There's been plenty of discussion lately about the death of newspapers and what might happen to editorial cartoonists. There's been plenty of discussions about traditional comic book publishing, and whether the decades-old business model is still viable. There's been plenty of discussions about exclusively digital comics and whether there's an "ideal" format for them.
The thing is: all of these discussions -- and certainly many more -- are talking about the future. The root question at every one of these discussions is: what will tomorrow be like? Will my comics -- the flattened wood pulp splattered with colored chemicals -- be impacted by what's changing in the world right now? Some people's interest is their very livelihood -- comic creators and retailers for example. Others' interests are simply nostalgic -- "I want my kids to love comics they way I did." Others are just being selfishly lazy and don't want to even consider having to change their weekly habit of heading down to their Local Comic Shop. (And I really hope those people are in a distinct minority.) I'm sure there are any number of completely valid reasons to question the future of comics.
Now, we can speculate from now until the cows come home about what the face of editorial cartooning will look like in ten years, or whether or not there will be an electronic book device that displays comics better than anything currently on the market. But whatever we'd predict, we'd be wrong. Because we (mankind) always are.
I remember about 25 years ago, trying to figure out what file format worked best for playing songs digitally. Since there was essentially no such thing as a portable MP3 player (the first ones were introduced in 1998) I tended to simply continue using CDs. Naptser -- the original Napster -- was still a year or two away, and the iPod another couple years after that. Sure, we had portable CD players back then, and I'm sure somebody dreamed of having what was essentially a portable hard drive to carry that many more songs than a CD could hold. But did anyone figure on a device that fits into your shoe? And then is also able to track your workout data?
What will comics look like in ten years? In five years? In two? Will we have a souped-up Kindle or a toned-down tablet PC? Will we have electronic paper? Will we have comics beamed directly into our brains? No one has those answers. Think about how much the comic industry has changed just since 2020 when Diamond was literally the only national pamphlet comics distributor.
But what I can tell you is that comics as a medium will continue. You'll be able to continue reading about Superman and Garfield and Judge Dredd. And you'll be able to find reprints of Tintin and Asterix. And there will almost assuredly be another generation of Kuberts and Romitas, drawing comics in a manner befitting the reproduction technology of their time.
It's terrible that individuals have to experience massive industry shake-ups, as their professions are being redefined out from under them. But the planet isn't going to stop just to make sure the last newspaper editorial cartoonist can keep his job. Things are going to move onward, like it or not, and your best bet is to stay as informed as you can and try to morph with the industry before it leaves you behind.
Guys like me, who are big proponents of advancing technologies, can't see the future. No matter how hard I strain, things are a hazy blur at best. But, as long as I continue to look, I'll be able to see where things are heading the moment those blurs begin to come into focus. I can kind of make out some outlines now, which is why I'm big on webcomics, but I can tell that won't be ultimate expression of comic art in years to come. At least, not as we know webcomics today! But keep looking; maybe your vision is better than mine!
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