Change came by force to the comics industry in 2020. A two-month pause in shipping by Diamond Comic Distributors — until this summer the lone distributor of single-issue comics in North America — laid bare the industry’s weaknesses. It sent comic shops into survival mode, led DC to seek out new distributors, lured creators to Kickstarter and drove publishers to narrow the window between when new comics are released and when they’re made available on digital binging services.
DC found itself changing more than most, even before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, as it showed the door to co-Publisher Dan DiDio, struck partnerships with Midtown Comics and DCBS to create new distributors (one of which it later broke away from), laid off scores of employees, promoted comics veteran Marie Javins to editor-in-chief, transformed its DC Universe service from a mix of comics and movie/TV streaming to just comics, took control of its own virtual-con destiny with DC FanDome and surprised everyone at year’s end by announcing a restructured comics line with books people were generally excited about.
There was plenty of growth in comics, but not in the places you’d traditionally think to look. Analysis of 2019 sales figures revealed it was the first year sales of comics and graphic novels in the bookstore channel outpaced sales to comic shops. Additionally, Kickstarter reported in October that it had experienced a record year for funds pledged to comics projects, led by none other than promising comics talent (checks notes) Keanu Reeves.
We saw the good in the industry, such as when creators banded together to auction off everything from signed prints to Zoom hangouts to an erotic story starring you, all to benefit struggling comic shops. And we saw the bad, as another wave of reckoning over sexual misconduct in the industry revealed the alleged dark sides of Warren Ellis, Cameron Stewart, Jason Latour and the CBLDF’s Charles Brownstein, and forced Dark Horse to cut ties with former Editor-in-Chief Scott Allie.
(Oh, and then there were those two days where we were told a point-of-sale system was going to save comics and then we all laughed really hard so the plan got walked back.)
So what’s next? What further changes will 2021 bring to the comics industry? Why are you asking us? We’re not psychics! Why don’t you tell us?
Actually, you did tell us. Throughout the fall, we asked readers to take the 2021 CXF Comics Survey, which consisted of ONE question:
With everything that’s happened this year, what is one thing the comics industry needs to do to evolve and thrive in 2021?
Dozens of creators, retailers, comics journalists and fans responded, requesting a mix of alternative distribution models, diversification of voices and, in one case, more pouches. What follows is a sampling of your responses.
Creators
Embrace books that attempt to push the medium to new places instead of uplifting the titles that offer the same tired ideas. It’s not enough to simply hope a medium “survives,” as the question points out, it must evolve. It must grow up, be pushed to new places, offer surprises and step beyond the boundaries of what we consider comics. Equally important is that when a creator releases a book that strives to achieve this, the readers and shops and publishers need to do their part to ensure its success. This means not simply letting books die after a first issue. It means continuing to promote. Perhaps this means less books get released each year, but maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Lonnie Nadler, writer, Black Stars Above from Vault Comics. Listen to Nadler on WMQ&A.
I think that comics’ main problem is that they are very hard for outsiders to get into. As an outsider, walking into a comic book shop is pretty overwhelming, and it’s very hard to know where to begin, so I think more books in a stand-alone graphic novel format would be good. I love single issues and ongoing stories, but I think they make it very difficult to grow an audience.
Jesse Lonergan, creator, Hedra from Image Comics. Listen to Lonergan on WMQ&A.
As encouraging as it is to see book-market sales soar with OGNs for younger readers, I’d really like adult publishers — especially those best known for their DM work — to better adapt to sales models based on GNs and collected trades. It feels like we have years and years of data now that floppies are nostalgic and fun, yes, but also a challenging, complicated format for new readers. There are huge swaths of readers who will NEVER adapt to that format, and yet most series live and die by FOC numbers. How do we create a healthy tail for sales? How do we treat comics more like books to be fostered and discovered at various times, and less like magazines and newspapers, which are dated and obsolete within a week/month? I envy the Japanese and French models, but don’t expect to see them replicated 1:1 here. I just want to see more series last long enough to find their audience and find their groove, instead of dying out of the gate because they don’t have enough variant covers to goose initials and compete with whatever book is getting all the marketing love that month.
Steve Foxe, editor, Razorblades: The Horror Magazine. Listen to Foxe on WMQ&A.
I’d like to see publishers create backup plans to work around not only the direct market but to sustain the comics industry when needed, in creative ways, while supporting creators first.
Liana Kangas, artist, TRVE KVLT. Listen to Kangas on WMQ&A.
