Marvel’s Nicole Boose considers the benefits, or otherwise, of narrowcasting:

Comics are a medium that has the potential to unite audiences by being universal, or to alienate them by being exclusive. It’s strange to me when I read articles in the comics industry press in which comics pros marvel slack-jawed over how comics are becoming “mainstream.” By this, they seem to mean that comics are getting attention from audiences for whom comics are a form of art and entertainment, instead of a lifestyle. This perspective seems completely backwards to me. Didn’t comics start off as one of the most mainstream, widely-accessible forms of entertainment available to the public? When modern comic pros refer to their colleagues and fans as “us,” and the rest of the world as “them,” does that honestly reflect a division that really exists, or is it just another way to draw imaginary lines in the sand that drive away casual readers and make them feel unwelcome?

Or, of course, both? Go, read.

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