Comic books are not going to disappear, but the niche they occupy has certainly diminished. This means that comics (manga, graphic novels, and sequential art) will have to adapt to the changing landscape or find a different format. It is important to put this into perspective. When independent comic book stores first opened, comics were still available at the supermarket checkout line.
There were also Saturday morning cartoons, weekday afternoon cartoons, and weekday morning cartoons that all featured comic book promotion during commercials. Unfortunately, the comic book industry has been creating characters that fail to please any particular group. Mangas are still considered comics, so it is strange to say that people are returning to them now when it seems like they have been reading comics all along. Serialized superhero storytelling used to be beyond the scope of television budgets, but now that television (and movies) can tell the same stories, audiences have moved away from comics.
Recently, I found this section of the book particularly interesting because it showed how comics have diversified. Looking at last year's sales figures, it is estimated that there are between 200,000 and 250,000 comic book readers who keep the industry afloat. Massey prefers classic comics as the preferred format with TPB collections as alternatives, but she finds that the price of floppy disks is becoming too expensive. You may not remember this obscure device called Walk-Man, but people who know it have told me that it had a big impact on how people spent their free time. Instead of reading newspapers, print magazines, and comics, people were listening to music on their Walk-Man.
Comparing the indirect threat of a virus outbreak with the direct threat of a congressional hearing may be proof that the author is looking for any “previously conquered threat” without considering if it is applicable to the current situation. Another problem is that American comics were in a state of stagnation for decades due to monopolistic practices by Comics Code, DC and Marvel as well as several economic developments. In the 1980s, the comic book industry experienced a surge in revenue due to an increase in superhero popularity. I sympathize with comic book fans who don't know how to process the shocks caused by COVID-19 across the industry.
