I remember road trips into the US (From Canada), and each time we'd stop at a restaurant for breakfast that had a great comic book rack. 8 year old me misses those b&w Conan books.
Let's be honest. Good Japanese manga and American indie comics are popular at the moment. And I'm fine with that. More and more folks are realizing that there are more to comics than DC, Marvel and superheroes.
I agree, but it was such an own-goal.... I still can't get over the fact that Marvel having the biggest and longest cinematic blockbuster success story in history didn't result in a 100x increase in superhero comic sales. It's literally incredible that anyone in charge during that period still has a job.
Manga has been popular since decades, it is the United States that has only noticing them now. As for indies, I think is because there are more being made right now. Is not as if there aren't some horrible indies out there.
I;m gonna say what I always say. Outpricing is a thing. Comics should be affordable and cheap. Make it black and white if you have to. But something even more important is that it is something the public wants to read. People can cry and bitch about politics or their stance all day long, but at the end of the day a general public does exists (it is huge) and it hasn't been served in over a decade and the sales show this. So, we are faced with raising prices and that may be hard to change or resolve, but writing stories people want to read should be possible.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 The Hulk was originally made grey because green ink was more expensive. They moved to his canonical green state when it could be better afforded. If you want lower pricing, cutting out all the flashy ink is one way to do it. I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of black and white comic pages, but at least it'd lend to an appreciation of the art on it's own raw merits.
@@TheRavenShadowsWolf If I would be not willing to pay for my passion, then it wouldn't be important to me. And I know a different story, Hulk was grey in one issue, but printers at the time had a hard time making grey consistently, and Hulk appeared green in one panel by mistake, so Marvel decided to stuck with green from the second issue forward.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 that is why they should diversify their offer : more high end and colourful offers for passionated customers like you, with special care given to both the writing and drawing, that will be sold at a higher price; and more cheaper editions with economy and overall story in mind issuing in a weekly model and designed to keep people hooked for a lower price, making profit over quantity (that is basically the manga format)
Part of the issue, is DRM is hurting sales WAY more than the piracy. DRM free copies are available online within days of publication, making a DRM riddled online only slow page turning reading experience where the book will get taken away from you at any random moment, an impossible value proposition from the customers point of view. Comics should be DRM for a month, with a standard comic book file available for download after that point. As the digital cat is WAY out of the bag, and DRM only harms sales and customers at that point.
Diversity by itself and for itself does not sell. You still need a good quality product or story to draw people's attention. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp by writters and editors at the big two?
For me it came down to being priced out. I'm not willing to shell out £4.50 for a mediocre single issue with more ads than comic. A volume of manga is £7. For less than two issues i can get a volume of manga. For the price of three issues i can get 3 volumes of manga (all comic stores sell at 3 for 2).
Growing up there were multiple comic book shops in the various towns/cities around mine. Now if I wanted to buy a comic book, I would have to drive an hour to get there and another hour back. Assuming there was no traffic of course. More importantly, the stories suck now. I don't WANT to buy comics.
Why is a range of products so devoted to "diversity" as a concept so incredibly homogenized? It sometimes feels like half the scripts would vanish if there was an editor around to say, "Okay, hasn't a heroine 'raged against the patriarchy' already this month...? Maybe in the same comic...? Maybe the same _character_ ?... How about we do something dif- Oh, sure, 'Batman is rich and should be fighting systemic inequality instead of beating up bad guys'. We haven't done that in a hot second."
With Western comics I think Indies are the way to go. Really digging Kamen America, also liking Isom. I'm also something of a Manga & Manhwa guy these days. I don't really look in DC or Marvels way anymore.
If Big Two switched to publishing comics like Weekly Shonen Jump, it might make creators to actually try writing good stories since they will have to compete for the spot)
I've been thinking this for years. The working conditions for your average Japanese mangaka may not be great, but the quick, consistent, and competitive release format for manga just produces the highest possible quality.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 It wasn't exactly the same. Marvel comics would typically be motivated by sales rather than a popular vote like with Shonen Jump, but that wouldn't be the end all be all decider for whether a comic would be cancelled. You could get a comic like X-Men at Marvel that would actually be revived in spite of poor sales and it'd take off because a solid writer like Claremont would be put on. The problem is that Marvel has leaned into that, and it's editorial staff no longer makes well-informed decisions. Putting the choice directly into the hands of readers ensures that you're at least getting a story of relatively good quality.
@@everyany5000 indeed, while the Manga conditions are brutal, the sheer variety of stories and creators keeps manga on top. And also this is a Consumer focused approach. Being Creator-Focused does not mean we consumers are then obligated to buy what we don't like. Its a Brutal manga Industry, but its an actual industry of hundreds of tiny artisans, rather than the Comics, which are dissolving into nothingness with a whimper.
American Superhero comics may be dying. But indie, manga and European comics still sell. Isn't it stated that 1 out of every 5 books sold in France is a comic.
and "lancevance"...they ARE crappy art. You are correct. And another "above" commenter said, I don't want to shell out 5 dollars for a comic book, that has MORE ADS THAN COMIC BOOK art pages....!
