Any artistic form, be it a Gregorian chant or photography, experiences periods of upheaval and experimentation, moments of discovery, and times when it returns to a more traditional path. Since the mid-1980s, comic books have been redefining themselves with a cornucopia of new titles and formats, and a dizzying array of spinoffs, including trading cards, dolls, toys, T-shirts, watches, models, videos, and posters.
Over the last decade, the comic industry has enjoyed steady 10 percent annual growth, a rate that many other industries stopped dreaming about long ago. Marvel, home to two of comicdom's best sellers - Spiderman and X-Men - is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has split three times in just over three years. In Japan, sales of fat, pulpy comic books, or manga - which depict everything from a soap opera-esque hotel staff to a creep called Rapeman - make up one-third of all magazine and book revenue. In 1992, manga revenues totaled US$5 billion.
To capture more readers, publishers are going after people who wouldn't think to visit the local comic-book shop. One of their tactics is to develop comics with plots geared for more mature audiences. Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman, a monthly comic book published by DC's edgy Vertigo line, is at the vanguard of comic writer/collaborators who gleefully experiment with their craft, blending refinement and revulsion like mad scientists tweaking the boundaries of the unknown. Each issue of Gaiman's Sandman is a brew of myth, fairy tale, esoteric arcana, odd historical personages, assorted immortals, deities and demiurges, dry humor, and often unadulterated horror. Sandman won the 1991 World Fantasy Award for the year's best short story - a first for a comic book.
Besides garnering recognition in the literary world, Sandman is raking in the bucks, with a monthly readership of more than 100,000 fans. This may not look like much compared to standard superhero comic books, such as Marvel's X-Men (Marvel printed some 7 million copies of a recent issue; typical cash cow titles sell a few hundred thousand copies per issue). But DC's expansion into alternative comics helps the company hold 20 percent of the $750 million comic-book market in the United States.
DC, Marvel, Fantagraphics, Dark Horse, Kitchen Sink, and other publishers have also cleverly taken to compiling and repackaging comics as both hard- and soft-cover graphic novels. Reincarnated as expensive compilations, titles like Sandman cost from $12 to $25 dollars each.
Comic-book publishers are trying to capture more readers by getting online and introducing new lines of mature comics. America Online subscribers can learn about Vertigo's latest releases in DC Comics Online (keyword DC). There are message boards and auditoriums featuring writers and artists. Weekly events on DC Comics Online include Wednesday evening chats with Vertigo editor Stuart Moore (9:00 p.m. PST).
DC Comics Online: dcconline@aol.com
SCANS
A New Spin on Comics
