I think the state of the industry today can be summed up in two points.

1.  It's in much better shape than it was in the implosion years of the late 90s.

2.  That success seems to have come by American comics becoming more and more of a niche product.  Marvel and DC represent, I think, about 80% of the U.S. comic biz but most of what they publish bears little to no resemblence to what passes for "mainstream" entertainment in movies, TV or books.

I suppose it's possible to sustain yourself as a niche product.  That seems to be what pro hockey has become in the U.S.  But if you're never more than that, you live on a razor's edge.

Mike

Minor nitpick - DC and Marvel are roughly 80% of the direct market.  The direct market is not the sum total of the US comic biz.  Tokyopop and Viz are laughing themselves silly every time we refer to Marvel and DC as "The Big Two".

The comics industry is extremely healthy.  Whether it's Dilbert, Archie, manga, or whatever else, comics are very popular with people of all ages.  Superhero comics, OTOH, have become, as you say, a niche market.  Clearly they don't have the broad readership they enjoyed decades ago.  A lot of that is down to distribution - when the direct market became Marvel and DC's panacea, their product became a destination purchase, and stopped pulling in new readers in large quantities.  This in turn led to the product being aimed more and more at the already-existing fanbase, which has created a largely inbred product inaccessible to most who are not existing fans.

But as you say, some niche products do quite well.  For whatever reason, that niche market is currently growing, and at least relative to ten years ago looks pretty healthy.  I think it's very unlikely that 22-page monthly superhero comics are ever going to have the circulation they enjoyed in the 80's and before, but there's no reason the industry can't sustain itself for the foreseeable future.

I would bet that anyone under the age of 15 has NO IDEA who the hell Jack Kirby is

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Nor is it important if they do or don't.  As long as the books are available and people are picking them up, it matters little if they know who is responsible for them.

"Tokyopop and Viz are laughing themselves silly every time we refer to Marvel and DC as "The Big Two"."

And when those two companies mostly produce original books for the U.S. market, then we can put them alongside Marvel and DC.  If reprint publishers of foreign material are such a huge force in the industry, that's not exactly a sign of health.  Hollywood films racking up big box office in Great Britain could hardly be taken as a sign that the British film business is in great shape.

And while there's nothing wrong with the success Manga is having in America, the fact that after 20 some years of trying Manga sales have only roughly equalled comic book sales levels that are one-half, one-third or even less than what they were in the 1980s, should put the Manga "boom" into perspective.  Manga is booming, but it looks a heck of a lot more impressive because it's contrasted by the virtual collapse of the American business.

Mike

Going to the library to check out collections of comics made 40 years ago does not remotely fit that bill.

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I think you are missing the point.  Kids checking out these comics probably have no idea they are 40 years old.  They probably don't even knowwho Kirby and Stan are.  Hopefully kids are just looking in the 'graphic novel' section and picking something that looks like they might enjoy it.  Creators be damned.

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The context you cut my quote out of was this: I want kids to experience a vital and exciting medium -- "vital" meaning alive.  It doesn't matter if kids know WHO made the comics.  The Lee/Kirby work is from years gone by.  There is nothing like it being produced today.  Even if kids read these old collections, it's not the same -- it is far less than being able to enjoy work of that kind coming out, month after month by artists/writers who are making it FOR THEM.

The point you seem to be making is that comics are healthy as long as kids read old collections in libraries.  If you are connecting that thought to Steve's post which I was actually writing to, then you seem to be saying today's industry is an improvement on the past because kids can get comics at the library-- all I can say is that makes little sense to me.  People who got into comics 20 years ago by checking out "Son of Origins" at the library were able to take that new-found interest over to the drug store and do something about it.  Kids today have to go ask the librarian to make sure she orders the next Essentials.  This keeps the Essentials editorial office busy, but means little to the industry at large.  I sure don't envy these kids because, like a guy who got to see the Beatles live -- I was THERE and I remember buying FF 236 on the stand and having my mind blown away and my appetite whetted for what would come the next month.