As was suggested years ago, manga publishers have taken the place of the vacuum created by the big five comic book publishers. The great challenge of the independent comic publishers is one of generating their content on time. This has had a negative impact on crowd-sourcing sites no longer accepting new campaigns for those who have been late on delivering their products. The quantity of quality content also hurts the independents where a floppy or graphic novel being dropped once a year does not help to create the relative intellectual properties (IPs). Until those comics IPs can go into other markets and merchandise, comics are going to further stagnate. Some independents are addressing this better than others. The lack of sales opportunities/locations also hurts the comics industry. Hopefully there will be changes from the top down (especially if share holders are involved) need to be made in order to bring in proper stewards of their respective IPs. Hopefully, the new executives will drive up quality products, enhance market share to the manga publishers. This said, the likelihood of anything positive for the comic book industry as a whole is currently negative.
I'm perfectly happy to pay for comics about detestable main characters, so long as they are complex, relatable in some way, and have an engaging plot line which i can't predict several issues in advance.
I wish comics were fun again. Im not against the political stuff that comes out, it’s just oversaturated with that. We need the “wow this is swell” types to become larger. Dont worry I’m not “oooh it’s woke!” Type of guy, just someone who thinks we need a break to make more fun comics.
The problem is people in charge of marvel and dc are so woke they can't just let a "fun" comic be made unless it has propaganda sprinkled in it...even if only slightly
Those people kn charge arent woke. Theyre capitalist. They want EVERYONES money. They jist overestimated how mich their productsare actuallyworth and now theyre losing thwir core. Capitalism is fun @821lancevance
Can someone explain to me a multi billion dollar company like marvel/dc doesn’t just distribute their own comics? Why not buy a factory and the land needed for the materials to lower the cost of productions?
As I recall, when Diamond started to lose clients to other distributors, comicbook stores were openly saying that they had less shipments with damaged items from the new distributor.
Also, if you care about the environment but still buy frivolous things like Knick knacks, “art”, etc. what’s the carbon footprint of comics? The movie industry? How much electricity does The View use? The internet? Let’s shut it all down. 🤣😂😉👍
It was a good run, but theres so many other products that compete with comics for peoples hobby time. It was bound to happen even without all the other problems.
Comics need to turn around and make them cheap again (newsprint interiors, black and white if they must, maybe put them out as digest like Shojin Jump does (as JSG said) to bring diverse genres into play). The problem isn't just that they were preachy and poorly written, comics were in trouble since the last crash in the 90s (a lot of the industry's problems were laid out in Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics, surprisingly unheard of by my ComicsGaters). Their business practices like variant covers, over-producing series, etc. need to go away. This writer of the article that JSG read though is SO wrong in 90% his assessment (the tariffs are going to happen, because the industry in 2020 didn't bother to nurture American printers).
The average american has moved from from superhero comics to graphic novels to manga many years ago. Until DC and Marvel start making comics, good comics about non-superhero characters or outside of the superhero genre, the industry will be forever be like this.
6:37 I took that last bit to truly mean indie like you or other creators popping up on ig with solid followings and legitimate stakes in the works they put out there. People who actually believe in themselves and the ideals they put forward. It’s been a fertile ground for underground comics and Zine culture. Despite meta we cultivated real diversity of thought and culture.
its abt 20+ for my manga per vol. hence i'm pretty picky on my comics. got to love the art AND story...an not just 'cause i support the pub/ beloved character'.
diamond hid under their desks when the pandemic hit and screwed publishers with stupid. i have little to no sympathy for them when they go under. they did this to themselves.
You say that but it only works if consumers continue buying the same volume of comics despite the price hike. This won't happen. Many readers were lost when comics went up last time. More will be lost with a price hike this time. To compensate prices will increase again until the audience has decreased to a point where the business cannot sustain itself short term.
@jdstudios1912 I was speaking for the whole economy. Not just the comic industry. Print media has been in decline for a decade. The major labels have seen a steep decline in the last few years because of the over comercialization and saturation of the major IPs. (Thanks Disney 🤨) That along with terrible writing and constant stories pushing fringe ideaologies which alienate the core consumers of comics is what has pushed the industry into this spiral.
@jdstudios1912 So the comic market either gets artificially propped up by outsourcing or collapses due to no local demand. Sink or swim, I say. Maybe stories have suffered because there is no incentive to do better.
