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Manuel Tavares
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 December 2009
Location: Portugal
Posts: 407
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 6:39am | IP Logged | 1
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John Byrne wrote on another thread:"Across the street at Marvel, the characters were rarely prepared for the roles "Fate chose for them". The FF, the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil, the Hulk -- these were all people suddenly thrust into lives for which they were ill prepared. That they dealt with them as well as they did was a sign of their strong characters, but getting to that point was often a struggle. Marvel heroes accepted their fates, but reluctantly. This felt very familiar to teenage boys (I was close to that audience, being 11 when I started reading Marvel "full time", as opposed to occasional glimpses at the barber shop). Rolling into one's teen years was like having one's whole life turned, if not upside down, at least on its side. Physical changes were as much an embarrassing inconvenience as anything else. (There, I was lucky. I drifted thru puberty hardly even noticing it, but I did see my friends and classmates thumping over those speed bumps.) And, of course, the assumption was that once kids got thru those turbulent times, they'd be leaving comics behind, and new readers would have been flowing in to replace them." ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- What is exactly happening nowadays with kids that read comics. Are they also come to the point of leaving comics behind for whatever reason? And who will replace them then? What will motivate new young readers?
Edited by Manuel Tavares on 01 July 2013 at 6:40am
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Michael Penn
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Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12567
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 7:05am | IP Logged | 2
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How many kids do read comicbooks nowadays? What percentage of the audience buying comics today are kids? 10%? 0%?
We have a 20 year old and about a decade ago I was in a used book store (remember them?) with him and we found a cache of "Fantastic Four" issues from the 70s. No, not peak stuff at all, but at least decent traditional comics. We bought a bunch and he loved them. Then he asked if there weren't any new FF comics. We had to track them down, did so, and he took some minutes to review them and... found them to be so unlike the older comics, and so unappealing because of that, that he not only didn't want any but he stopped reading comics altogether. With my 5 year old, I read old comics with him, but what's the point of trying to read anything new with him? Those comics are not made for him, in any way. Utterly repellent. The latest newer comicbooks that we read together and that he really enjoyed were the issues that Stern-Byrne did of the Justice League.
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Joe Zhang
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 7:14am | IP Logged | 3
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"What is keeping kids out of comics?"
Us, the fans.
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Jason Mark Hickok
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Joined: 08 February 2009
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 7:14am | IP Logged | 4
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Inaccessibility, price, and content.
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Paul Greer
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 18 August 2004
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 7:21am | IP Logged | 5
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Jason wins with the correct answer!
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Brennan Voboril
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 8:23am | IP Logged | 6
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And, people have changed. It isn't the same world as when the FF was the World's Greatest Comic Magazine.
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Armindo Macieira
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Joined: 15 October 2006
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 8:31am | IP Logged | 7
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Jason nailed it.
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Paul Greer
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 18 August 2004
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 8:34am | IP Logged | 8
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I don't understand when people say things have changed. Children's movies make as much, if not more than, adult films. There are dozens of cable networks dedicated to children's programming. How have comic books (which were created for children) completely ignored their core audience for close to twenty years? Things haven't changed with children. They love Spider-Man, Batman etc. They buy toys, t-shirts etc. However, they don't buy comics because they are not easily available and more importantly they are not written for them.
If you are saying things change because the comic book companies have abandoned children then you are correct. If you are saying children have abandoned super-heroes then you are incorrect.
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Bill Guerra
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 9:54am | IP Logged | 9
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I would say the main thing is price. I could easily buy comics when I was a kid because they were .60 cents! Now, they are $3.99! I don't know of any kids who will part with $4 for a comic book.
The other big factor is comics are pretty much only sold in comic stores. If a kid doesn't live around a comic store, no comics for them.
And let's not even get into the content...
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Bryan Eacret
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 10:16am | IP Logged | 10
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Stories that take several issues to finish are a drawback, as well. It's harder to get emotionally vested in a book that takes five minutes to read and doesn't conclude a story for six more issues (if you are lucky). You got more bang for the buck with older comics. Most of the time, a book had one story a month with several sub plots and lots more action and character development. Now it takes several months to push a singel plot through. Even if the book is accesible for kids, it won't hold their attention.
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Manuel Tavares
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 December 2009
Location: Portugal
Posts: 407
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 10:29am | IP Logged | 11
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So, companies are targeting more mature audiences, lets say, around twenties, I'm on my thirties now, therefore they're writing stories for me and readers as old as I. I started to read comics around seven years old back in 1983. I grew up and became more demanding about what I read in a comic book. There are good stories stories that I continue to enjoy as much as I enjoyed read them thirty years ago, but I also have the need for something more "complex" to read. Nevertheless I believe that in the comic genre writing there are a middle ground where a writer can put a story together that can be enjoyed both by children and adults.On the other hand children have to be respected for who they are, and writing for children specifically is much important. We have to think that we gonna be adults for the most part of our lives as long as being a child and live an enjoyable childhood with enjoyable experiences such as reading a good comic is something that will be somewhat short as it is unique and of extreme importance for the formation of the personality. Each one of us can only be a child once in his or her life. Writing for children is providing them with experiences of a lifetime that cannot be replaced instead they will become good memories.
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Matt Reed
Byrne Robotics Security
Robotmod
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| Posted: 01 July 2013 at 10:33am | IP Logged | 12
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Last time I checked with my nieces and nephew, kids still played board games, they rode bikes, they played with action figures, they bought Hot Wheels, they built things with Legos, they built forts, they watched cartoons, they listened to music, they had favorite TV shows, they read books and have their favorite series of novels. Sounds damn similar to me when I was their age in the early 70s. I've said it many times here before that I can't get behind the notion that children have changed so much that even though they do 99.9% of the things I did, comic books are the one thing that just won't connect with a modern kid. That's hogwash. The companies left the kids, the kids didn't leave the comics.
Plain. Simple. End o' story.
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Topic Closed)
