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Comic Book Publishers, Faced With Flagging Sales, Look To Streaming (nytimes.com)
Comic book publishers are facing a growing crisis: Flagging interest from readers and competition from digital entertainment are dragging down sales. Hoping to reverse the trend, publishers are creating their own digital platforms to directly connect with readers and encourage more engagement from fans. From a report: One of the biggest direct-to-consumer efforts is DC Universe, a platform from DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Digital Studios that will offer streaming content, including original and classic TV series. DC Universe is "a huge opportunity" that offers "ultimate creative control," said Jim Lee, a co-publisher of DC Entertainment. "It allows you to look at wider adaptations of the source material."
[...] The Walt Disney Company, which owns Marvel Entertainment, said last year that it would create a streaming platform that would include Marvel movies like "The Avengers" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." Smaller comic book publishers are testing their own direct-to-consumer platforms. Image Comics, the publisher of popular titles like The Walking Dead and Saga, started a direct-to-consumer platform in 2015 to sell comic book subscriptions and apparel.
[...] The Walt Disney Company, which owns Marvel Entertainment, said last year that it would create a streaming platform that would include Marvel movies like "The Avengers" and "Guardians of the Galaxy." Smaller comic book publishers are testing their own direct-to-consumer platforms. Image Comics, the publisher of popular titles like The Walking Dead and Saga, started a direct-to-consumer platform in 2015 to sell comic book subscriptions and apparel.
Hrm, seems like they could just stop pumping it full of SJW propaganda and sales would come back
Prices are a little high, even allowing for inflation.
Content, thin mags where much content is hmmm to ugh.
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Something that readers clearly want is being denied to them by the SJW cancer in the industry.
Comic book publishers are facing a growing crisis: Flagging interest from readers and competition from digital entertainment are dragging down sales.
What a surprise that you'd deliberately ignore the elephant in the room.
Produce what sells and not what some loudmouths that never bought comic books (and never will) demand.
Yes, it is actually that easy.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
SJW's are a very pushy minority. The market is telling them to dial it back. I hope all of the entertainment industry realizes that they need to appeal to the morals and ethos of their customer, or lose the customers.
was successful. The comic is widely available.
What you're referring to seems to stem from an article Buzz Feed ran here complaining that people who pushed for more diversity in comics were being trolled, harassed and threatened. Because everyone in the media likes to boil stuff down to a controversy they called the phenomenon "comicsgate".
Pushes for diversity in comics have been going on since the mid-90s boom times. You can't pin the drop in sales on that because it's a nearly 25 year old movement in the industry. The goal isn't to be "SJW" it's to expand readership beyond young teen boys. Girls in particular are a desirable target demographic because, well, they read a lot more than boys (seriously, look it up, or ask yourself what the biggest hit books are and take a look at how they appeal to girls).
The industry's flagging not because of diversity, it's flagging because the entire US economy's in the crapper for everyone but the top 10% or so and those people are busy enjoying their wealth instead of reading comics (the occasional Sultan in Dubai aside). The nerd economy in particular is hurting because of outsourcing and in-sourcing (e.g. H1-Bs). Comic book publishers have lost their last remaining base. They lost the kids to video games and now they've lost the nerds to, well, supply side economics.
TL;DR, it's the economy stoopid (TM)
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Of course you have time for collecting them. Now reading, that's another thing.
But look on the bright side - if they haven't been read they'll be worth more when you're sacked for being over 40.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Shut the fuck up you white racists, Superman is now a proud black transsexual and you all can fucking eat it.
1: They keep pissing off their established fan bases with needless changes, reboots, and retcons to appease the Butthurt Brigade.
Continuity is a mess at the best of times, crossovers universally suck, and having to understand a byzantine layer of backstory doesn't draw in new readers. Ignoring that constant growing readership (which is what the big two's shareholders are undoubtedly demanding) is a fool's game, established fanbases die. Either literally or they drift off. New readers are a necessity to keep comics alive, never mind thriving. The movies and TV shows are immensely popular, but not turning into monthly readers despite people loving the characters.
Endless crises on infinite earths are eyerolling and infuriating, I totally agree. Trying to manage literally decades of continuity is also untenable. Long-term serialization is both awesome and slowly rotting away comics' strongest characters. I doubt there's a good solution available at all.
2: Comics are just too freakin' expensive per issue for the amount and quality of content you get.
Agreed. Personally I think getting rid of Diamond would help. Not directly or immediately, but ditching that fucking cancerous system would help out retailers and make publishers more immediately responsible to their customers which in turn would, at least, bring back realistic capitalist supply-and-demand. That's just a pet wish of mine, though.
3: The barrier to entry is so low now that previously ignored but still decent talent can punch their own meal ticket. Unfortunately, that allows for a lot more total and utter shit to flood the pool. But that is less important than the ability to go it your own.
Is this a strike against it? You honestly seem to be arguing both ways here. Lower barrier to entry means more opportunities for new blood. Yeah, there'll be dreck, but let's not pretend that lots of established players aren't shit or that there's no absolutely exquisite new talent on the scene. New writers and artists mean new stories and new readers. All that matters then is getting the best stories into everybody's hands.
