What happened to original comics in the west? By original I mean stuff featuring the writer/artist's own characters and setting. There's barely anything being made, all that's coming out is stories from per-established superheroes.
I mean there is an absolutely massive amount of incredibly skilled artists in the west, but almost no original being made. How would you solve this issue? Large publication magazines? Online distribution? cheap B&W printing? How can a market for original stories be made in the west?
Well you know, aside from the publisher that put out the comic that inspired the game in your pic, among many other publishers...
Alexander Clark
Wtf are you talking about, do ever even go into a store? IDW, Boom, Aftershock, Vault, Black Mask, Image, Oni, Avatar, Lion Forge all exist. Shelves are full of varied product. Now it might actually not all be of great quality, but to say it doesn't exist is just wrong.
Juan Ward
They dont sell like they used to nor do they get attention. For as much as people like to shit on the big two and superheroes most dont explore the medium more or check out anything non mainstream.
Brayden Morales
>By original I mean stuff featuring the writer/artist's own characters and setting. You mean literally everything that Image publishes? And not just them, there's a fuckton of comics that showcase what you ask. Hell, some are even adapted to other media like Deadly Class, Umbrella Academy or, even more famously, Hellboy. You have to live under a rock to ask this question.
Jacob Kelly
they turned into webcomics
Aaron Johnson
>By original I mean stuff featuring the writer/artist's own characters and setting. They flopped because characters became obnoxious and a lot of premise potential was thrown out the bin.
They "flopped"? Are you implying creator-owned comics suddenly popped up last year and then immediately went away?
Landon James
Nah, I didn't mean that...I was just so bitter about that example I picked - that's the only thing that came to mind, to me, with "failed original comic".
Carter Johnson
I can't speak for all of them but enough pro artists are getting plenty of work at the Big Two, IDW or game designing, etc. even if most of the material is superheroes, Toy IPs, or what have you. Same goes for writers, I imagine.
However when it comes to "original" work, we don't really have a Shonen Jump Magazine or anything that can showcase original stuff; with a few exceptions like Usagi Yojimbo and some mini series here and there alot of "original"material just went online. There's hundreds of webcomics out there don by writer-artists (as in, one person does both) and it's largely not all that organized but many of them stay afloat through patreons, donations, or commission work on the side.
Austin Cruz
This.
Some user talked about it awhile back, with better numbers, but let's look at some examples.
Tracy Butler (Lackadaisy) posts a page, what, every other month? Granted, it's really talented artwork, but it's still a extremely low output.
1,584 supporters a month on Patreon. Let's say everyone gives $2, that's $3,168 a month. Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics) gets $1,636 a month for posting the same comic every day with different text. The Weaver (Ruby Quest, Boxdog, Pack Street, smut) gets $501. None of these are great salaries, but if you could supplement them with merch, or even another part time job, you'd have yourself a pretty good living.
As a comic from a distributor, those numbers are unsustainable, not to mention having limited creative control and a schedule. In some cases, you'd have to surrender the rights to your creation.
>tl;dr >webcomic: >complete creative control >livable wage >no schedule
>distributor >schedule >editors (for better or worse) >might surrender rights >livable wage
what are you talking about have you not seen the legions of TV pitch comics, have you ever even tried to buy a comic book or do you just read what's posted on Yea Forums?
Webcomics require more work to build up and pander to your audience of whom creatively you're at the mercy to.
for comics you have to produce more content more often but if you went strictly digital only with Comixlogy and were able to sell a 1000 copies of a book that's $2000 bones a month after Amazon's cut and that doesn't count back issues and bundles which should be evergreen on digital
Grayson Davis
>1000 copies of a book at $3 a pop fixed.
John Watson
look if you wanted me to pay attention to the content of your post, you wouldn't have attached an image of a sexy muscular catgirl amazon to distract me from it
Hunter Nelson
They have moved to Patreon, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, etc
Comics =/= money that's all it comes down to. Why be a quality artist getting paid under poverty line when you can go into some techy design route for big bucks, or worse scenario, get paid at or slightly above poverty line for illustration/storyboard work, or the absolute worst case scenario, start your own webcomic and at least have a chance at patreon dosh (plus you'd be creating your own story)
The people have spoken with their wallets. Comics do better as digital pdfs from indie webcomic creators, zines, webtoons, whatever, and artists who would make great comic artists see much more promise in other creative work.