I think what Shonen jump does , allowing you to read the latest 3 chapters is a good idea. And maybe a move to paperbacks ? That’s just me personally I wait for a bigger chunk rather than buying issue at a time
Honestly I would be careful in anticipating the whole tarif situation : the Orange Man is famously inconsistent. Plus this is obviously mainly used as a political + diplomatic pressure tool. Add to that the uncertainity on how other countries will react, especially democratic countries like Canada or the EU (are they gonna just take it lying down ? Raising tariffs of their own ?), and basically there are still too many moving pieces to have any idea on what will actually happen, making predictions based on that an exercice in futulity. It is however obvious as said that if indeed such tariffs are raised, consumer products like comic books will be more expensive to the customer base. (Note : I did a major in economics, so although I'm not an international trade specialist, I do have some understanding of the situation)
I buried any commitment to comics in 2018. Manga and novels are just better on all fronts. So this feels like watching at ex be a dumpsterfire from across the street
JSG seems to be confining “comics” to just paper. I used to go to comic book stores, but I just ran out of titles I liked. Meanwhile web comics were updating every day, with new and unique ideas. That is where comics are. DC and Marvel characters might work in this format, but would not have any special advantage over Sluggy Freelance, GIrl Genius, XKCD, or Jeaniebottle.
On price - comics are ALREADY too expensive...so charging more for crap is not gna hurt sales that much when its already over priced crap very few people are buying
Eric July has probably less than 100 employes, and he outsells the big two fairly regularly. I got out when floppies got over $3. I buy a couple trades a year cuz i love the boys at my old shop. Miss the days of shit talking and grilling brats out front every Wednesday.
Indie comics seem to be fine. They're just stuck in the romantized "starving artist" comic publishers and writers NEED to see what manga,comixology, and webtoon are doing when it comes to advertising.
He mentioned that in the video you didn't watch. Pointing out correctly that no US distributors has enough facilities to meet the increased production demand and are extremely unlikely to expand their facilities to accommodate that because it's cheaper for them to eat the import costs and raise the price than build new manufacturering facilities and hire new workers.
"Publishers will either have to raise prices, or eat the cost" There is a third option. They can print in the US instead. Which, as I understand, is the point. Trump wants more industries in America, which is why he's driving up the costs of producing overseas.
Yeah but the problem is that building new factories and transferring operations to America(where the labour pool is uncertain and there’s a host of regulations) would still be more expensive than just dealing with the tariffs, or waiting for a new president who removes them
I think there is a market for comics but the crowd funded is just a bad option because of the scammers than never produce anything once they make their goals. Makes people not want to commit money upfront without the product in hand
Excellent video. the only thing I will add, is that ONCE brand new comic books reach six dollars, it is more profitable and fun to collect a real nice collectible old comic book....for the same price. YOu can get a nice old Superman comic book or even a semi old spiderman comic book from the 80s, for about 6 bucks if you know where to shop. What do you think? Am I right?
DC's Absolute line has also been performing well. To the point the usual suspects have resorted to lying about what happens in the books to try and claim they suck.
9:38 - free speech very specifically DOES NOT mean that. It never has, and never will. There's a vested caveat to it. Clearly written into the constitution that applies both in the States and in Canada. You have by and large a great amount of freedom to express your beliefs, as what you believe. This does not negate what others at the same time, believe. Therein being the problem, as however, you are very much not allowed to do so if they are injurious to X other person; group or belief - to the point it can be considered a crime. Free speech is not completely free. Never has been, and with six billion plus differentiations in minds, it never will be.
The embarrassing moment at a feminist picnic when they realize that no one has made a single sandwich. Thinks of when the Wonder Woman comic was canceled due to poor sales in the 80s. Feminists and women's groups went berserk and demanded its immediate return because Wonder Woman was a feminist icon. But to buy the comic book, when it wanted e not. Is a bit the same today with the target group that many in the comic book industry want to reach and please, those wankers don't buy the comics either.
I'm worried that, due to his ambition to jump on Batman and the Joker when they hit public domain, that Jawbreakers Contingency is gonna be them fighting Batman. Which would be the pinnacle of lameness because YBZ will have ceased to be original. Still, I backed it years ago not knowing what it would be.
Here’s an idea. How about American comics being printed in America. That way you can counter Tariff coast. Oh wait, American workers would need to be paid, they will probably want benefits and some insurances and maybe a Union to keep workplaces safe and workers are paid fairly. But that would be to much effort I guess, even though this country did it before.
the story quality of most comics make this pointless the comic industry screwed themselves by hiring people who didn't care about the future of comics and now its come back to bite them.
I think this narrative line is misleading. “Most of the comic books sold aren’t traditional comics.” If you mean in the WORLD, that’s correct. But in America it’s arguable that more floppy and digital single issues are sold than manga/dogman, et al. But more importantly, we should really only ever compare marvel/dc sales to marvel/dc sales. Dogman, Smile, Manga - these are markets that were developed that have nothing whatsoever to do with marvel/dc/indie comics. Those things selling well doesn’t detract from whatever marvel/dc are doing. They really shouldn’t be included or even referenced when talking about American comic books. Because if we do that, Webtoon obliterates all of them combined. These aren’t useful metrics. The comparison of manga to comic sales or Dogman to comic sales is just a tool used by people who want to throw shade on marvel/DC. We don’t need to compare marvel/DC numbers to anything besides marvel/DC numbers. And when we do that, we also would need to know their subscription numbers, which we don’t have.
