BisectedBrioche's Brilliant Bread Random Banter Bthread #243

[LaZodiac]

That's revenue, not profits, but given how the comic scene is quite vibrant, i would imagine its not the bare-bones market toure making it out to be.

Okay, fair, I'm playing a bit fast and loose with what I mean, but it does feel like manga has a more successful methodology than comics in the west do.

[Peelee]

Yeah, that is (or was) the case here in Sweden as well, as I understand it they do better in Europe than in their native US.

I was tempted ro say Europe in general but decided to play it safe.

Also, having read some od those back in the day and seeing the quality, im going to out thst more down to "i cant really find stuff like that over here nearly as easily".

Okay, fair, I'm playing a bit fast and loose with what I mean, but it does feel like manga has a more successful methodology than comics in the west do.

The global manga market size was estimated at USD 10.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 12.13 billion in 2022.

Your overall point is correct, though I question the reasoning behind it.

[HalfTangible]

By all accounts you did in fact pick up the two worst books of the New 52, is my understanding. Oops.

Guardians of the Galaxy is marvel ;)

[Anonymouswizard]

I mean, it seems like (US)Americans have a much dimmer view of comic books than Europeans in general, seeing them as kid stuuf rather than an art form/legitimate medium in its own right. I suspect that's related to the industry over there being dominated by two giants who have insisted on milking the same characters for sixty years nonstop, but there's probably more to it.

I mean, the view of comics in the UK isn't that great, but it seems to be better than the one in America. Our home production did end up dominated by a single company, but that has to do with us being a lot more vulnerable to US media than the mainland is.

I said publishing as in literature, non-fiction books, comic books and the written press.

What's a literature?

[Fyraltari]

I want to be clear that I was absolutely combining all non-manga into a grab bag of "Western comics" since my understanding of the discussion is that it was arguing the differences in sales- which are true. While I can't say anything myself for how well Asterisk sells, on a whole I was under the impression that comics weren't that profitible, except for Manga.

If that's incorrect, do advise.

A friend who worked at Dargaud told me that when doing accounting, they run their math a second time without taking Astérix into account because of course a year where they publish an Astérix album is going to be good year and that skews the results.

Comics aren't doing as well as they used to, but that's because publishing in general hasn't been doing well these last few decades.

Manga is definitely the leading style, and Japanese comics dominate the market both in Europe and in the US (can't tell ypu for other places without looking it up, but I suspect so).

Western comic books do still bring in lots of money. Like Peelee said, I don't think they're going to stop making Donald Duck comics any time soon. Hell, there seems to be a new trend of adapting non-fiction, vulgarisation books into comic books. I've seen it done with Homo Sapiens, a book about the mechanisms of religion, one about the economic policies under the Fifth French Republic and one with Thomas Piketty's Capital.

[LaZodiac]

Your overall point is correct, though I question the reasoning behind it.

My point is that we were having a conversation about ways western comics could improve viability of the indie stuff that people want more than the big two, but don't have an easy way to access or know about. It devolved into talking about which group has a better economic standing, which is tangently related but not really what I care about at the heart of it.

Guardians of the Galaxy is marvel ;)

Look I'm at work and tired!

A friend who worked at Dargaud told me that when doing accounting, they run their math a second time without taking Astérix into account because of course a year where they publish an Astérix album is going to be good year and that skews the results.

Comics aren't doing as well as they used to, but that's because publishing in general hasn't been doing well these last few decades.

Manga is definitely the leading style, and Japanese comics dominate the market both in Europe and in the US (can't tell ypu for other places without looking it up, but I suspect so).

Western comic books do still bring in lots of money. Like Peelee said, I don't think they're going to stop making Donald Duck comics any time soon. Hell, there seems to be a new trend of adapting non-fiction, vulgarisation books into comic books. I've seen it done with Homo Sapiens, a book about the mechanisms of religion, one about the economic policies under the Fifth French Republic and one with Thomas Piketty's Capital.

Yeah, not arguing they're not. I don't really personally care about which makes more money, it was just a tool in my argument that western comics need to be better about discoverability in indie works. Like these ones you're talking about, I bet tons of people would love to read them if they knew they existed at all.

