I'm not sure exactly when or why that all went away, but now that kids aren't exposed to comics as a matter of course just by being out and about in the world, how do they discover them? If I'm not mistaken, these days you have to go to a comics shop to find the comics in the first place, but why would you go to a comics shop if you're not a fan already? "Destroying the Entry Point for Most New Readers" sounds exactly right to me as a description of the shift to an exclusively direct market model. So what entry points remain?
Compounding the part I don't understand is the fact that even if a kid somehow does discover comics . . . well, as Dirk said (in the context of a discussion about making comics more female-reader-friendly):
For non-initiates, the majority of these comics are arcane in reference, contain a bizarre and incompatable mixture of juvenilia and adult content, and just aren’t very much fun to read. These days, superhero comics are written for men between 25-35 years of age who’ve been reading such things for a decade or more, and their creators long ago lost sight of what once made superhero comics a mass-market genre. They aren’t written for women, but neither are they written for men who don’t fit the demographic. They certainly don’t appeal to children. Modern superhero comics aren’t anti-female; they’re anti-reader.So where do new comic book readers come from? Marvel's increasingly Rococo continuity actually pushed me out after being a fan of many years; how--and why?!?--do new readers get past the lockout effect? I'm not posing rhetorical questions here. I honestly don't understand and am curious to hear some answers.
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This is funny to think about because, despite having been a comics fan for most of my childhood, and thinking of comics one of the major under-appreciated art forms today, I certainly don't read most of the new comics out there. I am mostly drawn to earlier works and European comics.
I can only speak anecdotally, but I've got a few field observations.
My landlords have young kids that are getting into comics. In their case, the mother, who was into the 1980s Raw art comics scene in her college years, is making a deliberate choice to introduce them to comics. What's interesting, however, is they don't seem to show any real interest in either of the two big "universes" and haven't really dug on superheroes. The boy seems to favor Dark Horses' Star Wars tie ins and the girl reads a lot of the YA stuff from First Second books. I've noticed that the boy, especially, has a lot of comic reading friends that don't bother with the superhero stuff much. They may be the first generation since the 1950s to grow up in a comic market that is diverse enough that you could easily be "into comics" without actually caring about superheroes – which is weird to me in that superhero comics from the now much derided "Hey Kids, Comics! Wire rack were pretty much the only game in town for me as a young comic reader (we didn't have any specialty shops in my hometown until I was in high school).
I know another young man, slightly older than the boy above, who came into the stuff through a love of treasury editions newspaper comic strips. He's a voracious reader of comics, but mostly collections of 1960s era stuff. He avoids current superhero titles, which he finds too dark and unpleasant. He took my TPB collection of Bizarro World stories, but left behind the entire run of Morrison's JLA, for example.
For new adult readers, my wife runs a graphic lit book group out of a shop in SoHo. They get most first time readers through either 1) a movie tie-in (the best attended group meeting so far was for Watchmen, the first book they did) or 2) when a novel grabs mainstream attention in outlets like the NY Times book review section (the memoir-comic Fun Home was another well attended session). About half of her group had never read a graphic novel before joining up. They told her the media frenzy around Watchmen was the reason they got interested. Most of the non-regular comic readers have stayed on for future group meetings, but the people familiar with the genre have drifted away as the selections have gone less genre-y and more memoir/artsy.
To small a data to draw conclusions from, but that's what I've seen.
I was not aware that there WERE new comic readers.
Yes, I'm one of the readers that grew up with comics during the late 70's and 80's and though I still very much love the medium, I've almost completely lost touch with what's going on today and wouldn't know where to begin even if I wanted to jump back in. I've lately discovered French comics which have self contained storylines that DON'T cross over into other titles and have enjoyed them very much.
I never became a comics fan as a kid because of the cost.
When I as growing up comics were hard to find and expensive, single comics also very rarely told a whole story.
With collections much more common now and with the internet providing plentiful free samples, I am now something on a comic fan.
But the first comics I read as an adult where the creator owned finite stories coming from the vertigo line. I still find the neverending mainstream superhero universes very offputting even when I like the current creative team.
With internet piracy I do not see anyway a teenager could become a marvel/dc fan these days.
Actually when I moved about nine years ago, I made a decision to unload some of my old and not really valuble comics. It was mainly the complete Master Of Kung Fu series that I was holding onto. Next door a family moved in a few months earlier with two young boys. So I went over with my big box and just let them have it. THeir eyes just lit up with everything especially since the only comic stores around were NOT kid friendly. They did not care that these comics were old and beat up. They were just thrilled to have all these issues that they could read.
I do need to point out I went through that collection to make sure nothing bad was in there for them. Cause lets be honest Stray Bullets and Preacher are not for 8 - 10 year olds.
This may be a late reply for you, but in any case:
For me, I'd say there are two things that most solidly got me into comics: My dad and Pokemon.
