What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

I've never understood Americans' obsession with superhero comics. When I was a kid I was reading Asterix[1], Gaston Lagaffe[2], Spirou et Fantasio[3], Lucky Luke[4], Prince Valiant[5], The Phantom[6] and similar stuff. Of course, I've read Superman, Batman and Spiderman also but at least I've had a choice. I can't understand why they don't exist in US, why are the only comic books Americans know superhero comics?

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_%28comics%29

[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirou_et_Fantasio

[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke

[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Valiant

[6]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom

Twenty bucks? Show me the regular run issue that costs that much.

And it's not about the price, kids would much rather play with a tablet than read a comic (or go outside, even).

> First of all, you're making the assumption that our popular comics are popular because of sexualized content (i.e., no MJ with big tits = no one is gonna read Spiderman; doubtful).

No, I am not. I am pointing out there is a correlation between sexualized content and sales numbers in the US today. In fact, I've pointed out elsewhere that perhaps this is one of the reasons the US comic audience is so small:

The main titles have narrowed their focus even more compared to the 80's and are now overly sexualized and aimed squarely at men in a very narrow age bracket. It's worth considering in that context that their sales numbers in Europe have plummeted, and that most of the Marvel titles are now relegated to English-language imports in comic stores, whereas in the 80's and into the 90's they were translated into far more languages and did well in many other countries. E.g. growing up in Norway, I could buy Spiderman, Hulk, Batman, X-Men and Superman at least in translated versions in any grocery store, with additional ones popping up for shorter runs now and again. These days you only see shorter runs that survive on the hype around the movies now and again. Meanwhile comics as a whole are still doing well in Europe.

> Second: Japanese Manga. When you put it in perspective, a couple scantily-clad women, eh... could be a lot worse!

There's a lot worse in Europe too. The point is not that there are no sex in European comics - there are European comics that are outright porn - but that the extremely narrow focus of the mainstream part of the US comic market is a US peculiarity. Like Manga is a Japanese peculiarity. But as someone else has pointed out: Japanese comics stores too has a much wider variety - Manga aimed at adults is not nearly as defining for the Japanese comic market as Marvel and DC superhero comics are for the US.

From a European point of view, going to a US comic store is like finding a section of a comic store isolated by itself. You go through all of the superhero comics - with a few other things - and then you wonder "where are the other sections? Where's the comedy stuff? Where's the rest of the newpaper strip collections? Where are the westerns? Where are the rest of the serious graphic novels?" And yes: "where are the 'adult' - as in fully of nudity - comics?"

> You might want to dig up some of your old comics.

I have. It's exactly why I wrote what I wrote.

> It's because they're the only ones left reading comic books! Kids don't read them and don't care.

Maybe in the US.

> I'm guessing Marvel, DC et al have done a lot of research over the years and found out yep, it's pretty much only males that read comic books.

When the vast majority of their output is targeting a mostly male demographic, and being sold almost exclusively in an environment that attracts mostly men, that may be so. But it is a situation of their own making by making their product offering so niche.

> are really only frequented by men because WOMEN DON'T CARE ABOUT COMICS

... in the US. Unsurprisingly, given that they mostly sell products not targeting women... in the US.

Basically, if they want to change that and widen their market - which is clearly possible - given that this is a US pecularity - they need to be willing to invest in it over time. Their alternative is to fade into irrelevance, given that they've managed to even lose a lot of the younger demographic too in the US.

Ouch. I can't speak for comics, as the only ones I've really enjoyed are Alan Moore comics which emphatically aren't suitable for children (Discworld is good, though), but plenty of sci-fi has high cultural value, IMO, in both TV and book form.

Star Trek: TNG, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Foundation, and many more show a lot about the human condition, teach the important concept that the future may be radically different from the present and we can shape it, and they are enjoyable to boot. Typically the newer sci-fi is either barely or not at all misogynistic (although 1950s-era sci-fi certainly is).