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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132234
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 10:03am | IP Logged | 1
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I raised a boy born in 1993 and am raising another born in 2008, a not inconsiderable difference in ages. Yet, while both loved superheroes and very much wanted to love comicbooks, when my older boy was 10 years old, there was nothing for him -- not just the content of the contemporary comicbooks but the entire scope of their production and distribution -- the industry was already killed. If that was true in 2003, how much more decayed is the dead (to kids) industry today?•• Bob Harras used to call it "navel gazing." The increased infatuation by so many writers and editors with the minute details of the "established lore" -- when they were not tearing it apart, that is! So a young potential reader was (and is) faced with two choices: comics so steeped in "history" that it requires major research to get caught up (because Dog Forbid the writers should give any kind of access, busy as they are "writing for the trade"), or characters who get blown up every five minutes, demanding commitment and dedication to someone different from whoever might have lured the reader in. As I have said, when I started reading in 1956 Batman and Superman were basically the same characters they were in 1946, and would be until around 1966. And sales were beyond anything that can be dreamt of today. Without stunts!
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12429
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 10:13am | IP Logged | 2
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QUOTE:
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All I can say is that I have an actual 9 year old who does read, but no contemporary comicbooks are made with him in mind, and have not been for decades, and, moreover, the industry was already so changed from what had existed for many, many generations that even my 24 year old, when he was a boy, had nothing to draw him in. When the older one was a kid, some 10-15 years ago, of course he had other "stuff" -- but he actively wanted to add comicbooks to that, yet found nothing for him. My younger one now has even more "stuff," but he loves superheroes and reading too -- there's just no industry for him, and it's been so repellent to cultivating new generations of kid readers for so long that it's made comicbooks completely irrelevant.
Edited by Michael Penn on 25 May 2017 at 10:14am
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Marcio Ferreira
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 September 2008
Location: Brazil
Posts: 2518
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 11:39am | IP Logged | 3
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Michael Penn, my son is almost 8 years old and he is also, crazy about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, as many of the boys in his classroom. I am trying to introduce him to some comic books, but so far, very little luck.I am doing my best to keep my Godson and his brother and sister interested as well (ages, 4, 7 and 10) I brought some Disney comic books to them early this year when I went to visit them in Belgium (trying to make them read in Portuguese and not loose it entirely was another goal). The girl adores comic books, and she is getting into Belgium comics, which seems to be awesome, but Dutch is too hard to learn, so I am not sure if I will ever get a chance to have an opinion. In a nutshell, there is hope, even with the gadgets.
Edited by Marcio Ferreira on 25 May 2017 at 11:40am
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4067
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 1:08pm | IP Logged | 4
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Something we can do that the movies can't?
True innovators are rare, but we'll always have great cartoonists pushing the envelope. Winsor McCay at the turn of the century, Steranko in the sixties, Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez in the eighties, Darwyn Cooke more recently--and plenty more, to some lesser degree.
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Joe Zhang
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 12857
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 5:09pm | IP Logged | 5
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I think kids have an instinctual love of the drawn page. I give away the comics I buy soon after I read them, to the children of my friends (the appropriate comics). They are absolute fans now.
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Warren Scott
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 July 2016
Posts: 201
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | 6
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I think comics can be more personal than film and television shows. You can "hear" the characters thoughts, and at their best, they combine subtle emotion with larger than life concepts. They are like books, which may be passing into digital forms but aren't disappearing as so many people had predicted.
Perhaps comics (at least the mainstream superheroes) are due for a change in format. Right now they share some of the worst traits of soap operas, such as stories that go on and on, with the same plots being recycled. The soaps aren't all bad. They also can be very personal, with regular viewers forming attachments to the characters. But they also are struggling.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132234
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | 7
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...a change in format. ••• Did you mean format or content?
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Warren Scott
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 July 2016
Posts: 201
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| Posted: 25 May 2017 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | 8
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Well, I actually had format in mind at first but meandered into content, making a better case for a change in that.
But I think format is an issue, too. Maybe it's time for regular series to be available every two or three months in complete stories similar to a graphic novel or trade paperback. The current cover prices for "print" comics seem just too much to pay for part of a story. Today's young readers are buying lots of book series but I don't think the value is comparable.
The less pricey online comics could still be offered in installments.
By the way, I agree with your opinion there's been too much focus on making the superhero comics more "mature." There actually have been lots of comics that appeal to both audiences, but so many of today's creators seem to think it has to be one or the other.
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Trevor Smith
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2006
Location: Canada
Posts: 3520
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| Posted: 26 May 2017 at 3:45am | IP Logged | 9
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I absolutely agree with Joe re: kids having an
instinctual love of the medium. If bright, colourful
comics were prominently displayed where kids could find
them (at the right age), they (or their parents) would
buy them, imo. As an avid reader as a kid, I cannot
imagine I wouldn't have loved comics when I hit that
right age, no matter what the other distractions.
In fact, now that I'm thinking about said distractions,
when I got my first Atari 2600, my comic reading dropped
not one whit.
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17667
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| Posted: 26 May 2017 at 5:53am | IP Logged | 10
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Over the past few years, Raina Telgemeier's DRAMA, SISTERS, and SMILE have
been popular among elementary and first year middle school girls. They also
enjoy her graphic novel adaptations of THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB.
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Peter Hicks
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 1886
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| Posted: 26 May 2017 at 7:34am | IP Logged | 11
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For comics to have a future with young people, the industry needs to:
1. Create an electronic format that cannot be copied or pirated
2. Sell comics online for less than a dollar.
Selling $4 hard copies at direct sales stores is a deadend.
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Philippe Negrin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 August 2007
Location: France
Posts: 2644
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| Posted: 26 May 2017 at 8:20am | IP Logged | 12
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I have an idea that's maybe crazy but would be a mix of the American and European tradition. Separate your production in 2 lines.
1. Go back to cheap monthly comics that are printed on cheaper paper for sale at newsagents and groceries as in the old days, this for only the top titles (FF, X-Men, Capt AM, Spider-Man, Avengers, Hulk, Guardians of ??? etc)
2. Release one or 2 hardcovers a year for all your other titles, top quality storyines and creators only, no fill-ins, self-contained stories, that may or may not be in continuity with the main title.
It's not going to happen but it's something I've had in my mind for a while.
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