Robert’s Rant: Does the Comic Book Industry need to Die?!

Now I’m sure I got your attention with that statement. Do I mean it? Hell NO but does the comic book industry need to take a SERIOUS look at it’s audience!? Maybe evaluate what works and what doesn’t? Fnck Yeah! Look, I’ve been pretty vocal about my distaste of DC Comics still employing an Editor who’s had issues with women but I have to give the company credit for TRYING to look at the bigger picture about their audience and the general comic book market. DC is remaining on cheaper comics, no variant / gimmick covers (anymore after the recent “Button” Batman / Flash issues) to flood / inflate sales. Also DC is at least working with other experimental attempts to test the market like DC’s Young Animal imprint (even I’m torn on this) to see if they can find an audience in adult / mature themed books again like they had with Vertigo. Look over at Marvel and what are they doing after making HUGE claims about NO MORE EVENTS? Well, they’ve created a new Event series with GENERATIONS (it’s on for 9 months/issues or so) & MARVEL LEGACY comics with numerous new titles and one shots to flood the market and Marvel hasn’t even shown all their variant / gimmick covers Yet. Marvel marketing has it’s head in the sand, NOT trying ANYTHING new, different or challenging even after making claims for NO MORE EVENT BOOKS.

To me, when Marvel Comics lies with the NO MORE EVENT BOOKS makes it hard for me to listen to ANYTHING new coming out next. It’s hard to get excited about any Marvel Comic. Even if they’re doing the re-numbering on titles and doing crazy one shot comics like Master of Kung-Fu (FUCK YOU MARVEL!! ONLY A ONE SHOT??), Power Pack, Dazzler, Silver Sable, Darkhawk and such. One Shots mean nothing. Is that their experimenting? If the One Shot comics do well, will they get ANY traction? Will they continue or is this all for not?

Related: MARVEL Says: No More Major Events For ‘At Least’ 18 Months After SECRET EMPIRE
https://www.newsarama.com/33886-marvel-says-no-more-major-events-for-at-least-18-months-after-secret-empire.html

I know Marvel has done this forever and they aren’t alone. Everyone tries the shotgun effect of publish a little of everything & see what sticks / sells. Perhaps that marketing plan needs to be put to bed. Perhaps Marvel needs to reach out to it’s fandom and see what they want to support. I have NEVER understood why DC or MARVEL haven’t gone through the whole crowdfunding system for finding what the fandom wants to read. Is it more management for them to collect $$ ahead of time and then manage sending out codes / vouchers for the books to be collected at the fandoms local comic book store, book store or sent out via the postal service? I’m sure both DC & MARVEL will deny this would work but they’ve NEVER tried it. How can something NOT work if you haven’t tried it?! I never understand that concept.

I could go on and on but instead I’m going to direct you to what sparked my interest in writing this post, I read this brilliant article on The Comics Beat by Todd Allen about the Comics Industry and BIG questions about it’s future. Seriously, give it a read, it’s well worth your time if you’re any type of a comic book fan:

The Comics Beat: Is the Comics Industry Collapsing? Let’s Talk About the Hyperbole and DC’s New Initiatives
http://www.comicsbeat.com/is-the-comics-industry-collapsing-lets-talk-about-the-hyperbole-and-dcs-new-initiatives/