The comics industry

The comics industry is currently experiencing a period of immense transformation and expansion, marked by surging sales, rapid digital disruption and a dramatic diversification of readership and content. Far from the niche market it was decades ago, today's industry is a global one where new technologies and distribution methods are reshaping how stories are created, circulated and consumed.[1]

One in five Canadians reported reading comics, manga (Japanese comics) or graphic novels in 2024, in either physical or digital formats.[2] Total North American comics and graphic novel sales were approximately $2.08 billion in 2021.[3] Original graphic novels, in particular, have grown significantly in the United States, where sales have doubled since 2019 to 35 million books a year, placing them second only to general fiction and romance in book sales.[4] This pattern is even stronger outside of North America: in France, one in four books sold is a graphic novel.[5]

While the traditional superhero publishers like Marvel Comics and DC Comics remain significant players, the North American publisher landscape now includes giants focused on broader audiences. Scholastic and Viz Media (focused on Manga) "now rival the traditional superhero houses in annual sales" due to their strength in bookstore and educational distribution channels. Other notable publishers include Image Comics (creator-owned), Dark Horse Comics and IDW Publishing.[6] Notably, the New York City Public Schools, through its Civics for All Comics Group, has effectively become one of America’s largest comics publishers, surpassing two million copies in print and ranking "solidly among the top 10 periodical comic publishers in the United States" since 2020.[7]

Shifts in distribution and the creator economy

The industry's distribution methods have broadened. While direct distribution to comic stores remains important, graphic novels and collected editions are increasingly sold through bookstore distribution and online retailers.[8]

Perhaps the most significant change in the industry is the digital revolution. Traditional comics readers, often dubbed "Wednesday Warriors" for their weekly visits to local comic shops, "skew older — and are mostly male."[9] However, digital platforms have found a massive, untapped audience: Webtoon, which originated in Korea in 2004, is the world's largest digital platform, boasting over 82 million monthly users. These digital comics (or web comics) are gaining popularity, in part by successfully "tapping into an audience the industry had long overlooked: Gen Z and Millennial women."[10]

These digital stories are typically offered for free and are designed to "scroll vertically on smartphones," reflecting the process by which people navigate content on electronic devices. This format, known as the "vertical scrolling webtoon," has become increasingly common and even the default arrangement for many sequential works online. This vertical format utilizes a layout that stacks panels, intentionally slowing the reader down and requiring them to "shift their gaze down and back to the left margin before they can resume reading."[11]

The success of digital platforms hasn’t gone unnoticed by traditional publishers; Marvel, DC, and Archie Comics have all "struck deals with Webtoon to produce original digital stories featuring some of their biggest characters." Digital success also translates to other media, as hits like "Lore Olympus" have topped best-seller lists as graphic novels, and series like "Hellbound" were adapted into Netflix hits.[12]

Meanwhile, the once-central role of the print newspaper comic strip is diminishing. The era when competitive commercialism made comic strips the "center of national daily conversation" has fractured. Print newspapers are shrinking, leading to significant income losses for syndicated cartoonists.[13] Female artists, in particular, note that they’re being disproportionately affected by the consolidation of newspaper chains. The newspaper print business model is fatigued, making it "rare for a new feature to achieve massive success through the print pages". As Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston, creator of the long-running strip For Better or For Worse, noted, "It’s a different industry now, and a lot of women are doing children’s books and graphic novels" instead.[14]

Comics creators today rely on diverse income streams.[15] These include platform monetization (Webtoon grossed $900 million in on-platform sales in 2021, primarily from advertising and selling early access to series), physical sales and adaptation deals. [16] Independent creators frequently utilize crowdfunding through platforms like Kickstarter and Patreon to fund production and presell books.[17]

Expanding genres

Contemporary comics are being utilized for diverse and serious applications, extending far beyond traditional genre fare:

Diversity and Personal Expression: Lower publishing barriers – first as a result of changes in printing technology in the 1980s, then again with digital distribution – opened the door for a broader range of people to create comics and share a much wider range of their experiences.[18] This has often taken the form of autobiographical comics, from youth-oriented works like Raina Telgemeier’s Smile and adult-focused ones like Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. A sign of the shift in the market is that, unlike predecessors such as Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, which was limited to small audiences through “underground” or “independent” distribution channels,[19] both Telgemeier[20] and Bechdel’s comics[21] have been mainstream bestsellers, as have non-autobiographical but highly individual works such as Jeff Lemire’s Essex County[22] and Kate Beaton’s Hark! A Vagrant.[23]

