industry of comics, manga, comic etc. It is quite extensive and is present in different countries but with greater influence in the U.S., France and Japan. His popularity is such that it is considered by many as the ninth art. However, the history of this industry we mark a before and after it shows this: before 1990 and after 1990, why? Because before that fateful decade, the comic was particularly popular in the American people, numbers and series sold like hotcakes and most of the children as well as adults had a small collection to his credit.
The quality of the stories in the comic was otherwise sublime as great English writers such as Alan Moore or let us quote Grant Morrison, who thanks to his excellent work as writers gave us true works of art as The Joker, not killer Arkham Ashylum forget a house on a serius serius earht. So at that time the comic and did not become part of a pastime for children, but was accepted by most of the adult community. A story published 23 years ago sold almost three quarters of a million copies each. Not bad, compared with fewer than 250,000 copies sold the most popular comic today, in an average week. We talked about that now, in 2007, selling a third of the circulation that was sold in 1984 is cause for celebration.
But came the nineties and that it was destroyed by what became building for over 50 years, a bankruptcy in the industry as never thought and unfortunately it was because of bad decisions and the importance of selling and making money instead to deliver quality stories as was done previously, also applies to the rotation end that gave star characters of the respective companies DC and Marvel was also caused many fans left this medium of art, but that we'll talk later . As soon
start now if that were to review the causes, consequences and what is happening now, let me say that the industry definitely has not had the same appearance and popularity from the end of the eighties.
We will first explain the decline of comics in the nineties, which is the title of this post. As well, simply due to the bankruptcy of the company comiquera in this decade due to bad decisions and turnarounds in the industry. STARTED AS
the late eighties the press and various companies collectors began to spread by the media costs rare or very rare comics such as: the Action Comics # 1 was where the character of Superman made his first occurrence see price reached more than fifty thousand dollars, currently worth nearly one million. People then knew how valuable it was to own a rare and old comic, also some people saw a big business in putting together a great collection of comics, save for years after its original price will double or triple, of course people started buy more and more numbers and speculating on the amount of money that would be worth the comics they bought themselves. It was then that the big companies saw the opportunity for easy money. Marvel
The company made its first move: reissued the story of his main character: Spiderman and I believe an alternate story which already had a new series called "Ultimate Spiderman" with the number # 1 of course what happened?, hordes of fans comiqueros bought the number and the next in the series had just begun. Marvel also released new versions with new series of characters and stories, and post course people ventured to buy it thinking that these numbers would have the same value as the golden age of comics in the years 40-50. Suddenly
revealed another side of these new numbers, fell like a bucket of cold water to the fans and it got hard numbers and it did not matter if they had bought "Ultimate Spiderman" not worth even a tenth of that Amazing Fantasy # 15 which was the original first appearance of the spider. Neither the purchase of X-men # 1 never reach the real price was the first X number of men issued in September 1963. Marvel
The company had also drawn the unforgettable covers metal variants, ie, created several covers for a single comic to the consumer the enjoyment of an art than in the same comic, but this was really a waste of money, as none of these covers was valuable to me for example I do not see the reason to buy the same comic over and over again just because the cover is different.
So after all fans realized how they had been deceived as they had lost their money foolishly, so in retaliation decided to stop buying comics for ever and give back to the ninth art that accompany both.
That was part of Marvel, DC Now let's review the other major company comiquera United States, which only served to worsen the situation in the early nineties after recount the changes already. At that time, DC along with his editors got really to think how to have sales of its main character "Superman" went up. And what better way to do it with a shocking story, really impossible and that many did not dare to mention, but at last big bosses were decided and created editorial: THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN.
To date, the best-selling graphic novel of all time, the plot was obviously as in the death of the Super at the hands of a powerful enemy, the fans of that character quickly turned around and started back to buy the numbers the series, but not only that, but the media and the press created an uproar all the news and gave various reports and look at it, also people who were not associated with the comics but knew the character began to buy the numbers . Consumers were very happy to have got the numbers where a celebrity dying.
After followed with another character pillar industry, we refer to "Batman", but differentiate with Superman, this character was not killed but that crippled the spine breaking and destroying both physically and emotionally in a very good story called THE FALL THE BAT. Do not forget also another hero that changed in that time, a hero who had not been as popular as the previous two but also had the huge number of fans, called "Green Lantern" at that time was Hal Jordan. The exchange rate for the came with the arrival of the young man who changed Parallax flashlight in a wicked and evil.
