Grant Morrison on the death of comics

He is rather full of himself but he makes a lot of great points. Especially about how comics are dying off because no one wants to pay for them anymore, they'd rather just get free stuff online.

But his sniping at Millar is trashy and annoying. And only partially because I like Millar's work like 150% more. It's like the old guy who is like "yeh but I fought that dude everything he knows!" when the protege winds up being better.

Let me translate Grant's theory: I raped the DCU with Final Crisis and took all the money I could from Marvel while showing utter contempt for the fact they actually can define continuity so now I'm getting ready to jump the ship I set ablaze.

Originally posted by Anti-Limbo I didn't really find anything to take exception to from this. I actually agree with him completely when he talks about people not wanting to pay for comics. I don't think it's unreasonable to not want to pay for something that you can get for free, and I think it's that issue that is really killing comics. I don't know any of his history when it comes to Millar so I'll leave that alone.

I don't think pirating is going to kill comics any more than it's killed the music industry, the movie industry, the TV industry, the book industry, or the anime industry. Does it hurt? Hell yeah. Will it kill it? I don't think so.

Personally, I think the industry has been killing itself for years now what with the repetition of story-lines, the lack of over-all publishing material, and a lack of relevancy to the LARGER entertainment industry. If people want entertainment, they turn on the TV, the computer, or watch a movie - reading comics isn't even CONSIDERED by the mainstream audience these days. Comics aren't relevant anymore unless they tie-into a larger summer Movie Blockbuster and that's a damn shame.

I agree with Morrison in some regards about the industry being in a sort of dying area, and I agree with Grief very much that it's not just piracy hurting the industry but themselves. Its distressing that you have a form of reading in comics where they don't really focus on story that much in some cases but more on where it can tie to this movie or that movie or that product and marketing ploys, when at the same time you have a lot more television turning to telling compelling long term stories as comics used to do. Not sure if they will truly follow through, but DC's words about needing to move away from writing for trade is a good way to start. Stop compelling your writers to write arcs that are longer than needed just to fill a trade when you could easily still put seven issues that aren't part of an arc but have an overarching story plot or background going on. While I'm iffy about it sometimes, move to the format that BC and others champion many times of doing it like television seasons. Its annoying to see constant #1's but if you are going to do that at least do it in a structured way instead of suddenly a new #1 here than reverting to high numbers just to turn and do #1 again.

Another thing to do is make sure that your core base of fans are happy with what you are doing while searching for the 'new' readers you think you can bring in. Throwing the old ones under the bus just for gimmicks that might bring in new people is a poor way to do business. Don't dismiss what is said by your fans as just angry fan boys as sometimes is done, and really stop and listen to feedback and words. A group not liking blank book is not just always fan boys just angry about something. Legitimately it could be something wrong.

Also tap into the backing of the big corporations you now have owning you. Get comics out into stores and such again. Get a deal going with Wal-Mart, get comics on the book shelf there. The 7-11, whatever. Comic shops are not a place that many non-fans will go into to check out the comics based on the blockbuster comic movie they just saw. Comics really got me as a kid because I would see the bright cool covers as I was walking through the store with my mother and it would make me want one cause it looked cool. Put comics where kids will see them and possibly want them, cause we all know kids are a lot of time visual and see something and just have to have it.

Well a lot of times in interviews the editors and higher ups seem to dismiss the idea of putting comics out in other places outside the book store and comic stores. As if it is an unworkable archaic idea. I'm sure there are tons of stores that would like to try out such a source of revenue to see it it works at all especially with the slew of movies that have come out and are still to come out causing people to come there to get the comics and merchandise perhaps and then maybe shopping for more. It would seem win win, it is interesting to wonder why they don't. There was something the other day about Disney stores having comics in them but really Disney Stores are not some place that people just go to every day to browse or shop at and their not all over the place really. Just big malls and such.

True about the fans, just seems a lot now that some creators and higher ups just believe that all online stuff is white noise fan boy shouting and that if people don't stop buying a book clearly its awesome stuff. Its like saying just cause the crack addict keeps buying the crack it must not be deadly or terrible stuff lol. A harsh and stupid example I know but yeah :p.

I so hope digital is not the future. I really hate all things going digital like purchasing digital copies of games and movies and such because we all know how fickle computers and servers and other tech are. All it takes is a server crash that can't be fixed and bam all your movies you bought from company A or comics from Company B that you can't download onto your computer but have to access through their service, is gone. And you know they won't give out then free re copies to everyone and such, you'll have to potentially buy things again and just ugh. I'm stuck in the past I suppose but I just hate this dependence on technology our country is moving towards. Books are seen as useless just cause person has a kindle. I see them brag they have 4000 books on there...really? Are you really going to read 4000 books? Would you have gotten 4000 books had you not had a kindle that can hold that much? The answer is no on all counts. It's like an iPod. I have way more songs on there than I ever would have gotten or listened to had I not had the capacity to do so. It's just...blah. Sorry I'm all anti everything digital and dependent on tech lol.

I wouldn't want to see paper comics go away myself, because it's just not the same thing to me however I really don't see that happening. But its hard to deny that digital is the way to go, and I'm surprised that more of an effort wasn't made to steer the industry in that direction sooner. Sell them for a couple dollars less or maybe even 99 cents and watch those sales shoot up. I don't remember where I heard it but, if the number of people who download comics is any indication then the interest is still there and relatively strong. They just need to figure out how to make it more enticing/easy for people to get their hands on them.