In Europe, to established and new collectors, the green shoots of revival are becoming visible, but its an odd reestablishment, and its not American. European brands that were deluged by a flood of US comics in the late 90's are reemerging. Amid shelves stuffed with unsold DC and Marvel, this is interesting to see. Back issues of 2000AD for instance are once again becoming prominent, and other lesser known IPs too. But this may spell trouble for all new publications, American and European, because there a huge back catalogue of work that was drowned out by US superhero imports. It was all done, already paid for, and so now ready to remarket to a audience looking for something that looks new. In reality they may only get something that was only overlooked. Maybe this is the first step, and most necessary stop, in any real renascence of comic book art.
if its time for certain franchises to die, then finally let it die. MArvel and DC has its time. Its time for new players to enter the stage. Let others shine for a change.
I have the solution. STOP MAKING SINGLE ISSUE COMICS!!! Japanese manga has provided more efficient story telling by actually having stories in their volumes, compared to endless useless issues of comics where nothing fucking happens till the next issue.
I only see people getting bored with xtwitter whether they push negativity or positivity. The advertisers want to sell things and dogs want to bark but both of those things get old. Community notes is the best thing to happen to xt and why it is going to die. Media and politicians can't masslight the public like they used to and the "well actually guy" had his whole script taken away. The clown show has been neutered but the clown show is most of the people that use that crap. When regular people walked away we realized we didn't miss it.
I started late! Recently ( 5 years ago ) and i actually started with new comics. I thought the it was terrible. I was ready to stop reading. But i got myself the first serie of Xmen on sale and it got me completely hooked.
When identity politics is prioritized over good storytelling, people stop buying comics. I accepted Gail Simon's challenge, when she said "If you don't like my politics, don't buy my books. " I don't bother with the big 2 anymore. I get the Conan comic from Titan and I pick up a few indie books here and there.
Cartoonists and publishers should think about the webtoon format (which poses questions yet to be explored in terms of form related to the medium). And no a "comics book format" to read online. 1. Firstly, it reduces costs such as paper and ink, transport, booksellers' margin and so on. 2. And very clearly this is how comics will be consumed in the future.
@@821lancevance It was the same thing for the paper format, it took years before good comics appeared. The same goes for cinema. It is by investing in this medium that good webtoons will be created
Comics died the day a kid couldn't buy a comic book at the local grocery store.
I remember road trips into the US (From Canada), and each time we'd stop at a restaurant for breakfast that had a great comic book rack. 8 year old me misses those b&w Conan books.
Honestly, this; Walmart will sell me a manga, not a comic. There's your proof of successful practices right there.
100% true.
Oh..oh this is tragic.😞
I remember when all gas stations would have a comic rack.
Let's be honest. Good Japanese manga and American indie comics are popular at the moment.
And I'm fine with that.
More and more folks are realizing that there are more to comics than DC, Marvel and superheroes.
I agree, but it was such an own-goal.... I still can't get over the fact that Marvel having the biggest and longest cinematic blockbuster success story in history didn't result in a 100x increase in superhero comic sales. It's literally incredible that anyone in charge during that period still has a job.
There always was. Archie and similar stuff for example.
@@Jus7aguy I know. I meant that more and more folks are realizing that now.
Manga has been popular since decades, it is the United States that has only noticing them now.
As for indies, I think is because there are more being made right now. Is not as if there aren't some horrible indies out there.
@alfredosaint-jean9660 I know there are bad indie comics, but the good ones are the bestsellers.
I;m gonna say what I always say.
Outpricing is a thing. Comics should be affordable and cheap.
Make it black and white if you have to.
But something even more important is that it is something the public wants to read.
People can cry and bitch about politics or their stance all day long, but at the end of the day a general public does exists (it is huge) and it hasn't been served in over a decade and the sales show this.
So, we are faced with raising prices and that may be hard to change or resolve, but writing stories people want to read should be possible.
"Make it black and white if you have to"
Please no.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 The Hulk was originally made grey because green ink was more expensive. They moved to his canonical green state when it could be better afforded. If you want lower pricing, cutting out all the flashy ink is one way to do it. I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of black and white comic pages, but at least it'd lend to an appreciation of the art on it's own raw merits.
@@TheRavenShadowsWolf If I would be not willing to pay for my passion, then it wouldn't be important to me.
And I know a different story, Hulk was grey in one issue, but printers at the time had a hard time making grey consistently, and Hulk appeared green in one panel by mistake, so Marvel decided to stuck with green from the second issue forward.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 that is why they should diversify their offer : more high end and colourful offers for passionated customers like you, with special care given to both the writing and drawing, that will be sold at a higher price; and more cheaper editions with economy and overall story in mind issuing in a weekly model and designed to keep people hooked for a lower price, making profit over quantity (that is basically the manga format)
@@Cancoillotteman That, I can agree with.
A friend told me about the scratch and sniff fart fetish Harley DC Comic today.
I laughed thinking he was joking, I stopped when I realised he wasn’t.
Yeah, they mentioned at their catalogue.
The what??????
@@gavinshickle1814 News is doing the rounds on TH-cam, it's apparently due out on April fools.
