Note: For this sermon, Evil, cynical, crotchety Dave has been temporarily replaced by "Happy Dave".
Do not attempt to adjust your monitor. He controls the flow of information now.

It was suggested on our message board that perhaps it was time to write about the good things that are happening in our industry. Perhaps we are spending too much time concentrating on the negative aspects of our feverish little hobby. Perhaps it was time to feel good about things again. I don't know what impression "Evil Dave" has been giving you, but here at Ground Zero we love comics! 2002 was a great year and there's every reason to believe that 2003 will be even better. The futures so bright, we'd all be wearing shades here at Ground Zero, except... well, you know... we haven't found a pair of shades that go with the bald head. So for now, blindness will just have to suffice as we celebrate all the good things that our industry should be acknowledging right now. So here is my list of 5 Reasons To Feel Good About The Comics Industry:

1. Downward spiral ends!
In case you have just joined us and haven't been reading any of the other sermons or keeping up with general industry news, the comics industry faced a terrific downturn in sales over the past decade. It was such a tremendous slide that almost 70 % of the comic shops that were open at the beginning of the 90's did not see the dawn of the new millennium (whether you consider it to be 2000 or 2001). There were forecast of doom and gloom and talk of there not being a comics industry in just a few short years. But, you know what? We're still here. Sure, we're still here complaining and moaning about how the industry isn't what it used to be, but we're still enjoying our little hobby just as passionately as we were in years past. It gets even better with the news that both 2001 and 2002 showed sales growth for the direct market. Certainly the amount of growth was not large, but after almost a decade of declining sales, two years in a row of improved numbers gives us great hope for the future. A great deal of this improvement was due to the continued rise of trade paperback collections. Comic shops are slowly moving from being stores that sell periodicals to stores that sell books. Personally, I love this. Although I hope that there is always a place for the monthly comic book, you cannot deny the appeal of concise, complete packages that give you a story with a beginning, middle and end.

2. The Near Extinction Of The Comics Speculator.
Although there is little doubt that less people are venturing into comic shops these days as there were just ten years ago, I believe that those of us that remain are more passionate, more knowledgeable and more dedicated to preserving this artform than any group that has gone before us. We know that comics cost too much. We know that there's lots of industry problems. Nonetheless, we don't care. All of the negative talk hasn't done anything to dampen the enthusiasm and appreciation that attracted us to comics in the first place. It is definitely tangible on the retail level. Just a few years ago people asked "What's a good comic to buy?" and meant, "What comic will jump up in value and make me a quick buck?" Now they ask "What's a good comic to buy?" and it is more likely to mean: "I'd like a good book to read." (It could also mean: "What is a comic will make me feel all warm and fuzzy about the glory days of my childhood from the long gone 80's and take me back to a more simple time of innocence and naiveté?" But that is a topic for another day.) It is a joy to sell comics to people who intend to read and enjoy them. I feel that the trap of selling comics as little investments was one of the main factors in the decline of our industry. I've spent other sermons explaining why comics as investments seldom work. When gullible people bought comics for that purpose, they were only disappointed when they tried to resell them and learned that the great investment value of comics had disappeared in a cloud of mylar.

When people buy comics for the singular purpose of reading them, they build a base of fans who will keep the hobby fresh and vibrant for the years to come. It doesn't matter if that fan is reading Watchmen or Archie or Spawn, the fact that they are reading and deriving pleasure from comics is enough in my book. I think that in the past few years we have seen a return to that. Marvels sporadic attempts to revive the enhanced cover have largely met with collective yawns. I firmly believe that the comics industry has to be appreciated for the entertainment and enlightenment that it offers and not for the potential financial return that some comics can generate.

3. The Comic Industry Pulls Together:
Two particular events in 2002 made me feel proud of the comics industry. the first concerned Top Shelf Productions.(Click here for the news story) Top Shelf was a publisher that specialized in what many would call "alternative" graphic novels. Without a single superhero, their line represented some of the most respected creators in the business. Alan Moore, Eddie Campbell, Ed Brubaker and many others had used Top Shelf as their publisher for projects that mainstream comic companies would never have touched. In early April they learned that their main distributor for the book trade had declared bankruptcy. Even worse, that book trade distributor had written Top Shelf a check for almost $20,000 which had bounced, causing a pretty severe cash flow crisis for Top Shelf. They sent out an e-mail to the comics industry asking for help, explaining that if they did not raise some quick funds, they would be forced to suspend publications. They hoped for 400 orders and instead were immediately hit with over 1000 orders for their books. This was a case of the comics industry pulling together to save a publisher that unquestionably deserved saving. It showed not only that the comics industry was finally back on solid financial footing, but that it would make the effort to save a publisher whose efforts were measured in quality of books, not quantity of sales.

