Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
The context was Jim Zub saying he's trying to convince other comic writers to get into a growth industry like TTRPGs rather than comics.
D&D General Some comic makers would kill for D&Ds numbers and demographic.
- Thread starter darjr
- Start date
The context was Jim Zub saying he's trying to convince other comic writers to get into a growth industry like TTRPGs rather than comics.
Honestly I prefered complications and other graphic novels, because a small comic is usually just a small sliver of the story. I even engaged more with comic IPs via novels and even fan fiction because a novel is far, far meater, and a full story then a $4 comic book.
teitan
Legend
Judging by merchandising sales and movie tickets quite a few but the problem seems to be the comics can’t translate that into success which comes down to one thing, the direct market. There is a large amount of people who don’t even realize they still make comics in a monthly format. With the death of the news stands the publishers were hit hard in the long run for a short term benefit. On top of that the monopoly that is Diamond Comics Distributors has been able to avoid antitrust claims because of a very small handful of Indy comic distributors. These are a small handful of reasons that the industry is constantly sputtering and having small peaks. With my other post you see a combination of issues across an industry that shows a general mismanagement covered by success in other fields. The industry has yet to actually climb out of the collapse of the 90s because they can’t get enough growth in the limited market.
teitan
Legend
Conan is remarkably good! Except for the Marvel Universe crossovers. Those are groan worthy.
Honestly I'd rather get a proper novel back.
teitan
Legend
Even if it’s just Ed and Bob I would like to see more FR novels.
hawkeyefan
Legend
A big part of the problem is the bang for buck value of a comic book. A typical comic book is $4 for 20 pages of story. These then typically get collected into trade paperbacks that include 4 to 8 issues of the comic, and cost anywhere from $10 to $25 (give or take).
So a hardback RPG book that costs $30 is usually much longer than a comic trade paperback and is also designed to translate into many hours of game time.
A comic issue takes maybe 15 minutes to read. A trade takes maybe an hour or two.
So it’s a question of value. Every other entertainment option offers more hours of entertainment per dollar spent.
There are other reasons comics struggle despite the obvious mass appeal of their content. The direct market as described above is a huge factor. The lingering idea that they’re “kids’ stuff” is another.
I think Jim Zub’s right that more creators should try and create content that taps into the bigger RPG market, but the traditional challenges with comics will still pose an obstacle.
So a hardback RPG book that costs $30 is usually much longer than a comic trade paperback and is also designed to translate into many hours of game time.
A comic issue takes maybe 15 minutes to read. A trade takes maybe an hour or two.
So it’s a question of value. Every other entertainment option offers more hours of entertainment per dollar spent.
There are other reasons comics struggle despite the obvious mass appeal of their content. The direct market as described above is a huge factor. The lingering idea that they’re “kids’ stuff” is another.
I think Jim Zub’s right that more creators should try and create content that taps into the bigger RPG market, but the traditional challenges with comics will still pose an obstacle.
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