The next big Implosion?
We had the infamous DC Implosion of the 70's (though it affected more than DC at the time), the Black and White Boom & Bust of the 80's, and the 90's was the speculator Bust that crippled and divided Image, killed off Valiant, bankrupted Marvel, and led to a distribution monopoly for Diamond.
Seems about time for another one soon.
Where is the next big comic Bust/Implosion going to come from?
Some people I talk to think it will be in manga, though I largely think that is a bunch of wishful thinking on the part of the xenophobes and fanboys. Manga crawled out of the Black and White Boom of the 80's. It survived the 90's. Only to come out on it's own as a huge publishing phenomenon in recent years. But the argument is that the market is becoming over saturated with material of dubious quality.
I think that is a load. Ever since the 80's, the manga market has seemed to do a very good job on it's own of weeding out the weaker companies. The market is growing new and more diverse customers as well, which fends off the supply and demand issues.
Furthermore, it is a publishing phenomenon now, any implosion on that market will have little impact on the average comic shop or comic book publishing as a whole. The major damage it might do is going to be in the Graphic Novel and Trade Paperback areas, which have piggybacked manga into a larger section and market in large mass market book retailers.
There are other people who believe DC is driving straight into a collision with another Boom too. This one is more plausible. They have been slowly turning their major line of superhero titles into an endless parade of weekly series, massive mega crossovers, and event driven storylines. This stripmining of the niche market they already have could prove disastrous. At the same time, it seems that DC is not recruiting the talent it needs to make new big draw or tentpole series at Vertigo either. The loss of Y the Last Man and the winding down of Fables may signal the last gasps in that division. I don't see Wildstorm being around in it's present form for too many more years. Even if the implosion does not come from DC proper, it's dwindling market share may cause the corporate heads at Time-Warner to consider merging DC into one of their other publishing companies.
Maybe another bust will come from within? Almost all of the previous market implosions have really come down to the readers (or lack of readers). Perhaps an across the board drop from bored, disenfranchised, and financially broke readership? Signs of this can already be seen with the market. It has now become fashionable to follow the trade collection instead of monthly tabloids. The middle of the road books are pulling further behind the best sellers. New series seem to drop of at a faster rate for all companies. I think that it is very plausible that the next great market bust will be the last bastion of the fanboy. The mainstream monthlies and never ending titles might just be in line to take a fall all across the market, at every publisher.
I could be a doomsayer and totally wrong on saying another bust is coming. But after all I have seen as a fan and former retailer, it just looks like the stress cracks are forming again and the dam is about to break at anytime. I just hope I am out of the flood plain when it happens.
Seems about time for another one soon.
Where is the next big comic Bust/Implosion going to come from?
Some people I talk to think it will be in manga, though I largely think that is a bunch of wishful thinking on the part of the xenophobes and fanboys. Manga crawled out of the Black and White Boom of the 80's. It survived the 90's. Only to come out on it's own as a huge publishing phenomenon in recent years. But the argument is that the market is becoming over saturated with material of dubious quality.
I think that is a load. Ever since the 80's, the manga market has seemed to do a very good job on it's own of weeding out the weaker companies. The market is growing new and more diverse customers as well, which fends off the supply and demand issues.
Furthermore, it is a publishing phenomenon now, any implosion on that market will have little impact on the average comic shop or comic book publishing as a whole. The major damage it might do is going to be in the Graphic Novel and Trade Paperback areas, which have piggybacked manga into a larger section and market in large mass market book retailers.
There are other people who believe DC is driving straight into a collision with another Boom too. This one is more plausible. They have been slowly turning their major line of superhero titles into an endless parade of weekly series, massive mega crossovers, and event driven storylines. This stripmining of the niche market they already have could prove disastrous. At the same time, it seems that DC is not recruiting the talent it needs to make new big draw or tentpole series at Vertigo either. The loss of Y the Last Man and the winding down of Fables may signal the last gasps in that division. I don't see Wildstorm being around in it's present form for too many more years. Even if the implosion does not come from DC proper, it's dwindling market share may cause the corporate heads at Time-Warner to consider merging DC into one of their other publishing companies.
Maybe another bust will come from within? Almost all of the previous market implosions have really come down to the readers (or lack of readers). Perhaps an across the board drop from bored, disenfranchised, and financially broke readership? Signs of this can already be seen with the market. It has now become fashionable to follow the trade collection instead of monthly tabloids. The middle of the road books are pulling further behind the best sellers. New series seem to drop of at a faster rate for all companies. I think that it is very plausible that the next great market bust will be the last bastion of the fanboy. The mainstream monthlies and never ending titles might just be in line to take a fall all across the market, at every publisher.
I could be a doomsayer and totally wrong on saying another bust is coming. But after all I have seen as a fan and former retailer, it just looks like the stress cracks are forming again and the dam is about to break at anytime. I just hope I am out of the flood plain when it happens.