On Black Friday, I took my nieces and nephew to my local comic book store to get some Christmas shopping out of the way. I just go straight to the back issue section now. My nieces and nephew got manga and tabletop games. I can remember years back when pretty much all that was sold was comic books, and the new issues took up a lot of space because people were buying them/had subscriptions. Now the new issue section is tiny and most comics that are sold there are from the back issue section (to the point that sometimes they have to put a time limit on that section due to the demand). The increase in women coming to the store happened when they started selling manga which was a wise choice.
I guess every time I go now, it just irritates me because I think of how the comic book industry has been decimated due to rabid feminists, obsession with DEI, and totally ignoring who actually buys comics. I guess you could add that they could've capitalized on the success of the MCU. After the Marvels bombed Forbes had an article taking issue with someone who said it was for teen girls and not comic book fans and they said something like "as if those two groups aren't the same".
Imagine if someone had told the execs that women don't buy this product in large numbers so exclusively catering to this audience is a losing proposition. I also remember an interview with Kathleen Kennedy saying she gets a lot of calls from male directors wanting to work with Star Wars but few women. A good interviewer would've told her "who do you think is mostly interested in Star Wars".
Finally, one of the most annoying things in "nerdy hobbies" is a feminist saying she never felt welcomed in a comic book store, or in a video game store. I don't know how many times my friends and I would roll out the red carpet when a girl came into the comic book store or how awesome I thought it was as a teen when I met a girl who was into games.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. On the bright side, I got some back issue comics and my niece got me a manga for an early Christmas gift. Alice in Borderland.
Comics were dying a lot earlier than that.
The overreliance on retreads to create more issue ones, expensive cover gimmicks, and basically nothing genuinely new. It was known even in the 90's that sales decline as issue count goes up; you could practically describe it in radioactive half-life terminology.
I put the root of the problem at the forever churn that is DC and Marvel. They have no finite stories to tell. No standalone collection of books that compose the totality of a series. Oh you like Xmen? Great. Where do you fucking start? At the beginning of course. Good luck finding that or tracing your way through a storyline or a history that gets reset constantly. The product lines are impenetrable.
Compare that to the multitude of things I've picked up from Image or more independent publishers. You get standalone stories where it's reasonable to collect a series from start to finish with a fresh new world that has to be presented to the reader. You get a complete experience and it's great.
Comic books as a medium have a market, but I assert that the larger publishers don't know how to create a product for that market. The model pioneered by Marvel and DC are not what the market is clamoring for, but they're what's kept the western comics industry alive on life support.
Also with Manga if I want to start Attack on Titan, it’s all in the volumes. Like you said someone new to comics would have a hard time to start. I have been getting into 80s indie comics. But there were problems before feminists invaded. I guess the annoyance is that dc and marvel took them seriously and hired them
I speak from experience on that front. I knew how DC and Marvel were set up so when I took the plunge into comic books I just skipped over those two publishers entirely and went straight for stuff where I could pick up Volume 1 and finish on Volume 8. It was exactly what I was after and Marvel and DC simply do not provide that experience at all. They don't even try.
That makes no sense. I know where to look for certain characters but that’s only after years of reading but it would be nice to have a massive omnibus. Any indies you can recommend? I you haven’t read them already check out Alien Worlds. It was like a 12 comic series of sci-fi anthologies from Pacific/Eclipse comics
I'm digital only my man, I'll put it on my list but a brief glance says I'm gonna have to sail the high seas to find that one.
As for good comics outside of DC and Marvel, off the top of my head I'd point you to Princess Ugg which was only two volumes, uncompleted but a thoroughly enjoyable romp about a barbarian princess going to princess school. It sounds dumb on the surface now that I type it out but it was one of the comics I enjoyed the most when I first got in and the writer has a few other good works under his belt.
Bomb Queen is a super villain comic done right in my opinion. Less monologuing and more conniving and winning with all of the fan service. Highly recommended if you're in the mood for some humor and to see the villain as the protagonist of the story.
Death Vigil. Humorous tale about the grim reaper recruiting dead people to fight off occultists and the like. Basically a western take on Bleach I guess? It's really the good writing that sells it for me. The same author also did Sunstone which was a surprisingly good story despite the theme of it basically being about BDSM. Between the two I'd point you towards Death Vigil though.
