In looking over the blasted landscape of the Media Apocalypse, it’s notable how often the word “billion” comics up.
Why does RELX, a multinational data corp with a current market cap of $58 BILLION decide to shut down Popverse, a small unit that hit all its traffic benchmarks and showed continued growth?
Why does Kakao, a Korean with a market cap of $11 BILLION, shut down a successful, popular and once profitable webtoon platform without even allowing readers to buy enough Ink to finish reading the stories they discovered there?
Shaving things down a decimal point, what is David Zaslov going to do with his golden parachute from ruining Warner Bros, a payout between $500-800 million depending on how you count it. He could feed hungry children, support libraries, save trees…and somehow, we know he won’t.
Looking at all the money people are hoarding away, George Lucas spending $1-1.5 billion of his own money to build his own (undeniably cool) vanity project museum is the kind of public philanthropy no one seems interested in any more.
I was talking about this with a comics lifer at Baltimore Comic Con’s post Ringo Award BarCon (perhaps the best BarCon on the circuit) and he noted that when the comics world talks about being a $2 billion industry…$2 billion is not really much money in today’s world.
And then he said something that has stuck with me ever since.
“But then, look what we’ve done with $2 billion,” he said, gesturing around the room.
Although the activity of the industry at that very moment was drinking and schmoozing, I knew exactly what he meant.
All the different publishers, so many hundreds of creators makign every kind of comic, crowdfunding, webcomics, comic shops, collectibles, all the comic cons, all the awards, all the BarCons, all the panels, parties, symposiums, all the websites, YouTubes, discords, fanzines…
$2 billion can buy a lot.
(In case you’re wondering, the European comics market is estimated at around $3.5 billion and Asia at about $9 billion. (Source.))
I was thinking about this when I came on Josh Johnson’s latest comic shop review, Fantom Comics in Washington DC.
Johnson is one of the hottest comics out there, and apparently a big comics fan. He’s been making time on his tour stops to go into comic shops, just as a fun thing to do and to promote something he likes and enjoys.
But I was struck at how natural and normal this seems now. It’s not like the old days when any attention to comics from a celebrity was cause for celebration in the fanzines and message boards of the time. It’s perfectly normal for people at every level of society to like and read comics and graphic novels. Johsnon doesn’t have to explain what comics are, or explain why he likes them, or apologize for being a nerd, he just does it.
Comics can just do it now. We’ve moved past the perhaps justified inferiority complex of the past and into a place where reading or making comics is a source of pride and not something you have to hide. Comics aren’t a guaranteed heartbreaker anymore. While I was doing my reading as a Sophie Castille Award judge, I was astonished at how many great comics I had never heard of, and how good they were. We’re telling better stories and making better art than we ever have before.
Still, $2 billion isn’t enough. It’s not enough for creators. Making a LIVING doing this is still hard and uncertain, and every penny is hard earned. People stay in comics because they love it, not because it’s a goldmine, and that’s both it’s greatest strength and most glaring weakness. The US film industry is roughly a $94 billion industry in overall economic impact (according to Gemini), and the MCU alone has taken in $35 billion globally. That’s $35 billion derived from men and women who were making $100 a page, one page at a time.
Looking back at my 40+ years in this industry, a lot of the things I dreamed about as a kid have come true in a more spectacular fashion than I could ever have imagined. (Yes I dreamed about graphic novels becoming the dominant format for comics as a teenager.) The US comics market is in a shockingly good place right now, and all the bankruptcy and tariffs haven’t put a crimp in it, yet.
I find myself wondering how we can close the gap more, though. How can comics creators benefit financially from the tremendous potential of their imaginations and hard work?
The system still needs a shake up.
What would that shake up be? I have my own ideas, which I may or may not be able to write up before I get caught in the maelstrom of NYCC – which is estimated to have an economic impact of $80 million by the New York City Tourism + Conventions. Bureau, by the way.
But what are your ideas? Where do we go from here? How do we make it a $4 billion industry? The comments are open.
