How Marvel and DC comic success?

[CAOMouse]

I'm just wondering how they become successful and what's their method? For examples:

• Who is the original creator of Marvel and DC comic?
• They employ many artists to write story and draw comic OR the original creator write story then hire artists to execute the story?
• Did they success because of many "alternative universes" in their comic (a character which has many versions of himself, he maybe worthless in one timeline but godly in another timeline)
• Why nobody copy their method thus born more brand of comics?

[Jenny-Toons]

Well, Marvel and DC are two publishing companies, not creators. And like most publishing companies, you have editors, producers and etc who pick snd choose comics to join them. Kinda like Webtoons/Tapas and their featured works. Hence, you have contracts and copyright laws that can be added to protect some of the creative ideas (at least for the publishing firm).

A lot of the OG comics (so like Batman, Superman, The Avengers, etc.) had their creators. Some did all of the work, others were a writer/artist duo. And after many of them became huge, they gained new writers and artists to make more storylines and whatnot.

Don't really have that much more than that to add, so someone else could say more.

[CAOMouse]

So the company hires artists to both write and draw comics about their OCs (superman, batman, spiderman, ......)
So after the comic is completed, the company 100% own it?

[Jenny-Toons]

No? Marvel and DC as publishing firms never made them. They took on the OG creators of the works.

Ex. Bon Kane and Bill Finger are the OG creators of Batman. They created the figure, not DC, but DC took them on as DC creators.

And then contracts and stuff happened to make Batman a permanent DC icon.

It's like with Webtoons and Internet-Chan. Webtoons themselves didnt make the comic, Merryweather did. But Merryweather is a creator published under Webtoons.

[CAOMouse]

So basically Marvel and DC purchase OCs from artists and use as their own?

[colinmooredraws]

No?? They create IPs (Intellectual Property), sometimes based off works pitched to them by other creators. Once you get to that level, it's not really an "OC" anymore, and professional comics people tend to not even know what an "OC" even is.

Jenny-Toons put it quite well. It's extremely complicated and I don't think you really understand what these companies are. And to your original question: there are several other companies out there doing the same thing they do. There's Dark Horse, with things like Hellboy, The Umbrella Academy, and a ton of stuff based off TV shows and movies. Image and IDW, as well. They're all the same thing: publishers. So what exactly do you think Marvel and DC really are?

[Jenny-Toons]

Edit: Ok, back to my computer. But yeah, I would HIGHLY suggest you do a bit more research about publications and what exactly they do. There are some creators here who have gotten gigs with some publishing firms, so they can speak to more experiences.

It's important to remember that publishing firms are entities made up of people, they're not actual people. They have founders, executive board members, editors, agents, creators, and teams.

They are not one person who pays out creators to make stories. Companies can do this, but it's not just one person running everything.

So what should we do to go from a single artist to a publisher company?

What do you mean by this?

Are you asking "how do I work for a publishing firm?"

Well, that's even more complicated.

Are you talking about Indie comics or Mainstream comics (which are more towards DC/Marvel)?

If you're going more towards mainstream, agents usually help with that -- not just with comics, but with a lot of publishing companies. There's also the need for self-promotion, networking, managing a portfolio, etc. It's a competitive field, and just like @Shanny8 mentioned, not everyone gets to be as big as Stan Lee or Rob Liefeld.

[CAOMouse]

So what should we do to go from a single artist to a publisher company?

[colinmooredraws]

Well, first, an individual artist wouldn't do that. Artists work for those companies. The companies are run by the editors and the like. But if a person wanted to start up a massive media company, it would take a great deal of money.

Vital question: What, exactly, do you think Marvel is?

[Shanny8]

No. Marvel & DC's origins go WAAAAAAY back to the 1930's. Not sure who the original publishers of Marvel were, but Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created more than half of the characters that Marvel has today- Captain America, the Fantastic 4, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, the Black Panther, Thor, the X-Men, The Eternals, The Inhumans, Daredevil...and more.

These companies own the characters because the creators more or less sold/gave up/lost the rights to the characters. They now publish their comic through "work for hire"- which means they pay artists/writers/creators to work on their comics; the only way artists can retain some degree of ownership has been recently- Rob Liefeld gets royalties for Deadpool(because he created the visuals). Other artists probably get royalties for some of the characters they created, but his is notable, because Marvel has heavily invested in Deadpool and he's become a popular character.

The Siegel Family gets royalties from Superman, Bob Kane's Family(and recently Bill Finger's family) gets royalties from Batman, William Marston's family gets royalties from Wonder Woman...Stan Lee & Jack Kirby's families get royalties from Marvel because they created most of Marvel's characters.

They didnt succeed because of alternate universes; they succeeded because A) people were into superheroes and B) these companies created iconic characters that have withstood time; people have been reading Marvel & DC comics for more than 50 years...

There have been MANY companies that have tried, but none were successful in replicating that formula. The closest that has been is during the 90s when Image Comics formed- they started out making mainly [creator owned] superhero comics, but then changed their format to survive(they still make creator owned comics, but they have gotten away from being superhero heavy). Other notable comic companies: Dark Horse Comics, Oni Press, and Valiant Comics...within the last 10-15 years we've gotten IDW, Boom, and Dynamite Comics. There are more, but they are smaller companies.

