I do think that the floppy market is stabilizing, but as I said on another board, Marvel and DC have twisted themselves into a Gotterdammerung-style mass of catch-22s that make it impossible for them to diversify, or grow, or really do anything beyond continuing to do what they're doing. They don't have the vision (or, to be fair, the daring that comes with prosperity) to do much beyond pander to their base. They keep making halfhearted attempts to make kid's comics, or diversify their line a little, but they smack of token efforts. They aren't promoted, and they get abandoned when the numbers go south. The fans don't exactly help matters, either.
It would take a really bold move from someone at the top to break the stalemate, or else it would take the market collapsing. The former is more likely to happen to Marvel, now that they've been bought by Disney, but since Marvel's generally doing better than DC (and the bigwigs probably care more about media spinoffs than the comics themselves) I doubt they're going to make any drastic changes. Ironically enough, Disney has BOOM! to publish licensed comics of its kid's characters, so I don't see Marvel becoming more kiddified than it already is (though it's made a much strong effort to appeal to kids than DC).
I was perusing the sales figures yesterday, and increasingly it looks like graphic novels are going to save the medium. It seems like they're already a pretty profitable section of the book market, and seem to be growing. I've heard a few people mention that graphic novels make far more money than floppies at the moment, but I don't have the figures to back that up. Nevertheless, that would be great. Not only do TPBs do a nice end-run around the direct market, they have far, far more diversity in terms of what's popular--even in the TPBs that are sold through the direct market, Marvel and DC don't have anywhere near the dominance that they do in the floppy market. Dark Horse's Hellboy, Star Wars and Buffy stuff are always in the top ten or fifteen, Image's Invincible and Walking Dead aren't far behind, and this past month, at least, the 5 Scott Pilgrim volumes are all over the top 100. That's direct market figures, mind you--Amazon and bookstore sales are even less superhero-heavy.
So DC and Marvel are going to continue to dominate the floppies, but the floppies are going to get less and less relevant.
It would take a really bold move from someone at the top to break the stalemate, or else it would take the market collapsing. The former is more likely to happen to Marvel, now that they've been bought by Disney, but since Marvel's generally doing better than DC (and the bigwigs probably care more about media spinoffs than the comics themselves) I doubt they're going to make any drastic changes. Ironically enough, Disney has BOOM! to publish licensed comics of its kid's characters, so I don't see Marvel becoming more kiddified than it already is (though it's made a much strong effort to appeal to kids than DC).
I was perusing the sales figures yesterday, and increasingly it looks like graphic novels are going to save the medium. It seems like they're already a pretty profitable section of the book market, and seem to be growing. I've heard a few people mention that graphic novels make far more money than floppies at the moment, but I don't have the figures to back that up. Nevertheless, that would be great. Not only do TPBs do a nice end-run around the direct market, they have far, far more diversity in terms of what's popular--even in the TPBs that are sold through the direct market, Marvel and DC don't have anywhere near the dominance that they do in the floppy market. Dark Horse's Hellboy, Star Wars and Buffy stuff are always in the top ten or fifteen, Image's Invincible and Walking Dead aren't far behind, and this past month, at least, the 5 Scott Pilgrim volumes are all over the top 100. That's direct market figures, mind you--Amazon and bookstore sales are even less superhero-heavy.
So DC and Marvel are going to continue to dominate the floppies, but the floppies are going to get less and less relevant.
