The cat so fast he's a streak 
, 1993 - An interesting look at a turning point in Comics history
Malibu was a small publisher and distributor who basically ate up most of the small comic publishers in the black and white boom and then made bank being the distributor for early Image. Malibu was also known for its very advanced computer coloring department which was the best in the industry at the time. Soon after this they would leverage the massive capitol influx into making their own superhero universe, the Ultraverse. This Tv spot is right before the launch of the Ultraverse. Some interesting things to note here are mention of a Dinosaurs for Hire Saturday morning cartoon which never actually aired. We get mention of the superior sales of the manga market from editor in chief Chris Ulm "they print more comics then potty paper in japan" and he also says "Comics in general are being looked at more and more as ways to prototype ideas visually, and then translate that to electronic media [video games] cinema or TV or animation". Within in a year of launching the ultraverse Marvel would wholesale buy Malibu to gain access to their advanced coloring and keep DC from gaining more market cap. Within a year of buying Malibu Marvel would reboot the ultraverse and move the most popular characters to their main universe. Within a year of doing that Malibu would be shuddered and all properties of their properties owned by Marvel would remain untouched to this day. No reprints, no new books, or even cameos in other Marvel Comics. To this day upper level execs are tight lipped about the death of Malibu and why the ultraverse wasn't revived.
From this we can see what happened to the comic industry before it died and that even at its height in the 90s comics were being increasingly looked at as little more then IP banks for more successful adaptations.
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Good post
I’m not into comics but it’s still interesting to learn some of its history considering their influence in pop culture.
What’s the state of the industry today? Did it decline on the sense of sales? Or are we talking about quality decline?
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Comixology is probably 99% of all sales. Marvel just canceled their digital distribution platform so you can't even get digital Marvel comics outside of Comixology. I wouldn't open a comic book shop today.
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The Demon Slayer manga outsold the ENTIRE comic book industry when it hit western markets.
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Decline in sense of sales is objectively true while quality is subjective (I personally find that modern DC is less consistently good then say the 80s-90s even if some individual titles are good) early 90s was the peak of sales for comics but as we see here actual pure sales numbers are dropping. The death I’m revering to is the massive bubble pop in the mid to late 90s which bankrupted marvel and which the comics market never recovered from.
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I heard they peaked during WWII when everyone from kids to GIs read them. There's probably a reason why by the end of the century only asthmatic 98lb geeks and fat guys with ponytails were stereotyped as comic book readers
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Best selling comic of all time was 91's X-men #1. In the 90s comics were speculator item which boosted sales regardless of actual readership
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