Inspired by the rise in comic sales, Brian Michael Bendis thinks that it’s time for one last big push:
“we’re finally at the cusp of a full bounce back. we’ve been building back slowly for years and finally, now, the ducks are in a row. the comics are so good, the interest from the media is there, the events are reader friendly… dont let up! do your part. you read a comic you like, lend it to a friend! make comics cool! don’t be ashamed, be proactive. take them out of the bag and share! think about what your friends like and lend them something that will surprise and delight them. hook them in. i do it all the time, i am not asking you to do something i don’t do. pass the word!”
The posters at his board respond as you may expect:
“i did! and then i never got my first volume of kabuki back so i had to buy another one!”
“But they’re mine! I don’t want anyone reading them in the bathroom!”
“But how will I keep them in Mint condition??? Huh??”
“What the industry really needs is an out-of-control fan. Like… a comic-pushing Punisher, who brutalizes people buying magazines in a drug store, and lurks around the alley exit of cinemas, and roughs up people who’ve just seen superhero movies. Preferably someone who looks like Dolph Lundgren.”
Outside of the cheap shots, there are those who agree with Bendis:
“Shannon and I want some more visibility for the medium, so we are taking our old tpb’s and leaving them at book swaps and train stations, etc. Books like Embroideries, Y The Last Man, Scott Pilgrim, One Plus ONe, Scandalous, Capote in Kansas, Walking Dead (and others) are left in a public place. Inside the book is a business card that encourages the person who picks it up to read it, and pass it on. There is also a 10% off coupon with our business card in the book.”
(Hmm. That idea sounds familiar…)
“That’s cool. Have you considered doing it as part of Book Crossing or some similar organization? It would be cool to be able to track them and have a little bit explaining what was going on. I think the “Take me, I’m free” post it does a lot to get these books into the right kind of hands. I do this on a regular basis, but for some reason, never thought to do it with comics. I’ll have to start.”
The “Lend people your comics and they’ll become hooked” idea is one that returns every morning, as Lilys used to say, with varying results depending on the audience, as the link to James Sime’s column shows. But with mainstream audiences becoming more and more aware of comics, whether it be from Jaime Hernandez in the New York Times or Spider-Man unmasking on every single American news outlet ever, it’d be interesting to see if this latest go-around of the scheme will be more successful.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I give out comics @ halloween. The $.25 and $.10 issues are great for this. I encouraged my father to do so as well. My wife didn’t care for it (kids like candy!) but we’ve become known as the comic house. The one year we didn’t do it, a bunch of really disappointed kids showed up and I pointed at my wife and said, “It’s all her fault!” She made me buy a bunch the next day for next year. Buy crappy issues in bulk early!
June 20th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I give the kids a choice between candy and comics for Halloween. I’m always surprised at how many kids take the comics. Last year, Diamond/Gemstone had a big ol’ 25-pack of Duck comics that I got about halfway through. The Marvel FF 9-cent issue kind of sat until the movie came out. Teen Titans Go! and the JLU tie-in comics do pretty well, too.
My advice is not to buy the crappy issues, though. If you give out the crappy ones, then nobody comes back for more. This is why the Batman 12-cent Adventure has never made it to the candy/comics table.
June 20th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
My friends all think comics are lame.
June 20th, 2006 at 1:39 pm
I’m a lapsed comic book reader. I quit buying/reading comics regularly because there was just so much shit out there, and it was hard to find the “good” reads easily. I became frustrated and disillusioned. Moreover, the culture of the comics industry didn’t necessarily lend itself to writing stories that particularly appeal to me, especially in the superhero genre. As a woman, I felt marginalised as a reader. It’s really irritating to pick up a copy of Wizard or what have you, and read sexist joke after sexist joke. It got so old very quickly. The few comics that did appeal to me, I bought. However, the cost of buying comics was also increasing. It didn’t seem worth the trip to the comic shop every week if I was only going to read one or two books. Nowadays, I am trying to get back into it, but I am not going to get into the whole single-issue “collecting”. Hoarding comic books has no appeal to me now. Besides, TPBs look better on a shelf.
June 21st, 2006 at 12:13 am
I do the Halloween thing too. It’s also a good idea to donate old comics to children hospitals as they’re great for bedridden kids with nothing else to do and it promotes reading. Let’s face it, most of your comics aren’t going to be worth much and if you’re not really in it for the collecting or you get the books in trade as well then it’s a good way to make space in your boxes to give them away to kids. Unless it’s more mature stuff of course…
June 21st, 2006 at 4:36 am
I had a passing interest in comic for years but couldn’t be bothered buying one to find out if they were worth it (I’m financially lazy), but one of my best friends was a massive fan. For years, “just let me read one” I would say, “no” he would reply. He was just so determined not to get them damaged.
It wasn’t until I found Astonishing X-men #1 on the marvel website I finally got round to reading a bloody comic.
Come on folks, just share them if people are willing to give them a chance. On saying that I still haven’t got my Scott Pilgrim vol 1 back yet. Gits.
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