A HABITUAL LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM: THE ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE AMERICAN COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF
THE SEQUENTIAL ART DEPARTMENT
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS FROM
THE SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
BY
BENJAMIN JONES COHEN
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
FEBRUARY 2003
INTRODUCTION
According to “conventional wisdom” the 20th Century is rhetorically referred to as “The American Century,” a term that is a badge of honor for many in the U.S. but gets a sarcastic mutter from the rest of the earth’s nations. Art historically has been a reflection of cultural, scientific and philosophical evolution; as well as an indicator of cultural dominance by a society. During the course of “The American Century”, only one visual/literary art form, Comic Books, stands out as a uniquely American contribution to the “advancement” of our civilization. Comic Books, a descendent of storytelling, have been a product of the economic situation from which it evolved. The rise of the American Comic Book resulted from fertile economic conditions. Ironically, the Comic Book remains indefinitely on life support due to economics, the very catalyst that brought it to an audience. The frail economic condition of the Comic Book is directly a result of poor choices made by the Comics industry. These choices included focusing the comics market on one demographic, relying on other mediums for exposure, a lack of practical advertising methods and failing to maintain a satisfied quality talent pool. Through choices carried out by its industry the Comic Book remains indefinitely on life support, do to the very catalyst that brought it to an audience, economics.
THE BIRTH OF COMIC BOOKS
Born out of political war propaganda in 1896, the American Comic Strip helped in the sales of Joe Pulitzer’s Newspapers for adults. The Comics, as they were referred to, acquired their name from humorous Comic Weeklies. Comics employed the best storytellers and artists available, such as Winsor…
Page 5, Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels: A history of Comic Art by Roger Sabin, published in London by Phaidon Press Limited, 1996.
Page 47, “When Comics Were For Kids” by R.C. Harvey published in The Comics Journal: Special Edition Vol. 1, 2002.
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…McCay and George Herriman. The majority of the humor was virtually identical to the crass nature found in Vaudeville. Simultaneously, the post-Victorian sentiment in America was reevaluating children and seeing them for the first time not as little adults. Children had “developing psyches” that needed to be nurtured. Children were drawn to the comic strips in their father’s Newspapers, just as the adults were. Contrary to the Comics creator’s intentions, concerned citizens began to see Comics as a medium intended for children.
After a five-year trial and error competition, in 1934, Famous Funnies, the brainchild of M. C. Gaines, brought the first economic success to the Comic Book. In this collection of previously published newspaper Comic Strips, the cartoonist had no financial gain or clout in production decisions. The depression era sales figures of Famous Funnies showed a large market among children for the 10-cent Comics magazines.
Ironically, a few years before the Comic Book, Strips had begun to appear with even more sophisticated artwork. This genre, influenced by Pulp Novels, as well as growing social pressure, contradicted the term Comics. These were stories of adventure, romance, investigation and science fiction and were created by such illustration masters as Alex Toth, Hal Foster and Milton Caniff.
Comic Books born during the Great Depression were subject to the realities of the time. Their success was built on the affordability and availability of this escapist medium. This resulted in New Comics from National Alliance the first original stories and art presented in Comic Books. Some publishers, desiring not to pay royalties to the Newspaper syndicate, thus began hiring cheep in-house and freelance creative staffs. Small groups of second-rate aspiring strip artists and writers from a mostly Jewish immigrant population became the first comic book writers and illustrators. An eagerness to be accepted into the majority culture had led to a budding Jewish reform movement and adoptions of Americanized…
Page 54, The Aesthetics of Comics by David Carrier published in University Park, PA by The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.
Page 35 Sabin
Page 35 Sabin
…names. Unfortunately for the Comic Book artists and writers, they were to become the “hacks” of the illustration industry, which as a whole received little consideration as a pure art form. Comic Book artist were disrespected and paid accordingly. Despite their position in the American arts hierarchy and the marketing effort of the publishers to cater to “developing psyche”, the Comic Book artists and writers were initially grateful and enthused to have a job in the Comic Book Industry.
Respect and financial success may have been out of reach for the Comic Book creator, but a small space was available for creativity in the children’s market. Comic Book publishers obliged right off the bat to make material more focused on a youth market. An equation in the conventional wisdom of America’s “collective conscious” had formed: Comic Books ≤ Kids’ Books.
