It all comes down to business, friend.Let me lay it out for you.
1) It's all about the bang for your buck. I can get a ten dollar game, Persona 3, that will last me over a hundred hours. That's one dollar for ten hours of entertainment. Even if I bought, say Skrim, for sixty dollars, that's an insane value. Lets say I spend the same amount on Scott Pilgrim. I can finish that in maybe an hour and a half. And this is a volume that took over a year to create. Comics require a lot of time and money for low output. They're just not economically viable. In a recession, people are going to gravitate toward cheaper entertainment.
2) Inventory. Most stores try to push new inventory, and clear out the clutter. Comics are literally the only medium that actually BRAG about overstocked inventory. You want to clean house as soon as possible to make room for new merchandise, not hold on to clutter.
3) Barrier to entry. Comics just aren't bringing in new fans. Lets say I'm a ten year old boy who just saw Batman, and I want to start reading the comics. I go to the nearest comic shop. They're hard to find, but I'm committed, so I actually bother to find one nearby on the computer. I get there and ask about Batman. I find that there are about ten different runs of Batman, on top of Batwoman, Batman Beyond, Nightwing, and multiple graphic novels that are unrelated to one another. On top of that some of the stories intersect with a bunch of characters I've never even heard of. Whose Green Arrow? There's more than one Robin? I finally find a series that sounds interesting, and then discover that they only have issue 2,5,8, and 12, and that I'll have collect the others as they come. In the end I throw my hands up in the air and go buy COD for twenty five dollars. Basically the market has become an ever shrinking market of white middle aged men. This brings us into...
4) Formatting. It's extremely hard to start reading comics, because even if you know what you're looking for, you have to find a dozen different issues to complete a story arc. It gets worse. If the story involves numerous characters that are interconnected,then you can't get the full plot unless you buy a dozen different comics across multiple franchises and characters. A good example is that Marvel Civil War thing a while back. Comics also assume that the reader has been a part of the community, as they often make call backs to various events in the universes history that newer readers won't understand. It's all just too inconvenient compared to film, television, games, and novels.
5) Public Relations. Many people see comics as this weird, creepy fetishistic little medium. They're largely right. Comics don't present themselves very well. When the crowned prince of comics is a bearded magician who writes child pornography about classic fairy tail girls, your medium may need a better PR team. Anime has the same problem. Of course there's good material out there, but you have to wade through a lot of garbage.
6) Lets talk about sexism. It's rampant in comics. Games are going through an awkward adolescent faze where it's becoming more accessible to different groups of people. Comics never did experience that. Instead it's mired in its own filth, filled with sexism, racism, and anti-semitism. Women feel alienated by comics, and I don't blame them. They're often ostracized from the community, and even if they weren't, why should they feel welcome when comics look like this:
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/
As a result comics have become increasingly homogenized, aimed at a shrinking market of white, middle aged, geeky men. A lack of diversity leads to the stagnation of the industry, as the companies fight harder and harder to control a shrinking market. Comic will only become more exclusive as a result, further raising the barrier to entry.
7) Hope? Digital comics are the future. You can read a series from start to finish on comixology. All the issues are there to collect. Children can access it on Kindle or the computer. People who can't access a store can just download material. I got into comics through kindle. I hate to say it, but Disney may save the industry. They can give comics a certain pedigree. They can also create a family friendly image of comics, which the industry DESPERATELY lacks. If they make more kid friendly material then they may bring in young blood. They may also simplify their branch of the medium, which is good. After all, Disney has one of the most effective marketing departments in the world. Finally, the sheer volume of hero films have raised public interest in comics. Comics have a unique opportunity to usher in a new golden age, IF they take advantage of it. All of out television, films, and entertainment is based on comics. So far they've screwed up, but they can turn things around if they begin to aggressively compete. Disney, at least, can do that.
1) It's all about the bang for your buck. I can get a ten dollar game, Persona 3, that will last me over a hundred hours. That's one dollar for ten hours of entertainment. Even if I bought, say Skrim, for sixty dollars, that's an insane value. Lets say I spend the same amount on Scott Pilgrim. I can finish that in maybe an hour and a half. And this is a volume that took over a year to create. Comics require a lot of time and money for low output. They're just not economically viable. In a recession, people are going to gravitate toward cheaper entertainment.
2) Inventory. Most stores try to push new inventory, and clear out the clutter. Comics are literally the only medium that actually BRAG about overstocked inventory. You want to clean house as soon as possible to make room for new merchandise, not hold on to clutter.
3) Barrier to entry. Comics just aren't bringing in new fans. Lets say I'm a ten year old boy who just saw Batman, and I want to start reading the comics. I go to the nearest comic shop. They're hard to find, but I'm committed, so I actually bother to find one nearby on the computer. I get there and ask about Batman. I find that there are about ten different runs of Batman, on top of Batwoman, Batman Beyond, Nightwing, and multiple graphic novels that are unrelated to one another. On top of that some of the stories intersect with a bunch of characters I've never even heard of. Whose Green Arrow? There's more than one Robin? I finally find a series that sounds interesting, and then discover that they only have issue 2,5,8, and 12, and that I'll have collect the others as they come. In the end I throw my hands up in the air and go buy COD for twenty five dollars. Basically the market has become an ever shrinking market of white middle aged men. This brings us into...
4) Formatting. It's extremely hard to start reading comics, because even if you know what you're looking for, you have to find a dozen different issues to complete a story arc. It gets worse. If the story involves numerous characters that are interconnected,then you can't get the full plot unless you buy a dozen different comics across multiple franchises and characters. A good example is that Marvel Civil War thing a while back. Comics also assume that the reader has been a part of the community, as they often make call backs to various events in the universes history that newer readers won't understand. It's all just too inconvenient compared to film, television, games, and novels.
5) Public Relations. Many people see comics as this weird, creepy fetishistic little medium. They're largely right. Comics don't present themselves very well. When the crowned prince of comics is a bearded magician who writes child pornography about classic fairy tail girls, your medium may need a better PR team. Anime has the same problem. Of course there's good material out there, but you have to wade through a lot of garbage.
6) Lets talk about sexism. It's rampant in comics. Games are going through an awkward adolescent faze where it's becoming more accessible to different groups of people. Comics never did experience that. Instead it's mired in its own filth, filled with sexism, racism, and anti-semitism. Women feel alienated by comics, and I don't blame them. They're often ostracized from the community, and even if they weren't, why should they feel welcome when comics look like this:
http://thehawkeyeinitiative.com/
As a result comics have become increasingly homogenized, aimed at a shrinking market of white, middle aged, geeky men. A lack of diversity leads to the stagnation of the industry, as the companies fight harder and harder to control a shrinking market. Comic will only become more exclusive as a result, further raising the barrier to entry.
7) Hope? Digital comics are the future. You can read a series from start to finish on comixology. All the issues are there to collect. Children can access it on Kindle or the computer. People who can't access a store can just download material. I got into comics through kindle. I hate to say it, but Disney may save the industry. They can give comics a certain pedigree. They can also create a family friendly image of comics, which the industry DESPERATELY lacks. If they make more kid friendly material then they may bring in young blood. They may also simplify their branch of the medium, which is good. After all, Disney has one of the most effective marketing departments in the world. Finally, the sheer volume of hero films have raised public interest in comics. Comics have a unique opportunity to usher in a new golden age, IF they take advantage of it. All of out television, films, and entertainment is based on comics. So far they've screwed up, but they can turn things around if they begin to aggressively compete. Disney, at least, can do that.