Magazine Sales and the Modern Cartoonist

[dewline]

Noticed something at Bookninja this afternoon on the subject of magazine sales, with a particular eye on sales of "made-in-Canada" product on Canadian newsstands. It is, as the author of that post notes, on the cusp of going either way on the "good news/bad news" highwire.

On the one hand, our homegrown publications are catching more market share.

On the other, the pie seems to be shrinking.

So I'm guessing that the goal is now two-fold: re-grow the pie, and keep expanding the "domestically-produced" percentage of that pie.

Here's another question: how do comic books currently fit into that pie?

PS: Here's a sidebar link to Johanna Draper Carlson's weblog on a somewhat related matter.

Comments

[crisper.livejournal.com]

Things change, man, and there is no surer road to unhappiness than trying to hold onto stuff that the world has replaced with something better. Wainwrights and cartiers and blacksmiths used to be major professions, back when horses and carts were how things were done; wouldn't you agree that the world is a better place for not needing them anymore?

That being said, I heard Dan Vado of Slave Labor once say something that has stayed with me ever since, which is that people will always need something to physically read on the toilet, and that is something that a comic book is *very* good for, and computers *won't* be for a long long time.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

danvado speaks truth in this.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Something only just now occurred to me: what was a wainwright?

[crisper.livejournal.com]

Makers of wagon wheels, a fine and respectable craft that served humankind well for many hundreds of years... but then one day, the world wasn't being transported on wagons anymore, so now they've mostly gone the way of the dinosaur, except maybe in Amish country.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The way the oil situation's playing out, those skills may yet be handy again. Soon, I fear. It might be a good thing if the Amish wainwrights and cartiers start setting up training workshops...