@@gavinshickle1814 Yup a scratch n sniff Harley Quinn fart comic is a thing
Yeah what were they thinking with that?
Part of the issue, is DRM is hurting sales WAY more than the piracy.
DRM free copies are available online within days of publication, making a DRM riddled online only slow page turning reading experience where the book will get taken away from you at any random moment, an impossible value proposition from the customers point of view.
Comics should be DRM for a month, with a standard comic book file available for download after that point. As the digital cat is WAY out of the bag, and DRM only harms sales and customers at that point.
Diversity by itself and for itself does not sell. You still need a good quality product or story to draw people's attention.
Why is this such a hard concept to grasp by writters and editors at the big two?
What makes you think they wanted to sell?
Don't worry, the Harley Quinn fart comic will turn the tide
Yes, it’ll provide a mighty wind to a failing industry.
One reason I switched to manga is because they come to an end, lol. Ending stops power creep
Someone has never heard of One Piece.
@thorinpalladino2826 I knew somebody was going to say this
@@thorinpalladino2826one piece is coming to an end. Oda has had an ending written for years and has stated it will be ending in the next few years.
V Vendetta came to an end also
"The story is the boss." - Stephen King (On Writing: Memoirs of the Craft).
Until you've made your pile. Then, whatever luxury beliefs you entertain become the boss.
For me it came down to being priced out. I'm not willing to shell out £4.50 for a mediocre single issue with more ads than comic. A volume of manga is £7. For less than two issues i can get a volume of manga. For the price of three issues i can get 3 volumes of manga (all comic stores sell at 3 for 2).
Every time I hear a comic storyline, I know exactly why they died.
It’s simply too stupid
Growing up there were multiple comic book shops in the various towns/cities around mine. Now if I wanted to buy a comic book, I would have to drive an hour to get there and another hour back. Assuming there was no traffic of course. More importantly, the stories suck now. I don't WANT to buy comics.
Why is a range of products so devoted to "diversity" as a concept so incredibly homogenized? It sometimes feels like half the scripts would vanish if there was an editor around to say, "Okay, hasn't a heroine 'raged against the patriarchy' already this month...? Maybe in the same comic...? Maybe the same _character_ ?... How about we do something dif- Oh, sure, 'Batman is rich and should be fighting systemic inequality instead of beating up bad guys'. We haven't done that in a hot second."
😂 that requires an editor to not have a feeding tube connected to the writers farms and agreed with everything they try
With Western comics I think Indies are the way to go. Really digging Kamen America, also liking Isom. I'm also something of a Manga & Manhwa guy these days. I don't really look in DC or Marvels way anymore.
If Big Two switched to publishing comics like Weekly Shonen Jump, it might make creators to actually try writing good stories since they will have to compete for the spot)
I've been thinking this for years. The working conditions for your average Japanese mangaka may not be great, but the quick, consistent, and competitive release format for manga just produces the highest possible quality.
You mean how american comics did it before.
Funny how the popular opinion change about this topic.
@@alfredosaint-jean9660 It wasn't exactly the same. Marvel comics would typically be motivated by sales rather than a popular vote like with Shonen Jump, but that wouldn't be the end all be all decider for whether a comic would be cancelled. You could get a comic like X-Men at Marvel that would actually be revived in spite of poor sales and it'd take off because a solid writer like Claremont would be put on. The problem is that Marvel has leaned into that, and it's editorial staff no longer makes well-informed decisions. Putting the choice directly into the hands of readers ensures that you're at least getting a story of relatively good quality.
@@everyany5000 indeed, while the Manga conditions are brutal, the sheer variety of stories and creators keeps manga on top. And also this is a Consumer focused approach. Being Creator-Focused does not mean we consumers are then obligated to buy what we don't like. Its a Brutal manga Industry, but its an actual industry of hundreds of tiny artisans, rather than the Comics, which are dissolving into nothingness with a whimper.
@@Pangora2 I agree.
American Superhero comics may be dying. But indie, manga and European comics still sell. Isn't it stated that 1 out of every 5 books sold in France is a comic.
I wouldnt mind buying modern comics if they weren't so far left in their writing with crappy art
and "lancevance"...they ARE crappy art. You are correct. And another "above" commenter said, I don't want to shell out 5 dollars for a comic book, that has MORE ADS THAN COMIC BOOK art pages....!
As was suggested years ago, manga publishers have taken the place of the vacuum created by the big five comic book publishers. The great challenge of the independent comic publishers is one of generating their content on time. This has had a negative impact on crowd-sourcing sites no longer accepting new campaigns for those who have been late on delivering their products. The quantity of quality content also hurts the independents where a floppy or graphic novel being dropped once a year does not help to create the relative intellectual properties (IPs). Until those comics IPs can go into other markets and merchandise, comics are going to further stagnate. Some independents are addressing this better than others. The lack of sales opportunities/locations also hurts the comics industry. Hopefully there will be changes from the top down (especially if share holders are involved) need to be made in order to bring in proper stewards of their respective IPs. Hopefully, the new executives will drive up quality products, enhance market share to the manga publishers. This said, the likelihood of anything positive for the comic book industry as a whole is currently negative.