THE GOLDEN AGE BIRTH OF SUPERHEROES
While humorous Comic Books were the mainstay of the early industry, two American Jews were to change that in 1938. Inspired by Sci-Fi Strips and a prophetic desire for an American hero (who subconsciously depicted the ideals of an American Jew), Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created a new genre, Superhero Comics. National Periodical’s Action Comics told the story of their alien/immigrant hero. Superhero Comics sold millions of copies each month, a feet unimaginable today. Inspired by the highest sales in “Superman”, every creator in the Comic Book industry desired or was ordered to create a Superhero. National immediately continued their success with Bob Kane’s caped vigilante detective, “Batman”. They attempted to corner the market through lawsuits based on accusations of plagiarism. With limited success, they were able to end the rise of some rival companies superheroes, such as the first…
Page 57-62 Sabin
Page 61 Sabin
…incarnation of C.C. Beck’s “Captain Marvel” and Will Eisner’s “Wonder Man”. Eisner was an anomaly for this period. He owned the rights of his already successful detective comic, “The Spirit”.
Across the street at Timely Periodicals, the true copycats of the industry; Joe Simonson and Jack Kirby were creating popular Superheroes such as “The Sub-Mariner”, “Captain America” and “The Human Torch”. Joining Timely, the teenage writer/editor Stan Lee (“the name amongst names”) came aboard. Eventually replacing Simonson, the editor Lee appeased Timely's publisher, Martin Goodman. Lee was driven by a noble desire to keep money in his staff and freelancer’s pockets. But he envisioned Comic Books as a stepping-stone to his eventual career as a serious novelist. His lack of pure interest in the artistic success of Comic Books was an undermining element that permeated the industry. There was the occasional exception, such as Jack Cole’s “Plastic Man”, Eisner’s “The Spirit” and publishing house EC.
In 1947 Bill Gains inherited Educational Comics (EC) from his father, M.C. Gaines, and began to assemble a new staff of young enthusiastic innovative thinkers to help vanquish the apathy he had for his father’s product. Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Wally Wood and the rest of EC staff were presenting a superiorly crafted and more mature story. The injection of the artists’ input diversified the storyline, propelling them into the forefront as trendsetters. When EC switched from bible and American history stories to Funny Animals, the competition followed. Goodman and Lee were particularly keen to follow…
Page 66 Sabin
Page 14, Jack Cole and Plastic Man by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kid published in New York, NY by DC Comics, 2001
Page 62 Sabin
Page 30, Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee by Stan Lee and George Mair published in New York, NY by Fireside, a division of Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Page 82 Lee
Page 21 Lee
Page 16 Spiegelman
Page 10, Tales of Terror!: The EC Companion by Fred von Bernewitz and Grant Geissman published in Timonium, MD by Gemstone Publishing in partnership with Fantagraphics Books of Seattle, WA, 2000.
…EC’s lead i.e., westerns, crime, horror and war Comics. There was a strong industry wide trend that catered to young and adolescent girls starting with Bob Montana & Joe Edwards’s “Archie”. Timely, National and EC were contributors to this as well. National kept “Superman”, “Batman” and “Wonder Woman” going, but in the post war era the superhero genre in comics was no longer the sales leader.
COLD WAR CENSORSHIP
In the 1950’s, America’s growing focus on child development was influencing its obsession to counteract communism and resulting in a desire to homogenize the American public and orchestrate a moral unity. The general sentiment was that a child’s free time was properly spent with activities that furthered a youth’s mental and physical growth. Previously not investigated, “teenage delinquency”, a perceive rise in said behavior would be indicated once investigated. Consistent research on the effects of new technology-driven mass entertainment, i.e., radio, film, and television, helped in creating a more balanced view of those mediums. Comic Books, not being a medium based on technological advancement, was not likewise embraced and was seen as a crude undermining of true literature and art. In part, this was due to a concerned citizens censoring campaign who attacked the Comics industry by using a small number of isolated studies. The few teachers, academic scholars, and media researchers who found the unscientific studies to be false, were not organized enough to counter the Anti-Comics movement. Even the Strips had to end their crass Vaudeville humor…
Page 80 Lee
Page 9, From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of ♀Comics from Teens to Zines by Trina Robbins published in San Francisco, CA by Chronicle Books, 1999.
