State of Comics in 2023?

[Elodan]

I used to pick up and read Trade Paperback comics, but had to give them up for about a year due to vision problems. Vision has been fixed and am looking to get back into picking up TPBs again. There's been so many reboots and restarts, I'm not sure where to start anymore.

Are there any series you'd recommend or individual TPBs you'd recommend?

Generally a Marvel / DC reader.

Thanks.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I used to pick up and read Trade Paperback comics, but had to give them up for about a year due to vision problems. Vision has been fixed and am looking to get back into picking up TPBs again. There's been so many reboots and restarts, I'm not sure where to start anymore.

Are there any series you'd recommend or individual TPBs you'd recommend?

Generally a Marvel / DC reader.

Thanks.

Dying, Marvel & DC survive only to provide possible materal to cinematic universes.

Comic shops are going out of business rapidly, etc...

 

[bloodtide]

They sure feel dead.......

I started reading Marvel Comics in the 70/80s. Lots of action, but also a big back drop of very ADULT storytelling. Tony Starks alcoholism, the Armor Wars, Hank Pym abuser, Hank Pym almost taking his own life, and Mockingbird killer the foe that abducted her and hiding that from her 'never kill' husband....and more.

The start of the 90's brought even more "graphic" content. The days when Cable, Deadpool, Bishop, Wolverine, Ghost Rider would outright KILL foes. This did not last. Soon enough Cable and Bishop would miss when shooting their guns...or set their guns to "stun". Wolverine would do the INSANE move of "saying a one liner" and popping out his claws, run towards his foe, SHEATH HIS CLAWS, and then just punch the foe. Maybe my favorite was Ghost Rider, who in issue #3 punches and SLAUGHTERS a ninja with a sword. Only to have that be reconed in like issue #34 that "oh that ninja was a demon hiding among the human ninjas and Ghost Rider could "sense" that he was not human and THAT is why he (did not) kill him.

I got to read all the mostly well done "Summer Crossovers" that really made Marvel famous. I read the Silver Surfer with the loooong Thantos story arc. Then the Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War and Infinity Crusade.

Then....we get to 2000 ish. Most of the books I read are cancelled. Only a few new ones hold my intrest, doom 2099 and Thunderbolts. I keep on with the Avengers and Thor....though they both get canceled. All the older creators are gone. Some of the newer ones are good, most are average....or worse. By 2010 I just stop reading.

I flip through some at the library
from time to time.......and it's pure gibberish. Infinity this, War that, Secret that and whatever else. Everything is a big huge event with tons of characters. And everything is like Marvel Cinematic: a huge page of just one character saying a one liner, zing! Thantos steals the Phoenix Force, but Odin is best friends with cave woman Jean Gray Phoenix and barbarian Ghost Rider who rides a Wolly Mammoth...and they 'stop' him by talking about how cool they are......or something. And it gets worse from there.



So, I can only get my comic fix from reading all the old stuff...that they nicely put out in books for me to read.

 

[WayneLigon]

The current Nightwing series is a delight. Nightwing 1: Leaping into the Light is where I'd start.
Word's Finest and it's soon-to-be-out companion Teen Titans book are set in the 'recent past' where Dick is still Robin, and Batman and Superman are best buddies.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Dying, Marvel & DC survive only to provide possible materal to cinematic universes.

Comic shops are going out of business rapidly, etc...

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying THAT since 1978.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I used to pick up and read Trade Paperback comics, but had to give them up for about a year due to vision problems. Vision has been fixed and am looking to get back into picking up TPBs again. There's been so many reboots and restarts, I'm not sure where to start anymore.

Are there any series you'd recommend or individual TPBs you'd recommend?

Generally a Marvel / DC reader.

Thanks.

Do you want Marvel/DC, or do you want GOOD comics?

(I say this as a HUGE fan of both Marvel & DC's characters).

But seriously, though: If you want to read some good comics, I'd recommend that you check out Reckless (Image) by Ed Brubaker. He's doing his noir-thing that he does so well.

@WayneLigon is right, though: Nightwing has been really good for awhile now. Most of the recent "Dawn of DC" books have also been good (in particular, I find that Superman is the best it's been in about 15 years).

