The comic book industry has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, with superhero movies and live-action adaptations becoming increasingly popular. However, despite this success, comic book sales have not increased. In fact, the opposite has occurred. This begs the question: are comics dying out? The answer is no.
Comics (manga, graphic novel, sequential art) will never die. Distribution methods have changed and will continue to change, but that's normal. We need to put all of this into perspective. Just because people watch the movie doesn't mean they're going to buy comics.
That's why the comic book industry has collapsed. It's not complete, but it's coming. Many comic book stores, already known for their narrow profit margins, have been forced to close temporarily due to state and local “stay at home” orders, and it's impossible to predict how many will have the means to reopen when the pandemic finally ends. As political tension increased in North America and Western Europe, many comic book readers grew tired of being told what to think and how to think.
The comic book industry has been creating characters that please some kind of group that fails miserably. Superhero movies are certainly thriving, but those 10- and 11-figure movie franchises are based on comics that used to cost a penny. Despite all the superhero movies out there, the comic book companies themselves aren't even worth a billion. Mangas, obviously, are comics, so it seems strange to say that you're returning to them now when it seems like you've been reading comics all the time. The local comic book store reopened last week and I went there, but only to skip the boxes of back issues. Changes need to be made in order for the comic book industry to remain a worthwhile financial effort.
If you're looking for something more direct than giant top-of-the-line stocks, an investment platform called Otis Funds has a fund that invests in collectibles such as art, video games, trading cards, sneakers and, you guessed it, comics. The list goes on, but the point is that some comic book store owners make emotional decisions and that hurts their business. However, even though an LGBTQ comic doesn't sell much, the store owner is still under pressure to buy them. Even before they had order sheets with which you could buy specific books, but once I found the comic book store 15 miles away, I never shopped anywhere else. Serialized superhero storytelling used to go beyond the television budget, and now that television (and movies) can tell the same stories, audiences move away from comics. Comic book stores did not have foot traffic and therefore did not earn money and were therefore forced to close. Only one company, Diamond, founded in 1982, distributed almost all the comics from publishers large and small to retail stores across the country in what became known as the “direct market system”.It's clear that comics are not dying out; they are simply changing with the times.
The industry is adapting to new technologies and new ways of distributing content. As long as there is an audience for comics and graphic novels, they will continue to thrive.
