However, it gets worse for DC Comics, as he writes, “DC had a pretty bad year, with their lowest sales since 2004 – down 25% from 2022 in the bookstore market – even with their highest ever number of titles in the total list. In 2023 they had only 14 titles in the Top 750; in 2013, ten years ago, they had 130. That is a huge and troubling drop – but maybe laying off nearly your entire sales and marketing team is not a great strategy for growth? If someone had been been making a concerted effort to dismantle DC Comics, they couldn’t have been more surgical – luckily, DC still has talented execs like Marie Javins, Jim Lee, Annie de Pies and the rest of the staff who have thwarted those plans. And from what we’re hearing, 2024 will see some more moves to reverse this concerning trend.”
I wouldn't hold my breath.
Will Marvel and DC shrink into irrelevancy, forcing the companies and/or IPs to be sold off or shelved indefinitely, allowing the western comic book market to finally die or open a vacuum for competitors to step up where they failed? Or will they continue to chug along, producing slop that no one wants or buys, as more people are laid off while the DEI agents remain and CEOs reap record profits from ESG funds?
I really wish things would just FUCKING DIE already.