Page 50, Amazing World of Carmine Infantino by Carmine Infantino and J. David Spurlock published in Lebanon, NJ by Vangaurd Productions, 2001.
Page 11, Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code by Amy Kiste Nyberg published in Jackson, Miss. by University Press of Mississippi, 1998.
Page 18 Nyberg
Page 47 Harvey
…The Catholic Church, parental organizations, librarians and some teachers led a coordinated attack on the prolific Comic Book publishers. 125 new comic books were available each at 100,000 newsstands nation wide for a dime each and with 90% of kids and teens reading Comics, the cool-headed academics were no match for the opportunistic hysteria. It was stated that 75% of the free time available to American children for mental and physical conditioning was being consumed by the Comic Book. The primary target, EC was mainly providing a product for audiences other then children, but it was put on the Anti-Comics organizations’ “bad” Comics list. Whenever a politician, academic or teacher would speak out in favor of Comic Books, she or he would be accused of being instigators in undermining the well being of children. Due to their lack of power in the creative process, cartoonist were left out of most of the negative targeting. Unlike the other entertainment media at the time, the Comic Book publishers had no interest in depicting their artists and writers as celebrities. In addition, the cartoonist themselves looked at their craft as sorry imitators of their childhood heroes, the Strip artist. Their work was focused on the child audience and was produced under time pressure and in great volume due to the trend-matching strategies of their publishers. At cocktail parties, Comic Book cartoonists would duck the “So what do you do?” questions. Even in the National Cartoonist Society, Comic Book artists felt they were there only to bring in more dues.
The entire Anti-Comic Book movement came to a head when psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham, author Seduction of the Innocent, led the crusade in the Senate. Despite heroic efforts by EC’s publisher, Gaines, during the hearing, Sen. Estes Kefauver enthusiastically railroaded the entire Comics Industry…
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Page 21 von Bernewitz
…In addition, the new entertainment medias established rating systems to appease grass roots concerns about their effects on children. The lack of organization and promotion campaigns on the part of Comic-friendly academia, and the cowardly efforts of the Comic Book artists themselves led to the Comic Book industry’s regulation system, The Comics Code Authority. The system rated the books simply on whether or not they were suitable for children. It did nothing to describe the content or even provide standard categories of the maturity level for the consumer. It was a pass/fail system; the Comics Code seal of approval became the symbol on each comic book. With each stamp, the equation Comic Books ≤ Kids Book was indoctrinated. EC comics were left gutted by the Wertham witch-hunt. Gains brilliantly sidestepped the issue and took most of his cartoonist and created MAD magazine. The most financially successful satirical humor magazine America has ever produced.
THE SILVER AGE RETURN OF THE SUPERHERO
In the early 1960’s, through a strange sequence of events, National and Timely recreated the economic power of the Superhero. They subsequently changed their names to DC and Marvel, respectively. At National, under editor Julius Schwartz, penciler Carmine Infantino revamped 40’s character, “The Flash”, marking the beginning of the Silver Age in comics. Timely’s publisher Goodman and National’s publisher Jack Liebowitz had a golf match. Liebowitz told Goodman that they were going to produce a Superhero group called the “Justice League of America”. This led the consummate copycat Goodman to instruct Lee to come up with one for Timely. A frustrated Lee finally had had enough of the “funny book biz” and was intending on quitting. Under the advice of his wife, he took Goodman’s instructions and along…
Page 3 Nyberg
Page 129 Nyberg
Page 218 von Bernewitz
Page 50 Infantino
Page 112 Lee
…with Kirby, created a Superhero group the way he wanted to, with elements of real human dilemma. Lee & Kirby’s “Fantastic Four” was so successful that the approach they took enticed Lee to continue in the Comic biz. Lee worked along with pencilers like Steve Ditko, John Romeda Sr. and Gil Kane in creating a new mythology.
Around this time, now Marvel’s publisher Goodman lost his distributor and Marvel was forced to ask the renamed DC to distribute Marvel books like, The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil. Marvel soon outgrew the distribution arrangement with D.C. but a back and forth friendly rivalry spurred a new life for Comics.
