When marvel nearly died,or days of futures past.

[Dr.j.]

The 1990s,were not a good decade for marvel comics.The company is still paying for that decade.Many things came to pass, that brought marvel to it's knees.I see some of the same things beginning to manifest again.When the speculaters bailed, around 1994,the effect was devestating.Marvels monthly production was cut to one third what it had been.80 titles I beleave vanished,huge numbers of staff layed off.Where they used to flood the market with fancy special covers,now it is first issues.Few series now see even a 50th issue.For that matter,more and more,the run is half that.Sooner or latter,the investors are going to wake up,that what they thought was such a great investment,wasnt.I've noticed that comics have really become a commodity to invest in, for those with big bucks to spare, who could care less about the characters, the writers and artists who produce them.A VERY good time right now to cash out.

[kodave]

Very few speculate on comic books as investment opportunities anymore. Those that do are foolish.

For that reason, this time period is nothing like the boom and bust of the last 80s through the mid 90s. Comic books weren't the only thing that went boom and bust in the 80s and 90s. Home video games consoles did. Baseball cards did. Beanie Babies did.

People have come to realize that for a collectible to increase in value, it needs to have rarity along with a high level of demand. People know you don't have a collectible when Star Wars #1 prints a million billion copies. But people still are curious about the book and buy into it.

Comic books are IP farms for lucrative television and film franchises that have yet to show any signs of slowing down since Blade was a success back in the early 2000s. Sure there have been some flops along the way, but with the success of Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy (and now Synder's Man of Steel), the rebound of the X-Men film franchise, and Marvel Studios nailing almost every single movie they put out, there are no signs of the comic book multimedia train running out any time soon. There will come a point in time where maybe the studios stumble or maybe the public says "You know what, I don't need 4 Marvel Studios films each year" and everyone will have to dial it back. But it will take greed and carelessness to completely ruin the film and other multimedia opportunities based on comic book intellectual property.

Marvel in the 90s was also brought to it's knees for various other reasons than just the general comic book bubble burst. They made terrible purchases, like buying card companies Fleer and Skybox, thereby getting caught in TWO bursting bubbles at the same time. Trying to distribute themselves through Heroes World was disastrous. They were being run at the corporate level by people that didn't understand comic books. They had a huge creative blow when Image launched, whereas in the present, Marvel is able to keep a cycle of fresh new hot up and coming creative talents coming through before they inevitably go completely independent. Marvel itself is now owned by mega corporation Disney, who are and will be very successful and careful overseers.

Marvel is by no means perfect or infallible, but the present day is nothing like the 90s. Better business decisions are made at every level. Things like multiple #1s in a short period of time for a title or too many variants or too many events are just a small part of a much bigger picture.

There's an entire psychology behind why humans collect anything. Aspects at this are at play as to why people still collect single issue comic books. It's a combination of a number of things that vary person to person. But it's enough to keep the that part business afloat, for now. Eventually the single issue publication model might fall and the comics side will have to rethink their publishing approach. But Marvel as a company is on the most solid ground it's ever been on.

[DrGregatron]

Kodave, I think Dr.j.is saying its a good time to sell your comics if you're so inclined to do so. To "cash out" implies its time to liquidate an investment. Luckily, I haven't bought comics as an investment opportunity, but rather as a source of entertainment. However, I haven't found much entertainment value in the new comics Marvel has been churning out recently. They even seem to find a way to ruin many old reprints of comics I'd like to read by pricing them outrageously and using cheap materials and little or no quality control at the printer.

[kodave]

Kodave, I think Dr.j.is saying its a good time to sell your comics if you're so inclined to do so. To "cash out" implies its time to liquidate an investment. Luckily, I haven't bought comics as an investment opportunity, but rather as a source of entertainment. However, I haven't found much entertainment value in the new comics Marvel has been churning out recently. They even seem to find a way to ruin many old reprints of comics I'd like to read by pricing them outrageously and using cheap materials and little or no quality control at the printer.

