Hello and welcome to Comic Drake, where I
talk about comic books and my name is Drake.
There’s no real way to deny that despite
comic book superheroes being more popular
than ever in video games and movies and all
those other stuff, the comic book industry
itself is dying, but here is the hard truth
that a lot of comic nerds like myself don’t
really want to talk about and it’s that
most of the problems that the comic book industry
as a whole has are ones that they pretty much
created for themselves
So as someone who’s literal full time job
is to talk about comic books and the comic
book industry, here’s my take, but first
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For the purposes of this video, I’m going
to be focusing on the main two comic book
publishers, DC and Marvel Comics.
Other publishers fit into the industry as
a whole in many great ways, often subverting
the usual problems that DC and Marvel get
themselves into, but we’ll talk about them
a little bit later.
Okay so let’s get the most obvious issue
out of the way first.
Marvel and DC have needlessly complex continuity
that is outsider unfriendly and alienates
new readers.
This was my biggest hurdle when trying to
get into comics and it’s generally what
I hear people claim when they say that they
don’t even want to try comics out in the
first place.
For decades, these big two publishers have
told literally thousands of stories in these
large connected universes that outsiders think
that they NEED to have memorized in order
to enjoy books and while that last part just
isn’t true, it doesn’t change the fact
that this misinformation is a HUGE problem.
It was hard for me to accept that I was never
going to know everything, but that was a realization
that I had to get to by talking to people
at comic book shops and online.
Both big publishers release PLENTY of great
jumping on points, but they do a terrible
job of making that clear.
Marvel was really weird recently by putting
a big number one on issues that started a
new story.
The idea was “This says number one and it’s
the start of something new so this will entice
new readers to give it a shot!”
However, these books generally also had a
separate issue number on it which is very
confusing for these new readers.
Like it or not, it’s human nature to want
to start at the beginning of something.
Even if it is a new storyline then most people
aren’t going to want to start a book that’s
at issue twenty four no matter if you put
a giant number one on it or not.
That also brings me to another point in that
the numbering system can also scare away people.
I would personally like it if books were printed
as mini-series more often.
Having a legitimate issue number one is going
to entice more people than having a huge legacy
number that’s just going to confuse and
scare off potential new readers.
Even then though, it’s great to have a new
jumping on point, but that means essentially
nothing if you don’t advertise it.
Like oh my god, the comic book industry is
ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE at marketing.
The only places that I’ve ever seen comics
advertised are in comic book stores, comic
websites, and other comics themselves.
How is that supposed to grow your audience?
All you’re really doing is milking more
cash from an already shrinking market.
If there’s a new badass Iron Man book coming
out that would a be a great place for new
readers to get started then let the people
know!
Buy a billboard, make some Facebook ads, do
SOMETHING other than hoping that people will
like the movies enough to drop by a store
out of sheer curiosity.
Now Marvel did try running ads for their comics
before select screenings of Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol 2, but it wasn’t taht widespread
and didn’t really do much to make it clear
that these were jumping on points.
My ideal ad is “Hey look, there’s this
new Iron Man book!
It’s a great place to start and you don’t
need to worry about knowing decades of lore!
It’s got Tony Stark fighting a dragon in
a giant mech suit!
So give it a shot!
Go to your local store and buy it!”
Even then, some people don’t even know where
to buy comics.
With the exception of collected paperbacks
and graphic novels being stocked at book retailers,
the only real place to get single issues of
comics are at your local comic book shop,
something that one, not everybody even has
and two, some people don’t even want to
visit with the awful reputation that they’ve
gotten in the media.
I have definitely lucked out that there are
great shops with friendly people near me,
but I’ve spoken to plenty of people where
this is simply not the case.
“Oh my god!
Why’re you focusing in so strong?”
One of the big reasons why the old Sonic the
Hedgehog Archie comics were so popular is
that you could get them at grocery stores.
Making comic books more available would definitely
not hurt.
And also, huge props to DC for recently putting
out anthology collections at Walmart.
These books take a bronze age / Shonen Jump-style
approach with multiple stories in one book.
This could seriously bring in new readers
if it’s handled well.
Here’s another issue that I have, the need
to read multiple books to keep up with one
storyline.
