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Robert Kirkman To Creators, Only You Can Save Comics

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am by Jamie

Robert Kirkman is certainly wasting no time praising the virtues of creator-owned work now that he’s been made an Image corporate partner. And you know, I think he’s right. Marvel and DC need to expand their audience. Catering to the old ass fan makes financial sense in the short term. Old ass fans have day jobs and can afford to buy every issue of the annual BIG COMIC EVENT. But if the big two continue down that path, when the old ass fans have left either due to boredom or death, sales will fall hard.

Part of the solution depends on creators. I’m sure if a lot of the big names from the big two left to focus on their own creator-owned work, the old ass fans would follow. This would give Marvel and DC the space to really expand their audience and hook younger readers. The comic industry is rapidly losing younger audiences to video games and imported manga. It’s going to be a hard sell. But I think if Marvel and DC really tried, they could win some young converts. Floppies won’t work, certainly. Trade paper backs are the key. Why not just release trades and slowly phase out floppies? I don’t mind waiting for a good trade paper back and I’m sure the kids will appreciate a whole story in one book. Resize them so that they fit on shelves right next to the manga. You could even sell special hard cover full-sized editions for us old ass fans who can’t read so small.

What about the web? Webcomics are here to stay and there are umpteen and a half models for financially successful webcomics. And there are billions more from creators who just have something to say and some web space. But would any of those models translate well for Marvel or DC?

I hope the comic industry takes Kirkman’s words to heart. The dead tree comics world is facing a questionable future and if things continue the way they are now, the 90′s will seem like a cake walk.

[Via Comic Book Resources]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 10:07 am and is filed under Comics, Crunchy Pants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • http://www.verylate.com/ Henry

    Well, they need to do something. Man, I love me some comics. I just can’t afford the habit anymore. I started stea– er… downloading for a while, but I felt too guilty. Between movies, TV, books, webcomics and gaming, there are just too many competitors to comics that are cheaper or free. They need to find a way to put together a business model that allows them to be profitable at a competitive price.

  • Onomah

    Runaways and other comics of the tsunami imprint were originally written to appeal to the younger market, particularly the manga readers. the idea was to convert manga readers from eastern comics to good old western comics, the kind that make money for marvel. The idea rather floundered but a few of the comics continued, Runaways for one.

    Runaways is one of my favourite comics and has been for quite a while because they are trying something new with it, no flamboyant costumes no world destroying storylines, just a well written story about some kids living on without parents, most of whom have super powers. One of my favourite things about this series however is a remnant of its mangabait origins, the digest size volumes. They are cheaper, more portable and just as legible, I would probably buy twice the amount of comics that I already do if they were available this way, it’s just more convenient, of course the fact that it is an excellent comic is a big motivater too. I just wish that the big companies would release smaller sized volumes more often

  • McDucky

    Get rid of Mark Millar.

    Seriously, Marvel needs to just kick him to the curb before he infects every Marvel title with his stale, political stupidity.

  • http://www.deadofsummer.org/comics/china_2.jpg Brian

    I can’t proclaim the awesomeness of Rantz Hoseley’s Panel and Pixel (panelandpixel.com) enough. When Warren Ellis’ The Engine shut down Rantz threw up P&P to fill in that gap. It’s a forum for comic creators focused on getting comics made. Original, awesome comics. I love it as a lurker, so I can’t imagine how cool it would be for comic folk, or even aspiring comic folk. I’d urge anyone interested in making comics to check it out. There’s a crap-ton to learn from some very awesome people who work in the industry on unique, creator owned stories.

    Check that shit out and do your part to save comics.