I bought my first comic in over three years. Justice league vs Godzilla, and that's because I am a Kaiju simp!
Go independent or buy Manga, that’s all I have now.
I'm perfectly happy to pay for comics about detestable main characters, so long as they are complex, relatable in some way, and have an engaging plot line which i can't predict several issues in advance.
I wish comics were fun again. Im not against the political stuff that comes out, it’s just oversaturated with that. We need the “wow this is swell” types to become larger.
Dont worry I’m not “oooh it’s woke!” Type of guy, just someone who thinks we need a break to make more fun comics.
I feel we are kind of alone.
The problem is people in charge of marvel and dc are so woke they can't just let a "fun" comic be made unless it has propaganda sprinkled in it...even if only slightly
@@821lancevance A lot of buyers are also very politically motivated.
Those people kn charge arent woke. Theyre capitalist. They want EVERYONES money. They jist overestimated how mich their productsare actuallyworth and now theyre losing thwir core. Capitalism is fun @821lancevance
Can someone explain to me a multi billion dollar company like marvel/dc doesn’t just distribute their own comics? Why not buy a factory and the land needed for the materials to lower the cost of productions?
As I recall, when Diamond started to lose clients to other distributors, comicbook stores were openly saying that they had less shipments with damaged items from the new distributor.
I'm glad with the X-Men coming to MCU my "local" comic shop are reprinting the older titles.
Also, if you care about the environment but still buy frivolous things like Knick knacks, “art”, etc. what’s the carbon footprint of comics? The movie industry? How much electricity does The View use? The internet? Let’s shut it all down. 🤣😂😉👍
Hopefully I can craft something this year for any entertainment.
Buy older comics
@wesmcinerny4524 What's that got to do with crafting something new?
I’m there with you
Same here
It was a good run, but theres so many other products that compete with comics for peoples hobby time. It was bound to happen even without all the other problems.
Every time you hit “Don’t take my word for it” i keep hitting “Butterfly in the shy, i can go twice as high”
...Maybe I shouldn't turn my book into a comic, then.
I've thought the same thing. But I guess some people could write american manga. 🤷♂️
Comics need to turn around and make them cheap again (newsprint interiors, black and white if they must, maybe put them out as digest like Shojin Jump does (as JSG said) to bring diverse genres into play). The problem isn't just that they were preachy and poorly written, comics were in trouble since the last crash in the 90s (a lot of the industry's problems were laid out in Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics, surprisingly unheard of by my ComicsGaters). Their business practices like variant covers, over-producing series, etc. need to go away. This writer of the article that JSG read though is SO wrong in 90% his assessment (the tariffs are going to happen, because the industry in 2020 didn't bother to nurture American printers).
The average american has moved from from superhero comics to graphic novels to manga many years ago. Until DC and Marvel start making comics, good comics about non-superhero characters or outside of the superhero genre, the industry will be forever be like this.
They should *Make Comics Great Agin* and stop all wokeness!!
6:37 I took that last bit to truly mean indie like you or other creators popping up on ig with solid followings and legitimate stakes in the works they put out there. People who actually believe in themselves and the ideals they put forward. It’s been a fertile ground for underground comics and Zine culture. Despite meta we cultivated real diversity of thought and culture.
its abt 20+ for my manga per vol.
hence i'm pretty picky on my comics. got to love the art AND story...an not just 'cause i support the pub/ beloved character'.
diamond hid under their desks when the pandemic hit and screwed publishers with stupid. i have little to no sympathy for them when they go under. they did this to themselves.
Prices will go up at first, but they will drop drastically once the industry adjust and starts producing in America
Thank you
You say that but it only works if consumers continue buying the same volume of comics despite the price hike. This won't happen. Many readers were lost when comics went up last time. More will be lost with a price hike this time. To compensate prices will increase again until the audience has decreased to a point where the business cannot sustain itself short term.
@jdstudios1912 I was speaking for the whole economy. Not just the comic industry. Print media has been in decline for a decade. The major labels have seen a steep decline in the last few years because of the over comercialization and saturation of the major IPs. (Thanks Disney 🤨) That along with terrible writing and constant stories pushing fringe ideaologies which alienate the core consumers of comics is what has pushed the industry into this spiral.
@jdstudios1912 So the comic market either gets artificially propped up by outsourcing or collapses due to no local demand.
Sink or swim, I say. Maybe stories have suffered because there is no incentive to do better.
There are already more comics than most people can read in their lifetimes. Why do we actually need new comics?
I ask myself the same.
I agree with the sentiment. But the same thing can be said about movies, tv shows, novels, etc.
Why do we need more movies, books or clothes?
@@SchweitzerMan Clothes?
This is true. At this point its cumbersome over saturation.
