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What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

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Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#101
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a kid, comics were for all ages. When my parents were kids, comics were for kids. That seems to have changed.

Because kids don't read comics. When your demographic changes you have to adapt or die.

Do kids not read comics because they wouldn't be interested in them? Or do they not read them because they're no longer kid-friendly? Which is cause and which is effect?

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#102

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]…

FWIW I read Asterix, TinTin, Lucky Luke and grew up in America.

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#103
post #85
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll country after country where the most popular comics have little to no sexualized content. 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). Second: Japanese Manga. When you put it in perspective, a couple scantily-clad women, eh... could be a lot worse! > There's been a drastic c…

> 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…

My guess is that 18-35 year old single men who like superheroes outspend any other demographic by perhaps 10:1, presumably because they have the disposable income to do so.

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#104
post #85
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll country after country where the most popular comics have little to no sexualized content. 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). Second: Japanese Manga. When you put it in perspective, a couple scantily-clad women, eh... could be a lot worse! > There's been a drastic c…

> 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…

> 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.

They're aimed at the people who are left reading comic books: men who grew up reading comic books. Who are now adults. Kids don't read comic books and don't care to. It's been that way for quite a while. I'm willing to bet the comic book companies have done a little market research before going in this direction rather than intentionally alienating younger readers.

> 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?

If those genres sold well, there'd be more of them.

> Maybe in the US.

Well, we're talking about comics in the US here aren't we?

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#105
post #27
post #12

I can already hear the debate raging about weather or not the images or particular examples in this article are acceptable or defensible or not. I think it's totally fine for the comics that this one shop has are there. Artistic freedom! Great! What's not super is that it's really the only kind. It's like netflix with only action movies. This article should feature a bunch of blank photos representing the comics that…

What you say is like a nice idea, but you have to remember that this is a business. These kinds of comics line the shelves, because they're the ones that sell. Of course, it could very well be that if we had more comics that were more moderate they would sell also, but nobody's willing to take the risk. On top of that, you also require an author that is interested in that - you can't just suck this stuff out of a pen…

This is definitely a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many other nations have a wider audience for comics, but in the US we've followed your advice so long that all the audiences that aren't adolescent males have been pushed away. Which leads to where we are: comic book companies chasing after a tiny fraction of their potential audience, because they can't make comics for anyone else, because not enough others are hbothering to look for comics anymore. They'd have to rebuild other audiences from scratch, having burned through them all.

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#106

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]…

Asterix and Lucky Luke humour still makes me laugh. So many levels in deceptively simple drawings.

Later I spent a huge amount of time on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9onard_(comics)

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#107

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]…

I loved Asterix comics as a kid, but my all-time favourites were the Commando comics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commando_%28comics%29

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#108
post #53
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With respect to books, there are vast selections that mainly target men to balance out the romance book genre. With respect to comics, the selection targeting women is much smaller. It's not at all the same.

The selection targeting women is smaller because it's been tried. Over. And. Over. And women just don't care about comic books.

In Japan there are entire genres of comics targeted towards women. Now whether they are any good, or any less sexist than male comics is debatable.

Am I supposed to believe that women love stories told with words, but are incapable of appreciating stories told with pictures?

Re: What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

#109

I'm surprised at the number of comments in this thread excusing it because of the market. The fact that nearly everyone who has made that point felt the need to create a new account to do so is very telling. The market is influenced heavily by human beings. And no human being is morally perfect. There are lots of comics that sexualise women because there are lots of guys who, for some reason, enjoy seeing sexual cart…

"guys who, for some reason, enjoy seeing sexual cartoons"

Yeah, that's really weird. What's up with that?

But in seriousness, let's remain clear on what (supposed) problem you want to solve: men being interested in sexual attributes of women, or poor selection of comics that appeal to women? Those are not the same things.

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