Mark Millar considers demographics:
I was talking to a huge retailer last night who told me I had an unusually high number of African American readers. Someone told me this in the past at another store and I’d also heard that I have an unusually high number of female readers too. The female readers, I was told, were mostly new readers who came in via Manga and the movies and so found my Ultimate stuff the easiest to read because you could understand everything from a couple of trades. That makes sense and it’s the same deal with BMB.
But what’s with the African American numbers? That’s really interesting to me because I can’t figure it out at all. I remember hearing years back that X-Men had a very high black readership and that makes sense in a simplistic kind of way because it was a book dealing with people being judged because they were different from the majority. But I’m not sure what particular thing my writing has that brings in the African American audience. I was talking to Reggie Hudlin about the demographics ages back and he explained how white America and black America have mostly different top ten TV programmes. Why, I don’t know, but I find this fascinating and would be curious to hear what people think.
What makes readers float to a specific creator? JQ’s board, interestingly, has lots of old school fans. Brian B’s board feels like a high number of female readers and gay people. I think there’s a very specific identity to this board too and I like it. It’s funny how we all find our crew to hang out with.
As you might expect, this gives Millarworld posters the chance to bring out some generalizations:
“A larger percentage of Black people I would wager are more familiar with comics and comic book characters than most others. Just listen to any given rap record.”
“Most of the girls I’ve seen and/or talked to about comics are Niall Gaiman loving quasi-Goths.”
“all the black guys at my kung fu school read Marvel, including the guy I was best man for. So do most of the white guys, come to think of it. And all of them rate Ultimates above anything else.”
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Well, DC can rest assured it has this guy.
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Is it possible for Mark Millar to open his mouth without sounding completely ridiculous?
September 22nd, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Is it wrong that I tried to figure out what group “BMB” was supposed to represent before I realized it was Bendis?
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I have this weird theory that Millar considers his bigotry a form of satire.
September 22nd, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Sounds a little like he’s fishing for compliments on his writing?
September 22nd, 2006 at 4:58 pm
I wonder how may african americans will still read Miller since so many black comic fans I know seem rather unhappy with yet another black hero getting killed. Add the irony that Goliath was breaking the law, and…lot’s of joy out there, Mark.
September 23rd, 2006 at 6:45 pm
millar sounds curious, not racist.
but i must feel that way because i’m white, right?
Jeez, people.
September 24th, 2006 at 5:27 am
@Prem
the point is, Millar does this all the time: offer completely uninformed and borderline offensive blatter on a subject and add a number of “things he’s curious” about, also often including offensive stuff.
For instance, IIRC he recently asked whether non-whites get Downs-Syndrome, too. According to him, a recurring vexing question for him and his mates.
Which can be answered by a 2 minute trip to google/wikipedia, if you actualy want to know. Millar doesn’t, he does not show any signs of reflecting on the comments he solicits (which also adjust themselves to the level of the initial post).
Now, it’s his prerogative to stay uninformed and have some pub talk on his message board. I don’t think he’s racist (AFAICT nobody said he was), just dumb.
But when he “talks shit” about race (by his own admission being wholly clueless) the lack of care he puts into his words makes him look like a bigot.
It makes a difference to Millar and in person, but in the long run it’s not that important whether racial sterotypes are perpetuated out of ignorance or hate. There is a duty to inform oneself before mouthing off in civil society.
September 25th, 2006 at 6:11 am
On this particular issue, Millar does come across as curious, rather than anything else. He’s not an American, after all, and so doesn’t necessarily appreciate all the various divisions in American society and how they manifest themselves. And, as a non-American, he might not see the harm in asking why.