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Why Kids Aren't Reading Comics - A History of Sex in the United States.
(Thu 01/10/2008 12:42pm)The discussion of several installments of Comicsape have caused me to think a bit more deeply upon the problem of why kids aren't into the super hero books like they used to be. It seems that the only people reading comics are males in their 20's - 30's with a few youngsters and girls sprinkled in.
So what's wrong here? Where are the readers? Why aren't new readers jumping on board? I don't know, but I have a theory.
It all starts way back in 1945, when World War II, Electric Bugaloo, ended. Suddenly the world was safe for democracy, or communism depending on where you lived. Things were looking up and the Greatest Generation was horny, really, really horny. So horny in fact that between the years of 1946 and 1960 there was an average of 4 million babies born every year, or one every 8.5 seconds. THAT is a lot of sex.
Something related to my blog happened while all those babies were growing up - comics started to totally rock. For the first time since innocence was seduced in 1954 interesting and original heroes were appearing in the funny books. With all this awesomeness many of those people who were the side effect of massive sexual activity started reading them. In fact enough of them got hooked that the spandex clad heroes saw a massive boom in popularity, evidenced by all the crappy cartoons and now collectable lunch boxes.
Now these kids grew into adulthood and many comics tailored to their tastes rose up about the same time. Darker heroes, horror comics and such laughed at the comics code and hooked up this maturing demographic. At the same time, as the birth rate fell, the readership of more standard super hero books sagged. So much so that DC almost went under.
Something else happened during this time - the baby boomers started doing it. Yep, they discovered their parent’s favorite past time and started humping away. Hump, hump hump and what do you know? Gen X was born. This boom echo was big. Now they wanted entertainment and guess where their parents pointed them? That's right! Back to the stuff they loved when they were kids - COMICS!!! In the late eighties super heroes began to see their popularity revived as evidenced by all the crappy cartoons and moderately collectable lunchboxes. Comics started selling again, leading to increased printings and books available.
These kids loved comics so much that they would buy almost anything the publishers threw at them. That's where the 90's and shiny covers come in. It's so bright, I have to own it!!! But then these kids started growing up and finding other interests, like sex, but more on that in a minute, and the industry collapsed. As these guys grew up the ones that stayed with comics demanded books that matched their maturing tastes. The big difference this time however was the comic publishers had thrown up a big middle finger at the Comics Code Authority, innocence be damned, and took their heroes in a much darker direction.
Now it's almost present day, and guess what these Gen X folks start doing? HAVING SEX! The big difference though is they aren't having kids as early as their parents and grand parents did. The kids of Gen X average 4.2 years of age, but they are doing it a lot so that number will continue to rise sharply.
So what does all this mean? It means that a big group of people who grew up reading comics in their youth are have kids that are reaching a reading age. That's right folks, generations of massive sexual activity have a chance to pay off again.
I'm 29, and as an overachiever I have a daughter that is turning seven next week. Care to take a guess what she's getting from me? If you said TPB's of Marvel Adventures you are correct!!!
Remember, YOU can save the comics industry. HAVE SEX TODAY!!!
But a decreasing population wouldn't equate to a vast decrease in the percentage of kids who read comics. With comic-book movies so popular you'd think kids would be clamoring - but they aren't.
And it isn't that they don't read - Harry Potter shows they do.
So it must be they don't like picture book stories after a certain age.
Also not true. Manga, Japanese comics, sell like crazy. Kids are reading comics - Japanese comics, at least.
For 2 years I worked part time at Waldenbooks and you know what the number one selling books were?
Bargain.
Ok, but after Bargain?
Manga.
And who were buying them.
Girls and boys (slightly more girls, but about equal) from pre-teens to college age.
But - black and white! No super-heroes! No movie tie-ins! No well-known authors! Why so popular? (this goes against ALL of the American comic book industry's wisdom of how to increase sales (color, fancy covers, movies of the characters, super-star creators)
I always go back to the fact that a single title of manga progresses, the characters grow and change, you have one creative team working on the manga so it is consistent, and then it ends.
Crossgen's founder saw and understood parts of this model, and he tried to make it work.
He failed - and I'd argue because he was trying TOO hard to mold it to the American comic book model AND because he personally had such a hatred of manga itself that he refused to see its true strengths.
Good from Crossgen - characters grow, change, age, die, storylines end, new stories start
Bad from Crossgen - editorial control across all titles, all titles tied together and forced into cross-over events, magazine format (like super-hero comics) instead of digest format (like some Archie, all manga) until late in the game
I'm rambling . . . I guess my main point is that super-hero comics fail not because of the super-heroes, and not because they are fantasy or grim or whatever, and not because of the mega events (though those are often infested with the REAL problems.)
The problem with American comics (the super-hero ones from the big 2 publishers, specifically) springs partially from its greatest strength - their licensed, well known cash-cow characters, and partially from working far harder to "attract new readers" than it even THINKS of working to "retain existing readers." In short - they won't let go of their established characters, but they keep wanting to "shake things up" to bring in new readers. The shaking up inevitably alters the iconic characters, alienates some readers, and then confuses some new readers who come in and say "Hey, that ain't the Superman I know - why's he all red?" and so the company resets things back to status quo. Rinse, repeat. Rinse, repeat.
I could go on - but I wont.
Fun read in any case. :)