171–180 of 359 posts
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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.
Also there is Image, Oni Press and Vertigo.
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/savage-dragon/18-1.jpg
I saw that cover in a comic store in my 20s, and it made me do a "what am I doing with my life?" reaction.
Superhero comics don't interest me in the least (with the exception of the Watchmen, which I really enjoyed). But there's a ton of more "literary" comic books out there that are awesome.
In fact, the last comic I read was "Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller" -- and it was great! Something a young girl might find really interesting.
(http://blogs.slj.com/goodcomicsforkids/2012/04/18/review-ann...)
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…
How can the market fix this? If there is not enough demand, then publishers aren't going to create these titles.
Consider 'normal' books. Kids (including girls) have a wide variety of age-appropriate books in a large amount of genres to choose from. I don't understand how there could be a demand for these books, and not those same books with added pictures in them.
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…
A very good rule is to look in the window from the outside. If you can look in the window, that's a good sign.
I randomly picked up some weird Disney themed comic books at a flea market and showed them to my daughter who kept them in her bed. She ended up liking them, and so I casually started searching for comics for younger children.
In the city I am not, so my shopping started at Amazon.com - where I easily found a comic appropriate: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1401216684/
So yes, there is a large segment of comic books that is marketed towards horny teenagers, and overgrown horny teenagers and yes, you local comic shop probably doesn't cater to the under 10/female crowd. However, the content is easy to find, and it doesn't involve exposing your children to your creepy local comic store.
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> 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…
> 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. I think you've got the order of things mixed up. No company intentionally wants to cut their customer base in half. They've tried to attract female readers. The…
Maybe you're right that non-young-male-Americans are genetically incapable of liking comic books as a medium, but it seems more likely that Americans are no different from Europeans, and would like comics if they just made comics for them.
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]…
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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…
Except they didn't follow my advice because I or someone else thought it would be cool, it bedmates of the market. People just weren't buying enough comics do they had to target a niche more and more. You say there is some kind of hidden audience that would buy comics if they just stopped portraying female characters the same way they portrayed spiderman? In sure there are some people that feel that way, but I don't…
You don't need to listen to me—read the responses in this very thread from HN readers in other countries, which have a much more broad comic book readership. It's filled with them! Just from a cursory glance, we have responders from France, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, as well as yes, Japan—and the enormous webcomic industry. The idea that nobody would ever buy comics except for adolescent males is both foolish and false. The evidence against it is tremendous.
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Allow me to add Elfquest, Cerebus the Aardvark, TMNT, Love and Rockets, and R. Crumb! Not sure if all of those are American or not, but a few of the non-superhero books I (as an American) grew up with. Of course none of them was ever that widely known (apart from TMNT after it stopped being a comic), so the original point about the US and superheroes certainly remains. I imagine it's partly due to the legacy of the C…
I think Cerebus is not a very good answer to the concerns brought up in this piece.
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'm from the UK and loved my occasional childhood holidays in France or Portugal for a chance to buy Lucky Luke and Pink Panther comics. For some reason Asterix and Tintin were popular in the UK but other Franco-Belgian comics didn't take off. There were a few 70s prints of Lucky Luke and I have one translated 1970s Iznogoud but they went out of print quickly until Cinebook [0] started selling new translations about…
Like you, I enjoy Gaston significantly more than Spirou; he also has a more adult work called Idées noires (Dark Thoughts), which is filled with great (and often disturbing) dark humor. It's probably not translated to English either, alas.