Anyone that has been buying modern age comics have nothing to cash out on generally speaking. And it has nothing to do with Marvel's business practices or the current state of the industry as the ramble seems to imply. Yeah you've had some comics that have managed to become "investments" or valuable, like the New 52 Batman #1, early Walking Dead, maybe early Saga, etc. But for the most part anyone that bought anything post-mid-90s-crash as a "collectible" "investment" looking for a "cash out" time is foolish.

This current time period might be a good time to "cash out" on certain books that are source material for comic book movies, but just generally speaking other comics aren't necessarily worth any more today than they've been worth in the past 20ish years. Even low selling comics with 5 to 10 thousand copies out there aren't going to have their value significantly changed whether they were published in 1998 or published today and you try to "cash out" 20 years from now. Thousands is a big number and doesn't create scarcity unless demand skyrockets because some throw away issue or arc on some B-level comic is suddenly the storyline for Captain Marvel IV film or Harper Row is now headlining a Batman movie and her first appearance is suddenly desirable.

[pch3727]

DISNEY is the main difference from the 90s. They have the top dog in the entertainment industry backing them now.

[Dr. Jay]

Weird that our online names are so close. we both must be 76ers fans from the 80's.

[Firshizzle]

The 1990s,were not a good decade for marvel comics.The company is still paying for that decade.Many things came to pass, that brought marvel to it's knees.I see some of the same things beginning to manifest again.When the speculaters bailed, around 1994,the effect was devestating.Marvels monthly production was cut to one third what it had been.80 titles I beleave vanished,huge numbers of staff layed off.Where they used to flood the market with fancy special covers,now it is first issues.Few series now see even a 50th issue.For that matter,more and more,the run is half that.Sooner or latter,the investors are going to wake up,that what they thought was such a great investment,wasnt.I've noticed that comics have really become a commodity to invest in, for those with big bucks to spare, who could care less about the characters, the writers and artists who produce them.A VERY good time right now to cash out.

This has nothing to do with collected editions, is largely false, and is poorly written.

[JJ87]

Where they used to flood the market with fancy special covers,now it is first issues.Few series now see even a 50th issue.For that matter,more and more,the run is half that.

Yeah, think about it, complete runs are collected across two or THREE books tops!
There, back on topic ^.^

[Mace Dolex]

I remember a lot of junk Marvel was pushing out such as Marvel 2099, their acquisition of Malibu comics, Heroes Reborn with Lee and Liefeld, not to mention the biggest culprit of the Spider-Man Clone Saga. I myself wasnt buying most of it but one only needed to read Wizard Magazine to catch up on how they would bash Marvel and their decisions.

[marvelmaniac6169]

Philadelphia Daily News 12/28/96

[JJ87]

Philadelphia Daily News Spidey didn't appear in Spider-Verse! He has an utility belt of sorts!

[kodave]

Philadelphia Daily News Spidey didn't appear in Spider-Verse! He has an utility belt of sorts!

Huge oversight by Slott and Marvel!!!

[SJNeal]

Strangely enough, 1991-1994 was my Marvel heyday; I was buying probably half of their line.

And to this day those are some of my favorite comics.

[gearsofcrabs]

Philadelphia Daily News 12/28/96

Such a weird thing to hold on to and frame.

[Bronze-Age Brian]

The 1990s,were not a good decade for marvel comics.The company is still paying for that decade.Many things came to pass, that brought marvel to it's knees.I see some of the same things beginning to manifest again.When the speculaters bailed, around 1994,the effect was devestating.Marvels monthly production was cut to one third what it had been.80 titles I beleave vanished,huge numbers of staff layed off.Where they used to flood the market with fancy special covers,now it is first issues.Few series now see even a 50th issue.For that matter,more and more,the run is half that.Sooner or latter,the investors are going to wake up,that what they thought was such a great investment,wasnt.I've noticed that comics have really become a commodity to invest in, for those with big bucks to spare, who could care less about the characters, the writers and artists who produce them.A VERY good time right now to cash out.

I mostly agree with this, although Marvel was not alone then. I've since warmed up to a few titles from the 90's Marvel era, namely The New Warriors and 2066.

I haven't read a "new" comic since 2009, so I can't really comment on the current crisis if only to say that I saw it comin'!