Freak Angels - A tale of what happens after a bunch of super powered kids flood the world Noah's Ark style. It's just some really interesting world building that hooked me. Might not be for everyone but it had that element of "I want to learn what happened here" that exists in all the best sci-fi and horror media.
A couple others that I can't be bothered typing up full descriptions for but that you should at least glance over to see if they catch your interest:
Thanks! I have some Bomb Queen issues as well as the first few of Saga. I’ll check out the rest. I used to want to see a Saga tv show or movie but not anymore
No arguments there. I remember that. Along with the overproduction.
Honestly I think they were doomed to death the moment Crisis on Infinite Earths happened. Because now you had to acknowledge not just all the various versions as "multiverses" and regularly intersect them but also regularly do massive crossover events that require a fucking walkthrough guide to keep up with all the various issues (most of which you wouldn't care about but are now forced to buy). Which also led to constant "relaunching" whenever a character started to fall off that wasn't actually a relaunch as it stilled basically required you to know their entire history anyway, meaning the stated goal of a jump in point failed.
All of which to try and relive that one single huge event's success. Every factor else since then has just been natural causes (raising prices, kids having more alternatives) or vultures feasting on the corpse (all the woke shit).
Do we know if Rippaverse will ever get a comic shop distribution deal? Is he even aiming for such a thing?
Rippa doesn't want to make deals with or give special promos to shops. He's basically said if they want to buy his books or give him a display he'll be happy to oblige but that it's up to each store owner to reach out.
I ordered Alphacore. I know some small stores sell his books. There is a local store in the Dallas Ft Worth area where I live (Rippa is from here too) and sells it but I’m not sure if the have a physical store anymore. A lot of stores see him as the enemy so they won’t sell his product. They’d rather sell the latest marvel or dc pride comic that collects dust
Let me guess. They're stuck with funkoshit in their stores?
There is quite a bit. I don’t mind but the survey they love to tout showing women buy 50% of comic books is very flawed. They count buying funkopops or t shirts as being into comic books
Just like they count Candy Crush players the way they'd count Call of Duty players.
To be fair, I wouldn't count Call of Duty players either.
That’s where they get the “half of gamers are women” stat right? I remember someone broke it down to show what games males and females tend to play. It was as expected
Last time I followed someone into a comic shop it was 75% Funkopop PVC garbage, 15% overflowing boxes of woke western comics, and 10% MTG. Staff was staring daggers at me, probably for ignoring the "plz wear mask" sign, but I guess I look too intimidating to get told off.
8 or so months after then I went to eat at the place a few doors down and the comic shop was gone. Nothing of value was lost.
If you tried to buy something, they might have given you a passive aggressive comment about the mask, but I'm guessing they weren't selling anything you would want.
Good to hear. I’m pretty sure my local one makes most of its money on back issues and manga. Although they have a section for table top and for people to play so there is that. The new stuff doesn’t sell
There are a few good shops. In Bremerton WA across the street from quarters arcade is a fun multi story comic and game shop.
In Spokane WA the comic shop is what kept the North Town mall alive during Covid.
In Orlando I enjoy the Coliseum of Comics, which just bought out an older comic shop called Sci Fi City. There's also some smaller comic shops around the area, but they would reveal my location so I am not giving them. The Ocala Mall is awesome and reminds me of the nerd and geek malls in Phoenix back in the day.
I’m in north Texas and luckily my local store has a ton of back issues and manga. I I’ll have to look up those places if I’m around. Glad to hear the comic shop in Spokane didn’t cave to the covid hysteria
At least your nieces and nephews still get something from the store. Even though comics are pretty much dead, it’s been a good time for tabletop games. Lots of variety and fairly high quality.
True and they gave a lot. I’ve been meaning to get into more tabletop. The only one I ever played was D&D
Descent is a really fun cooperative board game if you like the fantasy dungeon crawling theme.
Cool! Thanks!
Half the reason feminists don't feel comfortable is because there are a bunch of awkward autistic guys in nerd hobbies; that probably can be used against them. "Oh, so you don't feel comfortable around a bunch of people on the spectrum, you abelist biggot!"
Good point