I'm mainly a Marvel guy, and I think that House of X/Powers of X was the last Marvel book (and this is a few years ago now) that I actually enjoyed, and its story never really managed to properly (IMO) get to its conclusion.

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying THAT since 1978.

So seriously how is business going? I do remember a lot of Comic Shop closures in the 90s/00s, but have things picked up? Are sales steady, falling, improving? Is there still in store sales or mostly online? Whats the current customer demographics?

 

[FitzTheRuke]

So seriously how is business going? I do remember a lot of Comic Shop closures in the 90s/00s, but have things picked up? Are sales steady, falling, improving? Is there still in store sales or mostly online? Whats the current customer demographics?

The pandemic did weird things to collecting. For awhile there, it seemed as if everyone had decided to spend all their unused travel money on collecting back issues. 2021 was the only year in the 30 years that I've been in business that I sold more money worth of Marvel Back Issues than I did of new comics!

On top of sales, high-end back issue prices skyrocketed. Like, they went truly insane. 2022 calmed down a bit, and 2023 is much more normal. So... right "now" is a little bit of a slump after two years of craziness. New comics aren't selling great, but they're not selling badly, either. The overall state of the industry is "fine". The late 90's, for example, were far far bleaker than "now" is. Most stores that survived that time know what they're doing.

I don't sell anything at all online. I'll leave that to Amazon, or stores that want to do that sort of business. I prefer to speak directly to my customers. As far as demographics go, I would say that there's probably more younger people lately than there was for awhile. Many of my customers are the same people they've always been (for 30 years!) but the overall demographic has always been a range of ages. Not many kids, though. That's because they don't really make comics for kids, do they?

 

[Citizen Mane]

I've enjoyed most of Tom King's limited series for DC recently. Mister Miracle, Adam Strange, and The Human Target were all a lot of fun. For Marvel, the recent Sins of Sinister storyline in the X-Men comics had some neat moments, but I think how interesting it'll be for you will be a function of (1) how much you like the X-Men, (2) how much you like alternate timeline X-Men stories, and (3) how much you like Kieron Gillen. Personally, I'm a big fan. And I feel like I'd be remiss if I also didn't recommend Die, especially as this is a D&D messageboard. Also, I'll second @WayneLigon and @FitzTheRuke for the current Nightwing book and Ed Brubaker's stuff.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I find that Superman is the best it's been in about 15 years

I haven't followed the Superman titles regularly since the triangle era, but I'm tempted jump back in. Seems to be some interesting things going on in the extended family as well; a Power Girl ongoing, Steelworks by Michael "Worf" Dorn, and of course the Fire & Ice mini-series taking place in Smallville.

 

[GreyLord]

As far as demographics go, I would say that there's probably more younger people lately than there was for awhile. Many of my customers are the same people they've always been (for 30 years!) but the overall demographic has always been a range of ages. Not many kids, though. That's because they don't really make comics for kids, do they?

Which is a shame, because they used to.

It meant they couldn't get too adult with their comics (X-men being written today having 3 ways for example...that's just a wee bit more than I really want to read in a comicbook...I like things a bit tamer) back then as they were appealing to all sorts of ages.

Now, it seems they only appeal to those who have been reading comicbooks for the past 20-40 years. The older crowd. That's the other problem. Everything relies on you already knowing what's going on as well as what is happening in other comicbooks. You can't just subscribe to your favorite (I mean...you can...but you'll miss half of what is going on) comicbook. Crossovers started to happen in the 80s, got crazy in the 90s, died a little bit in the early 2000s, and now have gotten wacko.

They lost perspective of why the general audiences read comicbooks instead of the hardcore aficionados...IMO.

 

[Mistwell]

Comic shops are going out of business rapidly, etc...

Comic shops have been increasing, not decreasing, since 2020. They've seen an increase in sales. It's levelled off for 2023 but they had quite the boom cycle during the pandemic.

 

[MGibster]

Yeah, yeah. People have been saying THAT since 1978.

