"The average age of the audience now for comics, and this has been the case since the late 1980s, probably is late thirties to early fifties—which tends to support the idea that these things are not being bought by children. They're being bought in many cases by hopeless nostalgics or, putting the worst construction on it, perhaps cases of arrested development who are not prepared to let their childhoods go, no matter how trite the adventures of their various heroes and idols".
I feel so small.
8 comments:
People have to be doing something with their life though, and I'm not convinced there is some ultimate version of what life should be in order for it to have value. Who's to say that having a stupid beard and writing comic books is any better than not having a stupid beard and reading them. It's all just a way of filling up time until there is none left.
As ever, the man's probably correct but I can't help thinking his comments about superhero comics would be different if he'd ever read All-Star Superman.
Is it possible to be nostalgic without being hopeless, or being unprepared to let aspects of one's childhood/juvenility go without this being rooted in an arrested development?
I reckon so.
its a bit of a generalization. not everybody who reads comics reads super hero stuff or collects. I chuck em in a corner after ive read em. I tend to look at comics as an extension of the films i like to watch. There just arnt enough sci fi, zombie, crime films about.
I wish i was a big smug wizard like alan.
I think another point the Kinky Wizard is making is that so many comics are just bad – bad dialogue, bad art, bad plotting...
It doesn't matter whether they are Superhero comics or not, you can buy an incredibly poor comic no matter your preferences, or how old you are.
Little Kid, you can get bad media of any flavor if you want it. its not just comics.
Because of my interests I have a daughter who is now wanting to hang out at the comic shop, is reading some of the titles I bring home, reads the excellent DFC, draws and writes her own strips, communicates as of recently with an American comic author/illustrator and still gets a buzz from reading her weekly Beano. Maybe the oldies can inspire the youngsters to expand their horizons. What we all need as consumers is choice, the comics industry appears to be moving into an homogenized comfort zone. I think this would be a shame for the next generation of readers.
Moore may be stating what the comic book marketing teams have known for ages. The rise of the graphic novel and the mini-series, the increase in the price of single issues - these are all things targeted towards a 30+ demographic, not an under 15 one.
As far as content goes, I tend to argue that we're in another golden age - the people writing comics grew up reading great comics. And, for the most part, are the same age and generation as their readers, with the same points of reference. If anything, comics are getting a little too self-absorbed/indulgent/'meta' because of it...
That was all grossly off-topic.
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