Raising anti-drug awareness in comics no longer having impact?

[Captain Nostalgia]

Something like that, you mean:


Although the state of the young was also the result of their meeting with Luke Cage…

Ha! Cool, Luke Cage has always been one of my Marvel favs.....ya something like that.

[Zelena]

That was then.

Forty+ years later, what's the average age of people buying X-Men comic books, and how do sales in 2022 compare to sales in 1979?

Manga is massively read in France, but I’m not sure there’s still a comic that would unify a whole generation like it was the case before… (One Piece? I don’t understand the success: the design is so ugly to me.)

Today the scattering of broadcoasting medium is huge: everyone has his channels, his box, his publications… To my knowledge, the video clips and video games are the most discussed among children…

[Zauriel]

Power Pack would be a good choice. They used to use them for child abuse awareness back in the 80s.

Plus, the Power Pack is a family of primary school children. So it makes sense to use Power Pack to reach to children under the age of 13.

Another interesting thing is this PSA comic from the 80's. Supposedly someone from the Reagan administration got ahold of the "Runaway's" arc in New Teen Titans #25-26 and thought NTT would be a good vehicle to promote Nancy Reagan's Just Say No Campaign. What's really interesting is that it was a licensed comic so they couldn't use Robin since his rights were tied up in other TV and movie projects, so they had to swap him out for a new character called "the Protector".

NTT was DC Comics' best-selling title. Plus all of the New Teen Titans are teenagers, people who the majority of readers would relate to.

What better comic book to reach out to teenagers having teen angst and other problems in life than New Teen Titans?

[Zauriel]

That was then.

Forty+ years later, what's the average age of people buying X-Men comic books, and how do sales in 2022 compare to sales in 1979?

I haven't been following up with sales of comic books in 2022, but I hear that X-Men comic book sales are not what they used to be fifteen years ago. Didn't Avengers or Amazing Spider-Man recently take the top number one slot on the sales chart?

[MajorHoy]

I haven't been following up with sales of comic books in 2022, but I hear that X-Men comic book sales are not what they used to be fifteen years ago. Didn't Avengers or Amazing Spider-Man recently take the top number one slot on the sales chart?

This is the problem with your thread. You wanted to know

. . . Perhaps the more appropriate question I should ask is "should comics attempt to raise drug abuse awareness today as they did decades before?"

But who the hell reads comic books these days?!?

If the under-21 crowd isn't the primary comic book audience, then what's the point of repeating what was done in the past when there were more younger readers than there probably are in this century?

[Zauriel]

This is the problem with your thread. You wanted to knowBut who the hell reads comic books these days?!?

If the under-21 crowd isn't the primary comic book audience, then what's the point of repeating what was done in the past when there were more younger readers than there probably are in this century?

The comic books used to be targeted at primary school children fifty years ago and at teenagers thirty years ago. Now kids and teens are more interested in video games, YouTube, Netflix, Cartoons, Anime and manga rather than American comic books. When Disney purchased Marvel Comics, should they not trying to produce comic books aimed at people under the age of 21? Children and teenagers make potential new readers.

[ed2962]

Another story worth noting is the two part "angel dust" story that ran in Daredevil #183-184. Before it was published Frank Miller had to change some of the art because it showed a close up of some teens loading up their pipe and I guess there was a concern that it was teaching kids how to get high.

[ed2962]

The comic books used to be targeted at primary school children fifty years ago and at teenagers thirty years ago. Now kids and teens are more interested in video games, YouTube, Netflix, Cartoons, Anime and manga rather than American comic books. When Disney purchased Marvel Comics, should they not trying to produce comic books aimed at people under the age of 21? Children and teenagers make potential new readers.

I think MajorHoy's point is that the market for monthly comics is completely different than it was back in the day. The main audience is way smaller and a bit older. Kids will buy all kinds of media and merchandise based on comics but they don't buy floppies. And really, it's not like drugs aren't mentioned in comics any more it's just that you're more likely to see the Punisher or Batman take down a drug cartel these days rather than Spidey explaining exactly why heroin is bad for your health.