It's not entirely false. When I was a kid, I could get comic books at gas stations, grocery stores, or at the mall in stores like Waldenbooks or B. Dalton Booksellers. Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, comic books started disappearing from those venues and if I wanted one I had to go to a boutique, the comic shop. This certainly made it more difficult for kids under the age of 16 to get into comic books and I wonder if this helped accelerate the decline in sales. Of course in the 90s we had a speculation boom and various companies had all sorts of gimmicks like gold foil covers, killing Superman, multiple cover issues, etc., etc., but then the whole industry just crashed.

And today, there are fewer comic book shops than there were back in the 90s. Here in the greater Little Rock area we had two, but one of them closed a few years ago after being in business for decades. I think the owner just decided it was time to retire. My old haunt in Dallas, Lonestar Comics, closed down all their locations sometime after 2000 and are exclusively an online retailer now.

But dying might be a hyperbole. While the specialty comic books shops might not be as numerous as they once were, I can buy a plethora of graphic novels at my local Barnes & Noble. At least for as long as we still have physical booksellers. And many little comic/hobby shops who diversify their stock can probably weather economic changes better than just a straight comic book shop.

 

[R_J_K75]

This collection is good, I remember reading it when it originally came out and theres a few bonus issues thrown in too.

Amazing Spider-Man: Kravens Last Hunt

 

[FitzTheRuke]

This collection is good, I remember reading it when it originally came out and theres a few bonus issues thrown in too.

Amazing Spider-Man: Kravens Last Hunt

That's certainly another thing one can do: Work your way through the top 100 graphic novels of all time. You'll have reading for ages, and while probably not all of them will wow you, the ones that make the list really are very good comics.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I haven't followed the Superman titles regularly since the triangle era, but I'm tempted jump back in. Seems to be some interesting things going on in the extended family as well; a Power Girl ongoing, Steelworks by Michael "Worf" Dorn, and of course the Fire & Ice mini-series taking place in Smallville.

I've read Superman on and off for 35 years, and the Dawn of DC launched books are some of the best they've been (at least so far - I liked Rebirth at first, too, but it quickly turned into something that didn't wow me.) We'll see if it lasts, but I really dig them ATM.

 

[R_J_K75]

That's certainly another thing one can do: Work your way through the top 100 graphic novels of all time. You'll have reading for ages, and while probably not all of them will wow you, the ones that make the list really are very good comics.

That collection also included Spider-Man vs. Wolverine which was a special one-shot from that time period. I was very surprised to see it there

 

[Elodan]

I've read Superman on and off for 35 years, and the Dawn of DC launched books are some of the best they've been (at least so far - I liked Rebirth at first, too, but it quickly turned into something that didn't wow me.) We'll see if it lasts, but I really dig them ATM.

I had the same experience with Rebirth. The latest Marvel change didn’t really wow me.

Looking for good comics. If they’re DC / Marvel, that’s a bonus but not a must. Maybe I’ll check out Dawn of DC or work through some “Top # of x” list that are out there.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I had the same experience with Rebirth. The latest Marvel change didn’t really wow me.

Looking for good comics. If they’re DC / Marvel, that’s a bonus but not a must. Maybe I’ll check out Dawn of DC or work through some “Top # of x” list that are out there.

That's a good idea. Also: Look to Image for something new. Stuff like the aforementioned Reckless books, or top-notch stuff like Saga, Paper Girls, or Monstress. Or cool new ideas like Department of Truth or Descender.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

When I was a child me and my younger brother had got some action figures of Secret Wars. I watched Spiderman and some marvel cartoons from 60. I liked the 90's Spiderman cartoon.

I started in the 90's with Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch) and some G.I.Joe. I bought the "Sons of Midnight" when Blade was totally unknown, years before Wesley Snipe movie.

Yesterday I found a funny webcomic "Pepper and Carrot" about a teenage witch, with a very innocent humor for the current standards.

In the new city where I live now there is a comic shop, but mainly manga is sold.

I stopped to be interested after the event Secret Invasion. Too many events are bad for the industry because readers can't spend so much money.

In Spain Marvel has been more popular than DC. Batman was totally unknown before first Tim Burton's movie.

My opinion is the main mistake in the current comic industry is not being ideologically neutral, and they have lost too many readers.