The Bad News
No doubt about it, the past two-and-a-half years have been a tough time for the comics business. Sales are down across the board. An alarming number of stores went out of business, and those that survived are not as profitable as they once were. Those that have maintained their profitability have done so by branching out to sell items other than comic books. This is good news for the direct market in general, for it means the system for getting comics from the publishers and into the hands of the consumers remains in place. But ultimately, fewer copies sold means fewer titles published, which means fewer creators employed to produce those titles. I know from personal experience that this situation is especially disheartening to editors who have developed personal relationships with creators whom they must now tell that there is no work available. For fans, it means some of your favorite comics may disappear from the racks.There has also been a lot of concern -- at all levels -- over the specter of "government censorship" of comics, and there have been suggestions made that the industry adopt a motion-picture-style ratings system for comics before one is forced upon us from outside the industry. For something like this to occur after so many creators have finally freed themselves from the impediments of the Comics Code Authority would be another body blow to the industry.
The Good News
While it is admittedly anecdotal evidence, the overall mood of the fans, retailers, and creators at the summer conventions seemed much improved over the past couple of summers, and virtually all of the members of Dark Horse staff who attended conventions remarked on the excitement people displayed -- not just for Dark Horse projects, but for comics in general. Perhaps this heralds an end to the greed-weary cynicism that has marked past convention seasons.On other fronts, the newsstand market remains strong, and every day Dark Horse is getting its comic books into the hands of people who have no idea that comics-specialty stores exist. The same is true of the bookstore market. After several years of acceptable, but unremarkable sales of our collections and graphic novels, bookstore customers appear to have discovered that they like reading comics. We hope that many of these "new" comics readers will investigate their local comics stores and become regular customers.
At Comic Con International, in San Diego, free speech, First Amendment rights, and concerns about censorship from outside the industry were hot topics of conversation. Frank Miller, in his keynote speech at the Comic-Book Expo trade show that preceded the convention, let publishers, creators, and retailers know, in no uncertain terms, just how strong a bulwark the First Amendment is, and challenged the industry as a whole to stop cowering in the shadows and to take its place as a member of a larger publishing community.
Here at Dark Horse, everybody is getting back to their regular jobs of helping to produce the best comics possible. But it's not exactly business as usual. There's a spirit of rededication here at DH; a renewed effort from every department to not only live up to the company's ambitious goals, but to exceed them. You, our readers (and, we hope, fans), will begin to see the result of this new effort in the coming months as some of the exciting projects you've read about in the past couple of Finish Line columns begin to hit the stores. For our retailers, distributor, licensors, licensees, and creators, we hope the difference is noticeable immediately.
We're not going to wait for a better future, we're going to make a better future, beginning now.