To help prop up flagging comic book stores suffering under lockdown, artists and writers created an online Twitter auction with the hashtag #creators4comics to sell works of art and give the proceeds to stores.
This report produced by Jonah Green.
Comic creators attempt to rescue beleaguered industry
With stores around the country shuttered, and much of America staying at home, many industries are suffering.
One of them — is comics.
Not only are the conventional stores shut, but there's no way of getting new material to comic book fans.
Jim Lee is the publisher and chief creative officer of DC Comics.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) COMIC BOOK ARTIST AND PUBLISHER AND CCO OF DC COMICS, JIM LEE, SAYING: “We have a distributor, an exclusive distributor and they've been shut down and so they've temporarily shut their doors so there's demand but there's no supply so we can't get our books from our printers to the different stores around the country." So like the muscular heroes they draw, a handful of comic book writers and artists have joined forces to save the day — that is, help prop up flagging comic book stores.
They’ve created an online Twitter auction with the hashtag #creators4comics to sell works of art, signed books, even video chats with creators, and give the proceeds to stores.
Lee, himself an iconic comic book artist, pitched in.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) COMIC BOOK ARTIST AND PUBLISHER AND CCO OF DC COMICS, JIM LEE, SAYING: "I think I've done about 15 or so, 12 have been auctioned off.
We've raised so far over 125,000 dollars so if we keep at this current trajectory, you know, I think we'll hopefully break half a million dollars and then that's in addition to the 250,000 that DC has donated to this fund that will basically support struggling comic book shops in need, right?" Edward Greenberg runs three shops in Los Angeles, and fears that if stores close down, the industry may go with it.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) COMIC BOOK STORE OWNER, EDWARD GREENBERG, SAYING: "We are such a cottage industry - there's only about between two to three thousand stores - that if we lose 10 to 15 percent of the stores, we might not have an industry because if comic books are sold in quantities that are incrementally less by, let's say, 10, 15 percent, the companies might decide it's no longer worth it to produce comic books because their margins are so thin and we're not where we used to be in the 90s, where comic books used to be produced in quantities of millions." (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMIC BOOK ARTIST AND PUBLISHER AND CCO OF DC COMICS, JIM LEE, SAYING: "It is very heartwarming to see the fans step up, the creators step up and these retailers have given us so much.
Like I said, as a little kid walking into a comic shop, that was really, that was like my magical land of escape and we'd hate to see that go away."