guys, you're talking about how to revive a print medium when all print media is currently dying. What the fuck.
Comics will survive. As shitty as I think most webcomics are, they have proven that creator owned content can turn a profit online. They've also proven that a fucking editorial control process is needed, as well as advertising, ridiculous word of mouth, or being grandfathered into a new, large site.
Gee, it's almost as if by continuing to crap out dead trees when every industry involving dead trees is failing is a stupid fucking business move that's costing the Big 2 really fucking hard and keeping comics way more niche than they have any right to be...
>>83951583
Actually, cont'd, because I'm not done with this.
FUCK comic shops. No, not because they smell. Not because the Comic Book Shop guy stereotypes are true-- But they are, and I've only seen fat dudes and the occasional hipster chick in one. True or not, those things are irrelevant.
Comic shops fucking suck because I have to get off my ass and go out to one. It's a fucking half hour trip, one way, to acquire a half hour to hour's worth of entertainment. Fuck that.
>>83951569
>There are numerous examples of Horror used well across all kinds of media.
No, there are not.
It's a disgusting abomination of a genre that shouldn't exist at all, and awful trash like Shining, Halloween, Rosemary's Baby, Exorcist, Suspiria, etc are loved in the same way capefags love Watchmen, TDKR or Astro City i.e. pretend they are legitimate pieces of art instead of slightly less stinky shit than the rest.
>>83951624
So you have been to every comic store in America?
>>83951701
>No, there are not.
Uh-huh they are.
>It's a disgusting abomination of a genre that shouldn't exist at all, and awful trash like Shining, Halloween, Rosemary's Baby, Exorcist, Suspiria, etc are loved in the same way capefags love Watchmen, TDKR or Astro City i.e. pretend they are legitimate pieces of art instead of slightly less stinky shit than the rest.
You're being pointlessly and ineffectively contrarian.
Horror exists. It is a well established genre. To deny this is like denying the sun exists.
Here's the part where I ask what you consider to be works of high art, and you either don't reply or list a few obvious and safe favorites while refusing to compromise on the issue.
>>83951764
you're winning, keep posting!
>>83951743
Homie, you don't need to go to every crackhouse in America to realize crackheads are shit.
>>83951785
>you're winning, keep posting!
Thanks, I will.
>>83951802
I meant that sarcastically. You're right and he's wrong, but just stop posting.
>>83951764
>Horror exists
The entire point of my posts is that exists but shouldn't, learn to read. It's pretty much as bad as capeshit.
>contrarian meme
Have you ever considered that all of those things might be shit, and are considered to be classics because critics have low opinions on both of said genres. In a "Tyrone is pretty smart for a nigger" kind of way.
>a few obvious and safe favorites while refusing to compromise on the issue
Definitely not a blanket statement.
>>83951929
>The entire point of my posts is that exists but shouldn't, learn to read. It's pretty much as bad as capeshit.
And the entire point of my post was pointing how you have no such authority to dictate anything.
What are you gonna do? Come to my house and burn my DVDs? You gonna proclaim yourself god emperor over earth and snap your fingers until every Horror work in incinerated?
>>contrarian meme
I called you exactly what you are.
>Have you ever considered that all of those things might be shit, and are considered to be classics because critics have low opinions on both of said genres. In a "Tyrone is pretty smart for a nigger" kind of way.
I liked the Shining. Rosemary's Baby was alright but definitely very good for its time, particular the infamous traffic crossing scene. Exorcist is great atmospheric grossout horror. Never saw Suspiria.
Watchmen, TDKR, and Astro City are all works with impeccable creative integrity and identity. The first two are guilty of being overly discussed but that's not a mark against their quality as literature.
>Definitely not a blanket statement.
Oh hey look you refused to make a meaningful reply. Almost like you don't have a leg to stand on and are desperately flailing to regain a legitimate foothold.
Hm...
> ~20 pages of content per issue
> ~30 days in a month
> Distribute comics like webcomics
> Frequent updates - ~2 new pages per 3 days
> Online ads on every page (necessary evil, let's be honest)
> Pay for premium subscriptions to remove ads
> Sell POD floppies in online store
> Sell trades in bookstores and online stores
>>83941395
>Second, expand the market. Don't just make superhero comics, make comics within other genres. Try bringing back detective comics, or adventures, or any genre. You never know what could be a hit, after all.
>Finally, work with the Internet. Instead of stores being where people buy it, maybe do a Steam-like sales system, where you buy comics to download.
>It can be saved, maybe.
This, I see this as where manga really takes the lead sometimes. Since it can be nearly any genre outside of the popular shonen crap. Sometimes high school life or sports are the subject. This just does not happen in America because everything needs to be a cape from Marvel or DC.
>>83941463
>Children are conditioned to "graduate" from picture books to pure prose.
Largely true, my parents wanted me to stop and move on to regular books around middle school. Lots of people view comics as a stepping stone to reading literature for younger kids.
>>83951764
>safe favorites
he shat on watchmen i dont think he will be concerned with safe favourites
>>83952358
i have noticed that dc seems to be diversifying a little
Honestly for all the complaining about how they are views ad for kids, these days they really are not at all for kids. Too expensive for most, parents are not willing to pay the cover price and not for several issues that it takes to really get the story. Most are filled with ham fisted "real adult issues!" and themes.
I think actually making them available to kids as a kids medium to a degree again would go a long way.
Sell them in grocery stores, sell them in convenient stores again, lower the price to a couple dollars, tell parents that it encourages reading, cheapen up the art some so there can be more pages each month.
Just separate the books for teens and 20 somethings and the books for kids, make the kids ones available in non- comic shops again.
honestly i think the rise of idw might save them having 3 well known publishers instead of 2 might have an interesting effect
or it might do fuck all we will have to wait and see while doing our best to shore things up
>>83952555
>i have noticed that dc seems to be diversifying a little
Most of DCYou crashed and burned. If anything, they've made the smart decision to double down on what already sells to try and make it better.
>>83940822
1)Monthly books go back to "freak of the week" self contained stories...maybe a 2 or 3 parter here and there.
2)When there is an event, its not in monthly books, but in trades instead. This way a delay in publication doesn't fuck over a bunch of other writers.
3)Better editorial
4)Don't let Bendis write anymore team books.
>>83940822
The answer is simple: Kill Diamond as a distributor. Put comic books back in supermarkets as anthologies. Copy the Shonen Jump formula.
>>83940822
It won't, after reaching peak popularity it starts dropping, and people move on to the next big thing, then only the true fans will keep buying, them and the hipsters that will go/go back to it because is not popular any more, THEN the companies will go back on trail and make comics for who is and always should have been their core audience. So we wait now.
>>83940822
because comic book readersof today aresone of the most unrefined subhuman filth to ever walk the face of the earth.
yes im looking at you /co/mblr you sjw loving faggots. kill yourselves.
