In the late 1970s, the largest comic book publishers in the United States, DC and Marvel, were both in dire financial straits. It was the usual story: rising costs, falling sales, that sort of thing. DC managed to pull out of the nosedive by cancelling a large number of unprofitable titles in favour of concentrating on their core competencies (Superman, Wonder Woman, the God-damn Batman, etc); the success of 1978s Superman film didn't hurt much either. Marvel in the meantime decided to focus on moving more of their products into the emerging network of comic book shops and changing their distribution strategy. Getting the comic book rights to the first Star Wars film certainly didn't hurt either.
But for a while there, it was very touch and go. Any one of a number of factors could have lead to one or both of them going all Titanic on us. So...what if they had? What if both DC and Marvel comics had gone out of business by 1980? This won't do jack to Euro-comics, much less to the behemoth that is manga, but from what I understand the latter was brought over to the US via the comic book shops and if they don't exist in this time-line due to the collapse of the Big Two then who/what does the importing? Someone else? No one?
What will happen to the Intellectual Properties, i.e. the characters - do they get sold to another company (like maybe....Kodansha???) else or just fade away into obscurity? Oh! Oh, my lord. I just had a flash: Wonder Woman, written and drawn by Naoko Takeuchi. That would be, uh, really epic. Good Goddess....
Anyway. What fills the gap created by the loss of comics in the US – video games, as I suspect, or something else? And Hollywood - no Spider-man films, no Dark Knight; I guess some other flicks get green-lighted instead.
Thoughts?
But for a while there, it was very touch and go. Any one of a number of factors could have lead to one or both of them going all Titanic on us. So...what if they had? What if both DC and Marvel comics had gone out of business by 1980? This won't do jack to Euro-comics, much less to the behemoth that is manga, but from what I understand the latter was brought over to the US via the comic book shops and if they don't exist in this time-line due to the collapse of the Big Two then who/what does the importing? Someone else? No one?
What will happen to the Intellectual Properties, i.e. the characters - do they get sold to another company (like maybe....Kodansha???) else or just fade away into obscurity? Oh! Oh, my lord. I just had a flash: Wonder Woman, written and drawn by Naoko Takeuchi. That would be, uh, really epic. Good Goddess....
Anyway. What fills the gap created by the loss of comics in the US – video games, as I suspect, or something else? And Hollywood - no Spider-man films, no Dark Knight; I guess some other flicks get green-lighted instead.
Thoughts?