[Rynjin]

That's revenue, not profits, but given how the comic scene is quite vibrant, i would imagine its not the bare-bones market toure making it out to be.

I think, again, looking at sales numbers is more relevant here. ~200k copies sold for a series is considered a smashing success for an individual series, when discussing just American comic books.

$1B sounds like a lot of money when you take it in a vacuum, but that is every comic sold in a year by every single comic publisher in the US combined. I'll remind you that Circuit City was also pulling about $1B in revenue the year the company went bankrupt. That is really not a ton of revenue for a BUSINESS, much less an INDUSTRY.

[Fyraltari]

Yeah, not arguing they're not. I don't really personally care about which makes more money, it was just a tool in my argument that western comics need to be better about discoverability in indie works. Like these ones you're talking about, I bet tons of people would love to read them if they knew they existed at all.

Oh, hard agree. I think the root of the issue is the same as with most media these day (most famously cinema) that most of the capital necessary to launch, complete and distribute a project is concentrated into the hands of huge corporations that are incentivized into caring about profits first of all and artistic merit least of all and are therefore very risk-averse when risk is the soul of creativity.

[LaZodiac]

Oh, hard agree. I think the root of the issue is the same as with most media these day (most famously cinema) that most of the capital necessary to launch, complete and distribute a project is concentrated into the hands of huge corporations that are incentivized into caring about profits first of all and artistic merit least of all and are therefore very risk-averse when risk is the soul of creativity.

As someone who has published a novel that a lot of people really would like if they ever had a reason to read it: Yeah. It be like that.

[BisectedBrioche]

You did it the most right!

I would like to clarify that was deliberate (I spelled Random properly because I thought the readability of Random Banter was more important than the bit). :p

Tbh I do it because the UK comics industry is basically dead. I don't remember anything being easily available when I was a kid bar the Dandy and the Beano (home of the real Dennis the Menace), not even 2000AD, and I'm not sure even they get physically released anymore.

The Beano still is, I believe.

Personally I was more of a Buster kid.

[BisectedBrioche]

(accidental double post, sorry!)

[Mystic Muse]

Tomorrow, around 8PM CST, marks the 5th day of having Samiderm on my tattoo, which is when I can finally peel it off and just switch to applying lotion 3-5 times a day.

[Jasdoif]

I think the root of the issue is the same as with most media these day (most famously cinema) that most of the capital necessary to launch, complete and distribute a project is concentrated into the hands of huge corporations that are incentivized into caring about profits first of all and artistic merit least of all and are therefore very risk-averse when risk is the soul of creativity.

Indeed. A big part of this is that larger corporations, like any monolithic organization, suffers from large overhead and other diseconomies from scale; they can take a loss from what would have "only" been an anemic profit for a smaller business.

And Disney, to pick one I've heard about in particular, is still suffering from a risk they took: Disney+, despite being one of the world's largest streaming services by subscribers, lost $1.5 billion dollars last year. (As the article leads with, Disney is considering shrinking down by selling off intellectual property; if anyone's looking to buy Star Wars off of them, this may be the time.) Also cutting $3 billion from their production budget, so I imagine they're going to try coasting on name recognition for as long as it works....

It's an interesting point on distribution capital, come to think of it....The emergence of digital media is changing what distribution can look like, e.g. downloads and viewing being way faster and cheaper than prints and shipping; and the huge companies that well predate the Internet struggle to adapt their long-standing business model to it. Conversely, the Giant can make a profit while putting the overwhelming majority of his comics in the open for the world to see.

[Peelee]

Disney is considering shrinking down by selling off intellectual property; if anyone's looking to buy Star Wars off of them, this may be the time.

Now i just need to convince a bank to let me use Star Wars as collateral for the loan.

[LaZodiac]

Tomorrow, around 8PM CST, marks the 5th day of having Samiderm on my tattoo, which is when I can finally peel it off and just switch to applying lotion 3-5 times a day.

Hell yeah! Hope that goes well love!

