It's hardly flourishing. We are in a golden age of superhero movies and the sales numbers today are just now starting to match the numbers of the late 90's -slump-.
The reason we have the embarrassment of riches that we do today is because digital distribution reduces the entry cost of new publishers. Most of the most interesting and exciting comics aren't coming from the Big Two. At while we might use those comics to "scratch our itch", the Big Two are Big for a reason: more people read those stories. You aren't going to be able to sustain the industry based on admittedly high quality comics that only sell 10k copies a month.
And I agree with Busiek: we need heroes to adapt and change to reflect the culture. Superheroes in the big two don't do that, because nerds of our generation don't want them to. They want the same, decade after decade, and they want the stories less and less appropriate for children (via mature themes and graphic content), producing another obstacle to new readers.
If I seem "doom and gloom"y, it is because it seems obvious that changes need to happen, but the Big Two are reluctant to make them.
no subject
The reason we have the embarrassment of riches that we do today is because digital distribution reduces the entry cost of new publishers. Most of the most interesting and exciting comics aren't coming from the Big Two. At while we might use those comics to "scratch our itch", the Big Two are Big for a reason: more people read those stories. You aren't going to be able to sustain the industry based on admittedly high quality comics that only sell 10k copies a month.
And I agree with Busiek: we need heroes to adapt and change to reflect the culture. Superheroes in the big two don't do that, because nerds of our generation don't want them to. They want the same, decade after decade, and they want the stories less and less appropriate for children (via mature themes and graphic content), producing another obstacle to new readers.
If I seem "doom and gloom"y, it is because it seems obvious that changes need to happen, but the Big Two are reluctant to make them.