The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide labor-market data at a level of detail that identifies trends for the comic book industry or for the specialized writers, artists, and editors who work in it.
The BLS classifies comic book artists within the larger category of fine artists, including painters, sculptors, and illustrators. Average employment growth is projected for this occupational category through 2033.
Similarly, the BLS includes comic book writers within a larger category, writers and authors, for which growth is expected to also be about as fast as the average through 2033. Like most workers in highly creative fields, artists and writers will face strong competition for jobs.
For editors working in all forms of publishing, the BLS projects a 2 percent decline in employment through 2033.
Because these BLS figures apply to large occupational categories rather than to workers who create comic books and graphic novels, it may be more useful to infer employment trends by looking at the overall performance of the industry.
The 2020 pandemic hurt the comic books industry. Unlike novels and streaming video, the appeal of the comic books industry largely relies on in-person interaction and physical media. Early in the pandemic, Diamond Comic Distributors, which handles 75 percent of comic book distribution in the U.S., temporarily shut down. This cut off the supply of new product to specialty comic book stores and led publishers to cut back on producing new content. Comic book shops themselves and online retailers experienced an increase in sales of back issues and existing inventory, such as trade paperback collections and graphic novels. The industry has since rebounded, and even with a 7 percent decline in sales in 2023 compared to 2022, the 2023 sales were a 70 percent jump from the total sales in 2019.
The cancellation of comic industry conventions turned people's attention even more so to their comic collections. Many collectors focused on cleaning up their collections, which helped to grow sales of everything from new titles and graphic novels to back issues. Crowfunding has also been critical in helping comics stores to continue operating. The stories and creativity that comics and graphic novels brought people were welcome respites during the pandemic and will continue to be popular in post-pandemic times. A Market Watch report predicts that the global comic book publishing market will grow by about 4.6 percent annually through 2028. Growth will be attributed to comic books being available on e-commerce platforms and the trend toward new launches.
Industry Trends
The comic book and graphic novel industry is evolving in line with advancements in digital storytelling. Comic book creation is expanding due to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR), which can offer new, immersive experiences that open new possibilities for how comic book stories are created and consumed by audiences. Emerging technologies also bring challenges for the comic book and graphic novel industry, such as navigating the digital landscape. Fighting digital piracy and maintaining creative integrity will also be challenges to sustain growth.
The acceptance of art from the comics as fine art continues to trend. Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein controversially imitated the style of comic books in his 1960s paintings, but artwork from actual comic books is now being scanned and reproduced in high-quality art book editions, some of them portfolio-sized.
Implications for Occupations
The trend toward digital platforms indicates that job opportunities will be better for artists who are skilled with using computers. Although many artists still begin the creative process by working in pencil, hand-drawn images often are scanned into computers at some stage during the process and manipulated digitally from then on. Some artists use a Wacom tablet to draw directly within the graphics program. On the other hand, writers do not need much more technical ability than it takes to operate a word processor and communicate via e-mail.
Most comic book artists collaborate with writers, and all have to work with editors. Artists and writers who fit the stereotype of the self-centered creative genius have more limited opportunities in this field. Most artists and writers are freelancers and have to compete to get assignments from editors, which is why self-promotion is important. Artists and writers should be comfortable with using Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, blogs, and Web sites to create a high profile for themselves. They also should attend comic-book conventions to keep up with trends in the industry and make contacts with editors and potential collaborators.
The shift to digital platforms probably will limit opportunities for jobs in retail comic shops and in the distribution network that supplies them. The industry will generate work for software developers as it continues to experiment with formats for digital delivery. Best opportunities will be for those who are skilled with code that displays and manipulates graphics. The usual trend in software development is that once the highly innovative phase has passed, maintenance and bug-fixing work is given to lower-paid offshore workers.