Thanks to the large collector community of ‘pannapictagraphists’, comic books once looked set to be one of the last bastions of ink on paper.

But, as with many other printed forms, over the past decade, the internet and digital tablet devices have eaten into the market share of comic books, causing many publishers and comic shops to disappear. Over the same period, the number of pannapictagraphists has dwindled, with fewer now making the Wednesday morning pilgrimage to their local comic shop (the day new issues arrive).

It sounds like a depressing state of affairs, but is all this Doctor Doom and gloom misplaced? After all, last week, over four days, more than 130,000 people were expected to go through the doors of the annual Comic-Con in San Diego, one of the biggest comic showcases. And, in recent months, comic publishers have employed controversial tactics that have helped to revive flagging sales of ‘floppy’ comics, with even grander initiatives planned for later in the year. So, is the death of the printed comic nigh or is this merely another twist in the form’s evolution? 

The first recognised comic book publication was printed in 1933 in the US. The escapism offered by the format struck a chord with a nation coming out of the worst economic downturn in history. Comic book aficionados consider the late-1930s through to the mid-1940s as the golden age of comics, with superheroes like Captain Marvel and Superman introduced to the masses. However, sales of comic books began to decline following the end of the Second World War and, despite a minor resurgence in the 1960s, through the counter culture movement and the growing popularity of artists like Robert Crumb (and his many imitators), the downward spiral has continued.

The US has always been considered the spiritual home of the comic book – although it boasts a large following in Japan, Italy and France – and, since the 1960s, two US publishers have dominated the industry: Marvel Comics, publisher of the likes of Spider-Man and X-Men, and DC Comics, the creator of titles such as Superman and Batman.

These two companies have the most to lose should demand for printed comics expire, which is why, in recent years, they’ve been doing their damnedest to shore up falling sales. Their tactics have differed greatly, according to Simon Hacking, a comic book aficionado who works for London comic shop Orbital Comics.

"The price of comic books has gone up by $1 over the past few years, because of things like higher print costs; if you’re buying five to 10 comics a week, that makes a massive difference," explains Hacking. "So DC Comics decided to make all of its comics a standard price of $2.99 and as a result we’ve seen some people dump all of their Marvel stuff and switch to DC." 

DC appears to be playing a canny game. Earlier this year, it generated swathes of publicity when it announced in September that it intended to cancel 50-plus titles and relaunch them from issue number one.

"It was presented to the fans as a reboot of the universe – some of the history would stay, but some would change," says Hacking. But cut through the hyperbole and a different picture emerges. "When it was announced it was really exciting but, as more details have emerged, it looks as if they’re going to use the same writers and artists and similar storylines so it’s a bit of a damp squib," adds Hacking.

Death of an icon
Marvel struck back by using the most controversial tactic of them all – killing off an iconic character. In January this year, the publisher killed off The Human Torch, a member of The Fantastic Four. Then in June, it sparked a media frenzy after announcing plans to kill off Spider-Man. Although die-hard followers of these characters shouldn’t be too concerned – Captain America was killed off in 2007, but then came back to life two years later and Superman died in a battle in 1992 but the Superman series is still going strong today – Marvel has already intimated that this isn’t the end of Spider-Man but the "start of one of the most ambitious stories you’ve ever read in comics".

The thinking behind such tactics are obvious – a lot of readers are reluctant to collect something that’s already at issue 560 whereas, if the stories start afresh, it will entice new comic book buyers. This desire to attract a new generation of consumers to comic books has also played a large part in DC and Marvel’s decision to bow to pressure to create apps for the iPhone and iPad. Another deciding factor was the fact that fan-made scans of new issues were showing up online just hours after the printed version hit the shelves.

Originally the titles being offered through these apps were just classic issues and compendiums, but DC, which talks about digital as a "new newsstand", recently took the bold decision to release print and digital issues simultaneously. It’s too early to say what the impact of the move will be but Hacking says that from his experience it’s had a limited effect.

"The danger of a title being released digitally at the same time as the paper version has been over-stated," he believes. "The people who buy loads of comics each week are not the sort of people who just want to read comics – they want to read the comics and collect them."

And the good news for publishers of floppies is that a new breed of collector is emerging, who doesn’t want to buy every issue in a series – he is happy to wait for a series to end and then buy the compendium. This switch in purchasing patterns, coupled with the rise of graphic novels, is providing a shot in the arm for the industry, according to Shane Chebsey, comics and graphic novels publishing consultant at UK comic publisher Scar Comics.

"As a distributor I’ve stopped dealing in floppies and now only accept submissions of graphic novels and trades plus handmade mini comics," says Chebsey. "Graphic novels will never die as they are items that readers like to buy and collectors are also starting to switch to trade paperback collections as sales figures have shown."

Another advocate of the form is Alex Spiro, creative director at UK publisher Nobrow, which prints high-end comics, among other things. Spiro believes that there is a "healthy nostalgia" for printed comics that may be waning in other areas of publishing. Having said that, he also feels that print and digital can co-exist in the comic universe.

"Marvel and DC have recently started releasing e-comic versions of many of their staple superhero series and these are doing very well indeed, especially with younger readers," says Spiro. "Whereas publishers of graphic novels, or let’s say more high-brow comics, like Drawn & Quarterly and Fantagraphics, seem to be publishing ever more ambitious print projects, focusing on quality of production and the book as an object."

Inherent pleasure of print
For Spiro, it’s the "inherent pleasure" that he and thousands of others derive from seeing artwork printed rather than displayed on a screen that will help to secure the future of the format. Few would deny that comic publishers have endured a tough time of late, but printed comic sales still top the $650m mark annually in the US alone, while digital comics are only worth around $6m–$10m in the US. When the price of tablet devices comes down, experts predict that digital sales will rise but, even when we reach that stage, printed comics are unlikely to disappear overnight,
according to Emma Hayley, managing director of the UK graphic novel publisher SelfMadeHero.

"The printed versions of graphic novels and comic books will have a long life because collectors like to touch their purchases," explains Hayley. "They like to have them on parade on their bookshelves. While there are some interesting developments in digital comics, the printed form will be here for some time because there are still a few generations of comic book lovers who didn’t grow up with iPads."

TIMELINE: COMIC BOOKS
1933 Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics is printed in the US. It’s widely accepted as being the world’s first ever comic book
1938 Superman, the first comic book superhero, makes his debut appearance and a series of similar characters all boasting ‘super powers’ follow in his wake in a decade that would become known as the ‘golden age of comics’. But the golden age was short-lived – in the years following the end of the Second World War, comic book sales started to decline
1961 Marvel publishes The Fantastic Four, attracting a new audience of children and college students to the genre. The emergence of underground comics in the 1960s, drawn by the likes of Robert Crumb, also finds favour with a new generation of comic book fans
1980s Many comic book experts trace dwindling sales of floppies to price hikes introduced in the 1980s in the US, which were fuelled by a nationwide paper shortage and the demand for higher production values. At the start of the decade, comics sold for just 50 cents but by the end they had broken through the $1 mark
1991 Marvel launches the first issue of an X-Men series that sells around 8m copies, making it the biggest-selling single issue of all time
2007 ComiXology launches as an ‘online pull-list management service’. Two years later, the company launches a digital comics reader for the iPhone and goes on to build branded apps for Marvel and DC
2011 In a controversial move, Marvel kills off The Fantastic Four’s Human Torch and Spider-Man. DC responds by announcing plans to relaunch its comic book series from issue number one in September