The landscape of comics has been changing since the 90s- especially when DC's imprint line Vertigo sold books that didnt follow the classic superhero format. Also indie comics began to flourish, and by the 2000s when the mainstream industry took a [sales] hit, indie comics were able to grow...we're now at the point where indie comic creators have a better chance of making books that sell; also the market has been moving towards better sales from graphic novels & trades as opposed to smaller monthlies.

As a creator, you can do whatever you feel you want. Me, I like having control over my characters; the only move that I would possibly make is if some publishing company wanted to publish a work of mine and I got to keep my ownership of my characters, as well as printing ownership- meaning that if I decided not to roll with said company anymore, I can take my rights to my book and print it elsewhere. I've worked too hard creating stuff just to let some company upsurp the rights to my characters. I also dont have any desire anymore to want to work for Marvel or DC; that's time I can be using to work on my own material.

If you want to be the next artist on Spider-Man or Batman, then that is cool...I dont knock any of the current creators that are doing that. If you want to create characters for Marvel or DC to use, that's cool also- sometimes new characters need to be made, to propel the MC...but ultimately in the end, you will work on their characters, their comics; not everyone lucks out like Liefeld and creates a multi-million dollar character and get massive royalties from it.

[malverav]

It's also worth noting that Marvel/DC comics and their superhero floppy comic model are waaayyy less popular now than in the 30s-60s, and webcomics/kickstarter/self publishing/graphic novel popularity means that creators don't necessarily have to give up IP anymore to get their work published, popular, and making them a living. Oni, Image, Dark Horse, Iron Circus, etc, all take submissions from individual creators to make their comics in exchange for the publishing rights. Indie publishers and book distributors taking on indie comic publishers help as well, meaning you don't have to go through the traditional comic book machine to get your books in stores anymore.

Nobody copies their method because the bloated mess of big two canon, with reboots, alternate universes, tons of writers, is a crap model that demands you buy comics from them every month lest you fall behind. Most consumers haven't got time for that these days. Marvel and DC continue like that out of momentum and the fact that these are the only characters they own, so they can write stories about them without getting the original artist's permission. Fewer new superheroes get published because creators are the 90s onwards generally refused to give up the rights, meaning the big two have to recycle the same characters because they own the ones from the old days (batman, superman, etc). The team model still is in practice for other comics with monthlies (Hack/Slash: not a big two property, Money Shot, Lumberjanes, etc). So, they have to keep rebooting as writers quit and change, the new writer has new ideas so they bring people back from the dead and reinterpret the canon, that writer quits... it becomes an unwieldy mess really quickly that only the lamest of comic book nerds have the time or money to bother with.

As for creation it generally goes; writer/creator, then the team of artists (pencils, inks, colours, letters). If you want to be a cog in the comic machine, great, but there's more options than being a big two inker with little creative control or whatever now.

[CAOMouse]

When mention about "big indie comic creators", who are in the top 10 right now?

[nostalgicroxas]

If you want a quick summary, this is actually a pretty informative video of just some basics on how the companies worked through the ages.

[punkarsenic]

have you tried seeking out this information for yourself? there are books and documentaries on the history of marvel and dc and of american comics publishing

[silacinnamon]

Here are 10 independent authors that I know, idk if they are the "top 10" but all of their comics won prizes and/or got adaptations in movies or series, so I'd say they got pretty popular. Some of these were published by big comic publishers like DC, but I still count them as indies since they're independent from any big superhero series/universe:

Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim, Seconds, Snotgirl), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Ex Machina, Paper Girls), Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy), Gabriel Bá & Fábio Moon (Daytripper, Umbrella Academy), Chris Ware (Building Stories), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis), Noelle Stevenson (Nimona, Lumberjanes), Julie Maroh (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Kerascoët (Beauty, Beautiful Darkness).

You can also look for lists of comics awards winners and search other independent artists! And there are lot of older comic series from outside of the USA that are still popular, just look at Tintin, Asterix, Corto Maltese, Tex. Mangás are also getting even more popular and have been getting awards in the west too, but that's a whole different comic industry over there.

[malverav]

Research. Find what you want out of that list. Do you want indie publishers to pitch to or the biggest names in indie comics making comics themselves to get inspiration from?

Scan the Eisners for who's up right now in comics (there's indies as well as big publisher backed properties there). I wouldn't say there's a set in stone 'top 10 "best" indie creators' though, it does a disservice to the variety in comics and it depends on what you mean by "top".

[malverav]

Definitely. Manga has a consistent story with a way higher output (for better or worse) because of the single creative team spearheading a manga throughout its run in general, and I think audiences appreciate that. If I want to read Batman, do I start with... what? The Alan Moore written stuff? The OG comics? The current arc? If I want to start One Piece, I start with volume one. Easy. No wading through anything or asking for help. That's why webcomics/indies are good for me at least as well - no having to decipher what to read before I even start reading!

I mean, there's also a shitload of manga so it's fair to say that manga can beat in sales though sheer volume... but also: Marvel/DC comics aren't like. Going amazing.