Beginning with the 60’s this Comic Book resurgence inspired more franchising opportunities for both companies in other mediums. DC had already begun to do so with “Superman” live action and cartoon television series. Marvel for the first time branched out into Superhero cartoons. DC produced the campy live action TV “Batman”. In addition, DC became a subsidiary of Warner Brothers whose movie and animation would provide a very fruitful economic avenue for the DC characters. In the late 70’s, the first of the blockbuster “Superman” movies cemented film versions of Comics as the priority for revenue investment at Warner Brothers. Marvel’s lack of affiliation with a giant media company forced them to focus promotion and investment into the growth of Comic sales. Warner Brothers provided D.C. with financial stability unavailable to other Comic publishers. Warner Brothers’ priorities began to slowly undermine the necessity for quality in D.C.’s Comic Book product. Comics became a means to produce and test market characters in order to showcase them in a more profitable medium. Lee as publisher and in…
Page 113 Lee
Page 58 Infantino
Page 69 Infantino
Pages 100-104 Infantino
Page 124 Infantino
…subsequent roles at Marvel had influence and a growing fanatic desire in seeing Marvel characters appear in motion pictures due to the success his rival D.C. had achieved.
Marvel was concerned with taking advantage of their dominant share of the market the company offered a glorified subscription service called “direct distribution”. Marvel had been the sales leader since eventual publisher Infantino’s last year at the helm of DC in the mid-seventies. Marvels’ theory was that the popularity of Marvel characters and the interwoven storylines of the “Marvel Universe” was what drove the Comics market. Circumventing the newsstand would cause DC to loose out on the large amounts of potential readers. Direct distribution began isolating loyal Marvel readers, but trade conventions provided a new community atmosphere. Inspired by Lee’s Marvel, Comic Book “fandom” transformed Comic trade conventions into comic fan conventions, affectionately referred to as “Cons”. Providing a community environment, “Cons” would eventually pop up in most major city in the US, England and Canada. The birth of the Comic shop crippled the remaining availability of the Newsstand Comics. Comic fan could view new Comics and pick up back issues. Most stores provided a subscription services to their customers to counteract direct distribution. A new consumer group immerged coinciding with a desire to buy back issues. Comics that were discarded in heavy numbers had initially high print runs, thus became of high value, due to a lack of availability and a growth in demand. The rapidly growing collectors market eclipsed the shrinking children’s market. This culture consisted primarily of white males who fed off rejection from others, perverse suppressed sexuality and elitism of their own perceived intellect. The Comic Book industry seemed to rely on T.V. and film to draw in a "trickle down" audience. However, this potential audience was rejecting the Comic fan and would not subject themselves to the environment found in Comic shops and conventions…
Page 164 Infantino
Page 154 Lee
Page 67, Comic Book Culture by Matthew J. Pustz published in Jackson, Miss. by University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
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RUSTLING IN THE FRINGES
Business alternatives began in the 70’s that could have provided inspiration for the industry as a whole. Similar to Mad Magazine’s format, European Comics such as Herge’s The Adventures of Tintin and Goscinny & Uderzo’s, Asterix the Gaul were available in children’s bookstores. The adult Sci-Fi fantasy anthology Heavy Metal became available through subscription. Veteran cartoonist Eisner invented the term Graphic Novel in order to convince book publishers to publish his mature Contract with God. He hoped that bookstores would place the long format Comic Book on shelves alongside novels of similar content. The Comics market of the 70’s provided economic longevity and stability for mom and pop operations such as Wendy & Richard Pini’s Elf Quest
COMIX FOR THE ADULT
Back at the dawn of the 70’s, in reaction to the Wertham witch-hunt and inspired by EC an Underground Comix movement arose. First obtusely, they specifically contained all the items Wertham and others had included in a list that they found immoral in the Comics of the fifties. Haight & Asbury in San Francisco became a home base for Comix. The distribution solutions were ingenious and effective enough for the times and region. R. Crumb’s Zap became a beacon of light for the Bay Area of the 60’s. Printed by Kitchen Sink press he sold it out of a baby carriage. Crumb’s work has since grown from cult status, being integrated into the elitist and introverted contemporary high art society. For the first time female cartoonists like Trina Robbins began to show a limited voice underground and eventually mainstream Comics. Excluding Robbins, Crumb and Art Spieglman’s underground anthology Raw, there was a lack…
Page 78, “Superhero Nation” by James Poniewozik in Time Magazine Vol. 159 No. 20, 2002.
