Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The answer is simple, even if you don't like it.

Another brouhaha in the comments over a review of a book about comics at the Wall Street Journal.

Sigh.

Just makes me tired.

I'll say it now and say it every time it comes up.

Most people won't read comics. Period.

It's an unreasonable bias. They're wrong about the quality and intelligence of comics.

Doesn't matter. Nothing you say will make them pick up a comic.

All the talk of missing the boat, all the sturm and drang about how the comic industry is dropping the ball by not getting the movie goers to buy comics. All the accusations of fanboy inbredness, and lousy comic shops, and insular stories, and costs and barriers to entry. All of it is basically bullshit.

Just work in a comic shop for awhile. Talk to people about comics. See how far you get.

3 comments:

Duncan McGeary said...

That sounds defeatist, even to me, but if you talk to people about comics every day, it's just true.

It's like saying, what's wrong with Opera. Why isn't Opera a more popular form of music?

Maybe nothing is wrong with Opera.

Anonymous said...

I read the article. The writer has a preformed judgement of what he wants comics to be rather than what they are. That bias affects the entire piece.

Brett
Heroes Haven

Anonymous said...

Most people won't read comics. Period.

*

Go to SE-Asia there most people read comics, and will never be seen with a graphic free novel.

Average IQ in much of SE-Asia is 91-92, the question arises, for what IQ on average are USA comic readers?

There is a direct correlation with mass consumption of comics in low IQ nations, the USA isn't real high on IQ either, but is low on comic consumption, my guess is that TV is so available, popular and central to USA 'culture'.

USA TV is just comics on the boob-tube.