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

[Habis]

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.

Yeah, and there is One Punch-Man too... Manga is doing the Superhero genre better than Superhero comics now...

Of course, manga still tries to tell a coherent story with coherent characters, even if they are bizarre... American superhero comics have become disjointed and incoherent, everything gets soft-retconned every few months, characters and stories changing inside out...

[The Negative Zone]

Manga is easy to get into and is not a never ending story that gets reset every few years.

[Fuzzy Barbarian]

Accidental post

[Fuzzy Barbarian]

As has been said, the price is a big point. Many casual readers won't go to a comic store when the book store has the trade, sometimes at a cheaper price. At the very least, Marvel and DC could implement what Image did a while back and have the first trade at a cheaper price. It should also be noted that manga piracy is much, *much* more common than comic piracy and manga still outsells comics lots of the time.

Manga also doesn't have to worry about continuity. I mean, a new reader for superhero comics needs to worry about where to start, how self-referential they can be and potential crossovers and events. Compare this to Saga, which is still selling well in trade, where you jump in at volume 1 with no prior knowledge. Same with most manga unless it's a sequel or spin-off. Superhero comics are just not very welcoming, and fans also don't help when they gatekeep.

People going to movies for their superheor fix is a point that can be argued too. Manga is more frequently directly adapted into anime, as opposed to comics which are given loose adaptations. That hasn't stopped the big Shonen manga like Naruto and One Piece from doing well with manga, and anime is much easier to view for free than superhero movies in a timely manner, and at decent quality.

[Gaastra]

From another site looks like bleeding cool has a update on the story! Looks like bookstores have just past comic shops and for the first time bookstores sell more comics then comicshops do!

The two biggest sellers? Non hero kids and teen comics like smile and dogman and mangas both outselling hero comics!

On the plus side hero comics while not first do still sell at the bookstores so batman and Spider-Man are still selling trades! So hero comics will still be there. They are just not in the top spot right now.


https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/10...-comic-stores/

ICV2 recently ran a presentation to the comic book industry, ICv2 Insider Talks 2019 – The Future of Comics in the Age of Streaming, with a keynote speech from founder Milton Grieppthat had two major takeaways.

The first is that kids comics – stuff like Dav Pilkey‘s Dogman, Raina Telegemeir‘s Guts andShannon Eric Hale‘s Friends, all combined, now sell more graphic novels/collections than superheroes do. No wonder the likes of Moon Girl, DC Superheroes, Titans: Raven and Ms Marvel want to try and get a crossover slice of that pie. In bookstores, manga and kids material has jumped 30% in sales in bookstores and over 100% in comic stores.

The second is the bookstores will overtake comic book stores for all comic book sales by the end of 2019. Now, there are more general bookstores than speciality comic book stores. But comic stores have a far wider range of material, and mostly contain content that isn’t available in bookstores – at least not yet.

Last year 2018, all other channels than comic stores combined, including bookstores, digital and newsstand, managed to sell more comics than comic book stores for the first time since the rise of the direct market and the decline of the newsstand. But for 2019 it looks like bookstores will be able to do it on their own.

In bookstores, graphic novel sales have risen by double digits. But in comic stores, totting up sales of comics and graphic novels, the total is very very slightly down in the previous year.

Either way, this would be a first time for bookstores to sell more comics than comic stores.

[Gaastra]

Another site talks about this.

https://www.businessinsider.sg/chang...lysis-2019-10/

Comic shops have, for decades, been the main outlet for putting a comic book into the hands of readers, but they are being surpassed.
The “book channel” – which includes chain and independent bookstores, online retailers like Amazon, and the Scholastic Book Fair – is projected to pass comic shops as the largest channel for comic sales in North America this year, industry website ICv2 revealed at a post-New York Comic Con conference last week.

Graphic novel print sales reached $635 million in 2018 and single-issue (or periodical) print sales were at $360 million. The gap between the two has been widening thanks largely to the book channel. Graphic-novel sales through the channel was at nearly $500 million last year, but at less than $200 million through comic shops.

“Comic shops have been slow to expand into kids graphic novels,” Griepp told Business Insider. “Comic stores and the distribution system are focused on periodical releases but are less skilled on the book side.”
More comic stores are experimenting, though, and buying from the book channel through publishers like Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster, according to Griepp. But a big problem is that parents don’t shop at comic stores. They’re already in book stores and online and comic shops have been slow to catch up.

David Steinberger, the CEO of Amazon’s digital comics service Comixology, said at last week’s conference that consumers are moving toward the binge model generally because it’s “inexpensive, convenient, and there’s a lot of content.”
“I think that’s kind of where we’re headed [with comics],” he said.

“In the past, lags have always been content driven,” he told Business Insider. “Superheroes are soft right now, but all it takes is one hit to turn that around. All it takes is one title to catch on and we’ll be talking about comic stores growing again.”
But the types of content and platforms might not be enough. Gerry Conway, the creator of such comic characters as The Punisher, told Business Insider earlier this year that the comic industry’s business model is “totally unsustainable.”
“There’s going to have to be something that happens that’s comparable to what happened in the ’70s with the direct-sale market,” Conway said. “That resulted in a redefinition of the distribution methodology and the market that you’re aiming the books at. Both of those changes came hand-in-hand and resulted in a dramatic difference.”

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Also looks like the last dogman book has beet records and is the fastest circulated graphic novel ever. Marvel and dc has been beat by a talking dog!

