The State of the Comics Market: Struggles, Successes, and Optimism for the Future

While the manga market has experienced a new golden age in France in recent years, sales of comics and American comics are attracting less and less the public.

In the lands of Franco-Belgian comics, manga thrives so much that comics seem to be struggling. At the end of October, Sullivan Rouaud, collection director of Hi Comics, French publisher of Ninja Turtles and of Scott Pilgrim, alerted on the social network

While the best-selling manga that week exceeded 15,000 copies, the future of comics in France actually seemed bleak after prosperous years driven by the miraculous success of Walking Dead (5 million copies sold). A pessimistic vision of the state of the comics market that the publisher still accepts a few weeks later.

“I don’t really have the impression of being pessimistic, but it is clear that the figures are stubborn and that the dynamics of the first weeks and new developments are much worse than before Covid, and this is unfortunately not no better for the catalog collection,” he explains. Clementinespin-off de Walking Dead released in early November, sold less than 600 copies in the first week.

“Beyond the figures, the most important thing is that comic book shelves are disappearing in Fnac and Cultura and to a lesser extent in specialized booksellers,” he continues. “A phenomenon which very well illustrates the decline in comics readership is that we find ourselves today faced with an accidental gap between ourselves.”

A niche even in the United States

In the United States, the birthplace of comics, the situation is similar, indicates American cartoonist Joe Kelly, co-author of I Kill Giants et Immortal Sergeant (Hi Comics): “Comics remain a niche market even in the United States. Sales of bestsellers rarely exceed 100,000 copies. Even if ComicCon is a hit and the nerd stuff we love is omnipresent, the comics are not yet accepted.”

“We have some big licenses which continue to be profitable if not a hit, but independent comics are suffering and new series are having difficulty establishing themselves,” confirms Thierry Mornet, editorial manager at Delcourt. “It’s quite paradoxical: the offer has never been so varied, prolific and qualitative compared to what the market was around thirty years ago but today nothing is established in a sustainable way .”

“We always say that books are a refuge sector. It is until the repetition of crises affects it,” explains Nicolas Beaujouan, boss of 404 Comics. “The book market is in decline in all sectors. The comics market, which has always been a niche market, and already has a lot of difficulty in general introducing new things to people, is the most directly affected .”

This market is also weakened by the explosion in the cost of licenses. “As crazy as it may seem, buying comics costs on average much more than buying Manga rights,” reveals Sullivan Rouaud, who also directs Mangetsu. “In the 2010s, and still today among certain market players, we see certain independent titles costing more than flagship series of the Shōnen Jump (famous manga pre-publication magazine, Editor’s note)We walk on the head.”

Optimism

However, there are reasons to be optimistic for the future, says François Hercouët, editorial director of Urban Comics (Batman, Wonder Woman): “Comics represented 4% of the comics market in 2022. 4% for a subgenre in such a dynamic market, that’s not bad!” And if Casterman and Glénat have closed their comic collections, new publishers have launched since the pandemic: 404 Comics in 2021 and Black River in 2022.

Two houses from the same group, Editis. “It shows the desire of one of the three major publishing groups to have a share of the comics market. It’s proof that if comics were really a subgenre, they wouldn’t bother being absolutely present in this ‘sub-genre'”, smiles Sullivan Rouaud. This multiplication of players in a market whose shares are not growing can be worrying.

“There is room for everyone,” says David Guelou, collection director of Black River. “It doesn’t have to be like in Highlander“, adds Nicolas Beaujouan. “There must not be only one left. Each house must have a specific and original proposal to show the diversity of the creation of comics and American comics.” Diversity that we find in particular in the catalogs of Bliss and Komics Initiative with more inclusive works (Aquicorne Bay) or reissued classics (Love & Rockets).

Exiting superheroes

The state of the comics market is also partly dependent on the problem of attractiveness of contemporary superhero stories. “These stories are no longer very exciting,” confirms American author Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Black Hammer). “There are so many Marvel and DC superheroes in cinema and television that people don’t even go to bookstores anymore because it’s everywhere now.”

“We need to publish comics that stick a little less to what Hollywood does in terms of films,” adds David Guelou. “We need to focus on genres other than superheroes, on another way of thinking about storytelling that corresponds more to modern readerships.”

“The corollary is obvious: if the quality is not there, readers will not come. We need mainstream comics that are strong so that people are interested in comics globally and that there is impact on independent production”, assures Arnaud Tomasini, editor-in-chief of the specialized site Comicsblogwho dedicated several investigations regarding.

