10 things you didn't know about comics

1) The market is tiny. I heard the VP of DC himself estimate the comic-buying public at 200,000 people.

2) That tiny market is privileged white boys. An independent publisher once told me that they were very proud of how much their audience skewed female - 15%, more than any other indie. Their covers look like this:

3) The tiny market, despite being tiny, is seen as a harbinger. The average audience of a comic book movie (any comic book movie) is over 25 million people in the US alone.

4) "shades of green" are never going to be an issue because there are no green minorities. "Shades of brown" will always be an issue because HOLY FUCK people lose their shit. Is this because comic fans are racist? Prrrrrobably. But they don't know they're racist and minor revisions to minor characters are not the place to confront them about it.

5) The pen'n'ink guy is literally the lowest of the low on the totem pole. They're fundamentally denied creativity.

6) "This one time I did some pages" means you're a temp, filling in and you're allowed even less of an opinion.

7) "I've been told that" means that there are other people who also have an opinion who probably aren't temps doing "some pages."

8) It was let stand because nobody wants it to be a thing but if you make something a thing you likely aren't going to get invited back because the big comics outfits run exactly like the big studio outfits. I have this on the authority of two good friends who switch hit between the two.

9) There is no aspect of anyone's anatomy or physiology in any corner of any superhero comic anywhere on the planet that has anything to do with anyone who is actually on the planet.

10) This is why the good stuff has been outside of the superhero genre forever.