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

[kimik]

3 hours ago, Ironmandrd said:

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

They are. Talking with my file LCS owner (the only store in town that acted on the trend to TPBs three years ago and is the only store growing in sales as a result), DC Super-Hero Girls line is huge for him with both young females and their parents. He keeps upping his orders on the books/GNs and selling out. 

Marvel and DC did have their kid/youth lines a little while ago, but dropped them which was a mistake.

The trend towards collections/TPBs/GNs instead of floppies is not going to slow down. It is similar to increasing binge viewing of TV shows rather than catching the latest episode every week. While floppies will be around for a while longer, the growth market for comics for the foreseeable future will be TPBs/GNs/Collected Editions until everything just goes digital.

[PunisherPunisherPunisher]

Back in the 80s, if you put both comics and an Atari in front of a child and said pick one, the child would say they want both, these days if you put an Xbox and comics in front of a child, Xbox would win 9 times out of 10.

Kids these days don't want to read comics in their spare time as they have enough of reading in school, Xbox and PlayStation wins hands down.

Growing up in the 80s, we would ride our bikes around non stop after school and keep active, these days kids are glued to a TV screen for hours.

It just shows how times have changed

[vodou]

39 minutes ago, PunisherPunisherPunisher said:

these days kids are glued to a TV screen for hours.

Long prescription lenses, laser eye surgery, and retinal stem cell research

[PunisherPunisherPunisher]

2 minutes ago, vodou said:

Long prescription lenses, laser eye surgery, and retinal stem cell research

Funny you mention that, had a eye check up 2 days ago and have slight problems with eyes but due to diabetes and not a tv screen

[Rick2you2]

3 hours 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.

Actually, I think it probably saved the industry. Prices had to go up to get regular, quality artists and writers (yes, writers) so they could earn a decent living. Newsprint costs also went up. And don’t forget that the old model took returns of old, unsold issues which effectively increased the cost to cover those unsold units. Sales were also dropping, so to maintain some profitability, prices had to go up. That made the old model unworkable where casual readers could drop a buck and still get 2 books. At specialty stores, people who wanted to buy could get and reserve what they wanted. Since they had the interest, they would spend the money. Of course, it limited access to newer readers, eroding the long term market, which is why you are now seeing Dollar comics showing up at Walmart and still more digests.