As far as I can remember, my childhood home doesn't have a single comic book store. I saw some comic books during my childhood library visits. However, I always made it a point during that time was to see the audiobooks, children's books, manga, and the fantasy section. I saw a comic book section but I don't know how to start.
My first exposure to western superheroes was cartoons and movies with the occasional video games. I'm pretty sure I have a Batman Arkham game somewhere. But knowing the basics of DC superheroes and some Marvel is something I would understand. As I recall, unlike manga, there is so little advertisement. My cousin, who is a gamer than manga and anime watcher, agreed with the sentiments.
Because there is little to no advertisement unlesss there is word of mouth and that's growing less and less.
Because no fucking clue where to start with American superhero comic books. There are so many reboots and continuities that somehow meshed into canon to the point that people point out western superheroes are now the Greek mythology of the modern era. Where these guys are now basic archetypes that transcend the media. However, some ideas would pervade somehow in the mythology like Alfred Pennyworth's role as Bruce's batman and caretaker and Supes as the Boy Scout when ironically he's both, not an actual boy scout and started out as someone who challenged the status quo. Ironically, western superheroes started as a challenge at the status quo.
But I digress.
The point is that people do want superheroes. Just look at the past decade and tell me what is the current Hollywood trend.
It's just the typical superhero comic books that are generally unavailable through various means.
- a typical neighborhood don't have a comic book store and if there were, nowadays, they're closing down and people have to go to libraries or book stores like Barnes and Nobles or online to get things
- the Big 2 has a confusing numbering system with reboots every few months and interconnecting stories with other superheroes that readers have no intention in reading when people just want to read a damn standalone superhero comic without having to deal with events and reboots, etc.
- nobody knows how to start. Even though it's not necessary to read #300 of a comic (reading the very first issue of Superman isn't necessary for issue number I don't know 200), a logical person would think a numbering system would mean reading order, right? Hahaha, you are so wrong about that. The numbering system for the Big 2 does not mean reading order most of the time; it's collectibility or some special event like a crossover.
- the requirement to read other heroes when you really shouldn't understand the bigger picture when most people just want to read a standalone story with that hero as the main protagonist.
- Longtime fans have to make recommended lists for anybody to get started. Linkara and Spacetwinks made a list each. However, because they have to do this, instead of Marvel and DC, it speaks a lot about how the fans are working towards trying to get people already interested in it and the Big 2 aren't expanding their audience.
- the relevant stories are not collected and if they are, it's pretty rare. DC and Marvel did nothing to collect them, forcing new customers to hunt down copies that probably cost more than they thought it would. Pirates did a much better job organizing the comics than DC and Marvel ever could.
- their books typically aren't standalone and those are pretty not too many of them. And even then, they cost way too much.
- they think they can walk into a store and just pick out a comic book thus helping the sales, just like manga. When they have to preorder the comic through a confusing system and it doesn't help there are variant covers.
- prices are unreasonable. Their apps don't offer their entire backlog and not in concise order and recommendation from the author about reading order or what is or is not necessary to read. Their recent issue would take months, even half a year to get uploaded and that's just not worth it. Floppies are not the way the go especially when they cost ten dollars a pop than y'know a full phonebook of various stories to choose from when people nowadays are used to getting things for dirt cheap with an entire backlog to look at. Just look at Crunchyroll, Shounen Jump, and Netflix.
- so little marketing. Their marketing is unknown to me because even comic book stores don't know which would be successful. If they aren't, it'll be sitting on their shelves, getting dusty. Normal people who want to get into comic books don't know what to choose or if the comic they are looking at them is right for them.
- so little variety. There is a slice of life then and there like Ms. Marvel but there isn't much other. Even the MCU tackled various genres with fantasy in one then thriller the next.
Even newspaper comics have more means of availability.
Now, I'm pretty sure I rarely found pirated comic books. I vaguely remember seeing a couple pages in a LiveJournal once but for the life of me, I cannot remember the title. I'm pretty sure it's DC because I'm an undeniable DC girl. While I don't mind DC and Marvel, it's DC I'm more drawn too. But unlike manga, people really don't all out for it.
See, I'm a DC girl and even I had trouble getting into comic books. And even then, I rarely foray in it anyway.
I read manga as long as I know anything resembling comic books. I will make it clear that my first completely read CLAMP manga is Tokyo Babylon and it holds a special place in my heart. I remember picking up FMA, Naruto, Cardcaptor Sakura, and so much more. I remember seeing One Piece, Bleach, and so forth on the shelves.
Why?
Unlike the Big 2, manga knows how to market, distribute, and make it accessible for a sensible person to get into at dirt cheap. A magazine would cost a dollar in Japan and a reasonable set of chapters are collected into a volume that also cost a reasonable amount. Volume 1 and chapter 1 is exactly that. You don't have to read Naruto or One Piece to understand Bleach! You just need to read fucking Bleach! There are various genres and variety you can get into. Seriously, there is a manga about making bread! Dr. Stone is very popular nowadays and I heard it through word-of-mouth and adverts!
Just what the fuck are you doing, DC and Marvel?
Shonen Jump offered their app at barely three dollars and it's free if you download on your phone right now.
And don't you know what's worse?
The magazines that typically hold 200+ pages of various stories to choose from resembled the Golden Age. Yes, if DC and Marvel get their ass in there, they could sell their books.
If they want to survive, they have to evolve and adapt.
It's not like general people don't want superheroes. They love One Punch Man, Tiger and Bunny and My Hero Academia.
