Forbes Article: Surprising New Data Shows Comic Readers Are Leaving Superheroes

[capandkirby]

Found this article sad and disheartening but also informative and thought I'd share. I don't know what the solution would be, other than expanding beyond the direct market.

Forbes article link

Excerpt: "While comic shops tend to focus on longtime fans - often older readers who grew up on and collect superhero comics – mass-market bookstores sell to everyone, including younger readers and those outside of traditional comics fandom. Consequently, the books that are selling in bookstores are, generally, not superhero-oriented. According to Bookscan data shared at the conference, kid-oriented comics and graphic novels account for a whopping 41% of sell-through at bookstores; manga is 28%. Superhero content is less than 10%, down 9.6% year-over-year."

Graphics from article:

[Crimz]

So contrary to belief, comics aren't dying. It's just superhero comics...

[skyvolt2000]

So contrary to belief, comics aren't dying. It's just superhero comics...

Well part of the issue is WHO are you using?

I mean you can only flood the market with Batman and Peter Parker for so long. You start eating yourself in terms of spending money.

I don't need 10 Peter Parker books. Give me 2 EXCELLENT ones and turn a mini into an OGN.

I don't know what the solution would be, other than expanding beyond the direct market.

It means offer more variety.

For all those fits about Moon Girl-she still made 8 trades.

Not everything has to be an ongoing. You can take breaks like other companies do.

[Iron Maiden]

There are some superhero original GNs that are evergreen and always pop up on the sales charts...stuff like Watchmen or the Killing Joke. Right now the only one I can think of for Marvel would be Marvels.

[CaptCleghorn]

Makes sense. More and more of the people in my generation (older superheo fan) are diversifying their reading.

[U.N. Owen]

Guess it has something to do with the rise of other genres in comics. Manga for one is the one that is experiencing massive amounts of success.

It's actually pretty good to see other genres get represented after that pitiful excuse for a psychologist killed comics with the establishment of the Comics Code Authority.

[Frontier]

...I still primarily read Superheroes, although I've started getting into different kinds of GN's now.

[Personamanx]

Yeah. I mean monthly periodicals haven't been doing well for years. People would rather larger chunks of story at once, even if it appears less often. Collected superhero comics do alright for themselves, but Manga is a cheaper hobby, and standalone graphic novels will always stand as king. Most people already get their superhero fix from the dozens of movies, and shows there are. Much of it for free. There isn't a lot to get out of monthly superhero comics, that you can't far more easily get elsewhere.

[Huntsman Spider]

Well part of the issue is WHO are you using?

I mean you can only flood the market with Batman and Peter Parker for so long. You start eating yourself in terms of spending money.

I don't need 10 Peter Parker books. Give me 2 EXCELLENT ones and turn a mini into an OGN.




It means offer more variety.

For all those fits about Moon Girl-she still made 8 trades.

Not everything has to be an ongoing. You can take breaks like other companies do.

Good points, though I do still like the idea of expanding beyond the direct market, starting with putting comics back in major bookstore chains and selling them with other comic-related paraphernalia. Where people buy video games, Funko figures, T-shirts and hoodies, and Blu-Rays/DVDs of movies and TV series based on comics characters, also sell them comics that feature those same characters. Increasing the availability of comics to a wider and broader variety of readers instead of treating it like a niche market could potentially break the grip of the direct market, which would be a net positive in regards to reducing the elitist, gatekeeping mindset among some of the comics fandom that has been unwittingly fostered by the exclusivity of the direct market. And yes, variety is important, too; even though I am a major Spider-Man fan, I can acknowledge that maybe not everything featuring or starring him or his offshoots has to be an ongoing. Novel-length original comic stories could work just fine, and would provide a relatively concise and simple format for new or newer readers to get into and explore the characters with.

[jackolover]

I don’t know the problem of the floppy. I think movies are the new comics. You get all the information, ethics and lessens from the Kevin Feige movies as you used to get from the comics. I think we have to realise that the comics where basically story-boards for movies, all the time, and once movies caught up with the technology of super science, comic storyboards were superseded. Long-time comic book fans, and I’m one of them, have appreciated this story-board media of comicbooks, because that’s all we ever got, but the long-term dream of all the artists and writers was that these ethical lessens were one day destined for the big and little screen. What do we know about man? That’s what’s in the comics. That’s what’s in the movies. Sure, it’s nice to see the webbing and the Fantasti-car, but it’s the human stories it’s tells.

[Snoop Dogg]

Children should be forced to read comics.

[Prof. Warren]

So contrary to belief, comics aren't dying. It's just superhero comics...

In bookstores, superheroes have never had a strong presence as opposed to other genres.

This is not new or shocking information.

Personally, with the way that stores like Barnes and Noble stock GN's, I would never buy anything Marvel or DC related there.

The GN's are always poorly displayed, usually slightly damaged.

The format of magna books, smaller and paperback-sized, are more conducive to being stocked and displayed in a neater fashion, with less shelf wear.

[Gaastra]

So we are back in the 1950s again. In the 50s everything sold better then heroes. They still had superman, batman, wonder woman and captain marvel but dell comics and ec comics (before the comic code) ruled. Disney comics, west comics, space comics, teen romance, archie type comics, scary and crime comics were kings. Also comics for a time outsold books in America! Uncle scrooge outsold superman. batman and wonder woman at the time.


Look at the newest smile book. It came in first place on the book charts and that dogman kids trade made the top 10 also! My little niece knows the smile books and bone and i'm shocked by this the smurfs trades are hits at my library in the kids section!

One piece may pass batman in sales and if you count the japan shonen jump it has passed batman in sales!

https://www.comicsbeat.com/raina-tel...-us-this-week/

[Inversed]

I kind of love that probably the most successful comic book creator right now isn't any of the Big Two's talent, it's Raina Telgemeier. She's the definition of being able to sell anything just on her name alone, and proves the most desirable market is in YA graphic novels.

That's also what I have to give props to DC, this year alone they've put out a fair bit of really well done YA graphic novels, which have been doing really well in stores, and it sounds like Marvel is supposedly starting to head in that direction soon too.

I do think a major limiting factor ultimately is marketing and accessibility. Not only are floppy's themselves fairly unreliable and at this point really just for the hard core fanbase (and limited by the Diamond method anyway), but the company's refusal to promote or make their trades more available, the things the general public are going to want to buy, results in them not being as desired upon to others.

How hard would it be in Wall-Mart or something to include a stack of trades related to a movie that's recently come out on home media. There's a reason "Now a major motion picture" book reprints do incredibly well. People will be more inclined to purchase books like that if they can actually find them.

I'm not surprised. Stuff like My Hero Academia is so straight forward, action packed and earnest it's crazy. I can see why it's so popular. I would pay money to see reaction videos of Tom King reading it.

He would probably say "That's pretty good" and keep doing his own thing, not really that hard to understand that's usually how creatives work. Scott Snyder (or his kids at least) are huge fans of it too.

[Xalfrea]

I suppose one solace we can take slight comfort in is that unlike the last time this trend happened, as was said last page, there is no Wertham and Comics Code Authority to massively screw things up.