Change or Die, it has ever been so."

Mark, I was actually replying to John's point about it not being a coincidence that the further characters moved from their original form, the worse sales became. He may be right, I don't know. Probably, I think he is partly right, that moving away from the previous successful business model did lose sales, but this business model was failing and did the move actually shore up other sales?

The same goes for Comic Shops. From what I can remember they saved comics but it had it's downsides too, and perhaps that is a price that is only now being paid. But if you're in charge of Marvel in the earlier 1980's, you can't really be too concerned with what Marvel will be doing in 2005. Maybe in an ideal world you would be looking that far forward but in an industry that had historically only looked at the next month it would be a lot to expect.

It is very easy from the sidelines to say that was a bad decision or they should have done that. But it can be argued that those bad decisions were the best that could be made at the time and that superhero comics are still here, still pretty much the same as they have always been and still making a profit. Unlike the pulps.

Then again, I could be wrong.

I don't think it can be put any better than Mr. Byrne just did a few moments ago. The truth is, the comics themselves should stay the same for each new generation of children to discover, enjoy, and then leave.

Those of us who stay behind must admit--even begrudgingly so--that we are the aberration, not the "target audience."

So comics shouldn't have changed. Just stayed the way they were. Hmmm, let me see, they were being forced off the newstands. So where do we sell them? In Comic shops. But that's a change. So we better change. No, no we mustn't change. But if we don't change, we won't have anywhere to sell them. That's true, you've persuaded me. I am glad you agree if we hadn't changed we would have died.

All organisations have to change. Times changed, ways of doing business change, regulations change, markets change, fashions change, tastes change. The important thing is not that we have to change, that is a given, but whether the change we choose to make is the best one or in many cases the least worst?

Steve--

You can make that change, say, to direct sales shops catering mostly to adults, but if you do--eventually that audience you've targeted is going to die. And, without a younger audience coming up to replace that one, comic books also die.

Kids today don't know where to find comic books, or why they should read them, And, should a comic fall into their hands, they often find a muddled story of a thirty-year old hero dealing with mundane, "mature" issues.

Comic books should, at their essence, be for children. Comics for adults should be a niche market--not the other way around.