The comic book industry has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, with sales reaching an all-time high. This is largely due to the growing diversity that has recently populated the medium, as well as the success of authors such as Raina Telgemeier, Dav Pilkey, Jeff Kinney and Jerry Craft. International comic book historian Jessica Tseang noted that comics can also be a great tool for children to join in reading, and his store has a huge section of comics that are made specifically for children. Today, 90% of all comics are still sold in independent retail stores, and kiosks and digital services such as Amazon Kindle represent only one digit.
However, investing in comics as a financial strategy requires knowledge, skill, experience and a lot of luck. Older customers, like Joseph Martin, say that even within these colorful comic book worlds, superhero stories can be identifiable. The truth is that the comic book industry is and has always been aimed at fans and collectors. Of course, it also helps that the artists who portrayed comic book favorites did a good job.
According to Forbes, two companies drive the vast majority of the global market: DC and Marvel, which together account for 80% of all direct market comic book sales. It was the beginning of a new era of comic book storytelling in the 1980s and 1990s, which included literary and genre works published by a growing number of small independent publishers determined to show a new type of American comic book storytelling. This was renamed “alternative comics”. Phil Seuling, a New York City comic book retailer and distributor, essentially invented the comic book store market that still exists today. With comics like Maus being banned in different school districts, this is likely to lead readers to seek them out even more.
While comics are getting expensive, people are looking for other ways to start supporting the heroes they've come to know and love. The popularity and moral clarity of superhero comics, combined with the harsh Comic Code, which demanded stories in which good triumphed over evil and prohibited illicit sexual relations, among many other restrictions, made publishers of the time distrustful of other comic book genres. The success of the comic book industry may be more important than it seems initially. It is wrongly stated that the success of manga is a success for the comic book industry as a whole. With television productions shut down due to the pandemic, reading books and comics increased - making it clear that comics are becoming increasingly popular.
