Recently I had the opportunity to talk with creators Tyler Carpenter, Jack Lloyd, and Nicholas Mueller about the current state of comics and media, and especially about the outlook for 2023 and beyond.
If you haven’t seen the stream, check it out here.
This week, I’m going to zero in on the trends I believe are taking off this year. I believe a number of the “fear, concern, and outrage” trends are coming to a long-anticipated conclusion. We’re going to see an explosion in creativity and discovery, the cumlination of trends that have been in the works for years now.
The shift from drama to positivity
The word “drama” is associated with certain Youtube streams that thrive on generating drama for support. But here I’m talking about drama over everything mainstream comics is doing “wrong.” At the end of 2022 the phrase “no hate watching!” had caught on, particularly regarding the show Velma and its trashing of the Scooby Doo franchise. Readers and viewers had simply grown to expect remakes of cherished classic titles to be ruined by lazy activist writing.
At the same time, on stream we all had something we were reading and excited about. In the comics space we started with manga and webcomics, but I also looked at recommendations to ook into Euro comics. Tyler C also recommended looking at the legacy creators in Marvel and DC that are still creating good content.
All together, the idea of “woke” not being the problem and the shift to finding and celebrating creators making the right moves is coming to fruition. And any IP trying to stay relevant by insulting its fans will be met with apathy instead of anger - we’ve moved on to better things.
What’s emerging
The next generation is reading webcomics
I brought on a high-school-age intern to work on concept art for Petro Patriot, and while talking about comics, learned most of her experience and interest in comics was driven by webcomics. Not the classic print comics, not manga, webcomics. While this was an N = 1 data point, it was enough to get me looking into a market analysis of the comics market and webcomics specifically, and the the growth of webcomics as a medium is quite clear. Finally, the recent partnership between GlobalComix and Top Cow is a signal that professionals are starting to move toward web platforms for publishing.
In terms of what it means for this year, I think last year’s “pro” recognition of these open publishing platforms means the new platforms. I believe crowdfunding, monetization of digital comics, and print-on-demand services have opened up multiple avenues to success, and we’re seeing creators shift accordingly.
As a reviewer, it also means I’m going to be turning my attention to webcomics alongside my conventional comic reviews.
Genre growth and changes
As a GlobalComix reader, I started looking at by-genre breakdowns and taking note of which comics are most popular. Funny enough, comics from established companies are not always the winner. For example, I work with Roselinath, author of Division 5, and this single-creator comic out-performs a number of established-company comics in GC’s sci-fi genre.
The webcomics report notes a change in preferred genres alongside changes in medium. I also noticed the same when reading the top-ranked webcomics on multiple platforms. Stories with expressive, interesting characters that get the reader invested emotionally are winning. Even in cases where single creators are competing with teams of professionals. Its turning the “for modern audiences” notion on its head: modern audiences are telling the market what they really want by reading and backing their favorites on Webtoon, GlobalComix, and more.
Fan engagement models
Tyler suprised me on the stream with his first-ever announcement of plans to engage fans by creating space in his stories for fans to create characters within his CHEFS comic universe. Characters which might be recognized officially. The idea is risky, I’m interested in seeing how it turns out.
This idea is part of a breakout trend I’m seeing take shape in terms of creator-fan engagement. 5 years ago, the “innovative model” for an indie creator was to preiodically release comics via a crowdfund. Now, we’re seeing crowdfunding switch to crowdselling, with the target being fans looking to collect exclusive books and merchandise. We’re also seeing other experiments by creators to grow fan engagement with their IP. Experiments with fan-created content and characters is the wild and risky case, but another experiment we’re seeing are creators writing both a “main series” and a webcomic meant to fill in gaps or play on ideas from the main books. Tim and Mark from the Kamen America IP in particular have been investing heavily here.
What trends are you seeing?
These are trends I’ve seen building, and expect to take off in a big way as the year progresses. What trends do you see coming up this year, and beyond? Let me know in the comments.
It's the engagement, imo. If you look at Roselinath, she has a great engagement with her community. She not only draws her comics, she does extra art of her characters, things that can be "memed". You've probably seen it on her Discord server.
Saying, hey here's the new release of my comic won't be just enough. Engagement it's important to grow. Let people know you're out there. Nanji (It's my turn to save the world) have been doing the same. Eventually people start to remember you.