User-Created: ComicSpace.com

Consider it the YouTube of comics...ComicSpace is a community of 11,890 comic fans and creators hosting 1,765 comic galleries!


And while I am on a streak this week with rants about undervalued pots o' gold, consider the following factoids about comic books from Mediapost's Media Technology Futures blog

--The U.S. comic book business (publishing only) was approximately $550 million in 2005. -- Marvel Entertainment publishes approximately 70 different comic book titles per month, primarily distributed to consumers through three main channels -- direct market retailers, mass-market retailers, and through subscription. Revenue is also derived from the sale of advertising within the core comic book product of approximately ten pages -- specifically, three glossy cover pages (the inside front cover and both the inside and outside back cover), and seven interior non-glossy pages. Gross profit margins in the business are in the mid-50% range!

--Virgin Comics retains an 86% male, 14% female readership, with a median age of 23 and age concentration from 16 to 29, with a median household income of $50.69k. Some of the brands that have used comics to deliver their brand message include Dannon, Coke Classic, L'Oreal, and Nautica (not to mention the usual suspects Nokia, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, etc.).

--John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Rosario Dawson, Dave Stewart -- just a handful of the celebrities who have taken to using this form as a way to create new vehicles for more traditional media channels.

--The purpose of most publishers is to license titles for new distribution platforms, like movies. And if you think that these movies are just for "fans," well, let the box office speak for itself: Marvel Entertainment alone, through titles such as "Blade," "Spider-Man," "X-Men," "Elektra," "Fantastic Four," "The Hulk" and "Daredevil" generated over $4 billion in eight years over 14 films. And you don't build an audience like that without a base -- a base that is simply, the comic book reader.


via USA Today's Pop Candy blog and from Mediapost's Media Technology Futures blog