Does anybody know of any statistics concerning current comic book purchasers and readers? Does anybody know young people buying comic books? 

Or how about, if you are buying new comic books, how old are you?

And by new, I mean never before published material, including compilations of recent monthly titles.

My older son is 32 -- didn't buy comicbooks.

My younger son is turning 18 -- didn't. 

And my grandson is 2 -- and I can safely predict he'll never by any either.

Plus, I don't know any of my sons' friends who bought comicbooks. Not a one, in over three decades.

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Depends on how you define comics. Plenty of kids are reading comics. What they aren't reading are /Marvel and DC superhero/ comics. Monthly superhero comics aren't the mainstream. They're the niche.

The biggest graphic novel publishers in the bookstore market are Scholastic and Viz Media. Kids' comics and manga, which is also popular with kids. They far eclipse Marvel and DC in the bookstore market, and the bookstore market has a far wider reach than the Direct Market.

You haven't been able to walk into a big-box retailer in the past few years without spotting a giant DOG MAN display every few months. Manga and Scholastic books occupy an increasing amount of space in the book sections of local Targets, and it's increasingly common to see manga volumes being sold in stores that sell pop culture collectibles and apparel. You won't find Marvel and DC trades there.

Some bullet points from Brian Hibbs' analysis of Bookscan sales in 2023:

I think the idea that the Marvel and DC sandboxes can be renewed is a quixotic one. It's 50 and 60 year old men screaming "Hey, comics should stop trying to appeal to 50 and 60 year old men! They should appeal to what 50 and 60 year old men liked as kids instead!" Gen Alpha's interest in content is very different from what Boomers and GenXers were interested in a kid. Let them find something new. They're reading comics. They're just not reading /your/ comics.

But to be fair, the same was generally true of me. I started reading comic books regularly at around age 11 or 12. So, not only is there time, but I’ll start introducing him to things soon. But I will say - and I recognize this might be controversial - I’m finding a lot of the comics I read as a kid that were written for a youth audience are at times wildly inappropriate by today’s standards. A lot has changed.

My son, who's now 23, has never bought a comic book. Neither have his friends. 

He's seen me read them, he knows I love comics, but it's never been in his field of interest. 

And the comics market in this country has gone down the drain, they simply don't sell. So the answer to the question is: hardly anyone.

That would be troubling enough, but it's also part of a bigger and sadder trend - fewer and fewer people READ anything at all, at least for pleasure. 

In the doctor's office, I read TINTIN in (I believe) HIGHLIGHTS magazine.  At the barber, there were always some raggedy well-read comics to enjoy while you waited for your turn.

Somebody brought RICHIE RICH to school (when I was 7) and the first thing I asked was "Are there serious ones?"--but I still enjoyed RICHIE and ARCHIE for a couple of years before I "graduated" to "the serious ones" at Marvel and DC.  (I'll still read some ARCHIE collection every so often!)

Whether it's movies or books (or drugs I hear!), you really need those entry level versions to "grab the customer" if you expect any long-term interest.

I like the idea that the success of the MCU might point kids in the direction of comics, but I don't believe that to be the case.

I have a niece who proclaims that her son is the biggest Spider-Man fan ever, absolutely obsessed with the character.

Yet he's never read a single Spider-Man comic.