The way graphic novels are made has changed a lot because of new technology. Let's look at how this change happened over time:

1. Early Days (1930s-1960s):

   • When comic books and graphic novels first started, artists drew everything by hand.
   • They used old printing methods, which made it expensive to print and limited how many copies they could sell.

2. New Technologies (1970s-1990s):

   • In the 1970s, new printing methods improved the quality of the artwork.
   • By the 1980s, computers started to help with typesetting, which lowered costs to make each page cheaper by about $0.10.
   • More independent publishers began to pop up during this time. They went from making up only 1% of the market to nearly 20% by the early 1990s. This shift was thanks to things like Xerox machines that made it easy for creators to print their own zines, or small magazines.

3. The Digital Era (2000s-Present):

   • Now, tools like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have changed how artists create illustrations, allowing them to make more detailed images faster.
   • Print-on-demand services have opened up self-publishing, letting writers from all backgrounds share their stories without needing a big publisher's support. A report from 2023 showed that self-published books made over $1 billion a year in sales.
   • Online platforms like ComiXology and Webtoon have made it easier to sell and read digital comics. In 2022, this led to a huge jump in digital comic sales, bringing in about $1.2 billion.

4. New Technologies on the Horizon:

   • Today, new technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality are starting to change how stories are told in graphic novels. Readers can now experience interactive stories. A study found that graphic novels with AR features saw a 25% increase in how engaged readers were.
   • Blockchain technology is also becoming popular for proving the ownership and authenticity of graphic novels. In 2022, sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, reached around $2.5 billion.

In summary, all these tech changes have made it easier to create graphic novels, allowed artists to be more creative, and changed how people can buy and read them. This has made graphic novels more accessible and allowed them to keep evolving.