Where do kids go that comics are readily available to browse through today? Gamestop or some other video game store?

I got my start after seeing Batman in 1989 and then discovering the spinner racks at the grocery stores. While my mom went shopping my brother and I would hang out and the comics browsing through all the different issues. We’d sit on the floor of the aisle reading until our mom finished her shopping and came to get us. Without seeing those racks once a week, I’d never have moved from the movie to comics because there was no way I could make the 15 mile trip into town on my own.

I guess I’m saying that the best way to get younger people into reading comic books is to have them in a place where they can get to them.

Gimme a break, 300 came out almost 10 years ago, and these people use it as a starting point for this tired arguement again? When I started buying comics 20 years ago, it was because of the Ninja Turtles Cartoon. I found out they were a comic book first, so I asked my parents to drive me to the LCBS, and once a month for the next several years, they did. Today’s kids have enormous purchasing power, and their parents will do practically whatever they ask. Of course, I was interested in drawing and art already, so that helped.

I was in the local shop yesterday, (local being half an hour drive) which is probably part of the problem, but I was browsing the new comics rack looking for something random to give my kids, and my brain FROZE. I picked up Uncanny Xmen, because my son (age 9) has been playing a lot of Xmen on his PSP and thought he’d dig it, but opening it up, I realized it’s just not a kids style at all. They pointed me to the Marvel all ages line, of which they only had one book in stock. I picked up a Darth Vader on the cover book from Dark Horse for my 10 year old, who knows all things Star Wars (and World War 2)

But, that experience SUCKED. If there were MORE readily available comic shops Im sure more kids would go there or drag their parents there, but walking in and looking at the new release rack filled with complicated looking things that kids, or maybe adults, couldn’t just pick up and get into… it’s was depressing. Everything is just trying to be too mature these days.

We’re gonna loose this generation too.

With the sheer volume of Marvel and DC toys out there aimed at little ones (not to mention backpacks, dishes, bedsheets, etc., etc.) you’d think that they could sell comics to kids to go along with all that stuff. Kids in my 2 to 3 year-old class come in with Spiderman and Batman action figures all the time and the other day this little boy just had to show me his Teen Titans umbrella. He can barely talk, but he can say, “Robin!”

Kids know and love the characters already. There are plenty of “easy reader” books in bookstores featuring comic characters, but the writing generally sucks. Marvel Adventures and Johnny DC are a good start, but Josh is right — they’d sell a lot better if the kids could get at them. How about right next to the toys?

*Even* the major companies know their readership is aging?

It would be pretty sad if they hadn’t noticed.

I would love for there to be more children reading comics, too–I’m glad the Marvel Adventures line exists, and hope it’ll grow through success. But the suggestion that publishers should ignore the audience they do have in favor of one they should be after–since there’s apparently something wrong with books that are skewed a little older–that I just don’t get.

My daughters, ages 12 and 14, have been reading comics since… forever. They started out with my old Bunty and Beano annuals, which were always lying around the house. Then they discovered Archie, and no trip through the checkout line was complete without picking up one of the digests. They found Amelia Rules, and we bought all those (the trades, at Barnes & Noble). Now one reads Tintin and the other devours manga. And my 7-year-old nephew? Big Asterix fan.

They read lots of comics. They just don’t read superheroes, and that’s fine. They don’t read John Grisham novels either. If the superhero creators want to make adult comics, they should go right ahead. I don’t think the problem is so much age as accessibility—when they are 18 or 20 and ready to read a Marvel or DC title, will they be able to pick it up and read it? Continuity and complication are the big barriers, not a lack of young readers. Janet Evanovich doesn’t make a kiddie version of Stephanie Plum to lure the little ‘uns. But you can pick up her 11th book and enjoy it without reading the first. That’s the difference.

There ARE good comics for kids out there - they’re just not super hero stuff. Or, they are, but different, such as John Gallagher’s Buzzboy. Look at the indie publishers and self-publishers - they’re putting out all kinds of great kids’ comics: Amelia Rules (was mentioned by someone else), Owly, WJHC, Banana Tails, Akiko, Buzzboy, the Archie comics and Sonic comics, Spiral-Bound, the upcoming Korgi, Courageous Princess, W.I.T.C.H., Patrick the Wolf Boy, … The books are out there, but bookstores and comics stores need to support them so customers can find them. And libraries are increasingly acquiring more and more graphic novels, while some also have the floppies.

I agree entirely with Josh’s comments in the first entry. Comics should be available to kids everywhere, in grocery stores, Wal-Marts, bookstores, and gas stations. Like it used to be! There wasn’t anything wrong with the old model, comics just got so far into the direct market boom of the early 90s that it thought it didn’t NEED to sell in the other venues anymore. But it DOES. The large market to get the general populace interested and the specialty shops for the more serious fans.

If comics are no longer in a viable format now that the spinners and newstands are gone then they need to try new ones: digests, graphic novels, or even a Tokyo Pop type of magazine. Or, just bring back the spinners (or a modern equivalent thereof). Video games have nothing to do with the comic industry decline. Manga do just well in Japan, one of the most intense gaming markets. They do well in America too as a matter of fact.

With the huge success of comic movies since the turn of the millennium the potential audience is there, but the industry has done little to nothing to reach out to it. If there was a digest, or manga sized novel, collection of Spider-man’s greatest stories in every grocery line in America could you honestly say they wouldn’t sell the heck out of them? Instead they cling to the crippled direct market by trying to lure readers into those stores. And when the parents do find the stores for their comic curious children they are confronted with the adult market it caters to and have even another hurdle to face. It’s insane. Are there only special stores that sell magazines that you have to drive out of your way to find and where all the adult magazines are randomly and indistinguishably sprinkled into the mix with the children’s books? Of course not, they’d go out of the magazine business altogether. It only makes plain obvious sense.

The market is there. The movies are big, the conventions are big, the television shows are what’s in, comics are hot, and yet the industry struggles to sell their product. If they screw around and miss this opportunity then comic books may very well be in their “final days”.

I’ve read that the children’s market for comics in the United States is being met by the Japanese manga. Its total sales exceed those of DC and Marvel combined. American Boys and girls love their Japanese Shojo and Shonen titles. Also, Archie continues to sell well at about 2 million a month. So why the hoopla against these “mature” American superhero titles from Marvel and DC that now constitute a minority of the comics reading market in the U.S.?