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Underground > Comic Books >

Sociology of comic fans question...

19:20 / 16.07.03

I'm relatively new to online comic fandom, and have been struck by an odd dynamic that seems to be unique to comic fans. Namely, online comic fans seem to spend an inordinate amount of time debating things like industry sales dynamics, distribution systems, marketing strategies, and other issues related to the business (rather than the creative) end of things. I'm curious why this is. On forums and newsgroups dedicated to, say, science fiction novels, the discussion tends to center around the books themselves for the most part. There are occasional forays into gossipy details about the personal lives of authors, but there's not any noticeable concern with industry sales strategies, inter-publisher rivalries, marketing science fiction to mystery readers, etc. What is it about comics that makes fans care so much about these essentially business-related issues?

19:59 / 16.07.03

its a fear of the modern comic fan that the industry, and with it the medium, is dying. thats why we watch sales figures and the such like sports fans on steroids.

21:30 / 16.07.03

In book publishing there is a reasonably healthy system. Authors have agents, publishers use agents, booksellers use publishers. Then feedback from recognised and agreed systems is used to assess how well the public have recieved the work.
So, an SF novelist has an idea of how well his work is recieved. Perhaps it does well in the market, perhaps she doesn't even get an agent because bo-one has faith in the work. This then means that distribution is largely a given, and the work may fight on its own merits.
In comics, not a single one of theses conditions apply. The quality of work has no real relation to its saleability for agents. The agents (if any, the agents are usually just the artists/writers themselves) have no power in negotiation with the publishers. The comics sellers have little or no power in relation to the two or three publisheres/distributors. The customer generally ends up with a poor choice of items to buy. The firm sale tradition and backlist market distorts the customer-to-publisher feedback.
So, there is a horrible mess in distribution which screws with the quality and saleabilty of comics; this does not happen in bookselling.
This is why comics fans care about distribution and SF book fans do not (generally) need to.

21:32 / 16.07.03

Excube mi typos...
It's late...

02:54 / 17.07.03

I wouldn't say that's a behavior unique to comics fans. Fans of the movie industry keep tabs on budgets, release dates, career histories, studio financials, etc. Sports fans are arguably more rabid than comics fans in this regard, keeping tabs on player salaries and individidual game statistics, career histories of team managers and owners, etc.

On the other side of that, though - The comics industry is relatively small and certainly less lofty and/or closely guarded than other industries - thus its inner workings are more accessible, more easily debated. The prevailing fear/feeling that the industry is in dire straits much of the time (mentioned above), and the fact that the business side of comics tends to be handled poorly lead fans to feel it is in their intellectual interest to keep tabs on and debate the subject, I would think.

All Acting Regiment

12:56 / 17.07.03

Also, there's the fact that if we all talked about which comics we liked exclusively all the time, we'd end up getting into petty rivalries. i.e. "King Mob was bald long before Spider Jerusalem" "No he wasn't" "Yes he was"etc.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:15 / 17.07.03

Or, Chris, we could try discussing the content of comics intelligently. In fact, there's been a long if occasionally overlooked tradition of doing just that here.

15:03 / 17.07.03

There's also the (kind of odd) fact that there's a long tradition of readers corresponding with writers & editors in comics. The fans have been more familiar with the business side of things because they're more engaged with the people producing the product. There was a similar sort of thing with science fiction mags and other pulp outlets from the 30s to around the 50s or so, but they got all "booked up" in a way. Comics are still sold as pamphlets.

15:38 / 17.07.03

I think it's most similar to sports fans.

19:34 / 17.07.03

i dont think it has much to do with the relative health of the industry, fans were doing this back when sales were soaring. i think a lot of it comes from the idea that many comic fans want to be a part of the industry. since writing and drawing require special skills, its easier for someone to think they could do a better job as an editor or publisher, which seems easy (although it really is not. all the people giving their 2 cents do so with second hand or biased info and what they read online, rarely do they have all the facts, and things like budgets, schedules, costs and profitability never seem to factor in)

19:41 / 17.07.03

What is it about comics that makes fans care so much about these essentially business-related issues?

Dorks love numbers.

21:53 / 17.07.03

Yeah. Big Numbers.
Huhuh.
Zeroes are cool, too. Even if they're not, like, numbers.
Yeah.

01:17 / 20.07.03

I think a lot of it has to do with the accessibility of pros, through stuff like the Warren Ellis Forum, or Joe Quesada responding to a rumor column on a fan site, and arguing in "public" with another creator. This just doesn't happen in film or TV, and the fact that creators seem human makes it much easier to say that you could do a better job. Also, because the inner workings of the industry are exposed, it's much easier to discuss the state of the industry. Basically, since it's on a smaller scale, and somewhat in danger, it's easy to talk about comics as an industry, in addition to the comics themselves.