weird problem

[samurainoir]

There doesn't seem to be many comics out there to lure younger readers in...unless they are film/TV/toy tie ins ...and surely thsi will eventually have an impact on comics in the long run.

I know I keep saying this over and over again. There are huge piles of comics out there to lure young readers in these days. It's just that they don't look or smell like "Dad's Comics". Walk into any mainstream bookseller these days and have a peak at the wide selections in the Manga section and see what the kids are reading and responding to. The material is way more diverse that you would imagine and there is even a large young female audience now growing up reading comics (and not just Archie).

Guys our age tend not to read Scott Pilgram or Degrassi High Manga-style thick digest style comics, so it's not suprising that this stuff doesn't register on the radar around here.

When people want to "save comics", they are not necessarily thinking about the larger impact of the medium/artform, but clinging to the old model of comics and characters from their own childhoods. To legitamize their tastes and to not feel ashamed of their reading material by trying to cultivate a larger societal acceptance. That is not a bad thing, but it tends to close one's eyes to the larger picture.

"Comics" as a medium or artform is thriving right now! As sad as it is, it might be for the best if the old-school comic stores go away once the aging audience dies off.

Imagine a world where comics are sold in nice big hardback volumes as they are in France. I understand everytime a new volume of Asterix comes out over there, it's like a new Harry Potter book arriving. Eventually I'd hope that the floppy pamphlets would give way to comics read on an e-book reader as you ride the subway.



Anyone see that episode of the Simpsons about the new comic store that aired a couple of weeks ago?

[ctc]

>I would say that todays comic reader has more choices than they ever have before. Particularly when it comes to the Big Icon Superheroes.

LIke I said on the other boards; I think this is a part of the problem. Even back at the comic shop I saw a lot of guys who'd really outgrown superhero books, but for some reason still loved comics but wouldn't try anything different. There really are only SO MANY Batman stories; you can make the kiddie cartoon one, or the grim adult one, or the wacky one, or whatever.... but ultimately you're just playing with the window dressing.

>"Comics" as a medium or artform is thriving right now! As sad as it is, it might be for the best if the old-school comic stores go away once the aging audience dies off.

Well, yeah... although I think there's still a place for the comic shop; you just gotta reorg the audience a bit. Back in the early 80's comic shops carried all sorts of stuff; by the late 80's it'd got pared down to Marvel and DC again, and the patrons were pretty much the speculator crowd. (Thanx CNN!) So selections dwindled. By the 90's "super glow-chrome cover 1 of 234 extravaganza" the speculators got fed up, and there wasn't too much else left. Now there's zillions of different stories available; but comic shops can't stock too much of it, 'cos their audience are the stragglers of the superhero boom crowd.

Don C.