Leo Hughes
nice opinion Jamal
Liam Roberts
Nice shilling, shill
Jackson Bailey
Only a brainlet could think that shit is even worth reading. Calling you a shill pushing CG trash because hearing dimwitted boomers validate your deranged insecurities makes you feel nice is a compliment compared to believing you're stupid enough to think that trash is better than anything pumped out by the big two.
Tyler Reyes
>Tracy Butler (Lackadaisy) posts a page, what, every other month? Granted, it's really talented artwork, but it's still a extremely low output. This is a common problem that Patreon has enabled on a mass scale. Because there often IS more content then before...so long as you're a patron. But if not then you never see the additional content and it makes the artists appear as lazy, greedy, dicks. Though in Tracy's case even one page a month is far more than when she had a dayjob. >1,584 supporters a month on Patreon. Let's say everyone gives $2, that's $3,168 a month. I can guarantee it's more than that. When Patreon still forced their users to show limited tier availability, I don't think I ever saw the $50/mo tier below 9/10 slots.
It's such a shame, my sister was friends with the creator of Warrior U, who had to stop making it because (at the time) there was just no way she could make money. That's my point, there's a few exceptions but comics are barely ever successful in the west. How would a magazine (like Jump, or others) do in the west? Heavy Metal exists but I'm talking pure comics running monthly/weekly series
>There's barely anything being made What? How are you missing all the original books that are out there? Does your local shop only carry Big Two stuff? Fucking Image and dozens of other publishers exist.
I'll glance through the thread, but are you just fucking with me?
Jason Green
I'll do it.
Eli Baker
Almost every publisher that isn't Marvel or DC or IDW or Dynamite or BOOM! publishes original shit. That's a fair percentage of comics.
Hunter Butler
I've always wanted to create a black and white pulp magazine on cheap paper and try to rent out a space to sell it at various local bookstores and other places. It would just be a collection of short stories, essays, art, comic pages and other things from local artists in my city. I have enough collected to at least begin to attempt this
why are you talking like original comics are gone? there's still plenty
Justin Phillips
OP, fucking read stuff outside if the Big Two and you’ll find original comics and stories by a lot of people. This shit you’re doing is exactly why people think people in Yea Forums don’t read comics.
Noah Gonzalez
>"west" = USA piss off
Kayden Evans
That isn't such a bad idea, the issue is how to print it and how many copies to not lose too much money on it.
Ian Hernandez
They still exist. It's just that Yea Forums only brings them up to shitpost about liberals and sjws.
Levi Gomez
If you start with porn and build up a pretty loyal fan base (like that one guy who used to exclusively draw Futas fucking guys, I think his name was Incase?) pivoted into drawing whatever he wanted because he got that big. He’s even done art for one of the big two.
Jaxon Hughes
There's plenty out there but original comics tend not to be that original. Even the top sellers now are just a hodgepodge bland bullshit.
Grayson Cruz
>From Eric Powell, Eisner Award winning creator of The Goon, comes an Appalachian fantasy epic that tells the story of Rondel. A lonely figure who wanders the wooded hills among witches and magical creatures as a folktale hero to those who dwell in this gritty fairytale world.
The eurocomic scene is fine, but impossible to follow because it's split between dozens of national scenes with language barriers and it's all long form albums that get released whenever, instead of at predictable intervals. Nobody reads comics in North America so it doesn't matter.
Brody Baker
This is easily the stupidest thread in the history of Yea Forums
Austin Campbell
>From Eric Powell, Eisner Award winning creator of The Goon
Eisner is rolling over in his grave.
Brody Miller
>"I don't read comics or even bother to go to comic shops"
Hating Goon is an easy way to show how shit your tastes are.
Logan Thomas
I don't think it would, at this point. The internet's given us so much shit that's free first, pay if you want to later that a magazine would only have small scale appeal unless someone invents a whole new genre as Superman did back in 38 or somebody releases a book with the utmost appeal that still makes bank.
I mean, aside from the porn sites, do any of the pay-for-comics web sites/programs even exist anymore? I haven't heard shit from the one DC was running a few years ago.
