Kids hate comic stores 1 1

[sfcityduck]

12 minutes ago, kav said:

I have no issue with gays.  Sophie Campbell's Wet Moon is awesome.  The writing on Iceman is execrable.  Instead of letting the gay angle flow smoothly as in Wet Moon, they shove it down your throat with the most idiotic stories and dialogue imaginable.

Fair enough.  Poor writing does turn readers away.  

[kav]

2 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

Fair enough.  Poor writing does turn readers away.  

The point of writing is to tell an interesting story.  Any character can accomplish this, regardless of any orientation whatsoever.  What Marvel has done is scrap the idea of story, and replace it with look how diverse we are.  That's not story.  That's preaching, and boring.

[kav]

Kids get preached to by adults constantly.  They find it mind numbingly boring and immediately tune it out.

[jcjames]

If you want kids to go crazy for comicbooks, put the comicbooks out on the lawn.

 

Edited August 7, 2018 by jcjames

[porcupine48]

2 hours ago, tv horror said:

I forgot this one also.

 

Are all above yours?

I have a lot of UK books like you posted,sadly only one Triumph,I think.

Here's one I have an image handy of

You know what got me so interested in spending a lot of time in comic shops as a kid?Most of them here at home had a porno section in the back and I was always trying to sneak a peek,or a naughty book in with what I was buying if I'd had the courage to sneak back there and pilfer one  

[01TheDude]

some one mentioned bringing a 5 year old to a comic store. I don't think at 5 I would have been interested in a comic book store. Not that some kids or boardies back when they were 5 would but for me, I had other interest when it came to toys and fun. I would think the ideal way to get a kid interested in comics would be to show some old books you have of a popular character or some really well drawn art perhaps. I wa around 8 when I first was wowed by my cousins collection. But it took until I was around 10 and the neighborhood gang was into them that I really started collecting.

Kids around 8 to 12 would seem more likely candidates. However, I agree that the myriad of entertainment choices these days are so much more intense than a static comic book might seem to a kid these days. I doubt it has ever been a hobby that all kids enjoy or that you can make assumptions that kids and comics are a natural fit. Comics are mostly written for adults in the modern age so it is not surprising that they are failing to attract a younger audience.

[AJD]

2 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

What does make kids uncomfortable is the excessive sexuality on comic covers that are now aimed at pervy old guys who haven't figured out there is porn on the computer.  See, e.g., Grimms Fairy Tales.  And no one wants to take their kids into a comic shop which looks like it caters to predators. 

I don't know how kids feel about that, but I hate they way that women are drawn on the covers of many moderns. And this from a guy who has an extensive collection of golden age 'good girl art' - there's something really tacky and exploitative about the big boob and spandex look.

[Not A Clone]

I see kids at my LCS quite often. A lot are there for the cards & gaming, but I do see kids flipping through the old $1 books quite often. Last week I saw a kid walk up with a stack of old reader Amazing Spider-Man issues. Very impressed! Probably not more than 10-11 yrs old. 

[Badger]

42 minutes ago, Not A Clone said:

I see kids at my LCS quite often. A lot are there for the cards & gaming, but I do see kids flipping through the old $1 books quite often. Last week I saw a kid walk up with a stack of old reader Amazing Spider-Man issues. Very impressed! Probably not more than 10-11 yrs old. 

I went to Torpedo comics, in Las Vegas, a few weeks ago and there was a 10 to 13 yo girl whose parents were telling her, "The comics you want are not that expensive.  Just buy them both so we can go!" 

I did not get to see what the girl was buying, "No, honest officer, I wasn't stalking the girl but her comics!", but I do still wonder.

[zosocane]

8 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

Kids around 8 to 12 would seem more likely candidates. However, I agree that the myriad of entertainment choices these days are so much more intense than a static comic book might seem to a kid these days. I doubt it has ever been a hobby that all kids enjoy or that you can make assumptions that kids and comics are a natural fit. Comics are mostly written for adults in the modern age so it is not surprising that they are failing to attract a younger audience.

This.  I've got 3 kids, none of them wants to go to the local comic book shop.  They have more fun stuff to do than sit around, read and "collect."  An iPad with face time for friends, video games galore, social media, etc.  And then add to that the fact that comic books are written and priced for the 18+ crowd.  Man, I sure hope someone will be buying my comics when I retire!    It's always validating to see a 13-something-year-old kid with his or her old man at a convention, going through a long box, and picking out, say, a late 1970s Batman.  And those kids are out there.  But this is the exception to the rule.

