What would happen to collectible comic values if DC stopped making comics? 1 1

[the blob]

Some entity would buy the publishing rights and publish under DC's name. It would be a more modest operation, no doubt.

 

[Ken Aldred]

16 minutes ago, the blob said:

Some entity would buy the publishing rights and publish under DC's name. It would be a more modest operation, no doubt.

 

Yup.  Similar to the transitions in ownership seen for Valiant Comics.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Ken Aldred

[the blob]

14 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

Yup.  Similar to the transitions in ownership seen for Valiant Comics.

I think some rich dude or his kid would buy it as a vanity project. DC would never sell any of the non-comic rights for this stuff. And they'd probably want some control over the properties and be able to get back in. I'm not sure they'd want to sell to another comic publisher like dark horse...which probably doesn't have cash anyway. selling to marvel would be dubious.

[piper]

3 hours ago, miraclemet said:

The recent reveal on the relevance of Mr E in the Knull Universe (and thus the spike in Marvel Spotlight 9) wasnt tied to movie/tv but rather events in current comics...  or the bump that the current volume of ASM55 is enjoying (again not movie related), but yeah most do tie to tv/movies.

Why is ASM 55 hot?  I have a copy sitting in my waiting to be read pile.  As an aside, it's the only title that I still have in my LCS file.

[BoogieWoogie]

Just now, piper said:

Why is ASM 55 hot?  I have a copy sitting in my waiting to be read pile.  As an aside, it's the only title that I still have in my LCS file.

People just love the cover. Lots of black on it too so lots of copies were shipped dinged up much like ASM V2 #36

[theCapraAegagrus]

Less new comics = less new customers = less demand overall. Eventually prices for most comics will plummet.

[Prince Namor]

17 hours ago, BoogieWoogie said:

Are you just looking at sales of singles? I think when you lump in trades the industry is in really good shape. I bet there are a lot of young readers that only buy trades for new stuff but will occasionally buy back issues featuring their favorite heroes and villains. I think monthlies are too expensive for a lot of kids that are interested in following multiple heroes.

Not really. Not really at all. 

In January 2019, as a random example, ASM #14 (Volume whatever) sold 91,547 copies to the stores (#5 for the week) and the TOP selling Spider-man trade paperback for the month was Spider-geddon TPB at #9 and a whopping 2,591 copies sold. Ouch.

That means, combined these two books couldn't break 100,000 copies sold.

Of the numbers we do have for ASM, we know that in the 60's the book averaged over 360,000 monthly copies (after newsstand returns), in the 70's it fell into the 270,000's, the 80's sometimes just under 250,000, before the boom in the 90's when it got as high as 561,000 and the crash when it hit a low of 120,000. 

The last icv2 I can access online, just before the pandemic, had ASM #41 at 53,000 copies sold to retailers and in January 2020, the Trade paperback (a reprint of the monthly series) at 2,200 copies. That's horrible. 

They keep digital sales a closely guarded secret, but when I look through comixology, none of the Top Ten sellers ever seems to feature ASM - when looking at 'See More', it usually finishes anywhere between 11 and 20. What that means in terms of number of units sold, I have no idea, but I suspect it's still lower than the print count.

Sources:

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42557/top-500-comics-january-2019

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/42556/top-500-graphic-novels-january-2019

https://www.comichron.com/titlespotlights/amazingspiderman.html

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/45663/top-500-comics-march-2020

https://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/45179/top-500-graphic-novels-january-2020

[Prince Namor]

Graphic novel sales up 42% in North American bookstores this quarter

Graphic novel sales in the North American bookstore market is up 42% this quarter, according to the market research company NPD Group.

For the months of July - September 2020, 4 million print graphic novels were reportedly sold in the North American bookstore market - up tremendously from April - June 2020's 2.8 million print graphic novels. NPD reports that the manga sub-category accounted for nearly three-quarters of the growth in this most recent quarter.

According to NPD, the manga subcategory has (grown) 25% year-on-year while the superhero subcategory has declined 11%. Over the past five years, manga has grown by 8%..

The other key driver for Graphic novels' Q3 2020 uptick would be September 1's Dog Man: Grime and Punishment by Dav Pilkey, which sold 589,628 print copies by the end of September.

 

https://www.gamesradar.com/graphic-novel-sales-up-42-in-north-american-bookstores-this-quarter/

[evilskip]

New comic numbers have been cratering for years. Yet Bronze, Silver & Gold prices keep rising.

[D2]

Slow death. 
 

I believe comic books still play some important value in keeping characters relevant. Obviously television, movies, and video games are much more influential now, but I believe that many of these core ideas stem from comics, whether it’s directly or indirectly related.

DC quitting the publishing of books would cut off a hand, which would result from a slow bleed out, eventually having characters fade out of limelight and ultimately out of view. 
 

I think it would be something we would see in 20 years. So kids born in a generation without these books would grow up without new material and no reason to search out old material. 
 

Look at Star Wars. More is more. If there is an engine constantly pumping out material, eventually something great hits, among all the . This hit fuels the fan base to the next hit.