Comic Con economics
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2022
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Comics are a multi-billion dollar industry and comic conventions - or cons - attract thousands of fans, desperate to meet their heroes and splash some cash.
Elizabeth Hotson visits the MCM event in London to find out what’s hot and what people are spending their hard-earned money on.
We hear from Joëlle Jones, a comic book writer and illustrator, Jenny Martin, Event Director at MCM Comic Con and Michael Loizou from Brotherhood Games.
Plus tattooist Matt Difa shows off his Star Wars inkings and Vincent Zurzolo, the Chief Operating Officer of Metropolis Collectibles in New York looks back on one of his most memorable comic book sales.
Producer: Elizabeth Hotson Presenter: Elizabeth Hotson
Picture Description: Comics at Wellcome Trust Superhero exhibition, Picture Credit: Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Business Daily with me, Elizabeth Hotson. On today's program, we're looking at the |
| 0:07.1 | multi-billion dollar comic book and pop culture industry. We'll be hearing how trading cards are in a |
| 0:12.6 | financial league of their own. One was sold for $5.2 million. It was an illustrator, Pikachu, |
| 0:18.9 | but the Crem de la Crem, as we call it, is the first edition Charazadellus. |
| 0:22.6 | That card's anywhere between $300,000 to $400,000. |
| 0:25.6 | And why comic book events and conventions can be extremely lucrative business opportunities. |
| 0:31.6 | I've got like an Iron Man figure for my nephew, I've got some comics, I've got manga and I've got some like prints. |
| 0:40.0 | Because it's an event, you're more likely to spend here. |
| 0:44.0 | That's all coming up on Business Daily from the BBC. Like many kids, I was an avid comic collector, mainly the British classics like the |
| 1:04.9 | Beano and the Dandy, but across the pond in the US it was all about the superheroes, Superman, |
| 1:10.6 | Batman, Wonder Woman. |
| 1:12.4 | Many of those characters originated in the first part of the 20th century, but their appeal |
| 1:17.4 | continues, both for new generations of kids and for children who basically haven't grown up. |
| 1:23.4 | In fact, the global comic book industry is in the best shape of its life. |
| 1:27.3 | The business publication Fortune predicts that the global comic book market will grow from $9.21 billion in 2021 to $12.81 billion in 2028. |
| 1:41.4 | No wonder then that Comic-Conns, so conventions for comic fans and other forms of popular culture like Japanese animated films and series, attract millions of visitors to events around the world. |
| 1:53.3 | One of those is the MCM London Comic-Con. And it's a way for the comic book industry to create a buzz for new releases, video game studios to |
| 2:01.6 | publicise new titles, and also for fans to indulge their particular pop culture passions. |
| 2:07.6 | We spent a lot of money. I spent a little bit too much, but I'm having a great time, so it's fine. |
| 2:13.2 | What did you buy? Two plushies. I was going to run to get the one, but then I saw another one that happened. |
| 2:18.8 | A lot, a lot, a lot of art prints and badges. |
| 2:23.2 | We'll delve into the shopping bags of some more fans later on. |
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