My cousins love OPM to the point one of them watched it multiple times. I have to direct them to the good anime when Netflix didn't know how to shuffle them or recommend them in a way that would make sense to actual details the anime offered. Now my dad used to have a Netflix account but he pulled out a couple of years after we moved into our house.
There are so many problems with the American comic book industry.
It's not the diversity or SJWs that are the problem that is driving the industry to the ground. It certainly doesn't help these guys on top are either well-meaning or just don't know the fandom. The fandom wants good stories.
They aren't getting the broader audience they need. IDW is selling, DC ax Vertigo and rumor have it Disney is planning to ax the comic book division of Marvel.
The comic book industry needs to reach a broader audience. But they also need variety rather than sticking to the same old plain bread.
Jesus, just looking at the ruined weddings of BatCat makes me so angry because they have potential right there and they didn't take it. Give Bruce happiness for once in his life with someone who he can share his life with. Christopher Nolan of all people gave Bruce that happy ending with the implication he's traveling the world with Selina, living mainly in Europe but still.
Comic books from the Big 2 is not regarded as the originator or the viewing of a different medium in the manner of manga (seriously, I heard purists about manga vs anime a lot in the community so I don't bother than I do comics vs movie and the only time I have seen those arguments is when a particularly badly written comic like Nu52). They're now loss leaders and now regarded as merchandise like caps or toys.
That is dismaying for a comic book reader.
Now, the characters are popular but the comics are not, deeming them more or less background. Although people have always had a connection in mind like Batman's unwillingness to kill or distaste for guns. Remember, SuperBat has its interpretations of the first meeting from friendly to dislike.
Everybody in the entire world knows Batman in some capacity through many mediums and knows the tragic backstory that led him to become Batman in the first place. They know Batman has an aversion for guns and adopted lots of kids and surprisingly idealist despite his fear tactics.
But comics themselves are not popular. People have an inkling but they don't know where to start. They have to seek out recommendations from long-time fans to even get started. I got started after Linkara's list.
Fans have to shuffle the comics themselves and put in a list that people can understand with notes whether or not it is necessary for the story or not. Fans, not DC and Marvel, have to do what the Big 2 doesn't have the effort to do. Like compiling their comics into readable volumes so that people aren't forced to seek out copies that are either in the back of storage or shelves. Just put together the relevant entries into one book so people literally do not have to worry about buying more floppies or seeking out hard-to-find copies.
These characters and their basic backstory and sometimes their stories translate into archetypes. These characters had now gone through many interpretations that are either well-respected or not. Just look at DCEU and Nolan's interpretation of Batman and Superman, with the audience rejecting DCEU's Supes that now they are scurrying to fix at the detriment of a great Superman comic. People love Captain America and Wonder Woman films so it showed that people do want hopeful and all-around decent heroes who do the right thing. 'Boy/Girl Scout' heroes. Especially since the idea that got around is that Supes is exactly that character, a decent person who is doing what is good in the world when the rest of the world disagreed what constitutes as a boy scout. And people called Cap a boy scout too yet his films are often called the best of the lot and he's popular.
The comic book industry must not rely on the direct market and should focus on gaining a new audience who are interested.
They shouldn't worry about the confusing system of preordering or reading order. They shouldn't worry about confusing interlinking stories that required you to read other heroes or other mini-series or variant covers. There is tied in a material attached to let's say Transformers Prime but unless you seek it out, it doesn't hurt. Speaking of Transformers, each continuity is different and I don't recall a lot of people backlashing this much against it unless it's a poorly written one like the Micheal Bay movies.
It doesn't help that in the current time period of DC and Marvel, they are focusing on either diversifying their cast or deconstructing to the point that embracing something cheesy is seen as not classy or revering them for what they are supposed to be.
There is nothing wrong with diversity.
While the current sociopolitical landscape does demand better rep and there's nothing wrong with better rep, people want to have great stories with the bonus of better rep. You can have your politics but for people's entertainment, people don't want politics stuffed in their faces blatantly but rather in a subtle manner that treats them like equals rather than being lectured when any sane person should make their decision.
Anime and manga had always been full of embracing that cheesiness to the point of unrepentant. Even their most deconstruction of all tended to have some kind of wholesome reverence of what they are parodying. Just look at OPM with its depiction of shounen fights and heroism that some of the characters do have that innate goodness and want to do good in the world. Unlicensed Rider is a great example of this. In a parodic show, he's genuinely heroic and honorable.
Even Spiderman PS4, Into the Spiderverse, and MCU embraced the wholesomeness of what made these characters, cheesiness and all. Even their slight mocking would seem as an affectionate nod to the original which created them.
Explore different avenues than simply just reducing to deconstruction. Realism can help but what a story needs is its embrace of what made it was. There is nothing wrong with diversity. There's nothing wrong with affection and affectionate parodies. There's nothing wrong with parodies.
There is a problem forcing it down people throats when people would rather like it through allegory or subtlety without hitting a sledgehammer over their heads. Captain Marvel did this. Into the Spiderverse did not do this.
Don't make diversity as the only appeal that works for the audience. People want more than that. They want good stories and respect not just for them but also for the movie is supposed to represent. Ghostbusters 2016 does not respect the original and is a major setback for feminism.
While I am concerned for the comic book industry with IDW putting out great books, they need to market to people who are used to accessibility with buying the physical copy as a bonus.
The American comic book industry is dying.
It's just sad to see it happen and the small fandom will likely be saddened by their demise.