Y and here the second pump the already growing more acute drop comiquera industry. It began with Superman Returns, series that followed the death, fans received another bucket of cold water, and not only them, also the press and the people who really believed that invincible man was dead. And the character of Batman were not happy with the changes my favorite character in addition to consumers also suffered from Green Lantern to his suicide to save humanity from Parallax.
These events filled the patience to consumers and these as well as they did with Marvel, stopped buying comics, whether veterans who had years to buy the series, or more new stories are hopeful but ultimately felt cheated. All this led to the decline of the comic industry fell even more, since sales were not any good, many comics specialty shops closed forever, (that is why only a few survive today in the U.S.), plus large closed distribution companies so that the numbers never reached the people who called or comic shops. After all this could be blamed only to companies DC and Marvel but there was also another cause of the fall we will review now.
In the middle of the decade some famous artists like Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and especially Tom Rob Macfarlane Lielfeld (considered Hitler to the comics) decided to withdraw from the companies they worked (mostly Marvel) to create a revolutionary new competition called "Image Comics" this new comic book company looking to attract new audiences with fresh stories and new characters. The idea was not bad, but the truth is that although art and drawing comics that were born in Image was excellent and full of details, the story and the plot left much to be desired, the editors were content just to make characters muscular and full of weapons, with much blood and violence but leaving behind the good stories. It was then when people saw that comics were a thing of the past and were just stereotypes, some racist and also frowned upon by either the great attributes that are added to the heroines or bizarre stories where even Jesus our sinuses into a superhero. With all that the comic made a poor reflection of the world and just got more fans and consumers to stay away from the ninth art. CRISIS
the worst I can say, in the worst comic industry these are not sold, accounts and business dropped dramatically comiqueras had no choice but to fire people, to cancel and close sucursusales series. The comics who survived at that time were poorly facts, some with horrific pictures and stories unlikely that the reader left with nothing but nauseous and the thought of throwing out the purchase they had made.
DC and Marvel had a single distribution company so far is the only one still in force, so many shops closed and semi-professional comics were only specialty stores, also many newsstands stopped selling comics, this is why that 80% or 90% of comic strips are sold in specialty stores. Nothing to do as it was before the nineties. Image Comics along with another new company called Dark Horse titles, and created countless new series that buyers could not choose one only, so the series was sold less.
other hand we must mention the cartoonist Rob Lielfeld, as this was fundamental to the crisis thanks to their evil works and arguably disgusting decisions in the world of comics. What happened to this man is that in the early Image Comics tried to copy the formula of many heroes of the Marvel already established, like Captain America who would think a copy absurd for a new comic, which sued Marvel, however, the series continued with restrictions of course, and ultimately never had the same success as in the famous comic was based. After that ill-treatment had Lielfeld Image, so he left the company to create a new one without success. He is currently working again with Marvel but it is certain that if a comiquero see your name in a comic rather buy it to burn or throw it away instead of someone else who knows nothing of his whereabouts to read. A NEW DECADE
By 2000 and Marvel and other companies engaged in ninth art was his chance to start on the right foot and to invite new and old readers to approach this means that both entertained and made them dream and enjoy the adventures they never would in real life. The arrival of the comics "good" or quality could be said, was achieved with Com Kingdom (the kingdom come). Comic consisting of four parts but a wonderful epilogue, written brilliantly by Marck Waid coming to be the pioneer of good writers in the late 90's, and sketched by one, they might say the best artist in comics, I mean Alex Ross who thanks to his drawings that exuded quality and see where they are building a bold cartoons, comic achieved that win awards and praise from all parts of the medium comiquero.
That was part of the company's DC, but the house of ideas can not be far behind, discarding the gruesome holographic covers and full of advertising and bringing us good stories either MAX line pair in which adult readers can find great stories like The Punisher plus it also launched the Age line for young readers, plus it introduced a new line of Ultimate I had left behind, but now with the great writer Mark Millar. This was achieved sales to go up and companies survive.
to finalize and conclude this essay on "the fall" is to say it is true that early in the new decade companies rose from his painful break with good decisions and removing the rubbish that was made at 90. But it is very difficult not impossible to achieve the popularity and the number of sales they had before, that is, a comic is sold in more than 10000 strips and now if it reaches that number is a total success. Major companies have to work hard and it seems that they are succeeding because several films that have been made are based on its characters and have achieved blockbuster numbers, plus that little by little is getting to live here in Mexico the furor that had been for so many years thanks to stories like Miles CIVIL WAR teacher and the incorporation of taking away the rights to Televisa Mexican company to publish Vid Marvel comics, that's good because Vine was and is still in darkness, nothing to see for years.
