Comics Portal: A Tough Time to Be a Comics Fan

A lot of us hoped that when the pandemic cooled off, things would improve greatly for the comics industry. Doesn’t seem like that’s the case!

THINGS ARE TIGHT ALL OVER

As much as I wished everything around us had leveled off now that COVID is a word we rarely use these days, the effects of that time continue to vex us.

While at times the rate of inflation seems to be slowing down, it is still increasing! I can list two good examples. First, a can of soup I used to buy (and complain loudly about) at $2.49 each now costs $3.49 a can! Secondly, I just returned from buying a big bag of cracked corn from the local Tractor Supply store that cost about $14! That’s now double what I used to pay not long ago. And the times when I could afford to eat out and even travel are significantly reduced, if they happen at all! I didn’t make it to NYCC this year, either!

Seems like inflation is the highest it has been in decades!

Add to that the still-lingering supply chain issues and paper costs (among other things), and everyone I know is having to tighten their belts (a euphemism for cutting costs) where possible. This means items we enjoy like comics and movies take a back seat to covering the necessities like rent, food, and gasoline expenses if we can afford them at all!

THIS AFFECTS THE INDUSTRY GREATLY

Add the growing lists of local comics shops that have permanently closed their doors, and we are in trouble!

When I read what comics store owners are saying online, it’s not a pretty sight! Many are reducing the number of hours they are open, cutting back on staff, and limiting the number of comics they buy to the exact numbers of books customers are ordering and no more! If your store doesn’t get what they ordered (or they forget to request something), it can be a really difficult search to pick up what you didn’t get!

It also seems to me that comics companies are cutting back on the books they are selling, too! I’m a big DC buyer, and each week it seems like they are putting out fewer and fewer books, then also changing ongoing titles to limited series!

If this keeps up, my weekly jaunt to my LCS may become bi-weekly or even monthly. If I’m considering such a change, I’m probably not alone in this. Can any comics shop survive if customers only buy product monthly or every other week? I don’t want to find out!

RECENT CONCERNS

This past weekend saw the debut of the MCU film The Marvels take in an underwhelming amount of around
$50 million, way lower than the Captain Marvel movie just a few years ago! Yes, there has been a lot of discussion in Variety and other places that the MCU may have oversaturated the market, but yikes!

I also have to mention that the current storyline in Batman has me worried! The Dark Knight has taken on a secret identity named Lenny (really?) and seems to have multiple personalities vying for control. Where did the character I grew up loving go?

I said it before when Jon Kent took over the mantle of the Man of Steel—that was NOT Superman. The same is true now with the Dark Knight—that’s NOT Batman!

Granted, if I just wait patiently a few (or 6) months, everything will snap back to “normal” with Bruce Wayne having money enough to buy Bat-gadgets aplenty and even get Wayne Manor back from Vandal Savage. (Who thought THAT was a good idea?) Then, too, the Joker now seems to know all Batman’s secrets while NOTHING we know about him! What’s up with that? If this is a dream sequence and Bruce Wayne wakes up in the shower, I’m going to stop buying what Mr. Zdarsky writes for at least a while!

And Batman has faced this level of reshaping before, and not that long ago! It was only a few years back that Bruce Wayne had to fight his way through time to take the mask back from Dick Grayson! And Alfred is still dead!

I just have to wonder—is writing a Batman story so very difficult that all these writers have to shred the guy and take him on a long journey back to where he should be? Where did detective stories and adventure tales disappear to? Hey, I’m even looking forward to the upcoming “Batman in Space” story now! Hopefully that will still be Bruce and not “Lenny.”

We need to support our local shops as much as we can without putting ourselves in big trouble! Really!

I’m sorry, but the people in charge of DC, Marvel, and other comics-producing companies need to really take a serious look at what they are doing and ask themselves, “Will fans really want to read these comics or watch these movies?” It always goes back to this in my mind—Tell good stories! The rest will hopefully take care of itself!

What do you think? What can fans and/or the industry to get us through this tough patch? Should writers be given characters they feel they have to completely crush? Or should they instead be making new characters instead? Whatever your opinions, feel free to share it in the space below!