Attract more readers. Less events and more quality content that’s heavily marketed and promoted. Less tailoring our efforts towards collectors (as quality material is inherently collectable anyway), more focus on readers. This is a fundamental that, at times, has been sadly ignored. Ignoring it now, I think, imperils the direct market.
Johnnie Christmas, creator, Tartarus from Image Comics. Listen to Christmas on WMQ&A.
The game-changer to me would be perfecting online outreach. Given that conventions aren’t coming back in full force anytime soon, and that comic shop foot traffic will likely be diminished at least somewhat until there’s a COVID vaccine, this feels like the perfect time to reach out to readers where they live, and give them opportunities to buy our work at home.
For example, one thing that would truly improve the industry’s health is if our distributors were able to streamline and standardize our preorder system, so that every comic book shop on the planet has an online preorder portal — preferably a system that securely holds a customer’s credit card information, so stores aren’t left holding the bag financially if someone ghosts on their pull list. (I recognize this is a challenge given DC working with Lunar while everyone else is with Diamond, but I don’t think it’s insurmountable for two entities to figure something out.)
Creators and publishers can also focus on their online outreach game, and appeal to the readership diaspora that has flocked to Kickstarter, Webtoon and the book market — not to mention Netflix, video games and smartphones. I think there’s also a role to play for digital conventions, which I think event organizers and publishers should be working in tandem to perfect — right now I think they’ve been treated as stopgap measures until in-person shows return, but I think there’s a way to leverage big announcements digitally in the same way that Marvel announced their Phase Three films back in 2014, to make these shows feel like thrilling events even from the safety of your couch.
The pandemic is forcing us as an industry to reckon with our online shortcomings, but this is ultimately a growth opportunity if we let it be. We should take this time to adapt and shore up how we do business, so we can continue to incorporate these lessons even after it’s safe to hold in-person events again.
David Pepose, writer, Scout’s Honor from AfterShock. Listen to Pepose on WMQ&A.
Comics needs to find new formats, business models and readers. The good news is the models for those already exist in the larger publishing industry, particularly YA.
Paul Constant, writer, Planet of the Nerds from AHOY Comics
Continue its divorce from Diamond distributing. WAY past time to evolve from the direct market model of doing business.
Keith Dallas, co-author, Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978
Honestly, we need to move away from the Diamond monopoly model. We’ve seen how much that system can affect the market poorly when something bad or unexpected happens. I’m not saying get rid of Diamond, I’m saying get rid of the monopoly. Sure, the change will be difficult, there’ll be kinks to work out, but plenty of businesses manage to deal with multiple suppliers with no problems, and comic shops will be able to work that out if more energy was put into making new systems and suppliers instead of defending a monopoly that is causing diminishing returns.
As part of this, we need to get rid of this idea of comics being exclusive to comic shops. It’s just not the way to find the new generation of audience and protect the long-term future of the medium. Ask almost any comic creator or fan of a certain age, and I guarantee you most will say they bought their first comics anywhere but a comic store. Kids today, when they leave a major superhero movie excited by the characters and world, they aren’t being driven to comic shops and often don’t head there. Instead, we need to bring the comics TO them. Let’s see Marvel comics in Disney Stores, let’s see DC at the newsstand, Image in the supermarket, etc. Comic shops would still be able to survive in this kind of world, specialist stores are still vital and loved even when the product is accessible in other locations.
We can make it so a kid new to comics gets a taste at their local supermarket, and then finds a treasure trove in a comic store. It just takes work, but work that is worth it.
Joe Glass, creator, The Pride
One thing that this past year has shown me is that even the biggest publishers in comics don’t seem that secure and stable. I think the evolution in 2021 will be the continuation of a lot more smaller publishers as well as works made and crowdsourced by creators and delivered directly to the readers, with larger publishers continuing to decline. I think this could ultimately lead to a more diverse range of stories and genres for many different types of readers, which I think is important and much needed.
Jun-Pierre Shiozawa, artist, Genius Animals? Listen to Shiozawa on WMQ&A.
CXF Staff
Move away from treating the direct market as a sacred cow. I love comic shops, but the pandemic proved just how fragile it can be. Exploring things like cheaper pricing for digital comics, different distributors and expanding further into the book market are necessary.
Cori McCreery, covers Immortal Hulk for ComicsXF
Given that Marvel is run by a middle-aged white man whose approach to expanding the market has included strategies like “pretend to be Asian,” and given that DC is being gutted by a megacorp only keeping the comics division around for now to avoid a bad press day, and given that Image is a vanity press struggling to remain relevant with its biggest properties concluded or in limbo, it falls to smaller presses to make the drastic changes necessary in these times.
