Murdock and Marvel: 1999 Part 1

Episode 49 - Murdock and Marvel: 1999 Part 1

Last week we closed the curtain on the first volume of Daredevil, and now we are reaching the end of the millennium itself, as comics continue to barrel towards their own version of Y2K.  Sales keep dropping and more publishers leave the field, but signs of life start to show if you look in the right places.  It's 1999, and comics still are not dead.

Preshow 

The Year in Comics 

Notable and Newsworthy

Sales & Industry Information

Eisner Awards

Dan's Favorite

The Year in Marvel

Marvel continued to contract and retrench, as it reduced the number of books it published, and concentrated more and more on proven creators and characters, especially the X-Men. The company also sold off their remaining trading card companies at a catastrophic loss and tried to undo some of the damage that had been inflicted on fans and characters in the last few years. 

TOTAL SERIES: 142
TOTAL NEW SERIES: 101 
TOTAL ENDING SERIES: 89 
THIS YEAR'S EVENT(S): Earth X
BEST SELLING COMICS: X-Men

Events & Happenings

New Titles (Ongoing and Limited)

New Characters

Series Ending

Who's in the Bullpen/Passings

• ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: David Mack

Dan's Favorite

 

Next week: 1999 Part 2 - The year in Daredevil 

 

Questions or comments

We'd love to hear from you!  Email us at questions@comicsovertime.com or find us on Twitter @comicsoftime.

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THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING CREATORS AND RESOURCES 

Music: Our theme music is by the very talented Lesfm.  You can find more about them and their music at https://pixabay.com/users/lesfm-22579021/. 

The Grand Comics Database: Dan uses custom queries against a downloadable copy of the GCD to construct his publisher, title and creator charts. 

Comichron: Our source for comic book sales data. 

The American Comic Book Chronicles: Published by TwoMorrows, these volumes provide an excellent analysis of American comics through the years.  Because these volumes break down comic history by year and decade they are a great place to get a basic orientation on what is happening across the comic industry at a particular point in time.