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Comic book market size in 2023 USD 16.05 billion. Not as much as video games and movies, but not to be sniffed at.

Wow -- that's more than I was expecting.  Thanks for that info, Funt.

From what I can see, North America is about USD 6 billion of that USD 16 billion figure.  Given a 600 million population and extrapolating from the (surprising) statistic that 37% of US adults say they read comics at least once a year, we're probably looking at a mean average annual spend of USD 27 per reader.  I'd imagine that about 10% of the readership are whales accounting for half the sales, which would lower the mode to probably around USD 15.

(That 37% figure is far higher than I imagined, even for the US.  Nice to see it's not quite as bleak as it seems.)

I mean, he's not wrong in that comics are no longer a mass-market concern.

Seems to me that -- just like the steam train -- comics have had their time and will never be mainstream again.

When I was a kid, movies and action-packed TV shows were occasional treats -- so we took our in-between hits of cinematic excitement in the form of the printed picture strip.  When VHS tapes and home computer games came along, that all changed.  Replaced by visceral excitement on-demand.

It's no wonder that kids today ignore comics; they can already interact in 3D worlds where the Hulk trashes a city or aliens shoot at them, in a far more immersive way than a sequence of flat images can.

Just necro-posting after noticing that the Dan Dare Corporation appears to be in a murky financial situation nowadays.

https://pomanda.com/company/01228849/the-dan-dare-corporation-ltd

That report seems to indicate that they have posted a loss every year since 2020 and now have only one employee.

Perhaps this is the time for Rebellion to buy them out?  Or is Tharg waiting for the company to collase and get the rights at a bargain price?

Speaking as someone who makes a living out of drawing and painting, AI art is deeply worrying .

Six years ago, I delivered an educational lecture to a group of TV production students at a local university about the (contemporary) nascent use of AI/ML in the media production sector, highlighting examples in video editing and vocal & music production.  What really rammed it home was when one student -- who shot live match footage/highlights for a local League One football club -- realised with unpleasant shock (and quite a few expletives) that already-available, off-the-shelf software could do most of his job.

We've known for a long time that this was inevitable.  Heck, Kenny Who? was published nearly 40 years ago!  Many people had just presumed it was further away, so have ignored the doom-mongering this last decade.

Much as we might moan, we all have to adapt to this new world.  After all, there are not many jobs nowadays for knocker-uppers, telegram messengers or VCR repairers these days.

Maybe Hibernia could do editions of the remaining stories from Wildcat. I thought Rebellion would do volumes for Kitten Magee, Joe Alien, and the Wildcat Complete after they'd done Turbo Jones and Loner, but it's been a while now so I'm assuming it's not cost effective for them.

I'm confused by this.  Surely 95% of the market for Turbo Jones and Loner would be people who already know what Wildcat was?  And, given that Wildcat's stories were inter-linked at points, why package them stand-alone?

Wouldn't there be more sales potential in publishing all the Wildcat stories together, as a full set, split across a couple of volumes?

There's hardly time to catch a breath as we're whisked through seven pages of exploding heads, gory transfixings and giant mutant bear action, all gorgeously rendered by RM Guera who as far as I'm concerned can draw as many tiny eagle heads as he likes as long as he carries on giving us hideous radland bandits, flying brains and yes, those amazing fishbowl helmets.

Forget the uniform quibbles.  My big problem with this story is that Dredd & Moon are only alive by sheer luck, while everybody around them are being slaughtered.  And the Deus ex machina bear thing?  Surely this could have been foreshadowed to explain its presence, e.g., "Thankfully we haven't run into any of this region's mutant bears..."

So far, this feels a little like Michael Carroll's (below-par for him) The Shroud.  Or, worse still, Grant Morrison's Crusade.

I still can't believe that Tharg hasn't tried launching a special stereoscopic issue under the title "2000 3-D".   All-new anaglyphic action, just waiting to happen...

Maybe I'm just a meticulous pedant, but surely the helmet-mounted respirator ain't gonna cover that mouth properly. 

As for Hale, I imagine Dredd saw too much of himself there. No need for two Dredd's on this mission I guess!

Nah, Dredd inferred his logic earlier in the story: a heatseeker would have done the job.  I don't think he's impressed by showboating; he wants someone who knows their duty.

[Dredd]

First of those is in Dredd with R M Guero, whose work I really like seeming a bit... off. Nothing horrible just not as good as I'd expect.

I'm surprised at colourist Brusco's slip-up on page 6 with Hale's helmet.  Threw me for a minute, until I realised who this was supposed to be.

Forgive me if I've missed something here ... but why has his badge been replaced by the Flag of Liberia?

Wot?  Is nobody going to mention that stunning cover?!?  One of the best depictions of Death in recent years, in this cow's humble opinion.

And yet ... shurely misleading, given the prog's actual content?  (Where's that number for Trading Standards...?)

Brilliant!

[...] and it is chaotic and then some.

During the second part it dawned that the years 1989, 2005 and 2016 also correspond (respectively) with the creation of the World-Wide Web, launch of YouTube & Facebook (under that name), and launch of TikTok.  Is the whole thing a commentary that social media leads to the fragmentation and breakdown of reality?  It would certainly explain the "after 2016 it all goes downhill" comment in the first part.

I've developed my own theory now about who it could be - but the closer I get to thinking I'm correct, the more I don't want to say it out loud. I mean - they've gone to all the trouble of coming up with a secret identity, so it'd be a bit bummy to blurt it out.

A very wise point.