Smaller direct market publishers need to break free of the direct market, or else in a few years the only comics we’ll have left are Disney’s promotional materials and whatever YA GN’s the Big Three deign to add to their lines (many of which will be good, as they are good now — but, (and I know this is controversial on large swathes of Book Social Media), I think maybe it’s ideal if, in addition to making art for children and for teenagers, publishers still, sometimes, make art written for grownups (which isn’t to say that grown-up people can’t enjoy children’s lit or YA lit; it’s just that I personally think that adults should *also* have the option to enjoy things written for adults).
This means, above all else, embracing the graphic novel as a form over the serialized and then collected comic as a form. It means devoting money to advertising graphic novels to people who don’t go into comic shops but do love reading novels. It means working to build relationships with critics and publications that write about prose. It means sending review copies to BookTube and Bookstagram influencers. Getting Barnes and Noble endcap space. Building up a substantial GoodReads presence. Hiring a broader group of editorial and marketing people than just 10 middle-aged cis straight white men who only consume media made specifically to appeal to the childhood nostalgia of middle-aged cis straight white men.
What this definitely does *not* mean is trying to produce more navelgazey Serious Lit Comix Memoir Graphic Novels by people (well, again, by cis straight white men) who think they’ve inherited the combined gifts of Robert Crumb and David Foster Wallace. What this does *not* mean is producing content for The Comics Journal types. Those men are just as old, just as out of touch, as the men who lined up to buy Major X.
Robert Secundus, covers X-Men for ComicsXF
Kill Steve Geppi. No but really, Diamond started to fracture, and now that people know it’s held together by baling wire and hope and not the monolith it pretends to be, it’s time to replace it with something more stable and less exploitative.
Nola Pfau, covers S.W.O.R.D. for ComicsXF
Get out of its bubble. Explore more cross-discipline/cross-platform opportunities to help expand the market and thrive. The bubble metaphor also extends to the recursive loop that is the cycling and recycling of old IPs. Find a way to make it financially feasible to grow and sustain new IP by looking into new/emerging markets. The YA readership should be instructive in this area.
Andrea Ayres, covers X-Factor for ComicsXF
Deal with systemic abuse in more meaningful ways, change the preorder system, find ways to develop new talent without burning them out or setting them up to fail and decide on ONE day a week that comics are released.
Pierce Lydon, covers Wolverine for ComicsXF
Focus on diversity — of characters, yes, but also of format (should be “yes, and” not either/or) and, especially, in terms of creators.
Austin Gorton, covers Hellions for ComicsXF
Retailers
Branch outside of itself. This includes money spent from publishers on advertising. As it is, the comic shops are really the only ones advertising, not the publishers. I know I may be in the minority of shop owners, but I also think comics on “newsstands” or at [insert big box store name here] isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think specialty comic shops should be the only way to get a floppy or a GN. Many of us collectors now started by grabbing a comic from 7-Eleven or wherever your local spinner rack was. We should be there to cultivate the hobby, be the experts and get people collecting on a weekly basis.
Gregg Mester, co-owner, Level Up Entertainment
I suppose I can be accused of having a slight bias toward the direct market, what with it being my sole source of income and all, but I would like to see comic stores stick around for a while. To that end, a reimagining of the direct market system is a must.
I don’t have all the answers as to how this should happen, necessarily, but ideas that reduce the economic risk for retailers should be considered very seriously. At the moment, especially in the midst of the COVID-depressed economic climate, stores are hurting — not that comic stores are unique in that respect, but it’s the truth. I know a lot of publishers are feeling the burn, too, and heck, a lot of my regular customers are hurting just as bad, if not worse, than that. But comic stores are coming off of a period where many of us had literally ZERO income for two months due to Diamond’s shutdown. At least publishers could prop up their cashflow with digital sales.
For most comic stores, the single-issue format is still the breadwinner. Some publishers (I see you, BOOM, and I acknowledge your generous efforts) offering returnability on new series is a great starting point for fostering the growth of new series. I know it’s been used — and abandoned — by larger companies (cough*DC*coughcough*), and it’s not really tenable for most indies, but having enough copies of a new series on the rack is the best way to establish an audience for a book, and returnability is a great way to encourage retailers to generously stock copies. I don’t even think I’d hate the idea of a reduced discount in exchange for full or even 50% returnability on all books, though I’d need to know what kind of discount reduction we’re talking about first.
