I’ve been thinking about how comic books and their place in popular culture has changed.
When I first started out, comics in the UK and US were viewed almost entirely as a disposable medium with little mainstream respect. We the fans and creators loved the medium but our hobby lived on the margins of pop culture. Comics were our dirty little secret.
Oh how things have changed.
Comics are now a respected storytelling medium.
The go to example of this is superhero films, who without the source material would not have generated many billions of dollars and spawned the most successful movie genre in history.
Success and profit go a long way to make you respectable.
But that is only true on a superficial level.
Comic book sales themselves are still relatively small but the medium has demonstrated over and over that it is one the most cost effective and fertile way to create stories in every genre and have gone on to be the source material for many films and TV shows without a spandex costume in sight.
The most obvious example is The Walking Dead. Without the comic there would never have been the TV show and the countless truckloads of money that followed. Go on any streaming platform today and it’s full of series and movies based on comic stories.
And it’s not just published work.
Many comics have been optioned and developed before they even hit the printing press. Kick Ass and The Kingsmen films were created in parallel with the comics. Both coming out at pretty much the same time. The reason why comics are often the source material for other media is simple. Comics are a flexible visual medium that can tell a story from the most intimate to the most sweepingly cinematic in a format that everyone understands and for a tiny cost. The combination of the right writer and artist can bring any story to life.
Full disclosure here. In my day job I’m part of a company that helps people develop creative IP through the use of comic stories.
More often than not, these stories are not going to be seen by a huge audience and they’re not going to generate huge revenue. That’s not their job. What they do is allow an IP to be fully explored, developed and market tested, quickly and cheaply.
A film or TV company can develop multiple stories and IP for a fraction of the cost of one TV pilot.
A game company can create rich story materials to accompany their game and fill out the story world.
Location based businesses can develop rich trans media story worlds for their attractions and have an accompanying comic book story for visitors to take away with them.
Marketing departments love comics as they provide a wealth of ready to use assets.
And licensing departments love comics as all that beautiful art can be channeled into merchandise opportunities.
I’ve seen this happen over and over.
On a personal level, the real strength of comic stories are they allow anyone to tell a story in a compelling visual medium and find an audience. The days of people thinking comics are only full of superheroes or are solely for children, are coming to an end. If you haven’t picked up a comic or graphic novel, go take a look.
