I'm a 26-year veteran of this crumbling comic book industry. World's most charming and disarming elegant and eloquent humble because occasionally I fumble man a great big star Wars fan, trusted member of the media, so you know, part of the commentary that I've been offering in on this channel for the past few months is that I fully expect at this point the comic book industry to collapse very soon. I mean you know in a matter of just a handful years it'll be gone, and it's gonna go with a whimper.



What will happen is that Warner Brothers initially will announce that they are shutting down their publishing arm of DC Comics. They will put everything on offer, they will offer all of their back catalogue, digitally they'll be producing, kind of, I don't know, you'll be able to buy a ticket to read all this stuff digitally. I think they already kind of do that, but there will be no more new DC Comics, not really. And then shortly after that, Marvel will linger, but not for very much longer. The comic book stores will further erode, they will go under. Marvel Comics will experiment with other means of distribution, maybe Walmart and Target and all these other things, they're gonna try to bring back the newsstand, but it's not going to work.



Marvel Comics eventually will also fold and that's it. Once DC Comics shutters its doors, that's the end of the comic book industry, and it's going to shut down with a whimper. Just like when Mad Magazine closed down, a few people will shed tears, but on a much bigger scale than Mad Magazine because a lot of people, a lot of creative people, are going to find themselves unemployed, and frankly, unemployable. It's really bad that people just don't want to buy comics anymore, they don't want the low-quality and high prices. And the fact that these idiots are insulting them on social media and in the pages of the books themselves - when you pick up a copy of Captain America and you have the Red Skull mouthing very sensible Republican talking points, you know that the comic book industry is no longer for you - and you also make up 50% at least 50 percent of the comic buying audience, it's over. From there it's just over.

Now two former DC illustrators are predicting the near-term collapse of DC Comics, as Ethan van Sciver recently supported Rob Liefeld's controversial contention that "DC Comics is going to drive off a cliff" on a recent CAPS stream:I think both Liefeld and EVS are correct. The unit sales decline I've been tracking has continued apace even though total reported dollar sales remain relatively flat. When unit sales fall and dollar sales remain flat, that is a reliable sign of an industry on the verge of collapse, as it means the companies are increasing the prices on their products to try to compensate for their lower sales. It also means that production costs are being cut, which indicates that the quality is in decline as well. That decline is precisely why we chose to keep Arkhaven and Dark Legion comics out of the Diamond distribution system and the comic book stores. We are actively working on improving the quality of our comics, as those who have received the new standard-size comics have noted how much better they are than the similarly-sized DC and Marvel floppies. When the Alt-Hero Vols. 1-6 omnibus ships to backers in a week or two, people will see some of the fruits of that effort. What's interesting is that we haven't even begun exploring the very channels that Marvel is using to keep itself afloat, such as library sales. And beginning with our first foray into film , we're going to be contesting that area of the culture wars as well.As I've mentioned, comics can be considered movie seeds. And since Disney and Warner a) already possess more seeds than they can possibly produce, b) recognize that the comics now being produced by Marvel and DC are markedly inferior to their predecessors, and, c) prefer to rewrite the stories and characters they are using in their films anyhow, neither conglomerate have much interest in subsidizing what from their perspective is an insignificant, shrinking, and unprofitable industry. The business logic therefore strongly suggests both Disney and Warner will shut down their new-comics-producing operations in the near future.Speaking of comics, is now available in a gold-logo print edition in our new standard size.