“Crumb” directed by Terry Zwigoff produced by David Lynch, 1994
Page 116, “Obscure Visions: ‘Eye Infection’” by Robert Stoo and Mike Kelley printed in Artforum XL No. 7, 2002
“Crumb”, 1994
…of graphic craftsmanship and illustrative talent on the part of most underground cartoonists. This was a trend that contradicted advances made by mainstream Comic’s.
Gary Groth’s The Comics Journal, the only intellectually based magazine that reports on and critiques the Comics Industry as a whole, became available in urban Comic shops that carried Underground Comics. Then in the mid 70’s, Kim Thompson & Groth, through their newly formed Fantagraphics Books, published the first descending star of the underground, the Alternative Comic Love and Rockets by the Los Hernandez Brothers. Comic Strips origin lies in the creation of a propaganda campaign put on by then newspaper publisher, Pulitzer. Almost a century later, Spieglman won the Pulitzer, for his Holocaust depiction in the Alternative Graphic Novel, Maus. Maus, Love and Rockets and other diversifying Alternative Comix through the mid 80’s did little to elevate the course of mainstream Comics. This was a squandered opportunity.
ESCALATING QUALITY AND COST
In the 80’s mainstream writer Allen Moore wrote the benchmark Graphic Novel, Watchmen, published by D.C. This inspired Marvel and DC to publish more sophisticated Graphic Novels and Comics by others like Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz and David Mazzucchelli. Collectors were attracted to investing in the higher production quality presented in these new books. The success of these Graphic Novels intended for adults began to infect the children’s market. This undermined efforts by other mainstream writers such as Chris Clermont, Mark Gruenwald and Bob Layton to reshape the Superhero genre to make it more palatable to children. Comic sales went up driven by an economic bubble created by the ageing collectors market. As the 80’s came to a close, the rise in quality of production, brought single 24-page Comics to a price over a dollar for the first time, a price that would triple in the following decade…
Page 1, “A Short History of Fantagraphics Books” by Eric Reynolds published on www.fantagraphics.com/fanta.html, available as of Nov. 20th 2002, 9:18 am.
Page 12, Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud published in New York, NY by Paradox Press, an imprint of DC Comics, 2000
COMICS FACE THE AMERICAN CENTURY’S CLOSURE
As the 90’s began, education pertaining to Comics and Sequential Art was perceived to be a possible financial opportunity. Art colleges that offered classes in Comics included The School of Visual Arts, The San Francisco Art Institute and Pratt. The Kubert School, established in the mid 70s, offered an AA in Superhero Comics. The boldest step was made by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). SCAD offered BFA and MFA degrees in Sequential Art devoted primarily to Comic Books, a reflection of the growing belief in the viability of the comics market.
DC and Warner Brother’s lack of focus on monthly issues seemed to feed Marvel’s success. DC was developing a Tim Burton film adaptation of Batman that would eclipse the success they had with Superman. They subsequently pored funds into the development and marketing of a Batman Animated series. Both projects were huge successes for Warner Brothers, but the idea that these product placements on TV and in film were going to result in an increase in sales of D.C. comic books would prove to be unfounded.
Marvels success was in part due a new generation of pencilers, Todd Macfarlane, Rob Liefield and Jim Lee, who had began to reach levels of celebrity never achieved by cartoonist before. They were the first to directly tap into the growing anti-intellectualism and moral relativism displayed in the entertainment industry and news media. The work of these artists showed the world through a filter of emotions and experiences, letting through sex, glamour, adventure, wealth and power. Their Comics were the desendents of the Watchmen era, but had neither the insight nor discipline of their predecessors, nor the literary and artistic intellectual rigor required. They saw higher potential sales in products geared to the…
Page 148 Infantino
National Public Radio, “Fresh Air,” Interview by Terry Gross with Daniel Clowes, February, 15 2002
Page 1, “In My World the Actors and Director are All Made of Paper and They Do Exactly What I Say: Author Alan Moore” by Onion, The (Anonymous Interviewer) The Onion Volume 37 Issue 38 October 24, 2001 published on www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3738/avfeature_3738.html available as of Nov. 20th, 2002, 9:49 am.
tastes of TV- and film-driven mass consumerism. They were put off by the tradition of “work for hire” contracts as resulting in zero creators’ rights to their intellectual property. The tactics of the promotional departments at Marvel, in particular, insulted Macfarlane. Their uninspired ideas led to such innovations as selling multiple styles of covers on comics with the same content to feed on collectors’ endless appetite. Macfarlane saw Comic Books going into the hands of people who simply had no idea how to promote. The pencilers felt at war with the editors, executives and even the writers. To Macfarlane many writers’ traditional methods seemed to somehow restrain the product the pencilers envisioned. In point of fact, the writers were in many cases the only reason the books had any cultural value at all.
