I remain convinced we´ll still be seeing Marvel comics.

Freelancers doing commissions and convention sketches of Marvel characters, on the other hand...

David Teller wrote: So lets take this back to Disney. What do Disney do well? Movies, TV, licensing? Why did they buy Marvel? To license characters that appeal to the youth Male market 8-13. Comics are an oddball legacy product in that portfolio. ESPECIALLY "Adult" comics.  My prediction is that they will say "nothing will change" whilst gradually winding down the comic line. This will happen with gradual lay offs, reduction in office space, selling buildings etc. Then they'll reduce the product portfolio (comics) at that point JQ will go and it will be a Disneyman will come in. Then they'll start licensing characters out. Then they will stop all internal development of paper based product. You'll probably see a "salve" product for the market (to pretend to ease the pain - this is mainly for PR) in the comic world this could be "webcomic" concept. It doesn't matter what it is - in six months it will gone as well. You'll have Panini etc in Europe selling licensed comics produced (and aimed at that 8-11 market) probably by someone like DC. Cheaper, easier, outsourced non core product development. At least, that's what I'd do. You see the "overriding reason" is SHAREHOLDER VALUE, This is best generated by increasing profit and even better by reducing costs. a dollar in reduced costs is better than a dollar profit. No taxes, no effort, no financial exposure and reduced risk.

This sounds to me like a very well-reasoned prediction of what we can expect to see over the next few years...I'm very curious to see how accurate this sequence of events will play out but it feels downright prescient to me. 

Think of it this way, if it helps.  Marvel, and everything associated with it re history, fans, continuity, etc, is to Disney as an inhabited planet is to Galactus.  It's just stuff to be used/consumed/eliminated as he deems fit.  The monthly periodical model is outdated and has been in transition for a while.  Now we'll all see how corporations and "the real world" really views our beloved childhood hobby.

Ron wrote: I read somewhere that at one point, Disney shut down their traditional cartoon animation studio in Florida, because 3D was the "next big thing". They ended up having to farm out cartoon animation work for rides and other such stuff to a whole bunch of rival studios because they didn't have the resources and skilled staff to do it on their own . Wouldn't that be interesting (though pretty sad) if they did the same thing with Marvel?

I'm not sure I follow. Almost everything Marvel does is already done by freelancers, not Marvel employees. People that routinely do stuff for DC and other companies too. As far as Disney not being familiar with comic publishing, they just bought the biggest comic publisher in the USA, so if they need any advice on how it works, they have some decent resources already in their pocket. All this speculation is interesting, but I still say that shutting down a cheap to operate idea factory that churns up new intellectual properties, as well as producing new material for book collections that can be reprinted, over and over, is not a great business plan. Maybe they could get by with licensing and exploiting the characters they already have and just reprinting the same old stuff from now until doomsday, but why should they?

Dave Pruitt wrote: ...they just bought the biggest comic publisher in the USA...

See, IMO that's the point that's being missed.  My guess is that in their eyes, Disney didn't just buy the biggest US comics publisher...they just purchased a potentially lucrative library of exploitable intellectual properties that have been underutilized in the mass consumption entertainment marketplace.  Corporations don't pay billions to acquire companies earning millions.  The money is in films, merchandising and licensing...not in periodical publications being sold to maybe a hundred thousand dedicated regular buyers.