Oblivion, by Mike Gold
So we’re headed straight into another 1930s-style depression, or so our politicians and the media would have us believe. Maybe that’s true, although the attempted cure – the socialization of our investment bankers and the insurance industry – just might work. It’s the perfect solution in the Age of Irony: our neocon president nationalizing the very companies that control so much of our economy. Franklin Roosevelt must be rolling over in his grave.
But the real question that concerns us is – how might this affect us as comics and popular culture enthusiasts?
First, I’ll address the most obvious. If you lose your job, you will have less discretionary income and, despite our self-image, comics and movies and action figures are more discretionary than the rent, electricity and food. Even if you’re 45 years old and you live in your mother’s basement, if she’s living off of an annuity and her insurance company goes blooie, you might be cutting back on those X-Men titles.
If enough people find themselves in that position, the friendly neighborhood comics shop will go blooie as well. If enough comics shops go down, the smaller publishers (the “back of the catalog” people) will see retailers order their wares more conservatively than they did before. Some publishers will vaporize. It’ll certainly be tougher for creators to sell those more interesting yet less commercial projects.
Movies… well, that’s another matter. Movies have this rep for surviving the 30s Great Depression, but only among those who aren’t aware how many movie studios got sold, went bankrupt, or almost went bankrupt at the time. Today’s movie-going experience is a lot more expensive than it was for our grandparents. Even in constant dollars, $10.00 tickets are a lot more than 25¢ tickets… and our grandparents didn’t have to spend as much (relatively speaking) on popcorn and soda. More significant, most were able to walk to their local movie house. Today, we have to drive. Even the low, low price of $3.50 a gallon would crank the entire movie going experience up to $50.00 for a couple; more, with dinner. A movie date will cost you a cool hundred.
Television is no longer free. Sure, only a few people will need to get those digital adaptors for their rabbit-ears this February, but most of the rest of us get our fix from cable or satellite (or, in the case of my bestest friend, both cable and satellite). If food, rent, gasoline and utilities cost a family of four two grand a month or more and either one of the breadwinners is no longer winning bread, those premium channel packages are going to look real expensive.
Comics retailers order their stuff from Diamond on a non-returnable basis and, literally, bet the rent each month on their order form. They will have to be even more conservative. They’ve already been ordering what they know will sell; now they have to factor in the fear factor: how many of their regulars will lose their jobs, how many will be so afraid of losing their jobs that they’ll make immediate cut-backs in their purchases? I already said the “smaller” publishers would suffer; so would those companies that manufacture licensed material – action figures, posters, tie-in apparel,
All that affects us both directly, as in how we spend our time, and indirectly. Publishers and creators alike live off of that ancillary income I noted above. If people cut back on their movie-going, the studios will make fewer huge budget action/special effects movies. Fewer companies will license popular culture properties and movie tie-ins. And so on, until the bottom line gets eaten away.
These are tough times, to be sure. We don’t even know if we should be panicking, which is a real shame. I’ve always found panicking to be cathartic.
What can you do about it? Two things come to mind. First, keep your wits about you and don’t do anything foolish, one way or the other. If we stop spending all of our discretionary income, the economy will come to a grinding halt. Better you should spend your money more wisely.
Second, read up on all this stuff, go to the candidates (national and local) websites and see what they say they’ll actually do about the economy, and on November 4th, vote.
It really will be the most important decision you’ll have made in a long, long while.
Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.
I vote for you.
Hmmm. I wonder if the White House can hold three separate comic book collections. I'm sure there's plenty of dead weight I could eliminate to make room.And maybe I'll replace a few selected presidential portraits with Olivia paintings.
Fewer variant voers…please.
covers
Fewer variant voters would work, too.
Mike, may I be your Sarah Palin? No one knows me, but you seem to like me… And while I'm no hockey mom… I style my cat's hair by licking my palm first. And I can see Michael Davis from my backyard. (not really, his shades are always drawn) :)Good article, great points indeed. I only hope and pray those 'back of the book' folks find new ways to continue to spread their wares. In the mean time, congress will bicker, and it'll all tumble out into the taxpayers laps.
Lots of good stuff to think about here, Mike. While I agree with much of it, I also wonder how much more people will be willing to budget for escapism in these troubled times. I also wonder if the election of an articulate and literate president won't return us somewhat to a culture wherein literature is again more valued (and considered a better value for money) than passive media.
I think that if the shit really hits the fan, the first thing people will protect with their disposable income will be their cable teevee connection. Maybe they'll cut a few premium services — we'll see if they drop their Internet connection — but they'll keep the teevee going.I just hope municipal libraries survive budget cuts.
The savy will cut TV before Internet. I can get a LOT of TV through INTERNET. Newspapers will die first. But you are right, people will go without food before they give up on TV. We are ill age vidiots.The Minneapolis Public Library didn't survive. It got folded into the Hennepin County Library system because it over-expanded with an overpriced new downtown library. It was wasteful spending, when a renovation of their older library building would have done the job. Gross incompetence from management. This was several years ago and local Minnesota news, but it's a symptom of the growing economic malaise.
As my wife is fond of pointing out: Teevee used to be free and wireless. Now you have to pay and run a bunch of thick cables through your house. And if you want to watch different programs on different teevees, you have to pay more. How is that progress?
It's a matter of what it's worth to you. You can still get broadcast television; the government will even kick in much of the cost for a digital converter if you don't want cable/satellite/phone teevee. I'm told (but I don't know) that the picture quality of such devices is superior to prior over-the-air.My prediction that people will maintain their pay teevee connection in some form is based upon statistics provided by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. As of December 2007, cable penetration is 58% of all television households. Add satellite, phone company, and Internet television to that and we're probably pretty close to two-thirds of the total market. I suspect the digital conversion will inure to the benefit of the pay teevee industry, and if the economy continues to worsen we'll see more seductive deals from these folks.Of course, that doesn't count the people who bootleg their connections. Presumably, they will continue to do so unless and until they're caught.
It is, of course, all a matter of what it's worth to you. Currently, I pay for a satellite service, but if the satellite and cable services don't change their business model, they will start to lose market share to internet providers. Oh wait, the cable and satellite services already ARE internet providers; so maybe the business model will change as the distinction between teevee and internet provider disappears.
Regardint movies in the Depression era – you also got a heck of a lot more for your money; even into the 1960s, you were liekly to get a cartoon with the main feature, but in those days, you very often got at least one cartoon, a newsreel, other "assorted short subjects" and, quite possibly, a second feature.For a quarter.Saturday matinnes? Don't even get me started… (I wasnt there, understand – my Dad turned seven the day before Black Thursday, but i can read film history books…)