You’re not counting the 5 fold decrease on main site though… those stats above are just the forums.
We survived the 90’s. The collapse of the market was rough. But back then there were no movies like what we have now. As long as the MCU keeps rolling, comics will stay relevant.
That’s merely a consequence of moving 99.9% of the content to the forums.
Not really. Like said, the forums are traffic driven by users posting comments where as our main site posts the actual articles that has not changed at all.
Year after year, we saw nothing but growth on main site. It’s been the last year or so it’s dropping without any major changes to what we do on it.
Exactly. We create 99.9% of the content here on the forums.
What’s the user data look like for the main site for the same timeframe?
And a large majority of that is just witty banter and chatter, joking, memes, etc. I’d say probably a good 5-10% is actual reliable data that is relevant.
I’ll just say one thing though, one of the fallacy’s though being used here is stating the publishing numbers are going up, so the industry is healthy… that’s a hasty generalization fallacy in a sense that you’re not counting all the other factors that are in play for the overall industry.
Or saying well, ComicTom’s subscribers have increased 5 fold in the past year… well, how many of these signed up and never bother reading or looking again? CHU has thousands of subscribers on main site and I"m sure we could probabaly do some cleanup on removing all the bouncebacks, etc. I’m sure a large majority don’t followup when the email is sent, etc. So, take it all with a grain of salt still.
Just like people who sign up for gym memberships each January after new years resolutions where they say 90% never show back up only to then cancel months or years later after they realize they’re wasting dollars doesn’t indicate one bit that the gym industry is “healthy”, or we wouldn’t have an obese pandemic going on here in America. Sure the gyms are making money but not as they should… 
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I agree with that. It’s one of many metrics one should consider evaluating the state of the hobby.
Wouldn’t these issues be the same with or without growth? The fact is that both him and CHU have experienced 5-fold growth.
The data for CHU is amazingly consistent. This implies that the growth is real.
Same for ComicTom’s Top-10 videos. Look at the view counts. Growing, growing, growing.
Subscription numbers on a spec group or watching a video tells us nothing about the overall health of the comic book industry though. This is almost using the The Correlation/Causation Fallacy, example again, ComicTom’s subscribers has increased, therefore the comic book industry is healthy. Maybe some just watch him cause they think he’s a huge dork and love to watch his hand wave around like one of those inflatable tube men in front of used car dealerships…
In the end, subscriptions and views on a video tell us only one thing, the amount of people who clicked a button to subscribe or read/watch, it tells nothing else in what they’re actually buying within the comic book hobby and industry.
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I don’t think this needs to be a “doom and gloom” thread. I started this conversation because the demographics at my LCSs and comic events have skewed FAR older than what they were a whole bunch of years ago. I wanted to get a take on the age of CHU users to see if we matched what I was seeing. With only 6% of voters in the under 29 range, that matches what I’m seeing in person. To me, that’s a problem for the long-term viability of the hobby. That doesn’t mean the sky is falling. But, I’d guess the hobby will look considerably different in 10 years.
I gotcha, the conversation did drift.
But I would say something to what people claim they see at their shops. I only see old guys too but I’m old and the time I normally go to the shop when I do is right smack in the middle of the day or right before noon when most kids are at school (or should be). So if I say, well, I never see teens or kids at my comic shop… well, it’s just not a good indicator of the hobby and or industry since I go during times when kids just aren’t going or can’t simply go.
I just wanted to provide counters to this. The CHU population isnt indicative of general comic buyers. I see many comic buyers under 30 in my area.
I know a few shop owners enough to have the conversation with them. I’ll have to ask their opinion on the matter. I do see kids in the shops, but it seems like they are ALWAYS looking at toys or cards. It’s really rare to see them looking at comics. Again, it could be regional too.
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Very small samples. Gotta think about the whole picture. That’s what I’m trying to bring forth myself.
Subscribers, website stats tells us nothing of what people are buying, selling, etc. All of it is moot for the most part. There could be enthusiasts who just enjoy reading the info, trying to decipher what’s a good read from what people are just buying in hopes to flip for profit, etc.
I’ll be up front and honest, my buying habits have drastically changed in the past 6 months. I don’t think I’ve pre-ordered any new comics in 2 months now, most of my pre-orders prior are trickling in. I’ve cut back drastically in buying books. And yet here I am still speculating on comics and talking about them but not even buying them. I didn’t even bother buying Black Panther #3 and a slew of other recent hot books.
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You watched his subscribers increase? Are you the site admin? I see no hard data in your assumptive statement.
Agreed. Website clicks or subscriptions are not equal to comics purchased or the long term health of printed comics. In time these will all be accessible digitally and you won’t need to purchase the actual paper…I think that is where this all trends to.
I will keep purchasing the ones I like to read/collect as long as they hang around, or I do I guess!
And I guess I should clarify when I said floppies numbers are dropping. I get that they look like and have increased in the past 10 years but for me, I think they’re increasing for the wrong reasons. Just looking at the top comics of 2021, some of these got big publishing numbers due to the fact of 1:1000 ratio variants that got chased by not only consumers but retailers acting like consumers.
We got speculators gobbling up FOC books they think will get hot to sell on the secondary market to those who slept on it or other dumber speculators at small or other profits.
If we broke down all the factors in involved, comic book individual issues should be dropping but publishers and the marketing teams are working overtime and doing a great job in getting people to buy more than one copy of a book for any particular reason, whether you want every damn cover of a book, you want extra to sell, etc.
The comic demographic hasnt shifted older in the last 15 years. Ive been hearing that argument for at least that long. I dont see it when I go out and about buying comics. Its just not true. Its approximately the same age as it has been for at least 15 years. Its not skewing steadily older. Its just not.
Just memory. He had about 10,000 subscribers when I first saw one of his videos about 18-24 months ago.
I agree with this too. And with inflation raging it’s possible, and probably likely, that people are buying less books. What the views/clicks/submissions do tell us though, is that the interest is still there.
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