90s comic crash

It was because nobody expected it. Sales rocketed up basically overnight, thousands of new comic shops opened, and then they all had to shut down a few years later because Marvel flooded the market with shitty product and accidentally fucked up the distribution system.

>>95245729
I found this one youtuber that talked about marvel during the time and how some of their decisions caused the comic marketplace to crash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ2KzcSD1pE&index=2&list=PLP7v2GoLok37YBm3WBaqvrKd97uSMYDPT

>>95247468
thanks

>>95247742
No problem

>>95245729
>go from millions of comies to 50k or less

it wasn't that extreme

it was more like 100k to half that in like a year

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>>95248417
Tyrant went from 1 mil to less than 50k in that time. It's why Steve Bissette shelved it and became a teacher

>>95246495
Also Image and Valiant. Nobody was innocent of it.

>>95248652
I went from a full pull down two books in a matter of months. Aside from Savage Dragon, which was very good for a very long time, the Image launches were either disappointing (Wildcats; Spawn, pure shit, Shadowhawk, Youngblood, or just firever late, Cyberforce, Wetworks). Valiant w/out BWS was just bland. I was bored with Marvel and DC except for 5yl. All my friends dumped their pulls at around the same time. Comic shop owners, ime, saw the writing on the wall and did some hard selling in an attempt to stay afloat, which drove away more readers. The speculators were already long gone.

>>95245729
The saddest part of the comics crash was that the quality of the books played no part. And now today it looks like Marvel didn't learn their lesson as they now continue to rely on collector's variants and overshipping

>>95249932
>the quality of the books played no part

What are you saying? The 90s books that can be most blamed for the crash were shit.

>>95250243
That's true, but even if everything was good, speculators would have busted the market either way. Shade the Changing Man and Sandman were both going on during the crash and Shade got cancelled

>>95250870
wasn't sandman one of the few books that was able to maintain its sales even after the crash ?

>>95251319
Sandman had the benefit of building its own audience outside of speculators and average comic readers, and Gaiman also chose to end it on his own terms during the crash

>>95249395

>Wildcats
>Spawn
>Shadowhawk
>Youngblood
>Cyberforce
>Wetworks

It's amazing that Image survived. That lineup is a war crime.

>>95251709
Image survived by being decentralized, not so much a single company but a partnership between different lines/editors/publishers or whatever you want to call them. Instead of just canceling and launching some other shit like DC or Marvel, each Image guy worked into making their line work, and little by little each one found some way to survive.
Lee and Silvestri made their own lines work. Mc Farlane went into toys, his line was never that much else except for Spawn. Valentino was the one that did most of the outreach to indie creators, got Kirkman in and built most of the base for what image is now. Larsen was never interested in much more than doing Dragon.

Out of the six Liefeld seems to be the only one that failed hard.

>>95252206

>his line was never that much else except for Spawn

Well to be fair, Spawn was a megawatt success for the 90's/

>>95252206
>Silvestri
just looked at the wikipedia, he left Image during the crash and only came back when Liefeld left. That's when he helped create Witchblade and The Darkness. Which went on to be the big books that kept the company afloat

>>95252206
It didn't really turn out that bad for Liefeld either, he left Image but that was for other reasons. Maximum had big success cashing in on the bad girl craze. It didn't really get to the point where he couldn't sell a comic book until the end of the 90s.

>>95250243
Some were. The Liefeld X-men wasn't worth anything, and Spider-Man and most of the X-men and a lot of Image like MAXX were shit. But there were some great 90s stuff like Busiek's Avengers and Spawn

>>95252353
yeah, but i mean i don't think he ever tried much into trying to get talent in and get a line going, he mostly did spawn and spinoffs. I think he was much more dedicated to the toy line. And that made him even more loaded tha he would have ever been from a succesful comic line.
>>95252373
He left image for a couple of months and went back once Liefeld was out, as he was the main reason of him not wanting to be in Image. And whatever you think of the quality of those books Witchblade and a couple others kept the line going for a long time.
>>95252412
I think i overdid it with failed hard, but i was just trying to point out all the others built their niche beyond the early hype, Liefeld seems to have just done decent riding that early fame but never got around to much else. And even then, yes he made a shitton.

>>95252431
not sure if bait or just stupid

>>95248625
>Tyrant went from 1 mil to less than 50k in that time.
Yikes. Being a self-publisher with those sales is purgatory.

>It's why Steve Bissette shelved it and became a teacher.
He did the art for an issue of a Dark Horse's Aliens miniseries published in 1997.

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>>95252659
I love witchblade and am a fan of a lot of the Top Cow universe

>>95253064
Yeah Top cow has made some pretty good books. But it took a while to get there though.

>>95251709
Wetworks isn't awful as the others, but i wouldn't call it amazing either. Like Savage Dragon, it's premise is incredibly dumb but also kind of enjoyable

>>95247468
Hey, these are pretty damn good.

>>95255687
Thanks I was in similar position as the op wondering how comics were selling so high and suddenly the whole industry crashed then i stumbled onto these series of videos

>>95245729
Terrible fucking decisions, the same as every economic crash. Look up the dotcom bubble sometime.

>>95247468
>That's roughly three years worth of Stan lees salary which he receives by just not being dead
Kek, you found the rare noncringy comic book YouTube channel anon

>>95257435
it really is, wait until you hear him rip into Liefeld. It's fucking hilarious.

>>95247468
>Stan Lee was in hollywood and locked down a Daredevil animated series and a live action Black Widow show
>Bevins shot down these ideas cause if they were bad they would hurt comic sales
REEEEEEEEE

>>95245729
read Chuck Rozanski's blog on it.