Posted by CB CLERK at host68.sherwin.com on December 13, 1999 at 18:19:18:
**I'm reposting this from below just in case people don't make it that far down the screen** Hope you guys don't mind...
To everyone here on the board,
I want to apologize for the length of this plead but I believe it's in good intention because I relate with many of you out there. First off, I just want to say that I worked at a comic book shop for three years and still work on occasional weekend so I do state figures here that aren't complete bullshit.
Comics are my escape from everything that stresses me out and I love them to death, however, the industry itself from the market place is bad. I believe in an issue of Comics Retailer magazine (a magazine distributed to retailers) in early 99, it was stated that the percent of comic readers in this country is less than 2%. Times are rough.
I'm not talking about the talent. I agree with you (ghostman) whole-heartedly that the talent pool of artists and writers for comics have brought upon a wonderful new age of comics. However, the sales of comics are a staggering low number. The average comic reader keeps increasing every year which is now 18-29 I believe. If a book sells 100,000-250,000 copies, it's considered a success by a publisher. That's like a small suburb US city. That's a big change from the former watermark of 1 million. Of course those sales were skewed by the speculators who thought they could make a quick buck from comics. Well, those people since have gone to sportscards, pogs (good lord) beanies, and now pokemon. Every year it's something different. Unfortunately with the video game business and the new fad of the moment (currently pokemon) children and prospective new readers are being lost every year. Comics aren't being held in the high light it should be. I know for me it sparked interst in science fiction, the arts, literature, fantasy, and oh so much more. It's great that all of us read comics, but we have to get more readers into the hobby to understand our love of it.
That's why people praise Kevin, along with Greg Rucka, Bob Gale, J. Michael Stracynski and others in hopes of brining different audiences to comics as a form of entertainment. These people deserve the praise. But there needs to be an effort by everyone (creators, readers, retailers) to get the readership up. Those of us who have a girlfriend or boyfriend, share your comics with them, take them into the shop with you. Co-workers, teachers, friends, anyone. Tell them that there is a comic for everyone. As said before this is a new age of diversity in comics and truly there is one out there for any type of reader. If anything comics should be up in sales. I urge that people continue to get Daredevil to see that David Mack is a great writer and artist. Hopefully some of you will check out his Kabuki while you're at it. Hopefully those who are reading No Man's Land have seen Rucka's great work on the Dark Knight, will check out Whiteout.
The whole point is to spread the word that comics are cool. Let someone borrow a Preacher trade paperback, or Watchmen, hell, a Daredevil: Visionaries or Chasing Dogma trade paperback. Buy them as gifts and give them out as presents this holiday. I'm not saying this to just sell more comics, what I'm hoping is that more of the average joes out there will realize how cool the comics are, and buy comics because they love the stories and artwork as they should be enjoyed as. Tell your libraries to carry more trade paperbacks. Share how cool comics are to your kids. We need to get more readers instead of collectors otherwise there will be some drastic changes in the hobby itself. The perception that comics are just for kids is hogwash, but we still need the kids, so remember that.
I know I may be preaching to the choir here, but I know there a many readers who are closet readers and don't tell people how cool comics are these days. Anyway, enough of my soapbox. I got really carried away but I hope you guys are noticing that comics are experiencing rough times, no matter the cause (and I've heard them all from prices, to saturation, to dark and violent content, whatever!)
Have a great holiday Kevin, all of the VA crew and to all of the posters here. it's been one fun year of boarding!
Ernie
CB Clerk
If anyone is looking for a comic for them or a friend, please drop me an email me at CBCLERK@hotmail.com instead of flooding this board, and I'll be happy to give you some suggestions!