A moment in time for the UK comics community
Today, the Comics Cultural Impact Collective (CCIC) releases a report summarising the challenges faced by the UK comics community, alongside opportunities for fixing them. It's based on input from more than 100 people who make comics, work with comics, publish comics, sell comics and fund comics.
I'm super-proud to have written this report, with the help of my co-directors at CCIC. As we sifted through the many comments from our recent roundtable meeting, sorting them into themes and categories, it felt like having a comprehensive bird's eye view of the comics community at this moment in time.
It's a scary moment for comics folk in many ways: we're right at the start of an AI revolution that threatens to make conditions even more dire for comics artists. Work and pay conditions are poor for creators; but that's not the fault of publishers, who are suffering their own economic difficulties.
But there was also much to be optimistic about. We identified a really strong and supportive network of grassroots organisations, here to help artists with everything they need, from technical help to getting work out to new audiences, to the most important thing of all... fellowship.
The comics scene is very good at that last one: it's welcoming to everyone, more diverse than many other arts communities, and offers many opportunities for meeting and sharing with others. At the same time, we discovered that these networks aren't massively visible to those just starting out, or who want to find out more about comics from the outside. As you'll see in the report, we think that's an easy fix, and one we'll get working on right away.
Something that might take a little longer is to foster a new understanding of everything that comics can do, across the UK as a whole. We want to open new channels for working with all sorts of industries, and to increase funding opportunities by showing that the returns will justify the investment many times over.
I've just come back from a weekend in Paris. One of the first things I saw at the Gare du Nord was a hoarding, erected to hide unsightly building works in one area. The barrier itself was far from unsightly: it was decorated with large scale, bright illustrations. Googling to find out more, I discovered that it was part of a programme to bring culture to France's stations; a programme which had also placed comic art in 50 stations last year.
Later, in the underground, we saw a run of large posters for a graphic novel, promising that it was the key to understanding the situation in Gaza. I'm not sure I've ever seen a large scale public advertising campaign for a comic in the UK.
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And on our way home, in the station equivalent to WH Smith, bandes dessinées were piled up ready for people to buy for their journeys. One of them, an adaptation of a popular written book, bore a flash to say: "AT LAST - available in comics form".
As if comics were so understood, so taken for granted as part of the fabric of the country's culture, that there was no need to explain. Of course you would want the text in graphic novel form, who wouldn't.
And that is the future CCIC want for the UK. We've seen it's possible. Now we've listed the challenges that need to be overcome. We spent a weekend at the Grange not long ago, mapping out routes to the solutions. We believe, with the help of the comics community we can make this happen.
So - go and read the report. Please tell us what resonates, what perhaps doesn't. And then, come to our next meeting so we can start putting these solutions in action (subscribe here to receive the details).
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CCIC are: Hannah Berry Karrie Fransman Sara Kenney Rhiannon Mair Griffiths MBE Myfanwy Nixon (Myfanwy Tristram in the comics world) and Zara Slattery .
#comics #graphicnovels #publishing #industry #museums #funding #culture #arts