Comic Books Should Call It Quits

[stevekenson]

I was thinking this morning: comic book publishers make the vast majority of their money off licensing (particularly to other media like films) and sales to the book trade of collections (trade paperbacks and things like the Essentials or Showcase reprints), plus now the release of back-issue collections on CDs (much like TV on DVD).

They should just stop publishing monthly books altogether: they're a dying market, rarely on-time anyway, and create a needless treadmill that demands X pages of story and art every month. Instead, when creators have a story to tell, have them tell it, either as a complete graphic novel (or series thereof) or a "short story" that can appear in a collection (or as a downloadable webcomic, or both). It was one thing when comics were printed on pulp paper "all in color for a dime!" but now that individual comics are going for around three bucks, it's time to pack it in, if you ask me (and anyone who knows me knows what a comic book-loving geek I am). Times are changing, time to change with them.

Comments

[freeport-pirate.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's in the economic interest of the comic companies to do so. Though comic sales now aren't great compared to yesteryear, sales of those $3 books does pay for all the art, writing, editing, inking, etc. So when the trade paperback does inevitably appear, the only costs they have to recoup at that point are the new print job and whatever marketing they decide to do. The rest is all gravy.