LET'S GET INDUSTRIOUS...

I'm often amused and amazed in equal measure when I hear some people claiming there's still a real comics 'industry' in this country.  I'm having a bit of a guess here, but I suspect that if you combined the sales of every genuine British comic available today, the total would still be lower than a mere handful of comics from the '60s & '70s.  One successful title back then sold more than just about any four or five different ones do now, so that pretty much speaks for itself.

"But look at all the comic events taking place," they bleat.  "That proves that there's still a huge interest in comics."  Even if that were true, interest doesn't necessarily equal industry.  Once, comics sold in large numbers without requiring promotion by special events to try and fan a dying spark into a flame.  One could argue that such events prove what dire straits the so-called industry is in.  Comics never needed such 'events' in their heyday.

Far fewer comics writers and artists make a living from the 'industry' now than was once the case (there just isn't the same number of opportunities), so you can regard such optimistic claims by folk trying to 'talk things up' as just that - which is understandable, but not an accurate reflection of reality.  As for those few folk who do get a decent share of work, as somebody once pointed out, if you have a larder full of food at a time of famine, you may wonder why some people are claiming to be hungry, but you're living in a bubble.

I'd find such claims about how healthy the industry is more credible if some of those making them weren't currently recycling old strips in self-publishing ventures in order to supplement their incomes.  Self-publishing is a hobby (or vanity-project) - not an industry.  There's no shame in that of course, but let's call it what it is, not what some folk would prefer it to be.