I wonder how many people actually do get the comics, after seeing the movies and TV shows, and how much pressure it takes to get them to spend the money on comics as opposed to other merch.

Even back in the day when comic books were much more available and it was common for a kid like me to read them, it still took almost a year for me to buy my first Batman comic books after the BATMAN TV show debuted on the screen in 1966. By that time, I had already got the Batman T-shirt, the Batman mask, the Batman bubblegum cards, the Batman gun, the Batman utility belt, the Batman board game, the other Batman board game, the Batman coloring book, the Batmobile model car kit and read the Batman comics in our local newspaper.

Of course, most of that stuff--not the bubblegum cards and not the comic strip--I got by haranguing my parents to get them for me. I had to spend my own allowance on the bubblegum cards. And it was only by giving up other necessities of life like Stubby Cream Soda, that I was able to finally afford comic books with my allowance. Yet it took a lot of convincing before I was prepared to part with my dimes and pennies for the comic books.

I never even got to see the BATMAN movie in the summer of 1966, because my parents wouldn't take me, despite all my screaming and yelling.