Thread by @Iron_Spike

Missed the day's comics industry drama, found the Twitter account responsible, did a quick read-through.

Well! That felt very.... unique.

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Anyway, just some random thoughts, from a person who's actually creating and selling comics successfully in the modern market.

- The current comic book "universes" (DC, Marvel) and their film derivations aren't a thing someone sat down and came up with. It's the work of many hundreds of people (possibly more) over the course of a half-century plus, Katamari'd together by multi-generational efforts.

There's no cheat code for this. It is literally a thing that takes decades of effort. Dozens of outfits have made the mistake of believing people want "superhero universes." They don't. They want familiar characters they feel they understand and (sorta) know what to expect from.

The comics graveyard is packed to the brim with jagoffs who thought they could make a list of 50 superheroes and launch with 20 monthly titles, and they would be Marvel in a year.

That doesn't happen. That's not how any of this works.

- "We're doing it like Stan lee and Jack Kirby did in 1961!"

...

I'll pass on the easy jokes and just say this:

It's not 1961.
The 1961 comics market does not exist.
The 1961 comics audience does not exist.

This is like saying "We will conquer Hollywood by shooting in COLOR!"

- BOY, a lot of that Twitter is drivel. But every once in awhile, it mentions "profit" and "IP" in a way that absolutely assures me no one on board over there has the first fucking clue.

If you think comics make you rich, you're not in comics. Or you won't be for long.

Hi, what's up, I have made Literal Millions of Dollars in comics.

Look me in the eye.

DON'T DO THIS FOR THE MONEY.

We can't compete. Despite METORIC growth in the past few years, a market that's literally doubled in size, We're still about 1/25th the size of prose publishing. We do not have the readership to make bunches of millionaires. The audience just doesn't exist, yet.

Practically every comics success story requires the cartoonist/character to do something that is Not Comics. Film, prose, TV. There's a good reason for that.

There are outliers, people who work exclusively in comics and make phat staxxx. But they're just that.

And they are definitely.

DEFINITELY.

Not making My Very First Superhero Universe comics.

There's a reason Disney just bought Marvel instead of trying to manufacture their own superheroes, you know. They weren't just buying people in capes; they were buying ~70 years of name recognition and pleasant associations.

(Same deal with Star Wars. Disney is perfectly capable of pulling their own, original space opera epics out of thin air. By why bother? Y'all already love Star Wars.)