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Is that how you see it?
I see it as a medium trying desperately trying to recapture readers who went away, combined with companies who see that they can only make money through adaptations of their works in other mediums. Partly because TV series ARE the main medium in which people get their stories now, and in a way, that can be fine if done right. I don't think anyone would mind a comic that was as well-written as "The West Wing" was for its first 4 years, or was an well plotted as "The Sopranos". The problem isn't that they are trying to emulate TV series, but that they don't extend their reach.
Why?
Simple. Comics that extend their reach don't do well.
We all point to Sandman as a comic that expanded the market, but damn if it didn't sell pretty poorly as a COMIC BOOK. When X-Force was pumping 350,000 copies a month of Wildman art, Sandman was lucky to sell 80,000. The trades sold, but not in comic shops, and no matter how much we'd like it to be otherwise, comic shops are where American comics have to succeed.
There are ways to change this...mostly by buying better comics and getting other people to do so as well, and buying them in book stores showing bookstore owners to stock more Invisibles, Clumsy, True Story Swear To God and other comics that aren't pilots for movies.
But as readship goes down, companies have to go with what works, sadly, because they have corporate boards and shareholders to answer to. |
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