People always talk about the increasing price, distribution problems (no more corner store racks), quality problems, speculation in the 90s....
But people rarely mentioned a key factor. When did it become uncool to read comics?
It seems to be the role of the guy in his 30s to lurk around comic shops, buy his weekly fix, and scurry out before one of his work colleagues or any female sees him. Hell, that sounds like me.
I found out by accident recently that two of my co-workers read comics, and when I asked them, they squirmed ("They're not comics so much as graphic novels") until I confessed I also read them.
Kids might buy manga, but it seems to me that most of the people who read superhero comics are indulging in a secret, youthful pleasure. I read mine at the train station, hoping that no one sees me. I may as well be reading Penthouse for all the nervous glances I give my peers on the train platform.
Most of you know that I gave up reading comics for 6 or so years in the mid-90s. JLI stopped being funny, Suicide Squad got cancelled, X-men got too complicated, and Image had nothing with appeal. but also it was the fact that I started thinking of them as a bit stupid. Uncool. I only got back into comics when I accidentally discovered Vertigo.
Marvel's success with its licenses for film has done something to reverse that, because the subject matter of superhero comics is no longer totally lame. Just a little bit lame. Some escapism for a Friday night at the movies doesn't translate into following a character's monthly adventures, in terms of coolness.
Is a lack of coolness to blame?
