RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books Kids and comics.

It's an old question these days:How do you get kids into comics? Well I can tell you this much....look to a recession to help out.I've been working in a comic store for 6 years now,adn while we've always had plenty of shelf space devoted to the Marcel Adventures,Johnny DC,Archie and other kid-friendly books,there was only moderate traffic for those books,mainly from comic reading parents picking up books for their own kids or the occasional grandparent who's at a loss as to what to entertain little johnny or Susie during a summer visit.

Lately though since the current recession has hit,I've had a marked upturn in phone calls and people stopping in looking for something their kids could read.Let's face it,even though we gripe and moan about current comic prices,it's still cheaper than purchasing a game system and the games to go with it when you're faced with a reduced income or looking to cut back.The past three months we've been selling out of Scooby-Doo,Archie digests and his related titles,Sonic the Hedgehog,various Marvel Adventures titles,Tiny Titans and so on.Star Wars books also have been targeted by parents as something for the kiddies(I went through 4 copies of the latest Clone Wars issue in less than a week and that title never sold that well except to die-hard SW fans).

Now I'm not condoning a recession to help the industry of comics but I'm also not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth either due to some extra sales for the store.The question is will this help bring kids into a shrinking reader market? I don't know but hopefully it picks up some new readers to keep things going.

Good to know that you've got some increased business in at least one area during these times. Congratulations. Have you tried putting some of the mainstream but kid friendlier stuff near the actual kids comics, like Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers?

Well amazingly enough,Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers sold out for us and we have more coming in tomorrow and yes,titles like that,Fin Fang Four and such work their way over there as well as on the regular wall.

Cool. How are titles like Batman: Brave and the Bold or the new kiddie versions of Shazam and Supergirl doing?

say what you will about Snarf, the man has tons of ideas for luring children.......

Eight year olds dude.
In response to Snarf though,all those titles sell-through and we have upped the order per month.

Those comics where Franklin Richards and HERBIE are like Clavin & Hobbes are cool too. If only it was an actual strip.

That's just a painful reminder of the deleted Wikipedia article it was copied from. :[

wikipedia is run by nazis.

Which one is that? It sounds delightfully odd....

In the out-of-continuity humor series Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, Franklin is portrayed as a Calvin-esque troublemaker who can't resist "playing" with his father's inventions, with disastrous results. Franklin must then scramble to reverse the effects/clean up after the results of his "play", with the help of his long-suffering robot nanny H.E.R.B.I.E. (who essentially plays a Hobbes-esque role), or face punishment from his parents. The first twelve Son of a Genius one-shots were been drawn by Chris Eliopoulos and co-written by Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak. Since then, Eliopoulos has written them solo.

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius began as a series of back-up strips, each one appearing in all Marvel books released in a certain publishing week. The strips were well-received by Marvel readership and the concept was granted a self-titled one-shot, which primarily reprinted the published strips to date. Subsequent books in the series have consisted of new material, and they are currently being published on a roughly quarterly basis. There have been fourteen specials published so far:

good thing its out of continuity.

I thought it was run by John Byrne?

Hey, it's written by the Pet Avengers dude! I may have to check that out....

wikipedia is written by the Pet Avengers dude?

No, no, the Franklin Richards book.

Gman is up late thus a little cranky and confused. G, a man your age should get yourself to bed as soon as Wheel of Fortune is over.

Don't forget to take your Metamucil, G-Man.

Run! Run! Run!

Good morning worm your honor!

Call the schoolmaster!

We don't need no education.

We don't need no thought control.

My boy and I used to read comics together. Than he turned nine and outgrew comics.

Wro-ong! Do it again.

You're not gonna raid this board over a little joke, are ya, Lothar?

But we sure as hell need someone to love us.

Theres a difference?

No. Nine years olds are to old for,even if they are my own kids.