I think what Shonen jump does , allowing you to read the latest 3 chapters is a good idea. And maybe a move to paperbacks ? That’s just me personally I wait for a bigger chunk rather than buying issue at a time
Honestly I would be careful in anticipating the whole tarif situation : the Orange Man is famously inconsistent. Plus this is obviously mainly used as a political + diplomatic pressure tool. Add to that the uncertainity on how other countries will react, especially democratic countries like Canada or the EU (are they gonna just take it lying down ? Raising tariffs of their own ?), and basically there are still too many moving pieces to have any idea on what will actually happen, making predictions based on that an exercice in futulity.
It is however obvious as said that if indeed such tariffs are raised, consumer products like comic books will be more expensive to the customer base. (Note : I did a major in economics, so although I'm not an international trade specialist, I do have some understanding of the situation)
I buried any commitment to comics in 2018. Manga and novels are just better on all fronts. So this feels like watching at ex be a dumpsterfire from across the street
JSG seems to be confining “comics” to just paper. I used to go to comic book stores, but I just ran out of titles I liked. Meanwhile web comics were updating every day, with new and unique ideas. That is where comics are. DC and Marvel characters might work in this format, but would not have any special advantage over Sluggy Freelance, GIrl Genius, XKCD, or Jeaniebottle.
On price - comics are ALREADY too expensive...so charging more for crap is not gna hurt sales that much when its already over priced crap very few people are buying
"They killed my son." -sniffle sniffle-
Blood in the water attracts sharks, snot attracts trolls.
Eric July has probably less than 100 employes, and he outsells the big two fairly regularly. I got out when floppies got over $3. I buy a couple trades a year cuz i love the boys at my old shop. Miss the days of shit talking and grilling brats out front every Wednesday.
Well, had marvel not pushed the Nü Würriür with safe space, snow pants, fat back pack gurl, internet gas boy, and grandson of blade ….
i love your work
Well said.
Damn Elon can't keep the comic publisher he brought from falling into the waste bin.
Indie comics seem to be fine. They're just stuck in the romantized "starving artist" comic publishers and writers NEED to see what manga,comixology, and webtoon are doing when it comes to advertising.
Forgetting a third option, print domestically
He mentioned that in the video you didn't watch.
Pointing out correctly that no US distributors has enough facilities to meet the increased production demand and are extremely unlikely to expand their facilities to accommodate that because it's cheaper for them to eat the import costs and raise the price than build new manufacturering facilities and hire new workers.
Or Kindle. I have several comic books on mine.
@BoomGiggity
Services like that are nice but as with video games I prefer physical copies
@@killfang9659 I agree, but it's a choice.
I have no sympathy for Diamond.
I'm stealing your phrase of "Phony Stark".
"Publishers will either have to raise prices, or eat the cost"
There is a third option. They can print in the US instead. Which, as I understand, is the point. Trump wants more industries in America, which is why he's driving up the costs of producing overseas.
Yeah but the problem is that building new factories and transferring operations to America(where the labour pool is uncertain and there’s a host of regulations) would still be more expensive than just dealing with the tariffs, or waiting for a new president who removes them
This year will be the year of the Iron Age where we forge our own stories, our own world.
I think there is a market for comics but the crowd funded is just a bad option because of the scammers than never produce anything once they make their goals. Makes people not want to commit money upfront without the product in hand
If I buy my volumes of berserk on Apple Books. Will I be affected by a tariff?
Excellent video. the only thing I will add, is that ONCE brand new comic books reach six dollars, it is more profitable and fun to collect a real nice collectible old comic book....for the same price. YOu can get a nice old Superman comic book or even a semi old spiderman comic book from the 80s, for about 6 bucks if you know where to shop. What do you think? Am I right?
RIP Hitch
It’s a mess for the big two but ultimates been going well IMO
DC's Absolute line has also been performing well.
To the point the usual suspects have resorted to lying about what happens in the books to try and claim they suck.
9:38 - free speech very specifically DOES NOT mean that. It never has, and never will. There's a vested caveat to it. Clearly written into the constitution that applies both in the States and in Canada. You have by and large a great amount of freedom to express your beliefs, as what you believe. This does not negate what others at the same time, believe. Therein being the problem, as however, you are very much not allowed to do so if they are injurious to X other person; group or belief - to the point it can be considered a crime. Free speech is not completely free. Never has been, and with six billion plus differentiations in minds, it never will be.
The embarrassing moment at a feminist picnic when they realize that no one has made a single sandwich.
Thinks of when the Wonder Woman comic was canceled due to poor sales in the 80s. Feminists and women's groups went berserk and demanded its immediate return because Wonder Woman was a feminist icon. But to buy the comic book, when it wanted e not.
Is a bit the same today with the target group that many in the comic book industry want to reach and please, those wankers don't buy the comics either.
Honestly, the only comic I buy or will buy is the Skybound Transformers.
What happened to The Jawbreakers Contingency? I'd ask YBZ myself but he's shadowbanned everyone.
He seems to be going through some things. Poor kid. Legit praying for him.
@@ronynninjastar2414 maybe so. Hard losing loved ones. Mighty big of fnt to hand wave all his baseless attacks.