I think this is just the natural cycle of the comics industry. What we are seeing is the end of the Bronze Age. The older generation of readers are dying off or moving on, all the mainstay writers and artists started in the 80's and 90's and they were new and interesting in the 80's and 90's, now they are old and stale. Just look at the state of comics in the mid 50's just prior to the Silver Age and then again in the mid 70's just prior to the Bronze Age. Comics in those time periods were lackluster and uninteresting written by people who had been writing the same stories with the same characters for a couple of decades and the readers who liked those stories were dying off or moving on.
What is needed and what will eventually happen is the old writers and artists will price themselves out of the market, retire or die and a new generation of writers and artists will emerge who want to tell new and interesting stories, creating new characters or doing fresh takes on old characters. Most importantly, these new people will know how to speak to the new generation of readers who will also emerge.
it's a small group of women running out of community colleges. It's blown out of proportion by right wing media out to make a boogie man (boogie woman?) to distract you from economic issues like wages declining as productivity raises.
Even in as much as there's anyone seriously advocating for diversity they're doing it purely for economic reasons, usually either to reach new audiences for media they're selling or trying to bring in more workers to their businesses to drive down wages (re: silicon valley).
Always, always, always follow the money.
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Yeah, She-Hulk dates back to the late 70s, and was an attempt to make a new and interesting character based on the Hulk, not some SJW nonsense.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Yeah, I quit collecting comics (mostly Marvel) around 1992. They were too expensive for the value you got, and there were too many forced, artificial ways of driving sales without adding value (crossover stories that went on for dozens of issues, but went nowhere). When you're selling a product designed for kiddies and a professional thinks they're too expensive, you're doing something wrong.
I miss comics, but everything I've seen and read about the industry since then makes me glad I quit.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
It's funny, no one had an issue when a white guy replaced a white guy. When Bucky became Cap, no one was screaming. But when Sam Wilson does (the guy who actually makes the most sense) suddenly it is because of diversity. When white guy after white guy became Batman, no one complained. When white guy after white guy became the Flash, no one cared. When another white guy became Ant Man, no one cared. When Venom went from white guy to white guy, no one cared. But the minute it is someone other than another white guy, then suddenly it is only about diversity and it is a tragedy of epic proportions.
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
Let us say that a group of people want 21st century politics brought into say, Star Wars movies or comic books.
Let's say that want character's sexual identity to be a focus, perhaps more female and less male characters, Okay, so after discussions, the creators of the movies put people in place that will promote your agenda. This will be a radical shift, and will dismiss what the traditional audience wishes to see, which in these cases is obviously escapist entertainment with a good story line.
So here is the most important part - if people with a political agenda succeed in turning away the traditional customers, then the people with that political agenda must become the new customers. Which is what I believe ITRambo is saying.
We saw a huge fan revolt with Star Wars - Solo. And the weird Disney response was it was the fault of White males. https://www.tigerdroppings.com... Original article was on Forbes - they provide link but Forbes won't let me in.
Aside from the blatant racism (white) and Sexism (males) it was failure to see the forest for the agenda.
Point is - if you want your comic books and sci-fi movies to be politically correct, sensitive to who the characters like to have sex with - and display it - and socially inclusive, making these films about otherworld characters reflect 21st century shortcomings........
You have to go to the movies and You have to buy the comic books, and You have to buy the action figures that the people You kicked off the train used to do. You own it now - so spend that money or you won't own it long.
And seriously, if you feel you have to mark this little bit of good advice as troll, it only indicates that you can't take telling. Support your causes, not just complain.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
... a bit of an anti-US rant but could you guys across the pond FINALLY PLEASE stop equating your frigging super-hero-comic-trash for "comics in general"? It is very annoying and it doesn't help that your keep repeating it.
Franco Belgian / European comics - and Japanese / Asian comics - are doing excellent and the market for high quality grown up stuff is ever growing with small publishers popping up left, right and center all the time. I have to actively limit my time at the comic store these days lest I leave all my income there. In the last 3 decades the quality of available material has grown way beyond anything available in the US at measurable scale and it's safe to conclude that anyone living in the US probably has a very very limited view of what comics and grafic novels are and can be. ... So once again:
Super hero comics are not comics in general. They are a very small fraction of comic genres in general and the quality of the material and the ever repetitive shite pulp publishers like Marvel and DC put out is bound to lead people getting fed up. This is no big surprise to anyone with a non-US perspective on comics. That US superhero trash doesn't sell anymore is actually a healthy reaction.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I just want to say that "The Avengers" are John Steed and Emma Peel. ("The New Avengers" John Steed and Tara King.)
Marvel's superhero team is just "Avengers", without the definite article.
But that was the one that was about a straight white male... Surely if diversity was the problem then the other three new-era films would have flopped and Solo would have been a huge success.
Maybe it's just not a very good film, or we have reached Star Wars saturation point.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
don't worry... the SJW thought police will come after Japanese and European comics soon.
No they won't. Because unlike marvel/DC pulp Eurocomics are so diverse it will make even the most progressive social issue proponents head spin. In fact, if there is any media genre that is proactively progressive it's Eurocomics and perhaps some modern high quality manga. Female heroes in abundance. And unlike prude USians teen sex, sex in general, naked people, handycapped heroes and other stuff too, without *anybody* doing wee-wee in their panties because of it. ... OMG you have so little of an idea it would blow your mind. Gung Ho has sexual and power abuse as a friggin sideplot!
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca