WHAT’S DISTRIBUTION GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Let me add an observation to this blog, that I hope all the COMIC PUBLISHERS take the time to read. They really need to understand this, and perhaps it will inspire them to make new methods of distribution their #1 priority:
Most children don’t know about comics, it seems. My daughter Jasmine is in pre-school. This morning, she took in some Scooby-Doo and other youth-appropriate comics we’ve worked on. It’s the first time any of the other kids in her class has seen a comic book, let alone held one in their little hands.
OK, sure — they’re only beginning to read. So let’s up the experience to the core comics reading age: When my daughter Kate was in 6th grade — she’s in college now — I did Parents Day at her school and talked about part of my business as a comicbook agent and writer. Except for my daughter and two of her friends in that class who had been to our home, NOT ONE OTHER KID there had ever held a comic book in his or her hands.
“Wow! There’s an X-Men comic book, too?” They knew X-Men from the [first] movie, from the game, from the cartoon. Other comics were a revelation.
Quite a difference from when I grew up, in this same town, where there were two places in walking distance that carried comics — one carried practically everything — and within a 10-minute drive were at least three other places with well-stocked comics racks and shelves. Now there’s nothing in my town or even downtown. Someone’s got to drive to another STATE to buy some comics (Pennsylvania or Ohio has shops, but they’re about an hour’s drive each way.) Comics are clearly no longer an impulse item or an easy-to-fulfill habit. From what I’ve experienced, CHILDREN FOR THE MOST PART CAN’T EVEN GET TO THE PLACES THAT SELL COMICS.
Imagine you’re 9, or 12, or 14. How easy is it for you to get a full complement of comics in walking distance if you want them? Growing up, I could get Marvel, DC, Archie, Charlton, Gold Key, Tower, Warren, Classics Illustrated, Harvey, and Fawcett (for Dennis the Menace). Where today can the kids walk from grade school or high school in your town to get an equivalent selection?
Heck, for the rest of her 6th grade, my daughter made money selling extra comics, mainly to the boys, out of her locker! It was the only place they knew to get these comic books they’d now been exposed to.
So right now I’m not worried much about whether comics are perceived as children’s fare, or adult fare, or both. I just want as many appropriate comics as possible to be AVAILABLE to the kids. They don’t even know they might WANT them if they can’t even FIND them.
No availability = no product knowledge = no desire = no habit = no purchases = no collection = no readers.