Now this is NOT the same as needing to keep
up with an entire connected universe.
I’m talking more about how it’s stupid
that for say, the “Death of the Family”
story, you need to read Batman then Batgirl
then Catwoman then back to Batman, etc.
This ONE story needs you to read NINE DIFFERENT
series.
It’s one thing to have tie ins, but when
the literal next part of a Batman storyline
is in a different book entirely then it is
extremely transparent that this is just done
to make people buy books that they normally
wouldn’t purchase.
A big reason why indie comics and manga are
getting so popular is because there’s only
ONE book that you need to read in order to
get the complete story.
If you like the series then all you have to
do is just keep reading it.
Making it to where you need to buy extra products
just to get the core narrative is INCREDIBLY
scummy since comics, albeit cheap issue by
issue, get pretty expensive after a while.
To help offset that cost, it sure would be
nice to buy them digitally since most digital
copies of traditional books are cheaper than
their physical counterparts.
Nope, nor for comics!
A brand new issue of a comic is the same price
no matter what format you purchase it in!
That makes no sense.
I mean I get that physical books have advertisements
in them which helps offset the costs, but
you’re telling me that not shipping out
thousands of physical books is just as expensive
as releasing a .pdf?
It also doesn’t help that essentially every
single physical comic goes through Diamond
Comic Distributors, a company that I have
my own problems with that I might make a dedicated
video for.
Speaking of digital, Comixology (which is
my preferred digital distributor) has a great
selection of free books, but it could seriously
use some more love.
If Marvel and DC released some more of their
more classic stories in their entirety for
free then there is solid a chance that this
could potentially hook new readers, allowing
them to fall in love with characters with
no financial bar to entry.
It’s worth nothing that while services like
Marvel Unlimited and Comixology Unlimited
are great and are very fairly priced, actual
FREE experiences could also seriously help.
Now I’ve been focusing a lot on distribution
a lot for this video, but that’s not to
say that the storytelling couldn’t use some
work as well.
I honestly have a problem with the comics
more or less only being used to test concepts
for stuff like the movies and video games.
It often feels like by trying to constantly
force new characters instead of building off
of already great established ones that are
lesser known and/or underutilized, Marvel
and DC are just throwing a million new ideas
at the wall and trying to see what sticks.
And for the stuff that does end up sticking,
the cool and complex changes that are made
to the status quo tend to get instantly undone
around the time that a big movie comes out.
See, comics do in fact bend backwards so much
in order to accommodate the movie watchers.
As a big example of this then just take a
look at Star-Lord.
He was not only completely redesigned to resemble
his MCU appearance, but his entire personality
changed to be more in line as well.
Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing since
in my opinion the MCU Star-Lord is a much
better character all around than his comic
counterpart, but it just goes to show that
the source material frankly isn’t what matters
anymore and that sucks.
Finally (and I will fully admit that my bias
is going to show here a lot) I really do think
it would be nice if the comic publishers recognized
the value that comic book YouTubers like myself
are having on the industry.
There have been MANY instances where my viewers
have gone out and purchased books that I’ve
personally recommended so this is literally
just free advertising, something that again
the industry doesn’t really do themselves.
Honestly, the easiest thing to do would just
be sharing some of our content on your social
media platforms sometime.
With the huge following that Marvel and DC
have on all of these different social media
platforms then that exposure would be amazing
for me and I would honestly just love to be
gushing about the comics that I love.
And really that’s the core of this entire
thing.
I’m not talking about all of these problems
because I hate the comic book industry, but
because I love it so much.
I think that the industry can and should be
better than it currently is because right
now, it’s going to shrink more and more
until the source material for these video
games, these shows, these movies is going
to not be a viable business practice if it
isn’t already and I really think that if
we give enough love and attention to grow
this then we are going to be in a brand new
era of comic books.
It’s going to be amazing and I hope it happens.
But if you liked this video then why not consider
subscribing or even watching another one?
And if you haven’t gotten into comic books
yet and want to then you might want to check
out his video that I did that didn’t get
a lot of views on how to start reading Marvel
and DC comics.
I think that I gave some pretty good advice
that I honestly wish that someone would have
told me when I started it out.
Anyway, I hope you learned at least a little
something new and hopefully I’ll see you
next time!
