How will the CoronaVirus affect the comic industry?

Discussion in 'Comic Books and Graphic Novels' started by Omegashark18, Mar 12, 2020.

  1. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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  2. Megastar

    Megastar Well-Known Member

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  3. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    They aren't saying manga titles in general, they are saying it's so bad that one manga title sold as much as or more that both companies entire lines.
     
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  4. Megastar

    Megastar Well-Known Member

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    Yes and the manga is one of the most popular ones out there right now. I mean just look at how much money the movie made.
     
  5. Rodimus Prime

    Rodimus Prime Sola Gratia, Sola Fide TFW2005 Supporter

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  6. Megastar

    Megastar Well-Known Member

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    :thumbdown 
     
  7. SouthtownKid

    SouthtownKid Headmaster

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    The Japanese comics industry outperforming the American comics industry is nothing new. It's been happening consistently and without exception everyday of every week of every month of every year for the past 40+ years. The good news for the American comics industry is the abandoning of the direct market and publishers aligning themselves with book publishers is a huge positive step that is long overdue.
     
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  8. Hobbes-timus Prime

    Hobbes-timus Prime Well-Known Member

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  9. TheLastBlade

    TheLastBlade Well-Known Member

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    Seems like another case of other areas of comics and graphic novels increase, EXCEPT for companies like marvel and dc.

    Edit: I found out that other means that aren’t considered comics/graphic novels (I.E. dog man and possibly manga)are being counted towards the chart mentioned… Welp, into the garbage it goes for me.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2021
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  10. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    Yeah, what it really says it's a great year for Manga sales and mainstream comics made enough money to pay the bills but as whole are down majorly in sales.

    “The comic periodical market was ahead for the year before the pandemic struck, and the result of production cutbacks was that 30% fewer new comic books were released by the major publishers in 2020,” Miller said. “The fact that new comics sales were down by only 20% suggests that retailers did well with what they were able to get.”

    Take away manga and sales are down.

    The collector market flourished during the year, allowing comics shops to earn significant revenue from their back-issue inventories,” Miller added.

    Which means people don't want to buy the new stuff

    “I’m encouraged by the way independent retailers selling comics and graphic novels are coming out of the pandemic shutdowns,” Griepp said. “Combined with the robust growth in other channels, the business is in overall good condition to serve the many new consumers that started enjoying comic-form entertainment over the past year.”


    This means they are counting crowd funded efforts like Cyber Frog and BZerk as sales for the mainstream industry.
    Kickstarter was a contributor to growth, with comic funding up 60% in 2020.
     
    Last edited: Jul 5, 2021
  11. TheLastBlade

    TheLastBlade Well-Known Member

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    Some pontz tried to count manga sales towards comics by saying “manga is comics” …. Okay? While that’s true, it doesn’t solve any of the problems of western comics. Neither does crowdfunding comics, which the comic industry was just as adamant of degrading like they did for manga.
     
  12. Hobbes-timus Prime

    Hobbes-timus Prime Well-Known Member

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    Down in sales because production was down. They made less product, which means they automatically sold less, and it possibly drove back issue sales as people were looking to fill the void, not necessarily that they didn't want the new stuff. There's nothing in this report that allows us to paint that picture either way.

    And manga had a great year, but it still trails the kids' graphic novel market. People not accounting for that just because they don't read that stuff aren't painting a full and accurate picture.
     
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  13. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    Down is Down, excuses are excuses.
     
  14. Hobbes-timus Prime

    Hobbes-timus Prime Well-Known Member

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    Your position seems to literally be that Up is Down.

    end of comics.jpg
     
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  15. TheLastBlade

    TheLastBlade Well-Known Member

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    People like you keep making excuses for each time the comic industry comes up short. The last one was “the comic industry was doing fine,” and now we all learn it isn’t. And now your next lame excuse is that they made less comics? I guess digital comics did jack shit then…
     
  16. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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  17. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    Two thoughts:

    1. I suspect all comic book shops are on borrowed time. They’ll either pivot to game/specialty stores or eventually go out of business. Even in the 90’s during the comic book boom the owner of the store I worked at was pretty clear that the comic book sales didn’t justify keeping the store open seven days a week. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were paid for by sports/gaming/trading cards sales. That store has since closed and been gone for a while.

    2. I’m not sure this store is an example of this though. If you take the statement at face value it sounds like the store could have stayed open if the employees hadn’t moved on simultaneously, the owner had more time, or a purchaser could have been found. What closed this store could have happened in the midst of a super strong market. I’ve seen profitable stores go under because the owner just wanted to move on, and it seems that happened here.
     
  18. TheLastBlade

    TheLastBlade Well-Known Member

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    Lots of people has been making excuses for comics for the past decade or more. Even in places that sells stuff other than comics, people straight do give a shit about the newer stuff from marvel and dc.
     
  19. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    It was from a guy who had multiple stores, he talks about how many different comic stores the San Francisco area used to have and how it’s down to just a few now.It is also the former comic store of Gary from Nerdrodic who has been talking about how bad in shape the industry is for a couple years now.
     
  20. Hobbes-timus Prime

    Hobbes-timus Prime Well-Known Member

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    100%
     
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