[Mister Mets]

This is the problem with your thread. You wanted to knowBut who the hell reads comic books these days?!?

If the under-21 crowd isn't the primary comic book audience, then what's the point of repeating what was done in the past when there were more younger readers than there probably are in this century?

There is a tremendous market outside of Marvel and DC, with the so-called middle grade graphic novels.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/looking-a...d-its-a-doozy/

For example, the tenth volume of the Dog Man series sold over a million copies last year.

It's a different question about how to tackle drug awareness in this kind of series.

[C_Miller]

A painkiller addiction is natural material for a superhero or action story.

You're absolutely right. The problem is that painkiller addiction is often a macro issue, rather than a micro. Comics that appeal to anti-drug messages are more about the micro. They came from the "Just Say No" school of thought, which is a very simplistic solution to a very complex, systemic issue. With painkillers, by the time people often have the opportunity to say no, they are already addicted.

[seismic-2]

When Disney purchased Marvel Comics, should they not trying to produce comic books aimed at people under the age of 21? Children and teenagers make potential new readers.

Disney isn't interested in publishing comic books. (Even the comics that feature Disney's most valuable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, are published by other companies to which Disney grants a license.) Disney purchased Marvel to gain ownership of Marvel's characters for use in movies, TV, and games, since the revenues from those markets dwarf those of comic books. Most people who go to an Avengers film have never read a Marvel comic book, and they never will.

[Mister Mets]

You're absolutely right. The problem is that painkiller addiction is often a macro issue, rather than a micro. Comics that appeal to anti-drug messages are more about the micro. They came from the "Just Say No" school of thought, which is a very simplistic solution to a very complex, systemic issue. With painkillers, by the time people often have the opportunity to say no, they are already addicted.

I certainly agree that this can be tough.

Comics is a difficult medium for handling things that are complex and macro. It is very reliant on shorthand, and released in increments that take the typical reader less than ten minutes.

The comic books used to be targeted at primary school children fifty years ago and at teenagers thirty years ago. Now kids and teens are more interested in video games, YouTube, Netflix, Cartoons, Anime and manga rather than American comic books. When Disney purchased Marvel Comics, should they not trying to produce comic books aimed at people under the age of 21? Children and teenagers make potential new readers.

Since you started the thread what is your view of the middle readers market (IE- stuff like Raina Telgemeier's Smile, Cece Bell's El Deafo, Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet and Dav Pilkey's Dog Man)? Should these tackle drugs and addiction?

[Timothy Hunter]

On an almost slightly sorta similar note...I remember some years ago on Comics Alliance website where some anti-drug group gave Rise of Arsenal an award and they contacted the group and told them, "Um, why did you give this comic an award? It actually kinda bad." And the group was like, "Well we just like the anti-drug message" For folks who don't know, this is the comic where after Roy Harper's daughter is killed by a villain, he starts using drugs again and beats up thugs with a dead cat...

I need to check this comic out.

[Zauriel]

I have recently read a public domain comic book I found on the internet. The title is Harvey Comics Library #1 - Teen-Age Dope Slaves. The Date of publication was April 1952.
It was quite a moving story about a college boy struggling with his addiction to narcotics. It has almost a powerful effect on the reader as the Amazing Spider-Man story about Harry Osborn's addiction problem.

The comic is in public domain, so it is available on the internet and you don't have to feel guilty reading it for free since Harvey Comics was out of business thirty years ago and nobody owns the copyright to this old comic book from 1952.

[Mister Mets]

One big wrinkle is that modern media has a more nuanced understanding of drugs. It's going to be hard to do a teen-age dope slaves story that is taken seriously in an industry where Kevin Smith is respected.

But there are still topics worth exploring. The New York Times had an article about a new trend of teens buying drugs on social media that are laced with fentanyl.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/h...ial-media.html

There may be reasonable debate about whether a college student should have access to Xanax, but it represents a serious problem if she get some that is tainted with other material.