Mark Millar Predicts the end of Comics

From an essay on Newsarama:

Millar basically pronosticates the day in the not too distant future that the American comics scene is decimated; first by the normal cycles of boom and bust, and secondly by a flood of talented comics creators seeking the greener pastures of Hollywood. A relevant quote:

Likewise, every writer I know has a movie deal at the moment. I can’t think of a single working pro at the big two who isn’t involved with Hollywood in at least some capacity. And the more I like their comics work, the more Hollywood seems to like them too. It wouldn’t be inconceivable to imagine that their part-time movie gigs become full-time over the next few years and I’ll give you an example in numbers. Supposing a writer had an idea for a brand new, four part series. Selling this to a comic company might net him anywhere from 10,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars. It’s a lot of money, of course, and especially sweet when it’s doing something you love. But taking that same story and writing a first draft of a screenplay (something that takes about the same length of time as a four issue mini) and you could be looking at ten times the amount. Get a bidding war going and you might be looking at two or three million dollars for your cool little concept (as a couple of comic-book pros managed recently when they flogged a couple of original screenplays). As much as people love this biz, and I don’t think I’ve met a pro who doesn’t LOVE what he or she is doing, that’s a lot of cash to turn down. I think it will be especially hard for artists. They can only have a much more limited amount of work in print and, even if they aren’t creating anything, could make ten or twenty times their comic-book salaries every week if they take a good production jobs on a major motion picture.

He also compares the industry now to the British Sci-Fi weekly 2000AD in it's early 80's heyday.

While I think Millar is a bit too pessimistic in his arguments, he raises a lot of good points about the eventual fate of the industry. Hollywood snaring the best and the brightest comicdom has is bad news for the industry, but it's not the fatal blow Millar makes it out to be. The fact is, as Millar himself states in his essay, every creator he knows loves the comic industry, whereas very few people say the same about being a screenwriter. In fact if you ask a pre-2004 Frank Miller or James Robinson about their experiences writing for the big screen and you'd probably hear horror stories.

Also, one of the reasons 2000AD crashed was the debut of American comics into the British market. I just don't see that happening here. I know manga's popularity has expolded in the past 7-10 years, but it's not at the point that it will relegate mainstream American comics to the back of the store. Will there be a nadir? Of course. In 2015 we'll probably all be lamenting the good old days of aught-six, but I just don't see a total collapse in the cards.