Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What taking my daughter to a comic book store taught me

itinthed.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 359 posts

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

#131

Post by pmelendez »

perakojotgenije wrote: post #81

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'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]"

It is a culture thing. Growing up in latinamerica in the 80's and 90's meant that I have access to four of the comics you mention and the ones coming from USA. Asterix's stories for instance were cool but I still preferred reading Superman, and I guess that's because in my original country we were closer to USA's culture than French culture.

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

#133

Post by xienze »

vertex-four wrote: post #88
xienze wrote: 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…

> Second: Japanese Manga. When you put it in perspective, a couple scantily-clad women, eh... could be a lot worse! There's tons upon tons of manga that never so much as touches on sexual themes. It's a wide and diverse medium. This is like suggesting that because porn exists, all video is porn.

Well clearly I was talking about the Manga that is sexual.

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

#134

Post by detaro »

rprospero wrote: post #38
po wrote: 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…

I know exactly how you feel. For the past year, my main gaming rig has been on another continent and I've been making do with what I could play on a cruddy little netbook running Linux. It's probably been my best year of gaming ever. I've been an old west robot prospector. I've seen a man have sex with a giant goldfish. I've tried to get a mouse to wear a hat. I've consoled a grieving child. After all that was done,…

The indie game equivalent are web comics. There are really well made and interesting ones out there, although finding them isn't always easy. For some, printed versions are also available.

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

#135

Post by k-mcgrady »

vilda wrote: post #98
k-mcgrady wrote: post #41

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…

That's the typical conflict between liberals and left wings in politics. The conflict between freedom and "good". In this case freedom of artistic expression on one side, and anti-sexualism of women (unisex) on other side.

>> "In this case freedom of artistic expression on one side, and anti-sexualism of women (unisex) on other side."

To be clear I would never advocate against artistic freedom. The problem is with the big comic book companies. They should make the decision that they aren't going to sexualise women in comics for no good reason anymore. The artists who truly enjoy making that work can continue to do so at another company, through self-publishing etc.

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

#136

Post by [deleted] »

xienze wrote: post #133
vertex-four wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Second: Japanese Manga. When you put it in perspective, a couple scantily-clad women, eh... could be a lot worse! There's tons upon tons of manga that never so much as touches on sexual themes. It's a wide and diverse medium. This is like suggesting that because porn exists, all video is porn.

Well clearly I was talking about the Manga that is sexual.

[deleted]

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

#137

Post by jcoder »

perakojotgenije wrote: post #81

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]…

Similar comics existed (and exist) growing up in the U.S., but they are less prominent in comic book stores, and more prominent in traditional book stores or the Sunday paper. E.g., Calvin and Hobbes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes).

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

#138

Post by fifthesteight »

It's really sad to me how all of us in our industry are getting slapped across the face day in and day out about how unfairly, unequally and unjustly women are treated in our industry and peripheries.

You gents are too smart to still 'not get it.' I'm at the point where I see it as willful ignorance.

And I'm tired of all of it.

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

#139

Post by thirdtruck »

perakojotgenije wrote: post #81

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]…

As far as I can tell, many of the would-be non-superhero comic creators and readers skipped past print and moved to web comics. There's a huge variety in that space.

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

#140

Post by Spooky23 »

mcphage wrote: post #105
Heyr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 hbotherin…

Your talking about the tail wagging the dog. Comics are how they are because the market imploded and they have to appeal to the niche of of niche that is their customer base.

When I was a kid in NYC, I remember going to the newsstand with my dad and they had a few racks of the mass market comics. I'd get spider man and superman, my younger sister would get Donald Duck and similar things. Today there's no newsstand and paper media is imploding, so it's a completely different market.

I don't get manga at all, but it's a different phenomenon that doesn't have mass appeal, and girls aren't in the niche.

Post reply on HN