Pipeline: The World of Comics Is Changing

First of all, let's get this out of the way: It's not good that so many people lost their jobs at DC this week, particularly comic book lifers. I hope they find new jobs fast. I don't wish ill upon anyone. These are people who were just doing their jobs and fell victim to a corporate reshuffling through no fault of their own.

So let's talk about that reshuffling. It's no secret that AT&T spent a lot of money on purchasing Warner Bros and is saddled with an awful lot of debt. That bill needed to be paid and no corner of the company would be safe from that, including the lowly little comic book company that's barely a rounding error on the AT&T annual budget.

Comics may be, in aggregate, a billion dollar business these days, but most of that isn't in the Direct Market. And the intellectual property is worth so much more. One Batman movie can pull in a billion dollars' worth of business.

It takes an entire comics publishing industry to hit that same number.

We're living the nightmare we all thought we wanted: Comics have taken over the world -- wait, no. Comic book characters have taken over the movie theaters and the TV screens, but did you know that they still print comics? All that Other Media content hasn't driven many readers to the actual world of comics, has it?

All the growth in the comics world is now in the bookstores, and often from the younger reader market. DC started making moves in that direction a couple years ago (remember Zoom and Ink?), complete with a half million dollar marketing program. The writing was on the wall -- they never had that kind of money to spend promoting 32 page magazines with staples. But books aimed at Barnes and Noble? That pulls in the tall promotional dollar, because there's growth there.

Multinational corporations love nothing more than growth. They love it more than you love variant covers on a Wednesday afternoon.

All bets are off now. The Direct Market as you know it is slowly dying. That's how these things happen -- slowly, then quickly. DC has changed the distribution game this year. They started changing the format and audience game a couple years ago. What's next? Fewer titles? A greater reliance on digital distribution? Less experimentation?

Don't for a second think that Marvel is immune to something similar, by the way. Disney isn't exactly raking in the profit on its theme parks or its extensive theatrical releases that made it billions last year. The only thing saving Marvel at the moment is that they're already operating on such a small budget that shaving more money off it will take someone with great vision to reorganize the company to handle such a thing. I don't think that person exists inside of the comics world right now.

Comics aren't dying, but the Direct Market and the 32 page stapled thingy is in deep trouble.

This DC reorganization is a power move from AT&T to assert its control of this corner of its company. It's someone from outside the comics world deciding on a new direction for the publisher, and it's not More Crossovers and Bi-Weekly Releases and Exclusive Contracts with Marvel Creators. It's a greater fundamental change.

Let's hope it's a successful one. Let's hope this is the next evolution of superhero comics taking root. It might be painful, but it's necessary.