Superheroes are a dying part of the Comic Book market. 0

[PhilipB2k17]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robsalkowitz/2019/10/08/surprising-new-data-shows-comic-readers-are-leaving-superheroes-behind/#73a60834d680

[Unca Ben]

It's kinda amazing that superheroes have lasted in popularity as long as they have, compared to other genres. 

[vodou]

1 hour ago, Unca Ben said:

It's kinda amazing that superheroes have lasted in popularity as long as they have, compared to other genres. 

Everything is cyclical. Not the first time superheroes fell out of favor either.

We're what, about 65 years into the reintroduction of them with the Atlas reboots and then Showcase Flash...that's 5+ generations of 12 year olds. Long run, indeed.

[Rick2you2]

3 hours ago, vodou said:

Everything is cyclical. Not the first time superheroes fell out of favor either.

We're what, about 65 years into the reintroduction of them with the Atlas reboots and then Showcase Flash...that's 5+ generations of 12 year olds. Long run, indeed.

Don’t forget that the calculation includes graphic novels, many of which are reprints of old comics. And some of that manga is a version of superhero comics, like One Punch Man.

[vodou]

28 minutes ago, Rick2you2 said:

Don’t forget that the calculation includes graphic novels, many of which are reprints of old comics. And some of that manga is a version of superhero comics, like One Punch Man.

Age old question: what are today's 12 year olds reading?

Not old fogeys living in the past and re-purchasing same old in ever more expensive and permanent formats, no, 12 year olds that will be around for a while yet.

[alxjhnsn]

14 minutes ago, vodou said:

Age old question: what are today's 12 year olds reading?

Not old fogeys living in the past and re-purchasing same old in ever more expensive and permanent formats, no, 12 year olds that will be around for a while yet.

They are reading:

• Raina Telgemeier - Guts (#1 on NYT graphic novel list), Drama, Smile, Ghosts, etc.
• Ben Hatke - Zita the Spacegirl series, Little Robot, Mighty Jack series
• Mike Maihack - Cleopatra in Space series
• Faith Erin Hicks - The Nameless City series
• Art Baltazar and Franco - Superman of Smallville & too many others to mention
• Jeff Smith's Bone
• and so many more

We live in the age of great reprints and wonderful new books. I read and enjoy all of the above - I'm sixty-three, but good stories are good stories.

[pinupcartooncollector]

They aren't reading, they're playing video games.  When's the last time you saw a 12 year old in a comic book store?

 

[Unca Ben]

1 hour ago, pinupcartooncollector said:

They aren't reading, they're playing video games.  When's the last time you saw a 12 year old in a comic book store?

 

When I was 12 there weren't any comic book stores 

 

 

...actually, there were a few - but none anywhere near me.

[porcupine48]

3 minutes ago, Unca Ben said:

When I was 12 there weren't any comic book stores 

 

 

...actually, there were a few - but none anywhere near me.

Spoiler

 

 

[porcupine48]

1 hour ago, pinupcartooncollector said:

They aren't reading, they're playing video games.  When's the last time you saw a 12 year old in a comic book store?

 

Tuesday.There were two brothers with the dad,about ten and twelve,excited and happy as heck 

[Rick2you2]

6 hours ago, vodou said:

Age old question: what are today's 12 year olds reading?

Not old fogeys living in the past and re-purchasing same old in ever more expensive and permanent formats, no, 12 year olds that will be around for a while yet.

Didn’t Didio complain recently that people were buying the old stories in trade paperbacks instead of the new stories?

On the other hand, we are the old fogeys living in the past who keep buying the art.

Edited October 11, 2019 by Rick2you2

[vodou]

7 hours ago, pinupcartooncollector said:

When's the last time you saw a 12 year old in a comic book store?

Every single free comic book day, coincidentally also the last times anybody saw me in a comic book store

But what they grab to pay for not the freebies, that's what I'm wondering.

[vodou]

4 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

Didn’t Didio complain recently that people were buying the old stories in trade paperbacks instead of the new stories?

People? Sorta vague, that.

I only buy collections, floppies are dead to me. (But I do hit FCBD every year, those free floppies are okay, and at this year's I "discovered" Deadly Class and immediately bought up the big hardcovers.) But overall, my buying is 95% newer (last five years) material and only occasionally vintage (Absolute Preacher -for example) that I never read the first time around. I'm not buying more of the same old, same old...endless Omnibii of runs that Big Two turned their back on anyway back in the day during one or another reboot to (briefly) grab market share for a month. I did enough reading/collecting/obsessingovercontinuity of corporate superheroes 1981-1996. D O N E.

