The Current State of the Comic Book Industry

[Flashforward]

Okay, so I'm wondering what people think of the comics that are currently being produced in America. I'm a huge fanboy and have been for years, but in the last few months I've really lost a lot of the enthusiasm that I once had for modern comics. To me, the stories have become rote and predictable, the bottom line has become the top priority, and the only thing many publishers have left are gimmicks, either in the form of variant covers or "killing" some of their most popular characters. Sure, there are some great titles like The Walking Dead that still entertain on a regular basis, or Locke and Key, which is just a fantastic story about adolescence. However, for every one of those, we get five Secret Invasions or Wolverine Origins. Am I just being a pessimist here with no sense of taste, or is anyone else fed up with the event-driven, gimmicky culture of the modern comic book industry that seems to thrive on churning out subpar stories?

[Jill Monroe]

i started feeling disconnected from comics in 2001 when Grant Morrison destroyed the uniqueness and special feeling of the X-men while Frank Quitely WRECKED their imagery with his horrific pencils.

Since that time, there has been a NOTICEABLE change in the tone of the comics industry in america. Its not about the comics, the characters or the art anymore...it really IS about the bottom line, the "market" and all that.

Marvel can't go for a month without some hint, rumour or prelude to a "mega cross over event" which (under the helm of Bendis) usually falls flat on its face and further damages continuity.

Comics are expensive as hell now and hardly worth the amount they ask for.

[Flashforward]

i started feeling disconnected from comics in 2001 when Grant Morrison destroyed the uniqueness and special feeling of the X-men while Frank Quitely WRECKED their imagery with his horrific pencils.

Since that time, there has been a NOTICEABLE change in the tone of the comics industry in america. Its not about the comics, the characters or the art anymore...it really IS about the bottom line, the "market" and all that.

Marvel can't go for a month without some hint, rumour or prelude to a "mega cross over event" which (under the helm of Bendis) usually falls flat on its face and further damages continuity.

Comics are expensive as hell now and hardly worth the amount they ask for.

Actually, I would argue that it was earlier in this decade when artistic and creative talent reached their peak for this decade, after the near collapse of the industry in the late 1990s. Around 2000 and the debut of Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel and DC were so desperate to keep from going under that they were willing to experiment with all kinds of crazy ideas and to try new things with their characters that had never been done before. Some worked and some didn't, but at least their stories were not driven purely by economic forces and their bottom line. However, a few years later, when the health of the industry seemed to be improving, particularly around 2004-2006, Marvel reintroduced the variant cover, and ever since then, it's been like a return to the 90s. We have gimmicky stories, overhyped variants marketed as collectibles, annual uber-events and crossovers, unnecessary character deaths, dark, moody stories and characters, hypermasculine and sexualized art, and an overall lack of creativity in the vast majority of stories produced by the big two. At this point, I half expect holographic covers to come back in the next year.