Yeah, I wonder how the board game division at IDW is doing. Not sure what very successful games they have besides Machi Koro.
Seems like a lot of the US comics publishers are making most of their money from other things that aren’t actually comics. TV/movie licenses, games, toys, etc. This strategy only works when you own the rights because the comics are where the IP originated. You can take a loss on the comics themselves if it pays off elsewhere.
IDW does the opposite. They are a a licensor, not a licensee. They’re paying for licenses in hopes that those will boost the sales of the comics. If comics aren’t selling, then those license fees become painful.
Manga publishers can afford to pay licensing fees since their books are actually selling very very well.
The NYT graphic books + manga best selling list has been dominated by manga and kids stuff (mostly Dav PIlkey) for what seems like years now. Even Ducks by Kate Beaton didn’t crack the list, and it’s probably going to win a pile of Eisner awards this summer.
Exactly. Marvel and DC basically use their comics as idea farms for movies and TV shows. Image hopes that one of their titles gets picked up and blows up like The Walking Dead or Invincible. Because IDW is a licensor, like you wrote, that puts them in the opposite situation.
American comics have always struggled to one degree or another, especially compared to manga and children’s stuff. The industry has need to to adapt and change for a long time, but it’s been mostly resistant.
I guess we’ll see what happens, but I think we’re just going to see the continued decline of American comics, and them basically turning into content farm for other media.
There was a legitimate boom in the golden age. There was a second speculator’s boom in the '90s. And there was another boom of actual quality content in the Vertigo era.
I believe there is a future for English language, non-superhero, long-ish form graphic storytelling to make money. It’s just now now. Now is I think another one of the dark times, at least capitalism wise. If you consider all the comics being made in all forms, money or not, then it’s quite the opposite of a dark time.