A viable alternative to Diamond has been on my wish list for quite a while, and while distributors operated by every comic shop’s two biggest direct competitors aren’t exactly what I had in mind, I guess it’s a start? I actually think the emergence of the book market is a good sign in this regard; it tells me that customer habits are further shifting toward graphic novels, which are widely available through regular book distributors, where a more competitive distribution market already exists. Managing multiple distributors may be more work for retailers, but having multiple options in distribution allows stores to better control their cost of inventory while simultaneously increasing their ability to keep books in stock. Having a backup option when my primary distributor was awaiting their own restock on a best-seller has shaved days and even weeks off of getting popular books back on my shelves too many times to count.
I mentioned earlier that single-issue comics are still the most profitable part of the direct market, but I think a stronger focus on graphic novels is a smart bet for most comic stores. Most kids who come into my store have no time for single issues; the GN format is just what interests them the most. Those kids will grow up eventually, and chances are their choice in format won’t change. Most of my single-issue customers haven’t made the switch to GNs because that’s just not the format they grew up with, so I don’t see this generation of young readers changing their format of choice, either.
I do think comic shops are a really central part of the comics industry and the culture surrounding it, and even if I was just a fan, it’d be a part of the industry I never want to go away. But in order for them to do so, everyone involved in the direct market has to be willing to change the way the system operates.
John Bush, manager, Dewey’s Comic City
Others
More crowdfunding. Tenured and new creators have the vouching from the audience prior to release, which in turn helps with the longevity in their marketing campaigns to where there isn’t fatigue because new topics and opportunities surrounding the title can arise.
Iron out distribution issues. Comics needs a new model that doesn’t put Diamond or Amazon at the core where creators are making less money off their own work when there is an increase in sales. On one end, royalties from larger distributors are consistent, but some publishers linked with distributors can be slow to pay or skim too much off the top, which is again problematic to not just the creator, but puts a monopoly on their work and how much they themselves have poured into it.
Community focus. Creators work better in communities. Maintaining a positive space in the community is absolutely important to the success of everyone’s work. It helps motivate. It helps crowdfunding. It’s nice to share a space with folks who have similar interests and share the same passions, always.
Melissa Meszaros, donthidepr.com
Grow youth readership. If the long-term goal is to grow sales in the direct market, which have been flat, we need to look at who will buy new comics in the future. I think there are a lot of ways we can get books in the hands of younger readers and support local shops.
Trent Seely, continuitynod.com
Be bold, take more chances and show confidence in those choices. Comics needs to keep expanding its audience — there are plenty of new, unique and talented voices ready to be a part of the industry. Playing it safe and catering to comics’ existing audience may make longtime fans happy but does little to ensure a healthy future for the industry. Marvel’s seen great success with Jonathan Hickman’s overhaul of the X-Men franchise. Has it upset some fans and Rob Liefelds? Sure, but Marvel has more to gain by taking big swings than the publisher would by going “back to basics.” Let creators cut loose. Don’t hold them back with too much editorial interference, and you just might get something special. And special means buzz, which increases sales (comics is a business, after all). Taking chances also means not being afraid to get political. Comics have always been political. There’s too much at stake right now for good people not to speak up against evil — especially the good people behind the good fictional superheroes who have influenced and inspired readers for decades. Characters like Spider-Man and Batman have never been more important — and popular. Use that to fight the good fight and tune out whiny “fans” who were probably only going to pirate books to begin with.
Chris Hassan, X-Men Mondays at aiptcomics.com
At this point, what even is the industry? Is it the heaps of books for young readers sold through traditional publishers (mostly written by Raina Telgemeier and Dav Pilkey)? Is it the growing crowdfunding comics movement that has attracted everyone from established Big 2 creators to first-timers like me? Is it the network of small business retailers that buy product primarily through one distributor via a pre-order system not designed to work well for anyone involved?
I could keep listing disparate segments, but the point to me is the industry is so decentralized that it’s tough to pinpoint one thing it needs to do to evolve. I can, however, speak to my own experience with comics media, and say that I think everyone involved with comics could do a better job creating and supporting comics media outlets that aren’t insular. When I was a casual fan (ie, off Comics Twitter and not actively writing about comics), I was often frustrated that there was nowhere online to simply find out what comics were good. It was easy to find 3,500 words about a single Grant Morrison panel in a comic 23 years ago. It was easy to find cheerleader reviews about that week’s Green Lantern. It was easy to find all manner of snark. But if I wanted well-informed, accessible descriptions of the best work in the industry, it was very tough to find, especially in the days before outlets like NPR started including more graphic novels within their best of the year lists.