Some encouraging figures

Despite the inventiveness of “Black Label”, DC’s collection intended for an adult audience, superheroic productions rarely work miracles outside the Batman universe. For a Batman Damned sold 30,000 copies or one Batman White Knight sold at 70,000, the post-apocalyptic story Wonder Woman Dead Earth reached 5,000 sales and Lonely Citya rereading of the myth of Catwoman, the 6,000.

Some figures for independents are encouraging. Black River sold 3,400 copies ofA study in emerald by Neil Gaiman. 404 Comics had the best start in its history with The Last Day by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. A comic book about serial killer Ed Gein sold 8,000 copies at Delcourt and the horror story Nice house on the lake 20,000 copies at Urban Comics. But these successes are often exceptional these days.

Offering rare works works. The catalog of Delirium, a small structure which publishes The Mask, Judge Dredd and Grand Prix d’Angoulême Richard Corben, is winning over unwavering aficionados. “We are selling less than 10,000 copies, but this audience is very loyal,” confirms its boss Laurent Lerner. “Our prints are often out of stock.”

Fight in bookstores

To survive, comics must, among other things, count on the support of booksellers. “When I see a bookseller putting one of my books in the comics section, I know that he is going to kill the book,” asserts Laurent Lerner. “When he puts Vietnam Journal (a historical fiction, Editor’s note) next to DeadpoolI know that readers of Deadpool will not necessarily want to read Vietnam Journal – and that readers of historical comics will not look at the comics.”

“The challenge is to get American comics out of the comics aisle: reach the right shelves and therefore reach the right readers,” continues the publisher. “I would be very happy to be placed among detective comics alongside Blacksad“, confirms Joe Kelly. “I wouldn’t rank my own comics among American comics, alongside Chris Ware, for example. I love his work but we are very different from each other.”

Not the real picture

According to several figures in the industry, this lack of visibility is amplified by the fact that part of the sales is not counted by the GFK reference ranking. “It’s hard to get a real picture of the American comics market,” says Nicolas Beaujouan. “The market should be closer to 12-14% than the 4% identified by GFK.”

Figures from the independent scene (Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware) are placed in comics while Donald, Mickey and Garfield are found as youth. “The 50,000 copies of What I like is monsters are counted as comics even though they are comics,” laments François Hercouët. “Seeing comics of American origin formatted as so-called graphic novels (embarrasses me),” laments Thierry Mornet.

Other elements explain this distorted vision of the comics market since 2019. “Panini’s low-cost collections which sold between 40,000 and 50,000 copies per volume systematically occupied the top of the bestseller rankings,” notes Arnaud Tomasini. “Their disappearance also somewhat distorts the vision we can have of the current market and its evolution.”

A question of cycle

While waiting for an improvement, the market is benefiting a little from comic book adaptations. If The Batman has small repercussions on the sales of the adventures of the dark knight, a film on Aquaman, Flash or even Shazam has none. But thanks to their adaptations on Netflix or Prime Video, works like The Boys, Sweet Tooth or Locke & Key were able to see their sales soar. After the broadcast of the Netflix series, Urban Comics sold around 1,000 copies of Sandman per week.

“Hope that the millions of spectators of a Batman rushing into a bookstore is utopian”, recognizes François Hercouët. But while the habits of comic book readers change, the situation of comics will eventually be reversed, he hopes: “It’s all a question of cycle. It’s true that we can’t blow up collector’s boxes. But I have a lot of hope for the DC licenses – especially with the arrival of James Gunn at the head of film and series production.”

“I remain optimistic because I don’t know what the future may have in store for us,” adds Thierry Mornet. “I always hope that the curiosity of the readership will prevail over consumption habits.” “America also offers a lot of genre stories and I think that the French readership is not receptive to everything,” insists Nicolas Beaujouan. “There is a reflection to be seen on what he can appreciate or not. It is not only a question of quality but also of culture.”

To get comics out of their ghetto, some publishers are also trying to change their format and offer them in a size reminiscent of manga or Franco-Belgian comics. “This popularization work will pay off in the next two years,” assures François Hercouët. Sullivan Rouaud is focusing instead on the new generation – notably Zoe Thorogood, whose new comic book he will release in early 2024. “Our job is above all to highlight new authors, new authors and new stories. We are here to propose discoveries, this is the primary mission of the publisher.”