Those were the words uttered by Jim Lee, one of the top executives at DC Comics, this past summer at San Diego Comicon. The panel, which provided insight about DC’s new initiative Rebirth, took a surprising transparent view of an industry struggling to find its identity.
At just over 75 years old its a relatively young industry, one that has survived its fair share of ups and downs. However, whether or not it will flourish in the next 75 more years will depend on the choices made in the coming years.
At the same time, and perhaps deceptively, the comics market has shown steady growth over the past few years. This is due in large part to more publishers cropping up as well as more books being put out by individual publishers. According to figures compiled by Comichron, North American comic sales have shown steady growth over the past six years.
However individual comic sales are not what they used to be as books are lucky to break 100,000 in sales. In the 90’s books like X-Men and Superman regularly sold millions of copies of every issue and the business of comics was booming. In the following years there was a significant drop and while the bestselling books have been trending upwards lately, the overall market has been slowly treading water.
Peter Birkmoe is a comics aficionado and owner of the Beguiling, one of the most well known comic shops in Canada and the world. His fascination with the medium began when he was 13, an age where he briefly dabbled in superhero comics, before leaving the genre behind. However, he certainly didn’t leave comics behind and his passion led him to where he is now.
His decision to buy the Beguiling in 2014 was much more than a business decision, as it was also a matter of preserving what he believed to be an important institution. “I bought the Beguiling largely because I wanted to continue to have a place to buy comics.It quickly became the most important and most interesting shop to me,” he said.
“It had material that challenged me, that I was not entirely comfortable with at first but intrigued me. By the time the previous owners came to sell the store, I’d come to realize that this was one of the best shops in the world and that having access to the comics I wanted was not something that I could take for granted.”
From a business perspective, Birkmoe sees owning a comic book store as a horrible investment, in terms of finances, but one that he treasures. “I wouldn’t recommend retail to anybody, let alone comic books specifically. I would be happy running this place as a lending library, where I didn’t have to buy and sell stuff.”
Image Comics
I mage Comics was founded in February of 1992 by Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino, and Whilce Portacio. Its creation was a direct response to frayed relationships between the major Publishers at the time, Marvel and DC, and many of their top flight writers and artists. Many creators felt that they weren’t getting payed what they deserved and they decided to leave the major publishers and start their own company.
Today, Image Comics has become a place for top-flight comic writers and artists to tell the stories that they want to tell, while also retaining full rights to the content they create. Image comics has exploded in popularity in the past decade, cementing itself as one of the premier publishers in the history of comics.
Image makes up 12% of the comics industry, but they put out almost half as many books as the big two (DC and Marvel). A big reason for their seemingly low amount of output is that they aren’t owned by a major corporation with shareholders to answer to. Also, since their titles are creator-owned, they possess no real editorial mandate and they can instead focus on the stories that they want to tell in an unburdened setting.
Comic Market Share
H owever, with Image’s success and the fact that it is mostly a place for celebrated creators to have their work featured, Self-Publishing is very much the future of Indie comics content.
Since Kickstarter’s launch, back in 2009 it has been the home of 5,773 successfully funded comic book projects and that number has been growing steadily every year. The ability to cut out the publisher completely opens up more avenues for sharing stories and for Shawn Daley, this ease of access is a big reason why he sees Self- Publishing as the future of comics.
Daley launched a collection of his self-published work in January of 2015 on Kickstarter and reached his goal of $4,700 in twenty-five hours. And by the time the campaign finished, he had raised almost $10,000 towards his project.
“I see self-publishing becoming a powerhouse and I even see a lot of established creators doing some self-publishing work as well, and I know some that already do,” says Daley.
Creators like Gene Ha and Ben Templesmith, who have worked for Marvel and DC in the past launched Kickstarters that grossed $75,000 and $144,000 respectively. However, self-publishing also opens the door for some perils.
In Ben Templesmith’s case, the project he launched that received $144,000 in funding, has yet to reach all its backers, even though it was funded on February 10, 2015.
According to updates posted by Templesmith on the Kickstarter page, there have been shipping and printing issues, that have resulted in damaged books and higher than expected costs. There are over 500 comments on the projects page and most of them are angry backers wanting the product they pledged for.
This issue of distribution and printing is something that self-publishing creators have to contend with and is one of the major pitfalls that come with not going through a publisher.
That being said, even with the pitfalls, Daley views Kickstarter as the next step in the self-publishing landscape, one that is far from the last one.
“There will always be a platform for people to be publishing their own work and making a living off of it.”
Leonard Kirk
L eonard Kirk knew at the age of 12 that he wanted to draw comics for a living (Well, either that or become an astronaut). But his fear of heights and passion for drawing made his decision an easy one. Now, more than three decades since he broke into the comics industry, Kirk finds himself living out his childhood dream all the while charting a course to his next endeavor.
Shawn Daley on Movies
Lately, Comics have found themselves being adapted into movies and tv shows begging the question of what can be done to spread that success to the comic book source material.
Great Comics to Start
Comic Shops in the GTA
Upcoming Events
Toronto Fan Days Holiday Show
A mini winter comicon featuring vendors and cosplayers. A great place to get some last minute holiday shopping done.
When: December 9, 2017
Location: Metro Toronto Convention Centre (South Building)
T.C.A.F
A yearly festival celebrating comic art. Unlike Fan Expo and Comicon TCAF focuses solely on comic writers and artists and best of all, it’s free.
When: May 12-13, 2018
Location: Toronto Reference Library (Younge Subway Station)
Fan Expo
The most attended pop culture show in Canada and one of the largest in the world, Fan Expo Canada is 4 days of Mayhem every Labour day weekend. You can meet celebrities, try the newest video games, meet comic creators and buy lots of cool merchandise.
When: August 30- September 2, 2018
Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre