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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134901
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 6:47am | IP Logged | 1
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The hard truth is a lot of the current audience knows, somewhere deep down, that they are too old to be reading comic books. Sure, there are comic books that are aimed at an older audience, just as there are movies and TV shows and "real" books. But the general audience for comics has, for most of their history, been kids, teens and preteens. By the time you're 25, 30, 40 you should have moved on to some other hobby (or be continuing to read comics, but appreciating them for what they are, not what you want them to be).Inventing different terms is a way of making excuses for reading comics that really should belong to an entirely different, younger audience. It's the same mentality that calls janitors "custodial engineers" and coins terms like "friendly fire" and "collateral damage." It's all about calling a spade a digging implement.
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John Peter Britton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 May 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 9129
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 6:52am | IP Logged | 2
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I love comics i don't care what my age is!
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Cesar Madarro
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 May 2004
Location: Spain
Posts: 285
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 7:11am | IP Logged | 3
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John, that is the way everybody is around me.
The funny thing is, in the last few years my friends around 30 years old know who Wolverine, Iron Man or Venom are... when they have not read a single Marvel comic book in their lives! But you know, after watching a 2 hours movie they think they know about these popular characters as much as any comic book reader who is wasting his time with stuff for kids.
Edited by Cesar Madarro on 22 June 2009 at 7:11am
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134901
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 7:14am | IP Logged | 4
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I love comics i don't care what my age is!
••
Which is exactly the right attitude.
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Jason Schulman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2473
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:01am | IP Logged | 5
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The hard truth is a lot of the current audience
knows, somewhere deep down, that they are too old to be reading comic
books. Sure, there are comic books that are aimed at an older audience,
just as there are movies and TV shows and "real" books. But the general
audience for comics has, for most of their history, been kids, teens
and preteens.
That's what it was, yes. And if the market for superhero comics reverted to type, that would be a good thing. But should comics per se have an overwhelmingly younger audience? Is there something about the form itself that's inherently "juvenile"? Wouldn't it be a good thing if there were genuinely mature/adult comics that sold in the hundreds of thousands? Imagine if issues of Love & Rockets sold in 1980s X-Men type numbers. A better world, no?
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Jim Campbell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 October 2006
Posts: 380
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:15am | IP Logged | 6
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QUOTE:
But should comics per se have an overwhelmingly younger audience?
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Just about everywhere in the world that doesn't speak English says "No"
... I never have managed to work out quite why that should be.
Cheers!
Jim
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Bruce Buchanan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 June 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4797
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 7
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Although it's not my cup of tea, I have no problem with the Vertigo-style comic books aimed at an adult audience. If there's a market for "sequential art" targeting a grown-up crowd, that's fine.
My problem - and I think what JB is addressing - is when characters and titles that always have been aimed at kids change to become more adult oriented. And superhero comics traditionally have been written for the younger audience.
If people want to do R-rated comics, fine. But keep that out of the Fantastic Four and Superman, y'know?
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Rob Spalding
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 June 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1152
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:27am | IP Logged | 8
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You still get some people, my Dad among them, who won't read a comic because that's a kids medium. Yet at Christmas they look forward to getting an Andy Capp, Perishers, Snoopy (Peanuts) collection.
They seem to differentiate between comic strips and comic books as one is acceptable and the other not. Yet there's no real difference between them at all except in the amount of time they tell a story.
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Martin Redmond
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 June 2006
Posts: 3882
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:28am | IP Logged | 9
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It's funny how hard Love & Rockets and Sandman fans constantly need to bring down X-Men to convince themselves both comics were actually any good.
Edited by Martin Redmond on 22 June 2009 at 8:32am
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Robert Walsh
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 July 2008
Posts: 456
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:37am | IP Logged | 10
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It's funny how hard Love & Rockets and Sandman fans constantly need
to bring down X-Men to convince themselves both comics were actually
any good.
* * * * * *
The X-Men comics I've read tended to suck without any help whatsoever. I absolutely hate Wolverine. My friend once said he was cool cuz he killed people. My reaction was "and..."
James Bond is cool... and he kills people. He's not cool cuz he kills people.
And you don't need to put Sandman by a shitty issue of X-Men to make it look good.
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Brandon Pennison
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 June 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 472
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 8:40am | IP Logged | 11
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I get in this fight with a friend of mine who works in the comic shop I do the computer work for. He is younger than me and is a product of the early 90s comic generation. He believes that comics should progress, because he misses the point of "illusion of change." I would be content reading Spider-man do the same thing every month that he has done for the last 30 years, because I know what comics should be ....but alas, some people think comics should be something different.......and most of them are running/ruining the industry right now.....
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Michael Arndt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 April 2004
Posts: 8578
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| Posted: 22 June 2009 at 9:00am | IP Logged | 12
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Always loved the fact that when I read a comic at the age of 12 that the same issue could be read by my 50 year old uncle with the same passion I enjoyed. Now, at the age of 43 I still love reading those past issues.
Creating comics for all ages has been done. Proven time and time again.
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