Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Free Comic Book Day is on May 7th and I was wondering about how much it really does to attract and retain any new people into any sort of meaningful appreciation of this important art form.

This is the fourth year that this event has occurred and I always make it a point to go into my local comic book shop on the actual day. The place is usually awash with people, most of which I have never seen before.

This is an extremely good thing.

That’s what this marketing stunt is supposed to be all about: giving people a complimentary taste of the various different kinds of modern comics being published, with a view to attracting them back at a later date to part with their own hard earned money.

But who is actually turning up?

Well from my experience it’s divided mostly into three groups:

• The usual fans that already come to the store all year round anyway. They are here for the free comics, which they think they are entitled to receive because they have helped keep that particular business afloat for the previous fifty-one weeks. Its a fair point, but giving the goodie bags to these customers is really preaching to the choir.
• Adults, either singularly or couples, who are intrigued by the advertising on the shop window and come in for a look. After looking around for a while some of this group sometimes start talking to the staff about how they used to collect comics when they were children and are really surprised to see some of the stuff being published right now. They feel some inner need to justify their presence in this foreign retail space but when they leave they do take the proffered items with them. I am sure that the majority of these people actually take the time and read these comics but just don’t get what all the fuss is all about. They believe that this kind of material is only for children and refuse to understand how any rational adult could actually love these things. These are the same people who rushed to see the last X-Men movie and thoroughly enjoyed it.
• Adults with children. The kids do get it and you can see it on their faces. They instantly recognize the icons: Superman, Spider-man, Batman, Hulk, Teen Titans and are willing to try something else if it is offered to them, especially if it is free. A smart shop owner will have a large supply of comics that are aimed at these young children with one of the recognizable characters prominently displayed on the cover. The parents will let their offspring accept these gifts because they are familiar figures from their own childhood. They do not realize that the stories in these comics have changed considerably since their own reading days twenty years ago and would be really shocked by adult titles like Swamp Thing. But what they don’t buy can’t hurt them or their kids.

Are any of these new customers going to come back?

The ones we really need are the young people because without them this interest and ultimately the entire industry will die. Every hobby has to have new blood and ours is no exception but I see two major obstacles in our way.

(1) Comics are very expensive.

There are a great number of different things that compete for the kid’s spare cash. The biggest challenge to comics in recent years has been computer games and especially the magazines catering to that interest group. In some of these you get a free CD-rom containing entire levels of upcoming game releases. It takes the youngsters about an hour to read the magazine and perhaps a couple of days to finish the games on the disc.

A comic takes about 20 minutes to read. The cost of the magazine is roughly the same as two comic books. You do the math…the kids certainly are and are choosing the bigger bang for their parents bucks.

(2) Comics are ghettoized.

The specialist comic shop was the savior of the industry at a time when the business was contracting. The traditional outlets were turning their back on comics because the profit margin was very bad compared to other publications. The direct market allowed the publishers to consolidate the previous scattergun approach to sales and target the interested fans. It bought the company’s precious time to change their policies and cut their losses.

But what worked twenty years ago is failing now because those same shops are not attracting enough new people to buy comics. We need fresh blood and we need it now. Marvels new marketing tie-in with 7-Eleven stores is the first positive sign in years. It actually will put comics in the reach of completely new buyers and this can only pay dividends in later years but that’s down the line.

Right now we have to find new ways to put comics into younger peoples hands. In that spirit I commend Free Comic Book Day as a good start but it is not the real solution. It is only bringing others down our blind alley.

Comics need to be where the kids are reading and that’s in the schools.

How to get them past school boards is a whole other issue.

Panelologist

I have been a science fiction, comic book and animation fan for a very long time. I honestly believe that comics are an extremely vital and exciting art form whose true worth is only now beginning to be recognised in the mainstream media and this appreciation can only continue to grow in the future. I regularly write science fiction short stories and send them off to the magazines. So far their response has not exactly allowed me to give up my day job but I plan to keep plugging away at it..

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