Over at Newsarama, Mark Millar has written a fascinating op/ed piece whose subject is boom and busts in the comic book industry. His theory is that while comics are enjoying a prosperous boom at the present time, he sees another bust coming and this bust might just be caused by Hollywood.
The piece is somewhat of a long read, but it is utterly absorbing.
I’m not sure if he is overestimating the influence that Hollywood money will have (a few bombs in a row from comic properties or creators and that movie money will disappear quicker than it appeared), but it something that I’ve never thought about — comic book creators disappearing completely from the industry to go work on movies and in television.
My first reaction upon reading this op/ed was that if Creator X left the industry than that would leave room for Creator Y, some new kid with a ton of talent and an unique vision and, eventually, people won’t even remember that Creator X left in the first place. But is that really true anymore? I’m trying to think of the last time a new creator made a big splash on the industry and I can’t think of anyone but Robert Kirkman and he was hardly new — he had been doing Battle Pope since 2000.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
Off the top of my head – Steve McNiven? Wasn’t the first thing he worked on Marvel Knights 4? Or did he do some indy stuff I am unaware of?
Also, what about Adi Granov? He is pretty recent and, while he didn’t make a huge splash, he is mentioned in the article as one of the creators that is leaving to do design for the Iron Man movie.
Off the top of my head – Steve McNiven? Wasn’t the first thing he worked on Marvel Knights 4? Or did he do some indy stuff I am unaware of?
*cough* Crossgen *cough*
First of all, don’t you get the impression that half the people reading comics are trying to claw their way into the biz? If even one in ten of them are any good, the industry will be just fine. I will take the grumpy position that the only thing that might actually hurt the business is the implied attitude in Millar’s piece, which to the bitchier among us sounds like “Without me and the five other hot talents working now, the industry would fall apart.” That’s John Byrne country.
Also, if all the hot talents switched industries tomorrow, they’d be back by the end of the year:
“Hey, McNiven, where are those awesome designs for my sci-fi movie?”
“Oh, yeah. I really want them to be gorgeous, so they’re going to be about two months late.”
“Awesome! You are fired.”
I was going to follow John Cassaday after he was done with his run on Astonishing… Now I will have to watch his movies…
🙁 I will miss his art.
It’s interesting what people take from this article. I didn’t take any bitchiness away at all, rather I think he’s laying down cold, hard facts. If all the major talent up and left comics there WOULD be a bust. I would probably drop 60% of my books and I wouldn’t be alone.
First of all, don’t you get the impression that half the people reading comics are trying to claw their way into the biz?
I think that’s a low estimate.
It’s definitely a low estimate. There’s something about comics readers, and I am definitely one of them, ( http://www.jaflanagan.com ) that makes us think we can do that too when it comes to the books we read. I’m not sure why that is, but man is it pervasive. Trying to be a comic writer is a lot like trying to win the lottery, but the odds are worse, and you don’t get a lot of money at the end. Ah, the life of the artist…
I do believe that if Bendis, Millar, and Brubaker left Marvel, the comics would suffer a huge hit, and Kirkman would write 15 books a month. Oddly enough, comics are now farming pro-TV writers for talent, rather than unknowns and indy guys. That does not bode well for the likes of me. I’ve lived in LA for years, and I couldn’t get my foot in the door very far at all ( http://www.jaflanagan.com ). Granted, I’m a terrible networker.
Also, this is great. Jimski’s on a tear this week:
“Awesome! You are fired.”
The first comment after the story was “It’s like when the Rock left wrestling for movies.”
I stopped reading immediately.
Speaking of Hollywood, I watched the new Fantastic Four show with my kids today. Very anime, the style looks a lot like what you’ll get if you turn on Cartoon Network around 2am.
It didn’t wholly suck though, it blessedly didn’t follow the kind of stylesuicide that the ohsobad Teen Titans show had, and the dialogue was not devoid of wit. I’ll Tivo it for the kids.
But it ain’t no Justice League.