If you don't wanna take risks get out of comics and play Black Jack

Since, I'm not really using it for anything at the moment. I thought it would be fun to apply my business degree to the woes of the comic book industry and I think it's fairly obvious to all of us comic book fans why the industry is facing contraction when with all the movies and what not they put out you would think that they would be gaining fans instead of slowly losing them. One of the big problems for the Big Two I feel is that they are part of huge companies and like most large companies they are risk adverse and the fact is being risk adverse well seeming like a good way to go, but when it comes to entertainment companies that is the exact opposite of good business. Which seems to be one of the reasons most of the various entertainment industries especially; the movie, television (or at least network television) and comic industries are facing similar contractions mainly because they don't seem to be willing to take as big of risks nowadays as they did in the past after all if you aren't throwing out new ideas to see what sticks how will you the next big thing?
I think the other major problem for comics was when that switched to the direct market only model. Once they got themselves off of the newsstands and into selling only through comic book shops I feel it signaled to the rest of the world that comics are only for a niche audience and made it harder for those how may not of thought about it, to not try out comic books. I don't think I would have gotten into comics if it was not for the spinner rack at the grocery store, since that was were I got all my comics up until I was around 12 or so. Now, I don't want to seem like I'm bashing comic books stores, after all I love my LCS. However, I also see we that being the only place to get comics as one of the reasons for the shrinking comic book market, when you do think this would be a great time of comic books building their market with all of the successful movies and games like Arkham Asylum (which even the folks I know that aren't into comics love that game) it just seems like this industry I love is relenting when they could (if they were willing to take some real risks) really do something awesome with the opportunities they currently have and, I think it would be a real shame if this industry went the way of the buggy whip industry simply because they are to risk adverse. At least that's how I see it at any rate.

Flushpoint???

After hearing all the news about Flashpoint (which is a story that I have no real interest in to begin with)and reading various blogs about it. I have come to the conclusion that I don't really care about whether or not DC is doing a hard or soft re-boot. The main thing I'm concerned about is whether or not I will be able to enjoy the stories of the characters I enjoy reading about. Which looks like at least a couple of them mainly Stargirl and Stephenie Brown are not likely to be doing much for a while. The other thing that it brings to the fore for me is that I've never been all that heavy into continuity and would much rather read something entertaining than something that lines up with what came before. I think part of this stems from my preference for episodic storytelling that doesn't rely on watching or reading every episode (or issue) in order to enjoy the story. Though, on the flip side I think there should be some consistency with the characters which Marvel and DC are pretty good at maintaining with their top tier characters (well, when the characters aren't making deal with the devil to end their marriage anyways). One of the writers I think has done a good job at this (so far) is Rick Remender over on Uncanny X-Force. Each month he has just been blowing me away. I guess I don't really have a point to this post other than as long as the stories are good I'll still read DC books and if the stories are lame, well then there are quite a few awesome book I will continue to read that aren't produced by DC. So, to the whole controversy I say... MEH!