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

[CaptCleghorn]

Children should be forced to read comics.

A) QFT
B) This
C) What they said
D) All of the above

[Anthony W]

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.

[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.

[Digifiend]

Intersting theory, I guess that western (and mainly American) comics never entirely freed themselves from the self-impossed constraints of the CCA. While Marvel and DC keep the western market narrowly focused on superhero comics Manga was free to expand to virtually every genre imaginable. Perhaps now we are finally seeing the long term consequences of that decision.

Entirely American. In Europe, humour comics have always been popular, as have war comics, sci-fi and sport. In the UK for example, those genres are represented by Beano, Commando, 2000AD, and Roy of the Rovers.

[Gaastra]

I posted this in the dc forum also so they can talk about it also.

[U.N. Owen]

Entirely American. In Europe, humour comics have always been popular, as have war comics, sci-fi and sport. In the UK for example, those genres are represented by Beano, Commando, 2000AD, and Roy of the Rovers.

I was surprised with the diversity of the comics in Europe, especially with the Disney Comics which are really popular in Italy.

Seriously, the American Comic Industry never really recovered from the days of the CCA since the CCA did kill off the genres of horror, crime, and romance comics with their puritanical policies.

[Huntsman Spider]

I was surprised with the diversity of the comics in Europe, especially with the Disney Comics which are really popular in Italy.

Seriously, the American Comic Industry never really recovered from the days of the CCA since the CCA did kill off the genres of horror, crime, and romance comics with their puritanical policies.

From what I've seen, though, horror and crime comics resurged somewhat through independent comics publishers and even Marvel and DC have meshed elements of those genres with the superhero genre.

[Frontier]

I mean, they are reading comics, just not Superhero ones.

I wonder about that...I doubt there is a lack of love in children for Superheroes, look how popular the movies are with kids or girls dressing up as their favorite Superhero, but there's probably a lack of gravitation to the comics just as there is with the general movie-going audiences.

It might also be a factor that the Superhero comics aimed at kids (DC Zoom, DC Ink, Marvel Action, etc.) aren't the companies bread and butter and might not count towards this kind of stuff.

[Anthony W]

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.

Oh, we still have a puritanical group...

[Astral Disaster]

Oh, we still have a puritanical group...

More like groups, but they're all inspired by the same backwards puritanical mindset.

[shooshoomanjoe]

This is just for the average person and not the comic book fan though right? I've noticed that there are very little super hero webcomics out there.

[BlueandGold]

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.

They have done this in recent years. Back when Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out they had $5 graphic novels that included CA: TWS, GOTG, Spider-Man: Big Time & Avengers. When Superman vs Batman (or maybe it was Justice League, maybe both) came out they had a display of various DC graphic novels. Currently they still carry the various DC 100 page giants, and also 3 packs of random Marvel comics.

[Xalfrea]

Oh I don't doubt there are those groups out there, but it's highly unlikely they'd get to the same extremes that Wertham did in getting in front of Congress. Let's not forget this was all during the "innocent" time of the 1950's where there were all the commie scares, paranoia, and McCarthyism. And we can't say that the Internet of today can help those "groups" given how Internet culture already has so many things to get antsy and pissed off about. Scares of comics brainwashing would be ignored or lost completely, especially when these comic characters are already doing so well in more prominent media like movies. The nature of the Internet, also unlike McCarthyism and Congress, also allows supporters en masse to fight back right away, unlike the old days of holding protests outside government buildings.

Really if this whole trend is true, then it's because of the nature of trends, things just fall in and out of favor eventually, then they'll come back. Superhero Comics falling out of favor back then I believe did have WW2 and changing sensibilities play a factor, but Wertham and Congress were the ones to ultimately push it to the steps it did.

[Gaastra]

My books a million had two long rolls of graphic novels with marvel getting on side of the bookcases and dc getting the other side and a small area for non heroes and manga stuff. Over the years marvel and dc are now sharing a roll that was for dc only and non hero stuff has spread out into one side taking more room from marvel and dc. The other side that used to be just marvel is now all manga. The whole long roll of bookcases are manga only! There are tons of them! The kids comics have their own area in the kids section now with smile, bone, pokemon manga, mt little pony, baby mouse, big nate, splatoon, and dogman front in center and the marvel and dc books other then marvels oz books pushed to the side! They still have them but they are not the main draw!

Also the "on sale for $4 area" it's always marvel and dc heroes. You get the strange oddball manga no one heard of also at times but most of them are marvel and dc heroes! Even ms marvel is not safe and was there half off! They had a roll of dc hardcovers for $3 last time I was there! (grabbed a bunch of dc hardcovers like justice leage and even batman!) Even books that just came out a few months ago was in the half off area! You don't see many non hero trades in the area much.