RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books The problem with the decline in the comic book industry

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?

I think that the movies have really helped comics become "cooler". Granted, it's not the first thing I admit to when I meet a new person, but if you get to know me I'll defintely share my comic book interests. I don't know what your alls comic book shop experiences are, but I live in a college town and I see actual normal people go into these shops. Mostly college kids in their 20's or older guys that like comics and bring their kids in that also buy the japanese trading cards. I even see an occasional chick that walks in with her boyfriend or even by herself.

Don't get me wrong, I'll see the occasional basement shut-in that's never seen a naked woman in his life, but no more than any other type of person.

I see normal people in my local shop, too, but they all look like they're surveying porn magazines. Its the same sort of stigma.

Last week I had to go into a card shop (Magic, D&D, shit like that) to get a fanzine they only sell there. It was dark, small, unventilated, and worse of all, full of smelly teenagers and middle aged men cuddled together playing their magical poker or whatever. The smell alone made me decide I'd never go into that shop again, but I gotta admit I felt good about myself when I compared it to my clean and full of relatively normal people comic book store.

When I was a kid, it seemed comics were uncool. Only we geeky kids read them (though I was also involved in summer and winter athletics, so perhaps I don't fully count).

In high school, I didn't give a shit who knew I read comics. I was popular, a good student, I didn't give a fuck as to the coolness factor. I got laid by the time I was 18 anyway.

In college in the 80s, comics were cool. We had a direct sales retailer in my small college town and I saw students from university there all the time buying stuff.

And today, it seems cool for the kids. My daughter's friends are unfazed by her reading comics and she's never said anybody gives her any grief over it. We did not slink into our retailer and slink out, hoping to go unnoticed.

And as a guy just past his 30s, when I go in on my own, I'm not the least bit worried. And all my colleagues have known I read comics since I left graduate school.

Coolness factor? Irrelevant to me.

COMIX RAWK!

comics have never been cool in corcles other than young kids. even during the boom in the 80's and 90's there were plenty of speculators buying them up but it there was never an instance of anyone saying hey check out that dude he's so cool he's got a spider-man comic!

Someone at the Millarworld board, talking about the same topic, rebuked me, pointing out that comics were never cool.

They were definitely cool in the 40s. I vaguely seem to recall they were cool in the 70s.

maybe in your circles they were in the 70's but i am almost certain theyre werent considered cool by people at large.

geek

Yeah I think it's fairly safe to say comics were popular entertainment in the 40's. People forget that TV wasn't around so it was radio programs & reading the funnies.

The shops in my area do a good job in being presentable to normal people when it comes to lighting & being upscale Nowadays I see more women in comicbook stores than kids under 18. Stores in general are not so kid friendly though. Loud music with foul language & some titles getting put in the low shelves with the Archies are fairly common problems. Not so cool.

I have never been afraid to tell anyone I read comics.......I have turned many people onto comics and will continue to preach the Gospil according to Bruce, Clark, and Hal.

I've never been afraid of telling people I read comics. In fact, I think there's tons of great stories being told in the comics medium. What I don't like is coming out of that shop with my small brown paper bag that makes me feel like I'm hording porn.

Comics were not cool in the 70's, at least in rural MN. Just to keep some perspective, cranberry leisure suits & beer can hats were cool in the 70's.

beer can hats will always be cool

I'm talking about the crochet hats with the sliced cans knitted in, not the newer fangled hats that hold beer cans that the owner can sip from while at a sporting event (just to be clear)

we are issued those at birth in appalac(h)ia......

I tell people I like comics after I get to know them, but if I'm just walking around I sometimes have a superhero symbol shirt on..which many times stirs up a conversation with a stranger..especially since I don't smell or look like a slob. I don't think reading comics has ever been "cool" though.

I read comics in public in a way so people next to me can easily read over my shoulder if they get curious. I always have at least one graphic novel in my backback in case I have some down time or I meet someone bored who I can possibly interest in a peek. I do my best to always dispell any false downplaying notions about comic books. All the co-workers with friends I trust have been given a certain pile of comics for their kids/them to look through (including Bone, Batman, JLA, etc trades).

I have never been cool.

except the time disco steve was up your ass.

I thought he went back up into her ass and that's why we never see him anymore.

I think her ass was too good for him.

Clearly, I need a beer can hat, in which to read my comics.

I imagine part of the problem lies in a deep-seated prejudice that books which tell stories with pictures are intended for children, to help them form associations between images and words and to hold their interest while they learn to read. After you gain a certain level of reading competence the pictures get taken away and you’re supposed to rely solely on the words. An adult who enjoys reading books with pictures is seen as regressive or backwards in some way.

Another factor is that a lot of comics tap into adolescent experiences and fantasies: - There’s the normal guy with the secret identity and the unobtainable girl who can’t see beyond his geeky persona and is in love with his heroic alter ego. Or the disaffected loner, shunned by his peers but who has exceptional powers and a gang of cool super friends who understand him. This feeds into a perception that if you read comics you haven’t outgrown your teens and are an adolescent trapped in an adult’s body.

I didn’t begin reading comics until I was 19 so naturally I don’t regard them as something to be exclusively enjoyed by children and teenagers.

It’s blatantly obvious to anyone who spends more than a few minutes in my company that I am deeply uncool. I don’t think admitting to a love of comics would make much of a difference either way.

Not enough PENIS!!!!

bitches don't care if you read comics or not.......they just want to know if you're rich or you gotta big dick................and yes it is damn fucking good to be Kobe.

I was intrigued a few years ago by some guy who decided to put out posters for the comics industry, using the likenesses of famous people (Madonna, the guy from Star Trek, Nicholas Cage and others) who do read comics, to encourage people to read them. It was not as if it was an industry promotion - it was just one guy trying to start a groundroots movement. The entire thing seemed to be some sort of self-justification that the medium was cool, because some famous people read them.