My dad has had a huge collection of comics for about as long as I can remember. Most of them wouldn't be appropriate/sensical for me until I was a teen, but as a kid I would read his old copies of Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld, Bone, and Action Girl over and over and over. Those and the Sunday funnies my mom got with her newspaper were definitely big parts of my reading menu.
However, it wasn't until Pokemon rolled around that comics really became a "thing" for me. I was a card-carrying Pokeholic as a kid - seriously, I must've had a thousand of those trading cards - so when I got word that there was a series of comic-based Pokemon adventures, I jumped right on board.
That led to me learning about this whole "manga" business, which led to my next foray into Japanese comicery: Oh! My Goddess. (Which, as anyone familiar with both can tell you, is a mighty big leap from Pokemon.)
Cue the steady trickle of manga into "regular" bookstores, and pretty soon I didn't have to go all the way to dad's house to get my comic fix. When I did, though, I was lucky enough that he lived near Austin Books - best comic shop in Texas, btw - which even in the "early" days had a healthy supply of Japanese and Western product. Somehow or other I drifted over to the single-issue area and got hooked on the Fantastic Four, which led to getting hooked on Runaways which led to getting hooked on Young Avengers which led to Y: The Last Man and Scott Pilgrim and Guy Delisle's stuff and so on and so forth.
So, one part of the "equation", I guess, is having comics around from a young age. Easy for the kids of comic geeks - for everyone else, we'll just have to convince their parents that a pile of ink and paper is a decent alternative/complement to a shiny new DVD or video game. Outside of that, comics based on TV shows and video games are a good way to get someone sitting still long enough to say "hey, you might also like this."
As for older readers . . . I've been trying to find something my stepdad or mom might enjoy, but he's stubborn and she's somewhere between flighty and busy.
I started reading comics in college, and so did almost all of my comics-reading friends. The common entryway seems to have been an interest in science fiction and fantasy (for me: Terry Pratchett -> Neil Gaiman -> everything else), and the first book for most of us was from Vertigo, Fantagraphics & other "alt-comics" companies, or manga. Only a handful of us now read or have ever read the standard type of Marvel/DC superhero titles.
Thanks for so many interesting responses, and please keep 'em coming!
First, most of the big box retailers still display mainstream comics near their book and magazine sections, so there's certainly plenty of exposure in those venues because everyone has to stock up on household supplies once in a while.
Second, movies, TV, and games keep the major characters in the public consciousness.
When I grew up I had plenty of friends who simply didn't like comics. Some read motorcycle or kung-fu magazines, but it bears mentioning that comics simply aren't for everyone. I'll bet the ratio remains pretty much the same today. With a much larger population, the comic reading portion of humanity should be enough to fuel any industry. The fact that dealers and fans alike are complaining about anything is not the result of inaccessibility, it's about the product itself. Whether it's the drawn out crossover universe story-lines, the cover prices, the content, or a combination of these and other factors is debatable.
Those of us who enjoy comics will find out about them and, if the books are compelling enough, dig deeper.
For the record, even when I was a little kid, I soon learned about multi-issue arcs. I couldn't always be sure I could afford or even find continuous issues (because of inconsistent distribution), so I stuck with the one-off titles, MAD, and an occasional sci-fi or monster magazine.
I really don't believe readership is a mystery, but your post has inspired me to do my part. I think I'll try to find an old spinner rack, fill it with reading copies, and put it out front of my shop. No bags, no boards, no pressure, all fun.
That, to me, is what's missing from comics these days.
How coincidental for me to find this post. I just read my very first comic ever a couple days ago (Uncanny X-men #513). Perhaps I can shed some light on the subject of new readers for you.
I am a nerd. I make no excuses nor apologies for this. I've done everything from D&D to Gundam models to anime (briefly). Comics, though, they always seemed like Advanced Nerdery, for professionals only. I was afraid of the "comic commitment", of turning into the Simpsons comic book guy and buying 13 different series every two weeks just to follow a single storyline.
Then I noticed something interesting: an entry in a drop-down menu labeled "Comics". On Demonoid. Back issues, new issues, crossovers, team-ups, none of it matters any more, since every issue is quickly and easily available. "Comic commitment" defeated.
Two things to draw from this. Comics are intimidating. Electronic distribution may help that. I'm hooked on this story now, so I'll be buying the next issues in print, but would I pay to have them beamed to my gPhone? You better believe it (cheaper than print, of course). Until this happens, though, I'm not going to buy 13 different series every 2 weeks. Demonoid will suffice for all the wonky crossovers (which are, let's face it, designed to make you buy more comics).
Second. New readers, such as myself, are people who probably WOULD be reading comics, but for whatever reason simply AREN'T. Little kids don't see them in the store anymore; that's not how it happens. It happens like D&D or LARPing now: some random nerd just decides to see what all the fuss is about. And it does take a nerd - no frat boy is going to spontaneously become interested in Spider-man.
Hope this helps.
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