The highest paid and most influential penciler at the time, Macfarlane insisted that his new born baby daughter inspired him to call it quits at the top of his success at Marvel. He spent his free time negotiating with other pencilers an idea he and Liefield had been considering. They were able, with few exceptions such as Brian Stillfreeze, to convince almost every penciler or inker they were interested in to jump ship at Marvel. Thus Image Comics was born, and the “Big Two” (Marvel & DC) became “The Big Three,” virtually overnight. Thru Image Comics Macfarlane invested in marketing his characters in film, animation and with huge success started Macfarlane Toys.
During this same time period Ronald Perelman, a Jewish billionaire, bought Marvel, whose legacy was created by Jews who suppressed their Jewish heritage. Ironically, Perelman’s only humanitarian tendency was his strong support for traditional Jewish culture. His personal day-to-day concern over Marvel was minimal. He used Marvel as means to funnel money into his personal assets through the use of Junk Bonds. He had friends in Hollywood who could have helped Lee’s quest in the film industry, but Perelman specifically desired not to do business with celebrity friends. His business arrangements with…
Comics Journal Radio “Todd Macfarlane Interview circa. 1992” by Gary Groth published on www.tcj.com/The Comics Journal #152 last herd June 3rd, 2002, 10:34 pm
Page 5, Comic Wars by Dan Raviv published in New York, NY by Broadway Books, a division of Random House Inc., 2002.
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Page 8 Raviv
…Toy Biz president the Israeli hard-nosed Ike Perlmutter and toy designer Avi Arid provided Marvel with the only truly beneficial arrangement. Under Perelman, Marvel went public. With the rising success of Comics driven by the collector market and the Macfarlane Marvel era talent pool, the stock grew.
Although Perelman was unconcerned, Perlmutter, who was an expert on trends in bankruptcy, predicted the Marvel stock was a disaster waiting to happen. His predictions were based on the use of Junk Bonds and 100’s of millions in bank loans through Marvel received without question due to the clout of Perelman's billions. Said prediction was not based on the state of the comics industry, which was far more fragile then either man cared to be aware of. The industry was driven by a small market that bought Comics in the anticipation of growth in value of the products. Collectors presumed that the celebrity penciled work would be the source from which the Comics grew in value, as iconic character had been that element for issues prior to the existence of a collectors market. In previous decades, adult appreciation of the medium was low, but quantities printed were high, making Comics affordable for the baby boom youth market. But in the 1980’s the cautious collectors market bought the high print run Comics and preserved them too effectively to provide a substantial lose in the quality and number. The isolation of the comic book market by “direct distribution”, Comic conventions and Comic shops has been left with little outside demand for the Comics preserved by collectors.
After Marvel lost the majority of its top artists to Image, Perlmutter's concerns over Perelman's stock market tactics came to fruition. Marvel’s stock fell and the collectors’ market bubble broke. A significant amount of Comic shops closed. Marvel found itself in bankruptcy court, crippling the entire industry. A court battle ensued between the banks, the junk bond holders (led by the unscrupulous Jewish billionaire…
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Page 6, “State of the Comics Industry 2002: Recovery or Decline?” by Michael Dean printed in The Comics Journal No. 245 published in Seattle, WA. by Fantagraphics Inc. 2002.
Page 95 Raviv
…Carl Icahn), and Perelman over who would own Marvel and its subsidiaries. Briefly Icahn won. Toy Biz, led by Perlmutter’s frighteningly cool and calculating tactics, along with Arid’s passion for Marvel characters were able heroically to save Marvel from Icahn’s grasp. As the end of the millennium came and went, Marvel emerged, tattered from its near death experience.