[Mystic Muse]

Hell yeah! Hope that goes well love!

Thanks. It still freaking hurts right now, which makes sense but still sucks.

[halfeye]

There are loads of webcomics these days. They don't all publish daily, or even weekly, though a lot do. There are a lot of webserals too.

There used to be so many comics back in the day, comics, boy's comics, girls comics, hippy comics There was even a comic for kids whose parents hated comics.

[BisectedBrioche]

Fun Fact: Before the Hay's Code was adopted, the most popular comic genre was horror.

Then it proceeded to basically kill off anything but whimsical adventures about people with superpowers.

[Peelee]

Fun Fact: Before the Hay's Code was adopted, the most popular comic genre was horror.

Then it proceeded to basically kill off anything but whimsical adventures about people with superpowers.

Yep, it's largely responsible fornDC's silver age - cant go against the code if your stories are about Superman needing to eat an endless stream of hamburgers.

[Bartmanhomer]

I went to Reddit a few days ago to look at a Flintstone alignment chart and one of the comments got me laughing about we're not doing this alignment chart argument again, this always happens.

[Rater202]

That feel when you're watching a reddit compilation video and you're 90% sure that the first story was from your high school.

[Peelee]

OH. MAN.

So i get my workout done and i hit the pool and steam room at the end as a little treat for myself like normal, and then i walk outside. And its like 9:15pm at 75° with a moderately strong wind. It felt just like the Gulf Coast. Brought me back to PCB immediately. I didnt want to get in the car. It just felt so amazing.

If it weren't for my family's plot up here I'd probably be cremated and be dispersed into the Gulf. It's my happy place.

[Anonymouswizard]

OH. MAN.

So i get my workout done and i hit the pool and steam room at the end as a little treat for myself like normal, and then i walk outside. And its like 9:15pm at 75° with a moderately strong wind. It felt just like the Gulf Coast. Brought me back to PCB immediately. I didnt want to get in the car. It just felt so amazing.

Twenty five degrees until the water boils, and you claim it feels good?

[Peelee]

Twenty five degrees until the water boils, and you claim it feels good?

A nice balmy 24°C, if you are insist on not heeding freedom degrees.

[enderlord99]

Spoiler: This says things about society, but very few of them, and none important

Show

EDIT: I was reminded of this by Mystic announcing she'd gotten a tattoo, and that's why I posted it, but it is not a direct response and no value-judgement is intended.

[Peelee]

So apparently KFC is bringing back the Doublr Down sandwich.

THIS WAS THEIR BEST MENU ITEM EVER AND I SHALL BROOK NO DISSENT.

[Batcathat]

Whatever tattoos say or doesn't say about society, the fact that I've been thinking about getting a tattoo (but never getting around to it) for about 20 years now probably says something about me.

[Mystic Muse]

Spoiler: This says things about society, but very few of them, and none important

Show

EDIT: I was reminded of this by Mystic announcing she'd gotten a tattoo, and that's why I posted it, but it is not a direct response and no value-judgement is intended.

Oh boy, you are not supposed to tan with tattoos. Can make them fade quickly and inconsistently. If you're gonna be in the sun, use at least SPF-50!

So apparently KFC is bringing back the Doublr Down sandwich.

THIS WAS THEIR BEST MENU ITEM EVER AND I SHALL BROOK NO DISSENT.

I'll give it a try this time around.

[Peelee]

Whatever tattoos say or doesn't say about society, the fact that I've been thinking about getting a tattoo (but never getting around to it) for about 20 years now probably says something about me.

10 years instead of 20 for me but other than that, same boat. Back when I wanted one i had a system. Whenever I thought of a design i liked, id wait a year, and if i still liked it as much id get it tatooed. I have no tattoos. I no longer want one, and ironically i realized there exists a design i am very familiar with that would absolutely have passed that test - if i hadnt been so oblivious when i was younger I'd totally have some form of the Imperial Cog on my body.

[enderlord99]

I'd totally have some form of the Imperial Cog on my body.

That fits with the fact that you're becoming a cop soon.