Are these all published in 2023? If these are just the top ones, then how many were there total? There must be hundreds of comic authors out there to get this many in a year. Is it a big market?
Also. When did digital downloads of comics become more the norm, not exception? Some of these don't seem to have physical copies available. I know digital has been around a long time, but it always seemed like the biggest hits would still have physical copies on sale.
Just yesterday I was looking at a list of American films released in 2023 and there were more than three hundred [1]. Considering that a movie takes a whole team of people to make but a comic only one or two, they're much easier to distribute especially digitally, and comics are popular also in Asia and Europe, I would say there's at least several thousands of them published every year (without even counting that many have monthly issues).
Edit: Another interesting data point, there were more than 14000 games released just on Steam last year [2]. So I think it's not crazy to assume there's also several thousands of comics.
Comics being published digitally first has been the norm for a while, especially in the indie comic space. There are many websites where comics are published first as webcomics, and then only later maybe combined into physical books, often via Kickstarter or Print on Demand. Webtoons is the one I know by name, and I'm only a very passing fan of the genre. Webtoons also even offers the infinite scroll format, and some artists use this to create comics that don't translate cleanly to physical form. That's not even counting all of the creators who build and host their own websites.
Traditional physical comics require a lot of hands. Often separate people do the writing, illustrating, lettering, and coloring. On top of that, you have to have an actual publishing press and ship the comics out to stores. Still, if you go to a comic shop you'll find at least a few dozen new comics a month.
Unlike film, though, where it's incredibly difficult for a single individual to do the writing, acting, filming, and editing, a talented artist can definitely create a comic start to finish without outside help. Webcomics have a thriving indie scene of staggering proportions. Most of these probably don't generate much money - people tend to read them for free and even ads are limited - but not everyone in the indie scene is treating them as a full-time job.
I vastly prefer to read comics digitally on a tablet. It preserves the fidelity of the artwork much better and there are great apps like Panels that allow a lot of customization to the experience.
Having physical copies of all the manga I read would be extremely cumbersome, it would take up a ton of space.
Also. When did digital downloads of comics become more the norm, not exception? Some of these don't seem to have physical copies available. I know digital has been around a long time, but it always seemed like the biggest hits would still have physical copies on sale.