Now more than ever is an excellent time to be a comics reader. The medium has never been so widely accepted as a legitimate form of literature and entertainment by the mainstream, the business side is the healthiest it's been in the past twenty years, and the titles themselves have reached a level of diversity where there's something for (almost) everyone. This seems like something of a zenith for comics, another peak the likes of which haven't been seen since the critical and commercial Golden Age of the forties. It's gotten to the point now that comics rules not only newsstands and hobby shops but the TV and cinema, too. What happens next? Depends on your state of mind. It's the glass half-full/half-empty dichotomy - either things keep getting better, or there's a serious fall on the horizon. Or there's the third option, that things will pretty much keep on truckin' as they are, with some major changes to the marketplace neither negatively nor positively affecting things. Which is the most likely eventuality, but that's hard to sum up in a glass of water metaphor. Looking into the crystal ball, there looks set to be a bunch of interesting developments in funnybooks with regards to technology, business, and the influence from (and on) other media. The fate of print books, crossover events, and Adventure Time all lie in these ten predictions for the future of comics.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