The second was Free Comic Day. Originally suggested by California retailer Joe Field, the idea behind Free Comic Day was painfully simple: On one organized day offer a free comic book to everyone. We have collectively complained about the shrinking audience for comic books. This was a valiant attempt to actually do something about it. By offering a free comic, we not only introduced countless civilians to the joys of comics, but we capitalized on the momentum of the Spider-Man movie and garnered some much needed attention and publicity. The comic industry of the 90's would never have been able to pull this off. Publishers would have argued among themselves as to who had to pay for everything and who got the credit and who did the work. The retailers of the 90's would have been too busy marking up variant cover editions to take the time to promote an event such as this. But in the year 2002, everyone knew that this was a much needed opportunity to work together and do something to help the industry. While there were minor flaws with Free Comic Day, for the most part, it went off successfully. Many stores had lines of people waiting to pick up their free comic book. That is the kind of atmosphere that every comic shop would like to have more often. (See Ground Zero's Free Comic Day Bash)

4. Comic book movies that didn't suck!
A couple of years ago I posted a sermon in which I stated the reasons that I felt that an X-Men movie would most likely be a disappointment. (See"Why The X-Men Movie Should Not Be Made) I still stand by those reasons. There was every reason for that movie to fail, to disappoint the legions of X-Men fans who hoped for a movie that would do their characters justice. It didn't fail. If fact, They managed to make a pretty darn good movie. I watch it today and think, "Hugh Jackman was their second choice?" It was a terrifically enjoyable movie and certainly made Hollywood feel comfortable mining the comic for properties again. Now, I'm not one of those who feels that comic book characters even need to be in movies. I'm perfectly satisfied with them in their original media, but no one can deny the attention and buzz that the Spider-Man movie brought to the industry. I don't think that it was as big as Batmania from the late 80's, but it was close. I had parents coming into the store hunting for Spider-Man comics for their children. Comics for their children! I don't care how much of a sell out a movie might be. I don't care if it is mindless tripe or a complete bastardization of a character (and I'm not accusing the Spider-Man movie of any of those things), if a movie gets parents to buy comics for their kids, then IT IS A GOOD THING!.

Of course, this has led to a number of other comic book movies and TV series. From Smallville to Birds Of Prey to The upcoming Hulk movie, comic books are now buzz worthy. I know how short lived this buzz can be, but I'm willing to ride the current good will towards comics for as far as it will take us. The amazing thing is that all this has come about not with a campy, idiotic superhero movie, but with some intelligent films that actually come fairly close to representing what we love about these characters. In the past, comic book movies would have most likely been presented with a mocking tone ("Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"). Not today. Today we get big budget films that are made by people who respect the original stories and have reverence for the characters.

5. Manga:
Finally there have been reasons for girls to come into a comic shop. Now, I said "girls" here and not "women" because, frankly, there have been some comics produced that would appeal to women, but there have been almost none that were appealing to girls. In the past couple of years Japanese Manga has risen in popularity to the point where it is a substantial part of any respectable comic stores product mix. In addition to all the kung fu epics and giant robot stories, manga offers something that American comics have completely forfeited: stories that are specifically designed to appeal to young and adolescent girls. From Inu Yasha and Cardcaptor Sakura to Fushigi Yugi and Love Hina, Manga publishers have completely captured a market that was left unnoticed before. Frankly, I was getting tired of explaining why my store had nothing but large muscled men pounding each other while large breasted women breathlessly panted about how strong they were. Through manga we can now offer books that can appeal to all different ages and genders. We no longer have to think of comics simply in terms of the superhero genre. How any industry survived as long as this one while totally resisting any form of diversification is a mystery.

All of these reasons point to a stronger future for the comics industry. If we continue to diversify, we can only grow our audience. If we show the same sense of unity that 2002 brought out in us, we will flourish despite industry changes. I'm not selling comics to become rich, I'm selling them because I love the art form and want to be a part of the industry. I would love to see it grow beyond the small, cultish fan base that it has enjoyed in recent years. Maybe it will be several more years before that happens, but we can now see that it will happen. Enthusiasm and optimism are contagious. How can an art form that has provided us with so much pleasure continue to go unnoticed?

We now return control of this monitor to the cynical, whiny cuss who usually inhabits this page.