Back in the 80’s there was an interesting development in, of all places, the comic book industry. A collision of circumstances – everything from issues regarding creator rights to the explosion of the independents – changed the entire industry (the wikipedia has a decent entry on this period here). As I was living in San Diego at the time, I had an almost front row seat to some remarkable changes (San Diego, by virtue of it’s huge comic book convention, being an epicenter of sorts). One change was the rapid growth in specialty comic shops which carried not just the major independents, indy zines and an increasing flood of anime from Japan; but “direct to market” comics by the majors; things you couldn’t get at the convenience store. There were of course comic shops long before (one being my childhood favorite, the infamous Planet Comics), but before this change they weren’t really treated much differently than the local 7-11.
What makes all that relevant now is that the humble comic book is still on media’s cutting edge and probably a pretty good indicator of where things might be headed. They did it with creator rights (spear-headed in part by Neal Adams in the late 70’s). They did with self-publishing. And they did it with direct-to-market product; going from mass distribution straight to the consumer at these specialty shops. They were, in effect, singing Anderson’s Long Tail tune before we even had the sheet music (and it’s one reason that reading Anderson’s original article on Wired wasn’t so much revelation for me as it was confirmation of where I saw things headed).
Since the rise of computers and the internet, there have of course come changes to the comic book market. Videogames have eaten into sales (some were saying not so long ago that comics would simply disappear in this new environment). Webcomix have sprung up and slowly gained sophistication and audience. Indy communities who were once held together by specialty zines (like Tim Corrigan’s “Small Press Comics Explosion”) have banded together online and sprouted annual meet-ups and conventions. And more recently print-on-demand has emerged as an option for small press people unable to fork over the cash for even the smallest of print runs (I won’t get into the debate over whether POD is worthwhile). All very interesting stuff. And relevant to anyone and everyone selling a product or service… especially when fab-on-demand and open source enter the picture.
I like shifting around so I’m going to do that now and recount an interesting article I read back in 1997 while sitting in traffic. In Toyama, Japan. The article was in one of those Eastern versions of an American magazine; the kind that Western executives stuck in overseas assignments have lying around their offices. The article was about the Japanese pipeline for all that anime stuff that was flowing West (it was still kinda new to lots of people). It described how a property might begin life as a comic carried on a newstand (unlike the U.S. which gave birth to the form, the rest of the world attaches no stigma to reading comics, and because of this the medium has shown itself to be an excellent proving ground for new ideas). If a particular comic was successful, it might then be moved up the media chain.
As a property successfully moved upward – indicative of it’s mass appeal – it became increasingly less risky to sink larger chunks of capital into it. This meant that at the top of the pyramid, a movie might be financed or tooling to manufacture toys might be purchased. The big difference between that and what seemingly happens in the West is planning. A property like Frank Miller’s “Sin City“, for example, was popular from the beginning, yet was only made into a movie recently – long after its debute in the early 90’s. Why the delay? Miller has an excellent track record in both comics and film. It was a hot property; one that the Japanese would have groomed. What gives? Well, the way I see things, it’s like Japanese companies have Method, and U.S. companies generally have Madness. They have a steady, long-term approach, and we have a hit-or-miss short term one based too often on some executive’s gut feeling (shades of “Brazil“). The movie was a hit of course, yet it wouldn’t have been made if not for the efforts of cutting edge director Robert Rodriguez. Is all this sounding familiar? It should. News lately has been carrying reports that Toyota will likely overtake GM as the largest automobile manufacturer in the world sometime within the next year or two. How does that happen if not for a lack of long-term planning.
The point I’m making is that there are things to learn, even from lowly comic books and economically-troubled island nations. So let’s learn something.
Boing Boing is carrying an entry on a new multi-spatial comic called “The Bold Explorers” created by Jim Munroe (see his announcement here). The comic was created partially from input from readers of a previous work, can be read for free online, and can be purchased print-on-demand from online service Lulu. Sounds like Jim is keeping his word:
Jim Munroe is a novelist who left HarperCollins to showcase and propagate indie press alternatives to Rupert Murdoch-style consolidation. There’s more than one way to play the publishing game.
There’s also more than one way to play the manufacturing game. Expect news any day of an emerging direct-to-niche world with products that span the real and the virtual. So plan ahead. Read your comics.