Forbes Says Comic Readers Moving Away From Superhero Comics!

[WebLurker]

The current liberal political agenda is killing comics.

How so? I have never understood the rational behind this position, and -- from my experience -- the parties that invoke it treat it as a given assumption without really proving the point.

It might appeal to the folks posting on this forum, but not to 'normal' people in the real world.

Funny, from what I've seen, it's more like the opposite is true.

[Pohzee]

Having minorities be superheroes is not political. At this point, taking cheap shots at Trump is hardly political. Right now comics are largely apolitical. Even those that purport to be political are usually more the aesthetics of politics rather than exploring the issues or making a case.

I'd like more stories with well written political themes and messages rather than those that just pay superficial lip service.

[Gaastra]

It's from a few months ago but here is a story on mangas growth in America and france. (50% of graphic novel sales in france are manga!)


Edit. First link isn't working but the second link has another take on the same story. Not sure why the first link won't work.

Middaugh’s optimism is not without merit, as these trends are supported by rapidly growing sales numbers. Anime streaming service Crunchyroll currently has 2 million paid subscribers after doubling their subscriber numbers in only 2 years. According to Comicbook.com, 2018 sales of manga grew from it’s previous years revenue by 7.24%, a stark contrast to the 1% fall in revenue reported by the Western comic industry.

Manga publishers are also now doubling down on the international market. With the arrival of @SquareEnix having their own manga/book publishing imprint, “now all top 5 JP manga publishers have subsidiaries in N. America.” - Dallas Middaugh #ProjectAnime19

“Meanwhile, in France, 25% of all books published are graphic novels/BD/manga, of which 50% is manga. This indicates potential for growth in the overseas market.” - Dallas Middaugh @

Another take on the story.

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/0...decline/88299/

[manwhohaseverything]

It's from a few months ago but here is a story on mangas growth in America and france. (50% of graphic novel sales in france are manga!)


Edit. First link isn't working but the second link has another take on the same story. Not sure why the first link won't work.








Another take on the story.

https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/0...decline/88299/

It's great to see manga industries are sales are growing. I hope this means mangaka's have a better working environment.

[iron chimp]

Manga sales completely fell off a cliff in mid 2000s so its probably just a case of swings and roundabouts.

[Gaastra]

I told this story before but one neat thing I saw at our replays (they sells dvds and games but added a manga section not to long ago if your wondering) was a full family walked in and headed right to the manga. Every member of the family was getting manga and talking about them. Even the little kids! They were talking about stories from the manga with each other and even the mom was grabbing manga! The kids talking about manga reminded me of us talking about comics at school when I was younger! Never saw a full family so into manga and the kids were really excited! It was neat to see.


As for japan they have not one but two 5 story manga stores! The stores sell manga based stuff like anime, toys and even supplies to make your own manga!


They also have a manga only library in japan! (they even have American graphic novels and English version of mangas!) We don't even have a graphic novel only library here in America!

[Electricmastro]

The problem isn't political content . The problem is its lack nuances in portrayals or narrative.

If what you say is truly a problem in the comics’ industry and what’s contributing to lower sales, then what would you specifically suggest could make for a solution to the problem?

[jetengine]

If what you say is truly a problem in the comics’ industry and what’s contributing to lower sales, then what would you specifically suggest could make for a solution to the problem?

Better writing

[Gaastra]

From another site looks like bleeding cool has a update on the story! Looks like bookstores have just past comic shops and for the first time bookstores sell more comics then comicshops do!

The two biggest sellers? Non hero kids and teen comics like smile and dogman and mangas both outselling hero comics!

On the plus side hero comics while not first do still sell at the bookstores so batman and Spider-Man are still selling trades! So hero comics will still be there. They are just not in the top spot right now.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/10...-comic-stores/

ICV2 recently ran a presentation to the comic book industry, ICv2 Insider Talks 2019 – The Future of Comics in the Age of Streaming, with a keynote speech from founder Milton Grieppthat had two major takeaways.

The first is that kids comics – stuff like Dav Pilkey‘s Dogman, Raina Telegemeir‘s Guts andShannon Eric Hale‘s Friends, all combined, now sell more graphic novels/collections than superheroes do. No wonder the likes of Moon Girl, DC Superheroes, Titans: Raven and Ms Marvel want to try and get a crossover slice of that pie. In bookstores, manga and kids material has jumped 30% in sales in bookstores and over 100% in comic stores.

The second is the bookstores will overtake comic book stores for all comic book sales by the end of 2019. Now, there are more general bookstores than speciality comic book stores. But comic stores have a far wider range of material, and mostly contain content that isn’t available in bookstores – at least not yet.

Last year 2018, all other channels than comic stores combined, including bookstores, digital and newsstand, managed to sell more comics than comic book stores for the first time since the rise of the direct market and the decline of the newsstand. But for 2019 it looks like bookstores will be able to do it on their own.

In bookstores, graphic novel sales have risen by double digits. But in comic stores, totting up sales of comics and graphic novels, the total is very very slightly down in the previous year.

Either way, this would be a first time for bookstores to sell more comics than comic stores.

[iron chimp]

From another site looks like bleeding cool has a update on the story! Looks like bookstores have just past comic shops and for the first time bookstores sell more comics then comicshops do!

The two biggest sellers? Non hero kids and teen comics like smile and dogman and mangas both outselling hero comics!

On the plus side hero comics while not first do still sell at the bookstores so batman and Spider-Man are still selling trades! So hero comics will still be there. They are just not in the top spot

I think the problem with comichron figures is that they have no idea how much DCBS shifts. They can extrapolate from surveying some comics shops what the entire comic shop market might be shipping except for DCBS where they have no idea and DCBS / instock trades is a massive operation

[Pinsir]

I've been reading a lot of post-Crisis comics recently (Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Kieth Griffen's JLI) and so, on a whim, I read the Death of Superman tpb and it pretty much sums up everything wrong with superhero comics. Its filled with so many dated elements and it was never written for consumers that were unfamiliar with continuity:
>> The cross over with JLI isn't bad, but feels out of place. This is a story about Superman, but the JLI issue focus on plots carried over from JLI, such as the mystery of Bloodwynd.
>> Lex Luthor is apparently dead of something and the current version is a clone or something?
>> Supergirl is a shapeshifter alien???

This is the sort of story that the creators knew would draw interest from the general public and would likely draw interest from future readers, but there was no attempt on the creators part to at least tuck away these anachronisms to create a more timeless story.

[Mr.B]

How so? I have never understood the rational behind this position, and -- from my experience -- the parties that invoke it treat it as a given assumption without really proving the point.



Funny, from what I've seen, it's more like the opposite is true.

Well you are wrong.

[Rich Johnston]

The current liberal political agenda is killing comics. It might appeal to the folks posting on this forum, but not to 'normal' people in the real world.

Current? How so?

[Gaastra]

One thing about manga in japan is they have parks, cafe's, stores and others things based on them! America does have superman stuff in the real metropolis and snoopy has a park plus universal has some marvel and popeye but japan has a full town based on detective conan, a airport based on conan also complete with a free library of manga to read while you wait, cafe's for gundam, sailor moon, conan and more, Death note escape rooms, one piece and other manga rides like lupin at universal studios japan and a full one piece area under Tokyo tower! Doraemon has his own museum and playground! Hello kitty has a museum also plus a theme park and café! Naruto has a theme park complete with kids learning "karate". Shonen jump has their own store in japan!

We don't see as much of this stuff here with our comics.

[Gaastra]