Lynn Arave at the Deseret Morning News has a brief but somehow substantive interview with Dan Didio who assures us the comics industry isn’t dying after all:

“I think it’s transforming,” Dan DiDio said in a telephone interview. “It’s not dying.”

The senior vice president/executive editor for DC Comics said collectability alone gives comic books much more appeal and greater issue longevity, than, say, newspapers. Today’s comic-book readers also demand a slick product with a complex storyline, and that’s what they’re getting.

He’s not sure comic books will ever become strictly an online product, because for comics the collectability is in the printed page. “But, there’s room for both.”

DiDio said comic-book speciality stores are also stabilizing the industry. “I think there’s always an appetite for the market. Our audience is older and more sophisticated.”


Seriously, Lynn Arave, why do we even have to ASK if the comics industry is dying? With regular bestsellers on multiple lists, mainstream book award nominations, and rising sales for a half dozen genres you would never even have seen five years ago, “dying” is the farthest thing from what the industry is doing.

1 COMMENT

  1. Some people see the mainstream industry as the actual comic book industry. That’s probably why Didio is being interviewed rather than, say, Gary Groth.

  2. It’s good to see that he’s at least considering online content now. That’s a step.

    I can’t say I’m demanding anything other than great stories at reasonable prices, so the “slick product with a complex storyline” isn’t for me apparently.

  3. I have to agree with Fanboy. I really think the slickness and production is something the creators demanded… not us. I want good stories and good art, but I would be happy if they were printed on a more disposeable paper, like the good old days.

    I started buying comic books when I was around 10 years old (1987), and I remember that they were $0.75, then. I just checked an inflation calculator, and if the prices had simply kept up with inflation they would only be $1.33 today. I might be a year or two off, but it won’t change the numbers much.

    Maybe there are other forces at work here, but there’s a big big difference between $1.33 and $2.99!

    Am I happy about this? I am not happy about this. I am not happy about this AT ALL. $3 is too much for a comic and it’s definitely prohibitive for a young kid like I was too get in. When I started buying comics, I had an allowance of $6 a week. Enough to buy a few comics at .75 each. Now, my allowance would be $10 (inflation adjusted). I could only buy 3 books now, whereas then I could buy at least 6!

    I also don’t really understand why the medium left tiny ads behind. If you read old comics (and I do, a lot), they have pages where lots of little vendors bought tiny pieces of the page to advertise. Now they appear to sell full or half pages or nothing. No smaller divisions. I can’t help but feel like this is production decision and it’s a poor one.

    Comics have gotten too darn high falutin’.

    Though I agree with Heidi. I think our beloved medium is here to stay. We’ve been worried it would die for years.

    At the very least, the DIY world will never die.

  4. BradyDale is a pathetic cheap person.

    I mean he/she is complaining about a comic book costing 3 dollars!
    Jesus do you even know how much work needs to be done by artists and writers before you can read the damn book ?

    And they say that they don’t want the medium to die but they complain that 3 bucks is WAY too much for a comic book! don’t be cheap people.