08-19-2006, 09:51 AM
Firstly Mike, welcome aboard. It's always great to see new members posting and what a post!
I agree that Marvel/DC are not the be all and end all of the comic publishing industry it is unfortunately the nature of the business that it seems to favour the larger companies as they by definition should have economies of scale that afford to dip them the leeway their toes in new markets, e.g Marvel's Mangaverse to attract some of the burgeoning manga fanbase.
Of the big two my experience has been that Marvel is the more willing to take risks or was in the past but I may have been spoiled as the Marvel UK arm was initially run fairly independently of the main company meaning we got a lot of weird and wonderful stories in the early days.
I also know I speak for a few on this site who did try something new and followed a lot of Crossgen output before they went under. Crossgen's scifi/fantasy base with a loosely shared universe and iconography between the majority of their early books was something fairly fresh at the time. Their decision to produce digest versions of their books (such as Edge which allowed the reader to sample issues from several different comics for less than the price of the individual comis). Even though they stopped producing these digests in later times, their comic output was still innovative (Sojourn, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, El Cazador, Abadazad, Route 666). Unfortunately these innovations were not enough to prevent poor management from running the company into the ground leaving us the fans wanting.
I know there are some great small press books out there but unless they advertise their wares more or get better distribution then that allows the big boys to snap up the ideas and muscle them out. Even if it's a matter of striking up a deal with your local comic book stores, get out there and do promotions and signings, the fan base isn't going to come to you all by itself but when it does it will usually stay with you to the bitter end.
I agree that Marvel/DC are not the be all and end all of the comic publishing industry it is unfortunately the nature of the business that it seems to favour the larger companies as they by definition should have economies of scale that afford to dip them the leeway their toes in new markets, e.g Marvel's Mangaverse to attract some of the burgeoning manga fanbase.
Of the big two my experience has been that Marvel is the more willing to take risks or was in the past but I may have been spoiled as the Marvel UK arm was initially run fairly independently of the main company meaning we got a lot of weird and wonderful stories in the early days.
I also know I speak for a few on this site who did try something new and followed a lot of Crossgen output before they went under. Crossgen's scifi/fantasy base with a loosely shared universe and iconography between the majority of their early books was something fairly fresh at the time. Their decision to produce digest versions of their books (such as Edge which allowed the reader to sample issues from several different comics for less than the price of the individual comis). Even though they stopped producing these digests in later times, their comic output was still innovative (Sojourn, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, El Cazador, Abadazad, Route 666). Unfortunately these innovations were not enough to prevent poor management from running the company into the ground leaving us the fans wanting.
I know there are some great small press books out there but unless they advertise their wares more or get better distribution then that allows the big boys to snap up the ideas and muscle them out. Even if it's a matter of striking up a deal with your local comic book stores, get out there and do promotions and signings, the fan base isn't going to come to you all by itself but when it does it will usually stay with you to the bitter end.
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