In the empty lot where the ladies play blindman's bluff with the key chain: The goal of this column is to be out every week. Evidently I've already missed that goal, the first column being up for more than a week now. All I can say is that I'm going to work very hard not to miss that deadline again.
Any comments on the column can be emailed to me at JohnH985@yahoo.com. Or if you want to start a discussion about anything I've written here you can go to my blog Lifein4colors.blogspot.com and I plan to leave a post for each week where anyone can drop by and leave comments and we can have something of a dialogue about each week's subject. Feel free to drop by even if you disagree with what I've said.
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug: Awhile back I was shopping at one of the local comic shops. I was checking out with my pile of newly arrived comics and making conversation with the guy working behind the counter. One of the comics I was purchasing was the newest issue of Marvel Adventures starring Spider-man. I made a comment that I had read online that Marvel was canceling this book. He shrugged and said “Doesn't matter, it's only a kid's comic.”
I didn't say anything at the time, just paid for my comics and left on my way. But his comments kept gnawing at me. Just a kid's comic.
Just a kid's comic.
Now maybe I'm making more out of this than needs be made. But where is the next generation of comic readers going to come from? We've seen that even with the biggest blockbuster of a movie comics don't attract a lot of new regular readers. Yes, with the new Batman or Spider-man movie the comic shop might see a bump in people off the street that haven't read a comic in years venturing into unfamiliar land and buying a comic. But they don't come back. And even that isn't that big of a bump. While everyone talks about a new blockbuster movie being a help to the comic industry, the truth is it only helps the bottom line of the company, not the comic shops so much.
So where were we? Yes, about needing to bring more readers into comics. How do you do that? Start them young. I was reading comics when I was a kid. The first ones I remember reading where comics like Caspar, Spooky and the like. One of the earliest comic books I can remember reading was The Three Mouseketeers. Where are these comics today? None of them are even published. There's very little out there that a six or seven year old can pick up and enjoy reading. Yes, they might have seen Spider-man or Batman and like the characters, but as a kid that young if they picked up the newest issue of either of those characters they would probably not pick up the next issue. Comics today aren't written for kids, they're written for the comic fan. Even an adult that isn't a regular reader or familiar with the back story for the character could have a hard time reading some of the new comics. Too much going on for a new reader to just jump into, especially if they're not a regular reader of comics. But that's another column, this one is about kids.
Kids don't need comics that are dumbed down, but they do need something without all the backstory and drama of today's comics. They need something that tells a story without the reader having to know what happened in the last hundred issues. They want an exciting story with believable characters, even a continuing storyline, but don't overdo it.
If we get kids interested and reading comics at an early age they'll keep reading and move into the more mainstream comics as they get older. Most comic readers are older now and as they get older and move more into life some of them will fall the wayside and give up comics all together. So where do we get new readers from?
Kid comics.
And as someone working behind the counter at a comic shop I can't believe that he would so easily dismiss them. Ask him about what's going on in Daredevil and he'll give you a twenty minute lecture on what's been happening in that comic for the last three years and why the newest issue is so good. Which is all wonderful, but that's preaching to the converted. The person in the store buying that new issue of Daredevil is already a comic reader.
Which actually is part of the problem of a comic shop. Most of the people that come into one is already a comic reader, so it's hard to attract that person off the street in to try something new. We'll talk in another column about trying to pull in adult readers and what needs to be done, but this one we're still talking about trying to get that comic bug into them at an early age and get them hooked.
We need comics that reach out to kids. We need kids to pick up a comic and read it and want to pick up another issue and another issue after that. If we don't get a new generation of kids reading comics the future of comics is going to look even dimmer. It's a slowly diminishing return, as some of the current readers drift away from comics and we don't have those new younger readers coming in, comics will slowly wither away.
And the cool thing is that kid's comics aren't just for kids. Some of my favorite reading material lately has been comics that are aimed more for kids. Like the aforementioned Marvel Adventures. Paul Tobin has been writing the comic with Matteo Lolli on the art and they've created a really fun, good looking comic to read. The stories are done in one issue, but there is an overall continuity to the storyline and what happens in one issue matters to the next. What these comics remind me of more than anything are the early Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, before the Marvel Universe got so complicated and huge. Peter Parker is in high school in these stories and they revolve around him going out a first date or having a fight with a girl that he likes or any one of a thousand other things that normal kids do. And yea, Spider-ma is thrown in there for good measure. The art is simple and I don't mean that as a knock, it tells the story and is easy on the eye. I love the way Spider-man is drawn in the comic.
I still like reading the regular line of comics, but sometimes I can get tired of having to know fifty different things happening in fifty different comics to understand what's going on. Sometimes I just want to sit down and read a comic that tells a good story and is fun.
Other favorites that I've liked recently have been Supergirl:Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade which unfortunately was a mini series and is over. The comic was created by Landry Q. Walker and Eric Jones. But while this comic was being published it was one of my favorite comics. I'm really hoping that this series will be back. This is the Supergirl that I want to read, not whoever is currently being called Supergirl in the other comic.
Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam is another great comic, that is still currently being published. Mike Kunkel writes and draws the comic and you won't find another comic book out there that looks like this. One of his pages can be filled with what looks like a hundred panels. The down side of this is that Kunkel isn't able to keep up with the deadlines, so other writers and artists are stepping in to help him. I haven't enjoyed the other storylines as much when it's not by him, but when Kunkel is doing it this is a comic that is as funny as it is good.
And finally one of my favorite comics, period. Spider-man Loves Mary Jane. I missed this in its earlier run, but when Terry Moore came on board I picked it up. Terry Moore is better known as the writer and artist of Strangers In Paradise and Echo, two really good comics, with Echo being one of my favorites right now. So let me just say this, I think this comic is as good as anything Moore has done. He brought a new understanding to the character of Mary Jane. He was doing some of his best work. And than....I'm not sure what happened. I haven't seen a new issue in months or longer. From what I've heard he is no longer doing the comic, so I don't know if the comic is even still being published. Which is a real shame.
So there you have it. Don't ignore a comic just because it's labeled for kids. And if you want to keep this industry growing give a kid a comic.
And before anyone asks, it wasn't Ronnie's shop that this occurred at. I'm not going to name names, but rest assured Ronnie would never say anything like that. I've known Ronnie for more years than either of us would probably want to admit to and Ronnie is one of the most passionate lovers of this industry that I know. He's always trying to get more people to read comics. And nowhere in this column did I mention a comic that kids and adults both love and was a runaway success....Bone.
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