And if they're going for the stuff parents don't want, they sneak Grand
Theft Auto.

____________________________________

I grew up in the 70's and 80's, and I remember quite a few superhero TV shows (both live action and animated). While not all of them featured Marvel or DC heroes (or were as good as superhero shows from the 90's to the present), there were still around the same amount of superhero TV shows back in the day as there are currently.

Like Matt said, thee were plenty of things that occupied or was competing for kids time back in the 70's (including home video games like Pong).

I have about 15 titles I'm will to try for about 3 issues. After that, if it's
not entertaining me with a good story. I'll drop them and start picking
up more Showcase editions.

Check out his promotion for the new DC:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/new-52-promo-video-110630.ht ml

Some of them may think this is new, but for Lee this is business as usual.

Edited by Sam Karns on 01 July 2011 at 10:47am

"And, assuming that I even know that comics are an option, how/where do I
get them? "

I pick them up at the mall and book stores in the area. Same place most any periodical is picked up around here.

I pick them up at the mall and book stores in the area. Same place most
any periodical is picked up around here.

Yeah, no, I know. I was just saying, if your options for non-comics
Batman On Demand are so easy and plentiful, right there at your
fingertips, then any barrier to buying comics becomes that much more
difficult.

Side note: someone mentioned Pong before as something to do, as if that
was ever competition for comics. Due respect, that seems to be a
fundamental misunderstanding of the situation. Pong was a time waster,
sure, but you could practically read comics while playing pong.

Imagine if what you want to do is experience a Batman adventure. And
instead of Pong, and instead of figuring out how to get comics, you could
actually "be" Batman for hours and hours and hours, and the experience
was totally satisfying. Doesn't that seem like "more competition for
comics"?

Sean Blythe "They need to make it so kids are not totally bewildered when they do find comics. (So their restarting everything at #1. Good move.)"

You mostly have me, but I have to call foul on this one.  First of all, numbers aside, they're not really "restarting" everything.  It seems to be running about 50/50.  If new readers are effectively picking up a "saga in progress" (like any other ongoing series in whatever medium you choose), then having a #1 on the cover seems like it would add confusion rather than taking it away.  You start buying with #230, then you come in clearly anticipating that stuff has happened and just go along with it.  Maybe some day you track down the old stuff; maybe you just stick with present day.  You come in at #1 and they reference xxxx amounts of history, then it comes across as misleading at best. 

And the other thing is that if the only way to get a new reader is for them to get a new shiny #1, what do you do next month?  Next year?  You either do random #1s like they do now, which most retailers agree is actually harmful to the bottom line after a month or two bump in most cases, or treat every writer's run like its own series, which has it's own flaws.  In particular, you lose the momentum of a popular run to help feed interest in a new creator's run.  Plus, not every outgoing writer leaves a clean slate for the new guy.

For long term sales, you can't rely on #1s to gain interest.  That's a fool's game with diminishing returns.

Accessibility is key to long term growth, but it needs to extend long beyond Sept 2011, you know?

(And really, I think the biggest problem with the Big Two these days is overproduction.  They put out 90 odd new books a month, most of which are secondary titles for characters that have their own book already.  That tends to either a) "split the vote" or b) overwhelm potential readers.  What they really need to do is tighten the line considerably.  I suspect that will do more for individual book sales than a dozen restarts.)