The years old standard conventional habit, of buying (mostly Marvel/DC superhero) monthly comics are dying. The idea of walking into a comic shop (or newsstand of years gone by) and picking up a handful of comics to read, enjoy (and maybe collect) just doesn't make sense anymore. And it has nothing to do with the writer or artist.

It just doesn't make any sense to spend nearly $4 for 24 pages of a chapter of an ongoing story. A chapter, for the most part, that gives the reader no synopsis or even worse makes them have to come into the story with a ton of backstory knowlege or they'll be totally lost.

The art of telling a story, adventure, humor, dramatic, etc... with sequential graphic work is NOT dying. It's just moving to stand alone books.

The habit of buying and reading affordable, readable, monthly comics is dying and no hot or well known creator will be able to save it.

Comics still sell a lot in Japan and France. Why?

The general perception is that comics are for kids, however , kids don't read comics anymore. Sure one or two do but the overwhelming majority see it as something that is "childish" (funny coming from a kid). At the same time, the current generation of comic book readers are growing up, getting married and having kids. They simply don't follow the comics they way they used to. Not to mention that comics are really expensive these days (i live in the U.K and spending 1.50 pounds on a comic is quite painful at times). Hence the rise of the graphic novel and marvel and dc (especially marvel) tailor their storylines for that format. Again, i don't see how having thousands of creators writing comics all over the place will help..in fact, if anything, that will cannibalize the market even further ( a la image in the early 90's) and we all know the comic book industry today CAN NOT support too many comic book companies. Again, what needs to be done is to bring in new readers..if manga sells the way they say it does in america (i don't personally like manga) then something needs to be done. Kirkman's idea isn't one of them.

Comics are having the same problems other declining mediums are facing. There are so many alternatives for kids now, be it games, movies, etc. And these alternatives are much better quality-wise now than they were 10 or 20 years ago.

One other problem getting newer fans to many titles is, there's too much backstory for people to catch up. Daytime soaps have the same problem.

“Comics is a dying art.”

So’s your grammar.

Would you prefer one of the following:

"Comics are a dying art"
"Comic is a dying art"

The original grammar is correct because "Comics", the way it's used in that sentence, is a singular collective noun. If you is gonna be a grammar nazi, be correct.

I'm not sure that I agree with the sentiment of the sentence, by the way. Superhero comics probably are in trouble - they have an aging readership, and very little is being done to bring new readers in. Most people who enjoy superheroes these days seem to do so in other mediums.

On the other hand, non-superhero comics seem to be doing better than ever these days.

So's your grammar.

Also, what Grant Morisson said.
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/08/29/grant-morrison-is-god/

Why not?
Somebody has to do it.

Comics is a dying art.

Did it not occur to Marvel that there might be people who lost interest in Bendis's run but were now ready to try the book again? Apparently Marvel didn't want us back or didn't care.

After all, Brubaker and Lark were coming off "Gotham Central", a DC book, so maybe some people picking this up would be buying their first Marvel book, right? Did they ever buy another?

1 he now works for Image this has been siad by others but when it comes handling creator owned property Image does alot of some of it good some not so good but this cry for independts help image out
think about it did he suggest creator go to Vertigo or fantigraphics? the problem with Imege is that it is intirly up to the creators how the advertise if they are succsessful the geat a larger percentage of profits. I will be honest and say I really don't look at most of images stuff I watch for Fell and the WitchBlade title but that is all .

2 he has had limited sucsess out side of Image yes Marvel Zomies did well but look at how much faith Marvel had in Jubile . IT was a fantastic series that if it had had and artist that drew The character more like she was supposed to be drawn would have been sucsessful they ended it six issues. with this decree he can justify not working for the top two

good day

The comic book industry is dying a slow death not because creators don't create and write their own material but because a generation is growing up and more needs to be done to get in new readers. Heck, i am not going to pretend that i have a solution but creator owned by unknown creators will only clutter the already cluttered market and achieve nothing.

By the way, Kirkman's Ultimate X-men sucked like hell!!!

Criticizing this article would be the same thing that Curran did to Kirkman's, so I'll stop at it.

On the bright side, I think there was a lot of sense into what Kirkman said. I'm 38 years old and I see comic books aimed at me. No way when I was 13 years old I would have jumped into the comic book wagon with stories that require you've been at least 15 years in the reading to understand what's going on. Yes, DC and Marvel are milking this market, but they're not creating a new one, so, they're marked for death as an industry.

Kirkman's idea is great, considering he managed to get great success with Invincible and his other creations and let's not talk Marvel and DC numbers, that's different from all basis. What he suggests sounds like one of the basis behind the creation of Image, with the difference that this time there would be more than great artists, there would be great writers behind the project.

I do like DC and Marvel a lot, but it's not hard to see where they're going at this point. So, the industry better creates a new option soon or it will fade away.

I think he was able to do that with Ant-Man, somewhat, and it's his only Marvel work that really stands up.

I'm way more impressed with someone who can do amazing things within the system, who can build off years of continuity as a tool and not a hinderance, especially if they can do it while keeping the stories meaningful and accessible than someone who bounces around their own stuff. I think it's got a much higher level of difficulty, but that's just me.

(And yes. I just realized I said that I think it's harder to write well someone else's characters, with tons of back story to build upon, than to come up with your own quasi-original ideas. You don't have to point this out to me. I get what I just said).

Aside: part of the problem with Jericho as a face was that he was trying to "save" everyone from Randy Orton, who by that point had gotten quite awesome.