|
I regularly hear people say "kids don't read comics these days" and really worry about the future of the medium. I probably said it myself at one point. But slowly I've learned that this isn't exactly true. Kids are reading comics, the "problem" is they aren't reading OUR comics.
Like most of you, I grew up reading Superhero books from Marvel and DC. Spider-Man, Avengers, Fantastic Four, the occasional Superman & Batman. Not to mention the occasional Harvey, Archie, Cracked and MAD comic/magazines. They were the same comics my older brothers read and I wouldn't be surprised if my father read these same titles when he was young.
Today kids aren't reading most of those titles. There are a few reasons why, among them is they don't see them. In ages past comics had the benefit of being on newsstands and there was a lot of newsstands so we couldn't NOT see them. Since then the amount of newsstands has shrunk a great deal and they are not so plentiful.
Now I have seen kids in comic shops, and they walk by the comics to get their latest card games of choice. Looking at the comics I'm not surprised. Today's comics are clearly aimed at an older audience. The art is very stiff, detailed and not very fun looking. The stories are about politics, ethics, rape, erasing memories, filling in gaps of a missing year and so on. They are clearly aimed at an adult audience.
I'm not saying comics have to be drawn like they are kid's cartoons with very simplistic plots. I think we all remember what our first comics were about. Mine was Avengers #276, which was the 2nd last issue of the Mansion Siege storyline.
In it:
- Wasp is talking to Ant-Man (Scott Lang) about her doubts in her leadership abilities.
- An already captured Captain America and Black Knight are tied up and Mr Hyde beats Jarvis into a pulp in front of them, just for kicks.
- Captain Marvel and Thor return and are ready to kick some ass.
- Ant-Man says he's not Dr. Pym and is awestruck when he meets Thor for the first time.
- Cap and the Knight get free and give Hyde a beating.
- Ant Man helps in taking back the mansion.
- Dr. Druid decides chip in his own way.
- Captain Marvel gets so mad she accidentally breaks Moonstones neck slamming her head first in the side of a cliff.
- Thor seems to have some problem that he's not telling anybody about.
- There was an appearance by the Shroud.
That's only on the surface too. There is a lot of other little things thrown in to make the story and the characters relationships even more complex. I'm sure any superhero story prior to 1964 had roughly similar level of details and complexity in them. Yet we as kids read them and picked up the next book too. So I'm not suggesting the books need to be made simple like an Adventures or Johnny DC comics.
So what does need to be done? Well, it's pretty simple.
- Find out where the kids are.
- Get the comic books to them.
- Tailor the stories/art to them.
- Put them in a format that they'll buy and will allow everybody else involved to make some money too.
- Advertise them.
And yes, this means venturing outside of the safety of the direct market. That is, unless you can come up with a kick ass marketing plan to drive thousands of kids into the DM stores and make sure the DM stores are well stocked in advance to sell them what they'll want.
Until publishers are willing to do this at minimum there is no point in complaining. Publishers aren't doing this probably because it's a lot of work and gambling a lot of money. It's much safer to spend it on something that requires much less work and has a greater chance of making their money back via the direct market. Plus somebody is likely to lose their job if it doesn't bring immediate return on investment. Clearly Marvel and DC are trying something with their Adventures and Johnny DC line. Only they know how well those books are doing. All we know is they aren't selling that well within the direct market and they really aren't expected too.
But back to a point I drifted away from. Kids aren't reading the comics we do, but they ARE reading comics.
- Archie Digests are rumored to sell over 100,000. Still.
- Sonic the Hedgehog in particular is very popular and even Direct Market comic stores have a hard time keeping them in stock.
- Manga is clearly selling to both boys and girls. Naruto is currently the top seller in bookstores. It's about a young Ninja in training with special powers. A lot of the characters in the book also have special powers. Unless you are living under a rock you know Manga is selling very, very well to young girls.
- Disney Adventures have been doing comics since the early 90s and I've been told they are most popular feature of the digest magazine. They've done many comics only digests.
- Nickelodeon Magazine is in the same boat as Disney Adventures.
- Bone published by Schoolastic has been a runaway success.
- Mad Magazine is still being published.
Past and still selling comics for kids include Disney's W.I.T.C.H., Spongebob Squarepants, Captain Underpants (the latter two came from Nickelodeon Magazine). Looking into the future we see Schoolastic is now doing more kids oriented comics because of the success of Bone. The latest series I know of is The Baby Sitters Club as graphic novels, done by Raina Telgemeier. This very month I interview Jim Salicrup who is the EIC of PaperCutz. They publish Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Totally Spies and Zorro comics for kids. I'm sure there are more kids oriented stuff in bookstores that I'm leaving out.
So there are some publishers out there successfully doing comics for kids. They've already captured the next generation of readers and appears they'll get the generation after that too. The comic market will change, but it won't die. I'm certain comics as a medium will continue.
But the publishers that don't invest in their future will get what they deserve.
|