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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

#211
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asterix isn't a superhero - he's just a normal guy till he has his potion. I guess you could argue Obelix is, since it had a permanent effect on him. Neither of them dress up (any more that the rest of the characters).

Batman is just a normal guy with a lot of money, and still considered a superhero.

But Batman has a cape. Asterix and Obelix got their clothes made by Edna Mode: "no capes!".

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

#212
My daughter is seven, and she comes with me to the comic book shop several times a month. She has 2-3 comics a week on her pull list -- Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo Team-Up, Adventure Time, Regular Show, Tiny Titans (until it goes back on hiatus again), My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. We just got into an arguement the other day -- I am NOT buying two copies of Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl a month, she can just borrow mine. Get yourself a copy of the Diamond catalog (it's right there in the store, or you can normally find the solicits on the publisher's websites -- look for Boom and IDW especially, in addition to the Big Two), find stuff your daughter might like, and tell the store to order it for you. Or go to a different comic book store, if they won't. I've been going to the same comic book shop for years now, even though there's five shops closer (I drive by at least one comic book shop on the way to my regular shop), because they'll order what I want, and they even let me know when there's things they think she might want to read.

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

#213
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…

That's the problem with these dialogues. Often left-leaning types see them as justification for censorship and shaming when the real issue is market penetration and audience.

I can walk my son through the girly section of 'toys r us' and see nothing but men represented as effeminate "prince" types who's only main motivation in life is finding a princess. The tumbler social justice warriors don't care about that, being mostly female, it doesn't affect them and they probably don't even notice. That doesn't mean we need more manly men in that section, it just means that certain audiences want certain things. Gender is an audience. Its weird that we pretend gender doesn't exist and how it affects us and our fiction consuming habits.

>We need more articles like this helping people realize what a "normal" comic shop could look like.

Its probably a little too late for that. The shops are folding due to digital distribution and they've somehow become even more manboy friendly as the hardcore and die-hards dictate demand. This is like saying that there aren't enough gay-friendly adult bookstores in your town. Um, sure, but the gays are just using the web like normal people. Or that the vinyl record store only has hipster stuff and not the new Kanye. Normal people are using itunes and google play.

If anything, the retail experience for things that can be gotten online easier is going to be skewed to a weird demographic. The great thing is that online and digital distribution lowers the barrier to entry and even with these low barriers, feminist comics are low on the demand side. Turns out a lot of girls just don't give a shit what activists tell them to do, which I think is wonderful. Girls can buy the girliest visual novel on steam then load up the most macho FPS game afterwards. Let them choose. Hand wringing and guilt trips are totally optional.

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

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in Sweden so I rather fittingly had a school library with comics about norse mythology. [1] Also I think everyone in Sweden has heard of Goliat. [2] [1] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valhall_%28tecknad_serie%29 [2] http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliat_%28tecknad_serie%29

Superheroes of a different era.

No, not if the comics stay true to the mythology, anyway. Norse mythology is pretty similar to Greek. The Gods aren't really heroes; they are Gods. They lack the "hero" in "superhero".

The Marvel depiction of Loki is not as one-dimensional as that of Lex Luthor, for example, but the underlying myths actually depicts him a bit more nuanced still. And while the Gods are generally good, they are also at times foolish, funny and arrogant.

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

#215

While I can understand how part of his post is about the way women are portrayed physically in those comics. I'm not so sure on his examples he picked in reference to his children and their unsuitability. I already commented on how I wasn't sure if Batman was suitable for his 5 year old, given the nature of some lines, but some examples he picked in reference to his 7 year old daughter were a stretch. Power Girl: Hav…

I think you're missing the point: his daughter knows those characters through pop culture. She wants to read those comics. But the art for those comics is clearly telling her: you are not our audience. And this is most of the store.

The male characters are male power fantasies, and appeal to his son. But the female characters are not female power fantasies, meant to appeal to women. They are male idealized-woman fantasies, and do not appeal to his daughter. That is what he realized.

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

#216
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asterix isn't a superhero - he's just a normal guy till he has his potion. I guess you could argue Obelix is, since it had a permanent effect on him. Neither of them dress up (any more that the rest of the characters).

Batman is just a normal guy with a lot of money, and still considered a superhero.

The money only affects his capabilities. Rorschach only had a mask and an unshakable sense of purpose.

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

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 an…

>I don't get manga at all, but it's a different phenomenon ... and girls aren't in the niche.

That's hilariously false, both in Japan and abroad.

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

#218
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…

That's the problem with these dialogues. Often left-leaning types see them as justification for censorship and shaming when the real issue is market penetration and audience. I can walk my son through the girly section of 'toys r us' and see nothing but men represented as effeminate "prince" types who's only main motivation in life is finding a princess. The tumbler social justice warriors don't care about that, bein…

That's the problem with these dialogues. Often right-leaning types see them as ways to avoid having to take any responsibility or action for anything by claiming the real issues are things that are the neutral mechanics of an impersonal market.

There, fixed.

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

#219
post #13

I had a similar 'revelation' with violence in video games. I knew a lot of games were violent, but it wasn't until I found my 2 year old son watching me murder human after human with a crossbow in Tomb Raider that I 'got it'. It has ruined AAA video games for me. I solved the problem by buying a Wii U. I'm not sure why that's better. I have killed hundreds of pikmin, squashed hundreds of goomba and worst of all, used…

I could be wrong but it seems you have issues with the idea of games for adults and games for kids. The fact that a game is unsuitable for your child to play, or even watch you play, prevents you from enjoying certain games seems just wrong. Did you stop watching movies rated PG-13 or higher as well? And why is it wrong for young children to understand the concept of life and death? I mean, an overly gory game is one…

Why killing needs to be presented as a game? You want to teach children about life and death? Get then to a slaughterhouse. No? Why not? It's just teaching them about life and death...

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

#220
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

> I've tried to get a mouse to wear a hat. ...What game is that?

The four games I mentioned were:

- SteamWorld Dig: old west robot prospector (ForestC was right!)

- Coming Out On Top: a man have sex with a giant goldfish, a gay college student coming out to his parents

- Escape Goat: get a mouse to wear a hat, a goat that's also a political prisoner. It's more about the goat than the mouse, but I was afraid that "Play as a Goat" would make people think of Goat Simulator. Plus, I found the magic hat to be adorable.

- Long Live the Queen: consoled a grieving child, cope with the death of a parent

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