Have you ever thought to yourself – What the fuck is going on with comics these days? Well here is a simple FAQ to help you navigate some of the madness and dysfunction of the current comic book industry, scene and associated fandom.

I hope you find it useful…

1) Why do all the comic books in stores look the same?
Everything new I read is so boring!

That is because a bunch of failed TV Writers and storyboarders took over comics in the 2000s. All these hacks started swooping in after some lazy artists jumped ship in the 90s and became super greedy.
These artists were obsessed with attaining corporate acceptance and their Image – So much so that they squandered a real opportunity to change the medium for the better.

2) What’s with all the fanart at comic cons and shows – How come there are so many Deadpool prints for example?
Isn’t that theft?

Yep! It sure is!

If they did not pay to license the character; it is totally stealing.
These artists are the cover bands of the comic book world.

“Con” has become a fitting word for comic convention. They are filled with a bunch of these lazy artists who just wanna make a few quick bucks off some stolen IPs.
Why not! It is way easier than making your own comics and selling them – That actually takes a lot of commitment and work.
At some point these creators lost faith in themselves and found it’s easier to just sell fan art.

Most conventions stink for independent comic artists: High table costs, not many actual comics and even less indie creators.

Opportunism trumps supporting creativity and innovation at these shows now.

Cosplay is not comic books.
Cosplayers are not the historians, they are the civil war reenactors.

3) Why are there comic books that have a bunch of different covers with the same story inside?
Isn’t that stupid and wasteful?

They are called Gimmick Covers: variant cover, 3d cover, foil, holographic, yadda yadda yadda. If the publisher prints 30 plus variant covers it means they can sell the same stupid book more than once.

The big comic companies are “shelf pigs” – Think of all the shelf space taken up by all those variants.
It leaves little to no room for any other comics.

My (least) favorite is the blank sketch cover, or the “Draw your own cover you stupid dickhead!”. 
Give them less and make them pay more is the going motto in comics.

All of these old trash ideas were created for moronic speculators who want to place inherent value on new comics when there is none.

The real value of comics is in reading them.

4) Why are a lot of the past and current artists so poor?

Most of them are hired as freelancers so that the companies can treat the artists like dog shit: low pay, no health care and little to no rights to the work they make.

Do some googling – Almost the entire comic publishing industry has been ripping off artists for many, many years. It is a twisted tradition long upheld in comics.

Indeed, it is common to see the people who created the things we all love die in abject poverty.

Being a freelancer also means there is no one holding you accountable at conventions or online. There have been a lot of sex pests exposed recently.
With the comics industry’s obsession to be loved by Hollywood came with it the adoption of all of tinsel towns’ gross habits. Screwing artists literally and figuratively.

5) Why are there so many comics on Kickstarter and on my social media?

Because most indy creators have nowhere else to go.
Massive corporate mergers and the pandemic left a lot of them stranded.

The comic store distribution system has been broken for many years.
So, the indies are left with nothing.

Sadly, on Kickstarter ideology or fame sells comics, not good stories and art. There are so many late books or you just get nothing at all.
Most crowdfunding is the land of unfulfilled promises.
I also think major campaigns are padding the numbers. Paying off their own campaigns. There is no way in hell that Ethan Van Sciver is as popular as Keanu Reeves.
Even Ethan’s stupid magical Mormon underwear can’t make that miracle happen.

6) Why are there so many toxic angry comic creators on twitter and YouTube?
Why do they obsess over something they seem to hate so much?
It seems kind of like a weird cult.

100% it is a cult – A cult of sad pathetic losers who spend their lives on live streams talking about the comics they say they hate but actually love.
Creators love to constantly spew garbage online. This is one of the worst things about modern comics.

It started when a bunch of pseudo intellectual dorks all made YouTube channels. This lonely group created a place where they could all get together and cry into their bag of Funyuns about Star Wars. 

In the old days this kind of obsessed pathetic fan yelling at each other only happened in the comic stores. It is where the term Fanboy came from.
Everyone has forgotten it was a derogatory term back in the day – Fanboys were the smelly obsessed creeps.
Now all of these same mouthbreathers just do all their inane blathering on twitter and YouTube all day.

Imagine a grown-up ADULT talking about X-men comics for 4 hours straight – It gives me major douche chills.
This small group lives in a state of confused toxic nostalgia; pining for a world and era that no longer exists.

They seem scary but don’t worry. The bullied think they have become the righteous enforcers but they really just come off as desperate and sad – Screaming for somebody, anybody to pay attention to them because nobody in real life will.

Article art by Dan Thrax