So yeah: To recap … the industry is decentralized, and I don’t think that’s good or bad. It’s just how it is, but if we could create and support informed media outlets that guide readers (especially casual readers who wander in off an occasional Google search), that would be a fine thing.
Zack Quaintance, comicsbookcase.com, co-creator, Next Door
The biggest thing comics can do in 2021 is something I believe a lot of specialty locations will need to do, which is find alternate distribution paths and be aware that what they love and have supported may die sooner now, rather than later.
After a few years of major blockbuster films, we’ve seen movie theater companies starting to show early signs that may lead to bankruptcy and closings — and those are businesses where they usually turn a good profit. As much as I love comic shops, those locations will be facing problems sooner if not already due to the tighter profit margin and already present shifts in distribution. While I love and support my local store, the convenience of travel time, physical space and money saved has already moved me to buying more books online, especially with the construction specifically of the X-universe where the books are major talking points, especially with regards to whom I follow online. The last books I’ve physically picked up have been the DC Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane maxi-series that ended and a few creator-owned books that publish with fits and starts rather than a consistent pattern.
Finding ways for stores to make a profit from online sales would be important especially since many times they can be the tool that gets people to try new books. Find ways to create affiliate rewards links for retailers (and potentially websites and reviewers with vetting so it isn’t just “We will pay you if you write about how good our books are so people buy them.”
Part of the issue though is that in the same way where Diamond’s physical stranglehold required a literal pandemic to make their setup and deals change, comiXology on Amazon has a similar hold. I don’t advocate that we necessarily see every distributor create their own system, but Amazon having such intense control and their connection to tablet devices for reading comics means they essentially have a digital comics monopoly, especially considering the lack of support on most devices for other comic readers. I’ve routinely said that if I could read the books I’d buy on HumbleBundle without needing to download them and use a less supported app on my Kindle Fire (and if it integrated an actual reader function), that would be great. Or if Marvel and DC supported their apps on more devices, I’d definitely advocate for them more. Like, I can read on Marvel Unlimited or DC Universe on my laptop, but I want a nice, integrated experience like I get reading on my Kindle where I might buy all of a manga series and plow through it in a few months because I read through comic series as a Morrisonian ritual to get over illnesses.
Additionally, I think all of the publishers need to look more at webcomic and online content models. More frequently now, we have comics being shared by webcomic artists that are created for and published through social media. If movie and TV fans are going to be brought in to read, they need more options with easy starting locations. Break up a page across four Twitter images and plan the layout for social media and release some stories that way. One month you can expect to see a Batman story where he teams up with a C-list team — and if there are footnotes referencing other issues, make those free to read so people can go to the site, use the program and be like, “This is good, I want to read more, and the price is comparable to a Hulu or Netflix.” And then thread the story, let people have discussions about it and have a very good time.
Comics need to be easier to implement into people’s lives. It’s easier to give someone a comic that takes 10 minutes to read so they can discuss it than an hourlong show or an entire series that dropped over the past weekend and everyone in your office is talking about it.
Luke Herr, Multiversal Q podcast
More diversity/representation. This applies to the creators and the characters. Comics is a wonderful medium where in theory someone can find a character they connect to no matter who they are, but those characters are overwhelmingly tied to the past, where the majority of the work was done by white men.
I’m a straight white guy, not everything has to relate to me. I can stand to lose a few characters who do. It’s not like I don’t have the rest of the entire world basically catering to me all the time.
Chris Osborne, Play Comics podcast
I think the industry needs to shift its primary focus from a periodical mindset to that of cinematic/TV releases. Produce and label comics in terms of seasons, and/or publish more first-run stories in TPB/omnibus format. Whether there is a 12-issue season, or a single 12-issue volume, this model ensures a consistent creative team, and hopefully, consistently written/illustrated work without the burden of the Sisyphean deadline every 30 days. (This could also attract more talent currently not working in the industry.) Staggering releases of different series ensures a steady stream of content for voracious fans. In the one-fell-swoop “movie model,” there’s a steeper price point — an obvious downside — but also guarantees fans won’t drop off in the middle of a story, which could make up the difference for readers who opt out altogether.
Scott Modrzynski, mojoswork.com
Get marginalized voices into editorial and other behind-the-scenes roles, so that diversity isn’t just about the occasional writer/artist but actually folded into the normal course of work.
David Harris, former comic shop employee, past WMQ&A guest
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