4 hours ago, Rick2you2 said:

On the other hand, we are the old fogeys living in the past who keep buying the art.

True, me too (to some extent but I also have pretty much everything I want vintage and am just picking opportunistically at the edges now). I think this article does support what Gene has been writing for years now about demographics, which I completely agree with, "who" will have nostalgia for "our" superheroes (re: the $$$$$ art) and for that matter, any superheroes (broadly) being published more recently (21st century?) with fragmentation of interests/popularity? Just like the art boom came after (and out of) the comic boom (new and back issues), I think we'll see the reverse: decline in superhero comics sales is a leading indicator of decline in interest in superhero art sales. We don't see it at HA yet, we old fogeys are still buying up a storm, but another 10, 15 years...???

[John E.]

I just spent 12 hours last week volunteering at my kid’s school’s book fair, pretty much working the register. This is an elementary school, so grades K-12. Kids still love books. 

Dav Pilkey’s newest Dog Man and Guts flew off the shelf and sold out. The librarian had to reorder and since there’s a Scholastic warehouse nearby, they deliver books in 30 minutes. The older Dog Man books didn’t sell as much because...they kids already had them. Quite a bit of kids pre-ordered the new Dog-Man book coming out in December. What I got out of this was that kids love reading sequential art narrative, much like us, but not so much the traditional hero stuff. It may be because super heroes are oversaturating media right now. Why read the comic when you can watch the movie, the tv show, the animated show, or play the video game? When I was a kid, there was Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends...then there was the season ending and reruns once a week. If I wanted a cape and tights fix, it came once a month, or in my case, once every 2-3 months. And think that access, or lack of, has an impact on traditional comic book consumption.

Ultimately, I think art will have value in the future, but we will really be buying and trading among ourselves. 

[Unstoppablejayd]

8 hours ago, pinupcartooncollector said:

They aren't reading, they're playing video games.  When's the last time you saw a 12 year old in a comic book store?

 

I gave my 12 year old godson 4 long boxes of comics.. he LOVES them... the key is to introduce the younger generation to them one way or another. 

[Ironmandrd]

Why isn't Marvel and DC trying to establish a kids book line to compete more directly with Scholastic?

[Dokstarr]

I think the bigger issue is that individual issues and floppies as we know it will go away. Distribution is going to change - subscription services, free on the web with paid premium options, etc. Trade paperbacks, graphic novels, and manga have already gained a ton of ground compared to individual issues which have been diminishing.

Adam Warren is working his way through Empowered - posting it page by page on a semi-daily basis online. Mark Waid made his Thrillbent site for distribution of comics. I personally think this will be how it goes eventually.

[kbmcvay]

The Direct Sales Market slowly killed the comic book industry. They made it harder to access the product than when you could impulse buy them at the store on the corner. Couple that with a mediocre product and high cover prices and here we are. DC and Marvel have nobody to blame but themselves.

[Dokstarr]

41 minutes ago, kbmcvay said:

The Direct Sales Market slowly killed the comic book industry. They made it harder to access the product than when you could impulse buy them at the store on the corner. Couple that with a mediocre product and high cover prices and here we are. DC and Marvel have nobody to blame but themselves.

The prices are a definite part of why everything will have to change. I looked at DC's online digital store front and the big comics for the week are all $4 price tags and $5 for the Joker one-shot. Total reading time is probably about 45 minutes for the three comics for $13. That just seems like a lot when you compare to different models for entertainment now. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Xbox Game Pass, etc. Each one of those cost about $10 a month  - so each is less than the 3 comics that someone would buy on Wednesday.

[delekkerste]

47 minutes ago, kbmcvay said:

The Direct Sales Market slowly killed the comic book industry. They made it harder to access the product than when you could impulse buy them at the store on the corner. Couple that with a mediocre product and high cover prices and here we are. DC and Marvel have nobody to blame but themselves.

It would have happened anyway had they continued to distribute through other venues as well.  Just look at what has happened to print media in general over the past decade, regardless of how/where it is distributed.  Forget the incredibly misleading "e-book vs. physical book" sales comparisons - just look at how much time people spend consuming content (TV, movies, videogames, YouTube/short videos, social media, e-books/comics/newspapers/magazines, message boards, web pages, etc.) in front of screens these days vs. reading printed content.  There's no contest whatsoever.  

Edited October 11, 2019 by delekkerste