The Comics Industry growth mirrored the nation’s economic trends of the Dot-Com/Clinton Era in positive ways as well. Influences from Japan, the world’s most proliferate Comics culture, began to infiltrate the American style and diversify the audience and artist base. The Los Hernandez Bro Era continued through the 80’s and 90’s creating a new wing of intellectualism in the Comics culture. Cartoonists to join this niche included Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, and Jim Woodring who by the end of the millennia were finally managing to make a living. Indy (Independent) companies such as Fantagraphics, Drawn and Quarterly and Top Shelf were achieving enough success to invest in relatively new cartoonists such as Joe Sacco, Adrian Tomine and Dave Cooper. Indy Comics publisher Dark Horse, armed with an exclusive contract from Lucas films and Comics by diverse cartoonist including, Frank Miller developed into the premiere of the small press houses that seemed to be popping up monthly. Asked if comics were at “at tipping point,” cartoonist Art Spieglman recently responded, “Yeah, something’s really afoot.” He seemed to finally see his work as less of an anomaly. Perhaps Comics are tipping to help fill the cultural vacuum in the American intellectual and aesthetic knowledge base. Perhaps the industry is breeding a Comic culture, which describes, with imagination and stimulating creativity, the life of its environment and the lives of others and their environments…
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60 Minutes, “The Superheros” Interviews by Simon, Bob on CBS Television broadcast on November 13th, 2002
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PROGNOSTICATIONS
Arid and Stan Lee, were able to produce the successful Marvel Comics based film, “The X-Men”. This was the first of many potential Marvel blockbuster trilogies. Marvel was even able to untangle the film licensing of “Spiderman”, which has led to over ½ a billion in “Spiderman” ticket and DVD sales. Marvel has become a licensing machine for Comic character intellectual property rights. Marvel contracted penciler Joe Quesada and inker Jimi Palmiatie’s Marvel Knights studio to revamp Marvel characters such as “Daredevil”. Marvel Knights provided innovative writing by Comic Fan/Film Director Kevin Smith among others. Marvel has attempted too balance emphasis on films with the appointment of Quesada as the editor-in-chief. For the first time in decades, Marvel exhibits a desire, to make an honest effort to reach new generations of children through a product suitable for the under-12 age group. Stealing a page from the success of the 1980’s Marvel has also appease the growing sophistication of the adult market by utilized cutting edge Sequential Artist like writer/artist team Tim Sale & Jeph Loeb and Alternative cartoonists James Sturm. One hopes that the seeds of the balanced approach Marvel seems to be testing will be pursued aggressively. Regretfully Marvel is presently being sued by retailers focused on a policy of not accepting returns on comics after 30 days. Marvel had been late on prints which had cost retailers sales. In addition part of Marvels apparent motive is an attempt at jump-starting resurgence in the dormant collectors market.
Across the street at D.C., a partnership was formed with Jim Lee’s branch of Image, Wild Storm, featuring the appropriately named subsidiary America’s Best Comics, produced new series written by Moore. Brothers parent company Time Warner merged with AOL providing an additional medium for DC to freely diversify its consumer base. DC’s parent company has since been caught up in the current accounting and stock scandals.
The occasional highlight of a cartoonist appearing in an article in Time Magazine, on “60 Minutes” or on National Public Radio give glimmers of hope or perhaps false prophecy. The record braking success of…
60 Minutes November 13th, 2002
Page 8 Dean, “State of the Comics Industry 2002: Recovery or Decline?”
…Spiderman, the film, has only confirmed film product placement as the primary source for Comics publicity. Comic adaptations to film such as Ghost World, From Hell, and Road to Perdition have been or in the case of League of Extraordinary Gentleman are expected to be critical financial successes that translate into a rise in exposure for the cartoonist who’s work the film is based on. While films about cartoonist and Comics culture such as Crumb, The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys and Chasing Amy may only expose the general public to a stereotype many in the Comics Industry are trying to shed. Regardless it should be of concern to the industry that for a Comic to reach its current potential it must first be embraced by the creators of another medium, film.
The theme throughout the life of American Comics has been the slow unraveling of the industry. Shockingly, Comic Artist Sturm after the turn of the century stated after the Columbine High School shootings, that the lack of mention of Comics as a medium enjoyed by the shooters did not bode well for the industry. Four decades earlier, Comics popularity would have led to it’s fingering as the first scapegoat. He then depressingly joked; “Comics? That’s so 20th Century.” Still the Comics Legal Defense Fund regularly takes cases such as Kraft vs. King VelVeeda.