Edited August 7, 2018 by zosocane

[Brian48]

I tried to get my son involved. For awhile, he enjoyed reading TNMT books, but he lost interested around 12 or so.  Kids these days don't need comics (or baseball cards) like us old timers did.  They got cable TV, DVR, streaming, video games, mobile devices, etc..  Don't blame them actually.

[1Cool]

2 minutes ago, Brian48 said:

I tried to get my son involved. For awhile, he enjoyed reading TNMT books, but he lost interested around 12 or so.  Kids these days don't need comics (or baseball cards) like us old timers did.  They got cable TV, DVR, streaming, video games, mobile devices, etc..  Don't blame them actually.

I try to imagine if i would have collected comics if I grew up now.  As much as i love sitting down to read a comic book I just do not think i would have taken the time to start a collection let along spend the money to keep up with it.  i would have probably spent all my money on World of Warcraft or whatever is out now. 

[Senormac]

2 hours ago, Not A Clone said:

I see kids at my LCS quite often. A lot are there for the cards & gaming, but I do see kids flipping through the old $1 books quite often. Last week I saw a kid walk up with a stack of old reader Amazing Spider-Man issues. Very impressed! Probably not more than 10-11 yrs old. 

  you mean condition was not important ? !!!  AWESOME !! 

 

[01TheDude]

As a group here, I think we might be over reacting slightly to the lack of young collectors. There will always be a small subset of kids who enjoy the art, characters, stories, and the actual accumulation of these books. Maybe not to the degree that we were at with the peak of collecting (and buying for that matter) but that (for lack of a better term) nerd factor is not going away. So if the time comes to let go of your collection some day-- you might not get top dollar or even close to what you paid for the books. But there will be people wanting them and the prices will dictate how badly.

I vividly recall when I first started out collecting comics in the mid/late 1970s thinking "wow-- a book from before I was even born with my favorite character"-- that book was JIM 122. It was ragged, taped, had pieces missing -- all that. But I thought it was the best book ever. I never thought I would be able to own nice copies of these books and we are talking books at the time that were a mere 15 years old. In a way-- the books we had from the bronze age are the equivalent of the golden age books when we were kids. There are tons more copies available and in better grade thanks to huge numbers sold and more collectors taking care of them. But at some point, those books reached new level of cool. Maybe not as cool as silver age and definitely not as cool as some amazing golden age stuff-- but cool in their own right. The hobby has a way of doing that to the books-- dealers/collectors etc treat the current books just as you might expect kids would-- less carefully and with a little bit of disdain. Quite a bit of damage occurs to those hoards of disregarded bronze age comics-- and high grades start to become harder to find. I recall having a box full of bronze age doubles that I did not even bother bagging for many years because they were just second copies. And LCS's offering me almost nothing for my collection in the mid 1980s when I asked what they would give (I know how people with drek collections feel from that).

I don't know-- At this point I am thinking less about what I can get for my books than just enjoying them for what they are- a portal into the past.

[bc]

7 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I try to imagine if i would have collected comics if I grew up now.  As much as i love sitting down to read a comic book I just do not think i would have taken the time to start a collection let along spend the money to keep up with it.  i would have probably spent all my money on World of Warcraft or whatever is out now. 

That's an easy one Andrew - I wouldn't be collecting if I grew up now as comics aren't sold anywhere and the price versus value ratio is low. The quality of the modern content is questionable as well, but to each their own.

Spinner racks and shelves were in almost every convenient store, pharmacy, supermarket and gas station when I was a kid - you didn't need to go to some other area of town (or another town over) to buy comics. Easy access at a reasonable price got me collecting as a young teen - now you'd need to be at least 16 to be able to drive yourself to an LCS every week instead of walking 5 minutes to the corner store. Parents and relatives could easily buy comics for kids as they didn't have to go out of their way (like many of us, my parents bought me comics as bribes which started me on this lifelong journey).

Between chores and odd jobs I could buy a small stack of books every week and each book was good for 20 minutes of "value". Now the price seems high for a teenager and you can read one in 5 minutes. 

But my comics were my personal "escape time". Nowadays there are just too many other ways to escape boredom or get thru a rainy day if you are not an over-subscribed kid. Plus the pull of social media platforms doesn't really foster personal downtime and personal preferences, it's more of group acceptance thing that is promoted all day and all night. Never had to worry if others thought it was cool or not if was reading Ghost Rider in the tree fort.