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/10...an-ball-rolls/

[Holt]

I don't think manga outselling superhero comics is surprising to anyone who has been paying attention for the last decade.

[Dreaded Porcupine]

I read a lot of superhero comic books but have really delved into superhero novels. Like Super Powereds, Confessions of a D-list Supervillain, Forging Hephaestus Villains Code, Pantheon Saga, The Legion of Nothing, Dire Saga to name some of the best ones. I roughly read 20 books this year alone. Averaging about two a month. Some great stories that are well written. Some of it could easily be adapted to comic book format and should be if comic book companies were smart.

If the superhero comic book industry dries up I’ll just keep reading the novels. Over 600 plus superhero novels on Goodreads. Plus with my Amazon membership I get a free one a month from the lending library. Plus Prime membership gets me a nice discount. I pay less for a download than I do for one comic book. I buy roughly 10-20 comic books a month at $3.99 a book. That’s more in one month than I spend all year reading 20 books from Amazon.

[jackolover]

Super hero comics, post-9/11, are on the dark side a lot. Since the real world adopted Homeland Security, and multi-colour alerts to frighten the public, (as well as invading peoples privacy with secret tech monitoring, government corruption), the super hero comics taking up this sort of cynical approach to its stories, could have alienated a lot of readers to the genre. Super Hero stories used to be very happy-go-lucky in its outlook, but we will look back at this period of literature as a reflection of the souring of humour in the comics due to 9/11.

“Some day, soon, I’ll take you to that place we always dreamed of” - Teddy, from Westworld series.

[Gaastra]

And dc has jumped on the young readers bandwagon! They are jumping all in!


https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/11...-gretel-lusky/

Ashley Rayburn is an upbeat girl with a decidedly downbeat past. Her father is a known criminal who once used Ashley to help him elude justice, and in his attempt to escape, a life was taken. He now sits in federal prison, but still casts a shadow over Ashley’s life. In the meantime, Ashley has bounced from foster home to foster home and represents a real challenge to the social workers who try to help her–not because she’s inherently bad, but because trouble always seems to find her.

Ashley’s latest set of presumably short-term foster parents are Kitch and Yuka Nolan. Like Ashley, Kitch happens to be an artist. Yuka, on the other hand, is a geneticist working for a very high-level tech company, one that’s contracted out to work for the government and the military. And it’s Yuka’s latest top secret project that has her very concerned. Developed for the military, it’s a set of body paints that, when applied to the wearer, grant them a wide range of special powers. Fearful that this invention will be misused, Yuka sneaks the set of paints home, substituting a dummy suitcase with an ordinary set of paints in their place.

From here, signals get crossed. Ashley comes home from school one day with her new friend Luke and, thinking that the Nolans have purchased a surprise gift for her upcoming birthday, finds the set of paints. Being an artist, Ashley naturally assumes these are for her. It isn’t long before she realizes that she’s stumbled upon something much bigger and a lot more dangerous. Although she uses her newly discovered powers for good, it’s not long before the military becomes wise to what happened to their secret weapon. And this spells big trouble not only for Ashley, but for her newfound family and friends as well.

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Another young adult title announced! With the lumberjanes creator!

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/11...-goldie-vance/

From New York Times bestselling author Grace Ellis (Lumberjanes) and artist Brittney Williams (Goldie Vance) comes a new story about 13-year-old Lois Lane as she navigates the confusing worlds of social media and friendship.
It’s the first day of summer break in the sleepy town of Liberty View, and young Lois Lane bursts onto the scene with what she knows is a sure-to-go-viral video channel. Okay, maybe her platform only receives two views a week (thanks, Mom), and maybe her best friend, Kristen, isn’t quite as enthusiastic about social media, but when Lois sets her mind on something, there’s no turning back.
At the end of the week, the big neighborhood barbecue and bike race will be the perfect backdrop to Lois and Kristen’s #friendshipchallenge video. But when the girls find out the annual fireworks are missing, Lois doubles down on her efforts for fame, testing her friendship in ways she couldn’t imagine.
With Kristen leaving for sleepaway camp after the barbeque and a new girl on the block taking all of Kristen’s attention, will Lois be able to find the missing fireworks, celebrate the summer, and post the best #friendshipchallenge the internet has ever seen? Or will she have to face her challenges IRL?

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Will marvel follow next? Maybe bring back misty, millie the model or patsy walker? Wally the wizard more like harry potter? Top dog comic to compete with dogman?

[capandkirby]

One of the biggest contributing factors to superhero comics sales suffering...

[myownlittleusername]

One of the biggest contributing factors to superhero comics sales suffering...

Wouldn't this be something all comics suffer from and not just superhero comics?

[capandkirby]

Wouldn't this be something all comics suffer from and not just superhero comics?

Pretty sure there are more people illegally downloading monthly serial comics than there are those illegally downloading Raina Telgemeier graphic novels, but I don't actually have any actual published statistics to back me up in this.

[cranger]

This is just my take, but I think people are more willing to drop $10-15 on a book if it feels like it is complete and meant to be read again. I love the monthly format and collecting the issues, but even 'modern' comics feel completely disposable. The few times I have tried to 'trade wait' I just find it unfulfilling and have really never gone back to reread anything. There are very few superhero graphic novels I would recommend, but they are probably the obvious ones from years ago that still outsell new stuff.

[capandkirby]

The amount of people actually arguing with Gail Simone and Donny Cates on Twitter trying to justify piracy is blowing my mind. It's really sad. And they seemingly have zero remorse for what they're doing, which makes the whole thing even more tragic.