This past weekend was New York Comic Con, and there was a ton of big announcements and exciting panels for all to behold. With all of the hoopla though, who exactly came out better off than they were before the con started? Whose stock is rising and whose is falling after NYCC?
Find my picks after the jump.
Nick Spencer
While Nick Spencer has been prolific already in his young career, having produced a seemingly never ending collection of creator-owned works for Image Comics (namely, Morning Glories, Existence 2.0/3.0, and Shuddertown), he had a weekend that would be big for pretty much any creator in the industry. Not only did he have yet another Image title announced (a mini-series with Christian Ward named The Infinite Vacation), but he also had major projects from the Big Two announced.
First up, he and Bernard Chang will be replacing Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle on DC’s Supergirl, and then it was announced that Spencer would be teaming up with Barry Kitson on a new Iron Man book titled Iron Man 2.0 (that would follow War Machine).
Sure, it was announced that his Jimmy Olsen back-up would be going away thanks to DC’s wrapping up their co-features as they move back to the $2.99 price point. But even that had a silver lining, as his story will be wrapped up in a one-shot down the line.
It was a huge weekend for Spencer, a writer whose star was already on the rise and is now ascending even quicker.
Marvel’s Street Level Characters
With the bulk of Marvel’s street level characters currently involved with either New Avengers or the event comic Shadowland, you would think it would be difficult for their stock to rise any higher than it already is.
Then, NYCC hit and it was announced that the writer who really jump started these characters — Brian Michael Bendis — will be making a triumphant return to the characters he broke into Marvel with. First up, he and frequent collaborator Alex Maleev will be taking their prodigious skills to a new Moon Knight ongoing in 2011, and Joe Quesada has already teased that their run will redefine the character like the team previously did with Daredevil.
On top of that, it was also shared that Bendis and another previous collaborator Michael Gaydos will be bringing back their character Jessica Jones in an Alias mini-series some time in Q4 of 2011.
Those two announcements were “Best in Show” level, and that they both work in strengthening the street level foundation of Marvel means more awesome for fans of the gritty storytelling that Bendis has made so hot at the House of Ideas.
Digital Comics
Digital was the buzz word of the whole con, as it seemed announcements were coming from every corner of the industry about digital comics. The con started with Boom! Announcing their robust plans, then Dark Horse rolled out their own bookshelf app for iTunes Application Store users at, and the pièce de résistance — both Marvel and DC announcing that $2.99 would become either their only price point (DC) or their price point for the majority of new books (Marvel) going forward, thanks to the success of the digital revolution.
What kind of success? According to the ICv2 whitepaper that preceded NYCC, Digital Comics sales are up 1000% year-to-year in 2010, from revenues of about $500k to $6 to $8 million in 2010.
It’s only going to get bigger and bigger, as DC begins major movements towards even more digital success, with their Wildstorm imprints management taking over their digital media division, an Android app apparently upcoming, and a ton of other potential exciting opportunities. With Marvel seeing a lot of success with their day-and-date release of “Ultimate Comics Thor” last week, it seems likely that they will be rolling out additional plans for the digital revolution soon enough.
For purists who were convinced that digital comics were not the way of the future, I have a haunting reality for you: digital comics are already the present. Don’t get left behind, people.
Continued belowFalling
Oversaturated Characters
What I’m talking about when I say “oversaturated characters” is the fact that NYCC featured announcements for new books for characters that already had multiple books. While this means that these characters stars are rising, the fact of the matter is some characters simply have too many books out right now. There once was a time when Marvel fans could put the spotlight strictly on Wolverine, as he was seemingly damn near everywhere. Now? Thor picked up another new book, Captain America grabbed two, DC released five (FIVE!) teasers for Batman books, another Lantern book will be coming (doubling the total of the Lantern books in under a year), and there will be yet another Iron Man book.
For some people, the more the merrier. For others, it’s hard to imagine why we need so many books for this small band of characters when books like Jeff Parker’s Atlas (continuously) are on the chopping block. Granted, those other books do sell more because of their nature, but it is a shame that the market dictates that there needs to be at least four Iron Man books at any given moment but none with the name Blue Beetle on it. Such is life.
Graphic Novels
While comics themselves saw a 1% increase year-to-year in sales, graphic novels had a far more woeful year: it seems that this section of the industry saw a steep 20% decline from 2009 to 2010. However, as ComicsAlliance noted, a lot of this may have actually stemmed from a slew of bookstores closing in 2010, as graphic novel sales in bookstores decreased an even sharper 30%.
Another big portion of the decrease stems from no real buzz trade or OGN being released in 2010, as 2008/2009’s flagship comic Watchmen was a boon to the industry, but the Scott Pilgrim crazy year we’ve had couldn’t rival the boost in sales Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic tale provided.
With all of that said, it seems that we’re really one big release from righting this ship and that graphic novels aren’t going away any time soon. Too much of the creative power and sales strength comes from this lucrative industry. Here’s hoping that by this time next year they’re reporting an increase in sales for once.