Just some ramblings from a 50 something year old fool 

-bc

[tv horror]

11 hours ago, porcupine48 said:

Are all above yours?

No just some of them however I still have my Spider-man comics weekly number 1 complete with it's mask or should I say paper bag.

 

[DeadOne]

12 minutes ago, bc said:

That's an easy one Andrew - I wouldn't be collecting if I grew up now as comics aren't sold anywhere and the price versus value ratio is low. The quality of the modern content is questionable as well, but to each their own.

Spinner racks and shelves were in almost every convenient store, pharmacy, supermarket and gas station when I was a kid - you didn't need to go to some other area of town (or another town over) to buy comics. Easy access at a reasonable price got me collecting as a young teen - now you'd need to be at least 16 to be able to drive yourself to an LCS every week instead of walking 5 minutes to the corner store. Parents and relatives could easily buy comics for kids as they didn't have to go out of their way (like many of us, my parents bought me comics as bribes which started me on this lifelong journey).

Between chores and odd jobs I could buy a small stack of books every week and each book was good for 20 minutes of "value". Now the price seems high for a teenager and you can read one in 5 minutes. 

But my comics were my personal "escape time". Nowadays there are just too many other ways to escape boredom or get thru a rainy day if you are not an over-subscribed kid. Plus the pull of social media platforms doesn't really foster personal downtime and personal preferences, it's more of group acceptance thing that is promoted all day and all night. Never had to worry if others thought it was cool or not if was reading Ghost Rider in the tree fort.

Just some ramblings from a 50 something year old fool 

-bc

  My thoughts exactly. There was no special trip involved to go to "the comic store", they were everywhere. Even if your parents or siblings were not into comics, they were still available for you to see at almost every place the family normally goes.

[bc]

15 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

As a group here, I think we might be over reacting slightly to the lack of young collectors. There will always be a small subset of kids who enjoy the art, characters, stories, and the actual accumulation of these books. Maybe not to the degree that we were at with the peak of collecting (and buying for that matter) but that (for lack of a better term) nerd factor is not going away. So if the time comes to let go of your collection some day-- you might not get top dollar or even close to what you paid for the books. But there will be people wanting them and the prices will dictate how badly.

I vividly recall when I first started out collecting comics in the mid/late 1970s thinking "wow-- a book from before I was even born with my favorite character"-- that book was JIM 122. It was ragged, taped, had pieces missing -- all that. But I thought it was the best book ever. I never thought I would be able to own nice copies of these books and we are talking books at the time that were a mere 15 years old. In a way-- the books we had from the bronze age are the equivalent of the golden age books when we were kids. There are tons more copies available and in better grade thanks to huge numbers sold and more collectors taking care of them. But at some point, those books reached new level of cool. Maybe not as cool as silver age and definitely not as cool as some amazing golden age stuff-- but cool in their own right. The hobby has a way of doing that to the books-- dealers/collectors etc treat the current books just as you might expect kids would-- less carefully and with a little bit of disdain. Quite a bit of damage occurs to those hoards of disregarded bronze age comics-- and high grades start to become harder to find. I recall having a box full of bronze age doubles that I did not even bother bagging for many years because they were just second copies. And LCS's offering me almost nothing for my collection in the mid 1980s when I asked what they would give (I know how people with drek collections feel from that).

I don't know-- At this point I am thinking less about what I can get for my books than just enjoying them for what they are- a portal into the past.

As a Marvel zombie, I loved how Stan would put foot notes like "Wayyyy back in TTA#63" in key panels...that made me want to buy those "ancient" back issues as well as the newest numbers on the rack. It was like a collecting roadmap (or more like a trap!). And yes, buying my first book that was older than me was a huge point of pride.

I hope you're right and this hobby continues to thrive!

-bc

[tv horror]

58 minutes ago, zosocane said:

I sure hope someone will be buying my comics when I retire!  

That's an interesting point and quite possibly true that in the future all these slabbed or raw comics will just be of cultural interest and will be worthless. Okay some might remain a novelty like Batman Superman or Spider-man but the rest could be forgotten. It's much the same way as old movie stars, ask someone who starred as Sherlock Holmes on screen and all you'll get is Robert Downey Jr No Rathbone Cushing or anyone else. To prove this fact go to the IMDB site and type in Sherlock Holmes.   

[1950's war comics]

1 hour ago, Senormac said:

  you mean condition was not important ? !!!  AWESOME !! 

 

Hey Senormac i like your new Turok avatar ... looks cool