Maybe it’s the comics equivalent of feeling ashamed of yourself (and also a bit chafed) after a four-day orgy, but it seems like there’s a lot of gloom going around today.
Dirk Deppey (perennial gloom purveyor that he is) offers the latest in his Movie Doomsday Theory series, insisting that a downturn in the comic-book-movie blockbuster market could actually spell the downfall of the entire Direct Market if it causes Marvel to go under. I think what we’re seeing this summer (i.e. movie after movie fails to live up to its blockbuster potential–gee, do you think maybe that’s because a new “blockbuster” is released every week?) is as much a Movie Movie Doomsday Theory as it is a Marvel Movie Doomsday Theory. Hollywood’s in trouble just as Marvel is if they’re relying on this obviously faulty business model.
Joey Manley, founder of various and sundry online comics sites, has a pretty depressing take on this year’s Con. I think he’s altogether too hard on pop-culture geeks–guys in stormtrooper outfits are harmless at worst and hella entertaining at best; it was certainly heartening to watch the snobs get smacked down on this Comics Journal messboard thread on the subject–but I’ve often wondered myself about the health of a medium in which such a large percentage of its consumers are “hardcore” fans, if not would-be creators themselves. (Guilty on both counts!)
Me? It’s tough to be pessimisstic about an industry that yielded Blankets, Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Frank Book, Quimby the Mouse, and The Dark Knight Strikes Again in the last year.