Can Comic Books Survive the Coronavirus Era? 0

[Stefanomjr]

This mornings Art section in the NYTimes had an article about Diamond distributors and the impact the virus and the supply chain has had on the comic book industry. If/when the industry gets back up and running - will sales return? How long will that take?

Will comic book sales atrophy, and if so wont low book sales mean  OA from this time will be less desirable and essentially less valuable relative to pages from books right before the pandemic?

Can Comic Books Survive the Coronavirus Era?

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/arts/comic-books-coronavirus.html

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Stefanomjr

[Rick2you2]

Change the subject from comics to baseball and you will get the same answer: yes.

[ESeffinga]

Eventually. Will it look the same? That’s the question.

[grapeape]

33 minutes ago, ESeffinga said:

Eventually. Will it look the same? That’s the question.

Absolutely right 

[Rick2you2]

1 hour ago, ESeffinga said:

Eventually. Will it look the same? That’s the question.

I think distribution methods will change.Clearly, the publishers have learned what reliance on Diamond has done. I think you will also see a continuing, increasing trend to placement in Walmarts and similar stores. I am also surprised that no effort has been made to sell at least graphic novels in movie theatres when a comic related movie is shown. Maybe even with a variant cover.

[JadeGiant]

Can it survive? Of course it can

Will it survive? I think so

What will it look like? Time will tell. Change might be good. Maybe Diamond loses their monopoly grip which could be a very good thing. 

Are you worried about it? No, got bigger fish to fry at present and I think it will sort itself out. 

[Varanis]

Comic books will survive. It's a medium.

Will all publishers survive? I tend to think most or all will, but that's not a given.

Will distribution models change? I sure hope so. It's possible I'm naive, but I believe current marketing and distribution models severely hamstring comics' potential media market share.

[AnkurJ]

With so many modern comics being drawn digitally now, original art demand will not falter. However the market may slow a little with people having less money to spend.

[exitmusicblue]

8 hours ago, Varanis said:

Comic books will survive. It's a medium.

Will all publishers survive? I tend to think most or all will, but that's not a given.

Will distribution models change? I sure hope so. It's possible I'm naive, but I believe current marketing and distribution models severely hamstring comics' potential media market share.

Comics a medium, OA an art form.  The space wll be fine.

[jick]

Comics will be temporarily in limbo but it should eventually get back to being distributed.  What format? Will it still have cultural significance? Only time will tell.

But this is the art part of the forum so let me speculate a bit about Original Art.

Since comics are in uncertain status for a few months considering the Diamond debacle, it will take them time to pick up the pieces.  The Coronavirus also deprives artists the chance to make good income in conventions.  No conventions, no deadlines, no work.

So we might be seeing a market dump.  Artists holding on to their published art might be slowly letting them go to pay the bills.  Artists will suddenly have free time so there might be a lot of commissions, drawings, or sketch covers that will be made for sale.  The market might be flooded.  Over time, prices might be go lower and lower.  Jim Lee has already started with 60 drawings in 60 days.  I am sure many more artists will do the same thing.

So maybe it will be time for the bubble to burst soon on our hobby?

[Rick2you2]

6 minutes ago, jick said:

Comics will be temporarily in limbo but it should eventually get back to being distributed.  What format? Will it still have cultural significance? Only time will tell.

But this is the art part of the forum so let me speculate a bit about Original Art.

Since comics are in uncertain status for a few months considering the Diamond debacle, it will take them time to pick up the pieces.  The Coronavirus also deprives artists the chance to make good income in conventions.  No conventions, no deadlines, no work.

So we might be seeing a market dump.  Artists holding on to their published art might be slowly letting them go to pay the bills.  Artists will suddenly have free time so there might be a lot of commissions, drawings, or sketch covers that will be made for sale.  The market might be flooded.  Over time, prices might be go lower and lower.  Jim Lee has already started with 60 drawings in 60 days.  I am sure many more artists will do the same thing.

So maybe it will be time for the bubble to burst soon on our hobby?

I wouldn’t expect that. Just a softening of prices for lesser material and cheaper commissions. When someone has a piece that they think they can get $20k for in normal times, they don’t have incentive to dump product unless they are desperate.  But, a lot of the cheaper stuff has a lower upside, and artists still need income.

Edited April 12, 2020 by Rick2you2

[Rick2you2]

Deleted

Edited April 13, 2020 by Rick2you2
Duplicate post

[Stefanomjr]

1 hour ago, jick said:

Comics will be temporarily in limbo but it should eventually get back to being distributed.  What format? Will it still have cultural significance? Only time will tell.

But this is the art part of the forum so let me speculate a bit about Original Art.

Since comics are in uncertain status for a few months considering the Diamond debacle, it will take them time to pick up the pieces.  The Coronavirus also deprives artists the chance to make good income in conventions.  No conventions, no deadlines, no work.

So we might be seeing a market dump.  Artists holding on to their published art might be slowly letting them go to pay the bills.  Artists will suddenly have free time so there might be a lot of commissions, drawings, or sketch covers that will be made for sale.  The market might be flooded.  Over time, prices might be go lower and lower.  Jim Lee has already started with 60 drawings in 60 days.  I am sure many more artists will do the same thing.

So maybe it will be time for the bubble to burst soon on our hobby?

The art aspect is more where I was focusing. How will the disruption and potentially slow recovery of the publishing aspect inform OA prices - will modern art values, for stories with anemic sales, drop? Will folks focus more on the older art? Most of everything I own is modern/contemporary. Published in the last five years or less. 

And to your point, will the artists holding onto pages be compelled to let them go? Will art dealers who rely on conventions be forced to have online sales to drive demand? No one will get a deal on a Dark Knight page, but there are lots of strata to the OA market and demand might dwindle and shift.

[exitmusicblue]

As horrible as this situation is, we dodged a bullet in X ways.  I don't think the disruption will last long enough to have more than a cursory impact.  Months, not years.

[kimik]

Talking to a couple of LCS owners here, most stores that depend on weekly single issue sales and gaming are in trouble. One that has added a significant amount of TPBs and youth comic-related items (DC and Marvel kids lines, as well as some other stuff) is doing well. Weekly single issue sales are down, but TPB and the youth books sales are up. They are doing curbside transactions since the store is technically closed (non-essential business). Parents are buying books for their kids, and collectors are reading more now, which is helping drive other sales.

Edited April 13, 2020 by kimik

[AndyFish]

WAAAAY back when we went through the horrors of Sept 11th I remember a group of talking heads on TV announcing that shows like SNL would never return, because America had changed and it would no longer find a way to laugh.   Insane that these "experts" actually thought that was possible.    Same things goes to the doom predictors now. 

Will some shops close?  Absolutely, there are a lot of shops that are still run like club houses rather than actual retail, and they were likely going to close eventually anyway, but most of the healthy shops will reopen and the sales will resume, by this time next year this will all be a vague memory for most people.

So don't panic, this is not armageddon, we're still at a point where there are less deaths from Covid 19 than the Flu in 2018-- and yes I realize this is more contagious, yadda yadda yadda-- wash your hands, avoid sick people, you'll be okay.

So will the rest of us.