Conway: Cancel every existing superhero comic

[DrNewGod]

Interesting piece from Bleeding Cool about superhero comics. The author's key insight is that the post-60s comics creators and fans self-obsession forced the superhero story to be something that it wasn't, and its primary audience was and still should be readers between 9-13.

I'll quibble with him on how to reach them, but he's right.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Kids 100% aren’t going to be reading comic books nowadays

[MRP]

Yeah, I'd tend to argue he got the future backwards in a sense-it is the old school collector/fans who want monthly periodical comics not OGN, it is the mass market where OGN would succeed and where periodical comics are a dinosaur format no one in the mass market wants to sell or buy, so if you launch a line aimed at younger readers in mass market venues, it should be the $10-$20 OGN similar in format to the Dog Boy, Raina Telgemeier, etc. OGN that comprise one of the fastest growing segments of the book trade, and continue to sell the material targetted to older existing collectors in monthly periodicals through the direct market, as that is the only audience that wants those.

-M

[Kirby101]

Screw him for killing Gwen. What 9-13 year old wanted that?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Screw him for killing Gwen. What 9-13 year old wanted that?

He also co-created the Punisher, hardly the sort of character parents want their little kids reading about.

[Buried Alien]

It's not the 60s anymore.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Mister Mets]

He also co-created the Punisher, hardly the sort of character parents want their little kids reading about.

Parents and children don't always have the same taste.

[Kuro no Shinigami]

Screw him for killing Gwen. What 9-13 year old wanted that?

He had Miss Marvel and Power Girl wear costumes baring their thighs. What 9-13 year old boy wouldn't want it?

He also co-created the Punisher, hardly the sort of character parents want their little kids reading about.

Gerry Conway also co-created Power Girl and Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers). He had both women wear bare-legged, scantily-clad costumes. Hardly the sort of thing the parents want their kids reading about.

It's not the 60s anymore.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

It's also not the 1970's anymore.

[DrNewGod]

Screw him for killing Gwen. What 9-13 year old wanted that?

He also co-created the Punisher, hardly the sort of character parents want their little kids reading about.

He was critiquing his own generation for wanting to keep superheroes for themselves rather than continue to nurture the younger audience for which the concept was created. That includes characters and depictions like The Punisher and the Death of Gwen Stacy.

Kids 100% aren’t going to be reading comic books nowadays

I agree. The distribution medium has to change to reach them. But simply writing them off as comics being a grownup thing is to continue their decline.

[Kirby101]

He had Miss Marvel and Power Girl wear costumes baring their thighs. What 9-13 year old boy wouldn't want it?
.

He wrote the stories, he did not design the costumes.

[Thezmage]

Yeah, I'd tend to argue he got the future backwards in a sense-it is the old school collector/fans who want monthly periodical comics not OGN, it is the mass market where OGN would succeed and where periodical comics are a dinosaur format no one in the mass market wants to sell or buy, so if you launch a line aimed at younger readers in mass market venues, it should be the $10-$20 OGN similar in format to the Dog Boy, Raina Telgemeier, etc. OGN that comprise one of the fastest growing segments of the book trade, and continue to sell the material targetted to older existing collectors in monthly periodicals through the direct market, as that is the only audience that wants those.

-M

This is my problem with people who post these things: Their solutions are always geared towards them when they were kids and not the kids of today. I'll admit I don't know what kids these days do but a few years ago it was all about the (usually shonen) manga, in which case the simplified stories and characters wouldn't really be marketing towards them.

[MyriVerse]

Kids 100% aren’t going to be reading comic books nowadays

Kids 100% weren't reading back in the day, either. Some did and some will.

My daughter loved the heck out of Runaways when she was 10-12. Couldn't get her to read a Spider-Man or Avengers book.

[Kuro no Shinigami]

In the 1940's, television was in infancy, people could listen to radio, go to theater or read comic books. You could also go to ball games or amusement parks. there used to be a few forms of entertainment. At the price of ten cents, Comic books are the cheapest form of entertainment. American people's support for America's entry into WWII helped comic books sell a lot. Kids, who were eager to join the war but too underage to be allowed to enlist, bought Anti-Axis comic books to provide them with entertainment.

That is one of the reasons why it is called Golden Age of Comics.

[mathew101281]

Manga is simply a more efficent form of comic. Each title is self sufficient ( you don't have to be knowledgable of a whole universe to understand them, and you dont have to buy five other titles to get the full story.

[Kirby101]

Manga is simply a more efficent form of comic. Each title is self sufficient ( you don't have to be knowledgable of a whole universe to understand them, and you dont have to buy five other titles to get the full story.

There are boatloads of comics from every publisher but the Big Two that are exactly like that.