I'm worried that, due to his ambition to jump on Batman and the Joker when they hit public domain, that Jawbreakers Contingency is gonna be them fighting Batman. Which would be the pinnacle of lameness because YBZ will have ceased to be original.
Still, I backed it years ago not knowing what it would be.
Zack has had a bad cough for years now on top of a seemingly worsening mental health.
viz and scholastic? I guess I DID buy the daughter "wings of fire"...
Here’s an idea. How about American comics being printed in America. That way you can counter Tariff coast. Oh wait, American workers would need to be paid, they will probably want benefits and some insurances and maybe a Union to keep workplaces safe and workers are paid fairly. But that would be to much effort I guess, even though this country did it before.
“Phony Stark!” 😂
the story quality of most comics make this pointless the comic industry screwed themselves by hiring people who didn't care about the future of comics and now its come back to bite them.
Tired of crossovers? Did you see the hype for the next ultimate universe crossover event?
No actually. I have not.
I think this narrative line is misleading.
“Most of the comic books sold aren’t traditional comics.”
If you mean in the WORLD, that’s correct. But in America it’s arguable that more floppy and digital single issues are sold than manga/dogman, et al.
But more importantly, we should really only ever compare marvel/dc sales to marvel/dc sales. Dogman, Smile, Manga - these are markets that were developed that have nothing whatsoever to do with marvel/dc/indie comics. Those things selling well doesn’t detract from whatever marvel/dc are doing. They really shouldn’t be included or even referenced when talking about American comic books. Because if we do that, Webtoon obliterates all of them combined. These aren’t useful metrics. The comparison of manga to comic sales or Dogman to comic sales is just a tool used by people who want to throw shade on marvel/DC.
We don’t need to compare marvel/DC numbers to anything besides marvel/DC numbers. And when we do that, we also would need to know their subscription numbers, which we don’t have.
In Europe, to established and new collectors, the green shoots of revival are becoming visible, but its an odd reestablishment, and its not American. European brands that were deluged by a flood of US comics in the late 90's are reemerging. Amid shelves stuffed with unsold DC and Marvel, this is interesting to see. Back issues of 2000AD for instance are once again becoming prominent, and other lesser known IPs too. But this may spell trouble for all new publications, American and European, because there a huge back catalogue of work that was drowned out by US superhero imports. It was all done, already paid for, and so now ready to remarket to a audience looking for something that looks new. In reality they may only get something that was only overlooked. Maybe this is the first step, and most necessary stop, in any real renascence of comic book art.
He’s absolutely right. Nothing to see here.
if its time for certain franchises to die, then finally let it die. MArvel and DC has its time. Its time for new players to enter the stage. Let others shine for a change.
I have the solution. STOP MAKING SINGLE ISSUE COMICS!!! Japanese manga has provided more efficient story telling by actually having stories in their volumes, compared to endless useless issues of comics where nothing fucking happens till the next issue.
I kinda agree, they really should look at why Manga is doing better than most of them.
I only see people getting bored with xtwitter whether they push negativity or positivity. The advertisers want to sell things and dogs want to bark but both of those things get old. Community notes is the best thing to happen to xt and why it is going to die. Media and politicians can't masslight the public like they used to and the "well actually guy" had his whole script taken away. The clown show has been neutered but the clown show is most of the people that use that crap. When regular people walked away we realized we didn't miss it.
Buy older comics!
I started late! Recently ( 5 years ago ) and i actually started with new comics. I thought the it was terrible. I was ready to stop reading. But i got myself the first serie of Xmen on sale and it got me completely hooked.
@@wesmcinerny4524 i buy omnibus reprints of when stuff was good
When identity politics is prioritized over good storytelling, people stop buying comics. I accepted Gail Simon's challenge, when she said "If you don't like my politics, don't buy my books. " I don't bother with the big 2 anymore. I get the Conan comic from Titan and I pick up a few indie books here and there.
Thing is, those political comics weren't mean to be sold, they were meant to be know and have people talk about them.
10:06 I think this is just a very politically correct way of saying "people are watching too much rage-bait, and it's not healthy"?
Cartoonists and publishers should think about the webtoon format (which poses questions yet to be explored in terms of form related to the medium). And no a "comics book format" to read online.
1. Firstly, it reduces costs such as paper and ink, transport, booksellers' margin and so on.
2. And very clearly this is how comics will be consumed in the future.
@@trorisk except I've never read a good web comic. Garbage generic art with purple and pink colors
@@821lancevance
It was the same thing for the paper format, it took years before good comics appeared. The same goes for cinema.
It is by investing in this medium that good webtoons will be created
Liar! The comic book industry is thriving and has never been better
Elon musk may be intelligent but he lacks wisdom
Wait till the Trump loving CG see how much more they're going to pay for paper, ink and plastic 😅
I hope the tariffs work and people start printing comics In America again.
We don't need to support socialist Canada
The future of comics
is the RippaVerse
Shocking! Bringing jobs back to America...