Nonfiction and Journalism: There has been a major rise in fact-based comics, including a growing number of nonfiction works by journalists and historians.[24] This genre, often called "comics journalism," is also used for news magazines like Topo, which tells the news through comic strips to provide context and discuss difficult topics in "a playful or interesting way."[25] Works of comics journalism like Joe Sacco’s Paying the Land (about the impact of the Northern mining boom on the Dene Nation) and Ella Baron’s reporting from south Sudan have not only made readers more aware of the issues they’ve covered, but communicated their impact on the people who have experienced them in ways unique to comics.[26]

Education and Social Impact: Comics have long been influential tools for social change, such as the 1958 Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story comic book, which remains a staple in nonviolence teaching globally.[27] This tradition is followed today by publishers such as the New York City Public Schools, whose Civics For All Comics address topics ranging from history to music to financial literacy.[28] Comics are also used to as a way pass down traditional knowledge, such as the effort by the Homalco First Nation to use a graphic novel to spark youth interest in their traditional teachings.[29]

[1] Abate, M. A. (2025). One Does Not Simply Overlook New Forms of Sequential Art: Memes as Fixed-Image Comics. Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, 9(1), 1-23

[2] (2024) Canadian Leisure & Reading Study. Booknet Canada.

[3] Gustines, G.G., & Stevens M. (2022) Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers. The New York Times.

[4] Segran, E. (2025) Graphic novels are booming in popularity Its changing children's relationship with books. Fast Company.

[5] Ayuso, J.W. (2023) A Boom in Comics Drawn From Fact. The New York Times.

[6] Huckabone, K. (2024) Distribution of Graphic Novels: History and Practice. EBSCO Knowledge Advantage.

[7] Salkowitz, R. (2024) How NYC Public Schools Secretly Became One Of Americas Largest Comics Publishers.

[8] (2025) Comic Books and Graphic Novels: Industry Outlook. Vault.

[9] Gustines, G.G., & Stevens M. (2022) Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers. The New York Times.

[10] Gustines, G.G., & Stevens M. (2022) Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers. The New York Times.

[11] Abate, M. A. (2025). One Does Not Simply Overlook New Forms of Sequential Art: Memes as Fixed-Image Comics. Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, 9(1), 1-23.

[12] Gustines, G.G., & Stevens M. (2022) Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers. The New York Times.

[13] Cavna, M. (2022) Is the print newspaper comics page in trouble? The Washington Post.

[14] Cavna, M. (2024) Female artists are disappearing from print comics at chain newspapers. The Washington Post.

[15] Hunting, K. (2021) Independent comic-book businesses and creators on Kickstarter are leading the way to a new era after the pandemic shuttered stores and hurt the industry's major distributor. Business Insider.

[16] Gustines, G.G., & Stevens M. (2022) Comics That Read Top to Bottom Are Bringing in New Readers. The New York Times.

[17] Hunting, K. (2021) Independent comic-book businesses and creators on Kickstarter are leading the way to a new era after the pandemic shuttered stores and hurt the industry's major distributor. Business Insider.

[18] McCloud, S. (2000) Reinventing Comics. William Morrow.

[19] Soliz, C. (2022) American Splendor: From off the Streets of Cleveland. EBSCO Knowledge Advantage.

[20] Midhani, R. (2015) Drawn to Comics: Raina Telgemeier’s NYT Bestselling Graphic Novels are Perfect for Middle School Girls. Autostraddle.

[21] (2016) "Hardcover Nonfiction."  The New York Times.

[22] (2025) 12 Canadian comics to read this summer. CBC.

[23] Ito, R. (2022) Finding Humor, and Humanity, in Canada’s Oil Fields. The New York Times.

[24] Ayuso, J.W. (2023) A Boom in Comics Drawn From Fact. The New York Times.

[25] Biehlmann, P. (2023) How Topo magazine uses comics to tell the news to French teens. Nieman Lab.

[26] Polgreen, E. (2014) How comics can enhance reader engagement, bring new audiences to narrative nonfiction. Nieman Reports.

[27] Banks, A.M. (2025) An interfaith group’s 1950s MLK comic book remains a prominent nonviolence teaching tool. Associated Press.

[28] Salkowitz, R. (2024) How NYC Public Schools Secretly Became One Of Americas Largest Comics Publishers.

[29] McKay. J. (2024) Graphic novel from Homalco First Nation aims to spark youth interest in traditional teachings. CBC News