Why Comic Book Sales are Actually Falling


Despite the fact that comic book movies, TV shows, and video games are as popular as ever, sales of comic books themselves continue to decline. Marvel and DC never really recovered from the crash in the 90s. Some commentators, mostly white right-wingers, say the decline is due to characters like Miles Morales up there and that comics are being “preachy.” Well. comics have always been preachy. Heck, comic book superheroes were fighting Hitler in fiction before our government was fighting Hitler in real life. Superman had a whole radio series where he fought the KKK and displayed their general ridiculousness and various secret codes obtained by the FBI. The X-Men are an allegory for the various Civil Rights Movements. Every sentence I just wrote would be called “wokeness” today. So obviously wokeness isn’t the problem.Every adult in this niche has their favorite comic book store. But the thing is, the largest primary audience for comic books and comic book-related media is children. Long ago, comic book publishers understood that and put comic books in places where kids could easily get to them. Places like corner stores and drug stores a kid might walk by or get sent to on an errand.

But then the comic book store came. Suddenly, comics were yanked off the shelves of the easily accessible pharmacies and corner stores and placed in an out-of-the-way comic book store that is a 20–30 minute drive away from most kids’ houses. And since kids can’t drive, they have to ask their parents to take them to the comic book store. And most working parents aren’t going to use up an hour to buy a short book that will only get read once. If kids are lucky, they might find comics in the local library. But there’s no guarantee they’ll find the issue they need to continue the story of the character they’re interested in. And as adults get older, they find themselves less and less able to make the trip when they have adult responsibilities to tend to. So the comic book industry has to attract new fans. Only there’s a problem.