“…Unable to afford an attorney, Helm (cartoonist/defendant: King VelVeeda aka Stuart Helm) undertook to defend himself… In the end, though, it was the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) that took up Helm’s Case… Kraft Senior Communications Manager Kris Charles… ‘This is not a case of an infringement of copyright or trademark. We have not contended that Mr. Helm competes with Kraft. It’s a case of dilution. We want Mr. Helm to cease using “VelVeeda” in his commercial activities, because it might cause our brand name to be tarnished…”
“Winter 2000 Scetch Book: Sturmisms” by Ben Cohen notes taken in Savannah, GA, 2000.
Page, 16-19, “Kraft vs. King VelVeeda” by Michael Dean printed in The Comics Journal No. 245 published in Seattle, WA. By Fantagraphics Inc. 2002.
The trial is still in process.
Perhaps one of the most critical concerns for Comic retailers and small press operations is distribution. Diamond Distribution, who has no true rival, dominates the market. LPC Distribution, one of the only traditional remaining distributors friendly to book format Comics, went bankrupt, crippling many small press companies and nearly closing down Top Shelf. Top Shelf was rescued by pleading to its (thankfully) highly appreciative readers.
Comics are a reflection of, not a cause of behavior in society. As with other art, they have come under fire because of perceived immorality of their content. This is a result of erosion of civility, brought on by the same homogenization practices prescribed by governmentally endorsed special interest sponsored Cold War ideals and pollster driven news & entertainment media. The industry as a whole has failed to act holistically with regards to the problems and solutions it has been faced with. It is easy to pass this failure off as another result of an artistically and intellectually deficient American culture. But the industry itself must take responsibility not to behave like lemmings. Confronted by a stagnating and then slowing American economy, the Comic Book industry has succumbed to its historically passive approach to business.
In order to reverse a century of conditioning, the Comic Book industry needs to change the structure of its business model. Comics must resist the seduction of Hollywood, with its mercantile economics and creativity by popularity poll. True economic success does not lie in exposure of Comics’ stories and characters through a rival medium. Straightforward informative advertising campaigns in film, television, radio, the Internet and print media, utilizing cutting-edge communication techniques of its cartoonists will help. Comics must produce quality stories presented in a format that is sound in researched character and environment, graphic design, storytelling literacy, illustration aesthetics and high levels of reflection and philosophy. A diversification of the stories must be a high priority. Promotional campaigns must be…
Page 3-8, “LPC’s Chapter 11 and Top Shelf’s Near Death Experience” printed in The Comics Journal No. 243 published in Seattle, WA. by Fantagraphics Inc. 2002.
…centered on attracting audiences that would be interested specifically in each particular story, while also providing the opportunity for these stories to be consumed by a public that was not part of the initial demographic. These efforts will create a source of consistent economic growth for the industry.
Capitalist competition, informed by environmentally and socially conscious principles, needs to exist universally among the Comic publishers. Comic shops should consider merging with the struggling Indy music stores and bookstores to create community centers of commerce for cultural pools of new trends and old knowledge. The dark, sloppy, perverse, desperate, bastion of adolescent, elitist Comic shops must be changed to invite a wider clientele. Competitive distribution must fairly contribute to helping these new, locally-operated literary arts and culture markets succeed. Large bookstore chains must be pressed to carry Comics printed in traditional book form to be placed in sections of subject pertaining to the content of the Comics. Films, videogames, TV programs, toys, accessories and web sights will still feature Comics product placement, but comics should no longer rely on the success of these other media to provide the financial payoff through trickle-down economics. Eisner’s father summed up his son’s publishing business, “What you have there…is a wheelbarrow. Sure, it’s a machine, but if you don’t push it, it won’t go.” The Comic Book Industry must gather up the diversified yet unified courage to push in the correct direction up the mountain.
Page 23, Shop Talk interviews by Will Eisner published in Milwaukie, OR. By Dark Horse Comics, Inc. 2001.
Thesis Advisor: Ted Stern (1961-201f) of Splitsville, Fuzz & Pluck, Daria, Rick and Morty, Beavis and Butt-Head) *edited March 29, 2026
