REEDING INTO THINGS #30: WHY DO WE READ COMICS?

[Joel Phillips]

<img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/columns/ritlogo.jpg" align=left width=115 height=100 border=0 alt="Reeding Into Things">By Joel Phillips

Why Do We Read Comics?


The fact is asking someone why they read comic books isn’t the same as asking why someone reads regular books, or why they watch movies or listen to music. I know of nobody who doesn’t, from time to time, read a book, watch a movie, or listen to a CD. But we all know that only a select group of people within our lives read comics, ever. Which immediately raises two questions: why do we read comics, and why doesn’t everyone else?

There is a different mindset attached to comics and the topic of what makes someone a “fan”. The only criteria for being a movie fan, it seems, is that someone occasionally watches and enjoys movies. But the same cannot be said for readers of comic books. When we refer to someone as a comic book fan we have something far deeper in mind then someone who occasionally picks up a stray issue on a whim. For starters I know of nobody who does that, though I’m sure some people somewhere must. Generally speaking, “comic book fan” indicates someone who regularly reads comics, knows a lot about them, and has been reading for years.

Why the different attitudes towards something as simple as the term “fan”? Why does it seem that only self-educated scholars of this comic or that, or of comics in general, seem worthy of the title? Are we the ones who create that pedestal for ourselves, or do non-comic book readers thrust it upon us? I think it’s a bit of both, and it goes back to our original questions: we do we read comics, and why doesn’t everyone else?

My theory goes something like this (and I speak in generalities: I know there are people who do not fall into the trends I describe, but most do). Most people who read comics began reading them at a fairly early age: high school seems to be the latest point at which most fans began to read comics. Comics, because they are a single story stretched out continuously across many individual consumer products (the individual issues), are highly addictive. If a story hooks you, it’s very hard not to buy the rest of it. If you read a great book, watch a great movie, listen to a great CD, there’s usually nothing else for you to buy. Not so with comics. So depending on the story a single issue, bummed off a friend between classes, can have you headed to the comic store once a month for anywhere from four to eight months (on average). Once you’re in the store, there are things to grab your attention: flashy covers with exciting action scenes, grotesque monsters, beautiful women, and all other manner of enticements for the young, usually male, reader. While you’re there you might see something that catches your eye, flip through it a little, and next thing you know…

That’s how it happens for many if not most of us. You either get exposed to a comic through someone you know, and that makes you want more, or you’re exposed to the comics directly in the store, as I was when I was young (and when you could still buy comics in drug stores, and book stores, and grocery stores, etc.). So the answer to our first question (why do we read comics) seems to be what I hinted at way back in my first column: we’re addicts. We got started at some point, on some story or title or set of characters, and we got in deeper from there.

Of course that doesn’t explain why our addiction to comic books seems to outlive our addiction to the specific comic that drew us in. Though many people are still reading the same comics today that they started on years ago, many people (like myself) are not… yet we continue to read comics. Why? Once fidelity to characters or stories we enjoy has passed, why stick around? I think it is here that the great strength of comic books as a medium asserts itself (well, the second great strength: the first is its addictive quality).

The great strength of comic books is that the kinds of stories they tell, and the manner in which they tell them, are very hard to tell in any other medium. Conventional, non-graphic fiction could never have invented the superhero and made it anywhere near as successful as comics have. Without the ability to watch the battles, the spectacle, little kids would never have become enamored with Superman, Batman, and all their descendents. It’s for this reason that, though I from time to time enjoy less action-oriented comic fare, it is the action-packed and/or visually stunning stories – be they superheroes, crime stories, horror, fantasy, science fiction, etc. – that are the reason we continue to buy comic books month in, month out. Yes, movies can do all those things too. I’d even go so far as to say they can do them better*. But they can’t do them once a month FOREVER, the way comics can. Nor can they go as deep into the minds of their characters as comics can, through the narrative box or the facial nuance that can only be captured in a static image.

Another reason that some people continue to read comics, one that I think we often downplay, is that they are something to collect. You don’t need to be a completist to appreciate this aspect of comics. As a general rule, the people who read comics regularly are collectors… not in the sense that they collect for monetary reasons, but that they collect because they enjoy collecting things that can be numbered, cataloged, ordered and categorized. Being a fan of a comic book series or franchise, and knowing a lot about it, is something like being a twisted librarian, possessing a sick fascination with issue numbers, volume numbers, and the logical sequence of events from title to title. Not everyone is this way, mind you, but many are. I’m a categorizing freak, absolutely, and it probably kept me reading bad comics longer then I should have. (On the plus side, though, I did really well in Zoology.)

So if that’s why we read comics, why doesn’t everyone else? Usually it’s a simple matter of their not having had that same early experience that turned them onto comics in the first place. After they are older, and societal opinions about comics begin to influence them more, they become far less likely to try comics on their own. There is a perception throughout society that comics are a) for little kids, b) only about superheroes, c) only “comic”, or d) all of the above. This obviously limits the appeal of comics to those who are interested in those things. It’s not a terribly hard stigma to break mind you: pick a comic you think a friend will like, stick it in their hand, and beg them to try it. Usually you’ll get through, and even if you don’t turn someone into a regular reader of comics you’ll have at least conveyed to them that yes, there are a wide variety of stories out there in the medium. The problem is that this seems to be the only way to break the stigma, one person at a time… and there are a lot more of them then there are of us.

I suppose the simple answer to why we read comics is because we’ve grown to love the medium, for whichever of the above reasons apply. It’s unfortunate that many people, perhaps most people, don’t ever get that chance to fall in love with what is truly an amazing form of storytelling and artistic expression.

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*Joel Phillips urges everyone out there to go see Spider-Man 2. It is, as everyone has been saying, the greatest superhero movie ever. If you don’t like it, you have no soul.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of ComiX-Fan or its other staff in general.

[James Groves]

Great Column - v interesting.

I kind of mentioned this a bit in passing in my Cap America Review.

Indeed, i feel there is a stigma in society regarding comics.

First time i read a comic was on a bus. I got out Spider-Man and after 2 minutes all i could from behind me were these 2 teenagers laughing (i was about 12 at the time) takin the **** out of me, for reading cartoons and immature stuff. Callin me a weirdo.

Recently i was on the bus and i got a comic out of my bag and started reading it. Then all these kids on the bus came on and i felt embarassed and put it away. Then i realised what id just done and spent the rest of the journey deciding why i did that.

Now whenever im on the bus and ive bought my comics i get them out and i dont care. Doesnt affect me anymore. People react like that because they have issues with themselves, are uneducated and take the **** out of something they dont understand, are annoyed i was enjoying myself with something alien to them or that they were trying to be cool.

I have friends who love comics and friends and family who acknowledge my love of comics and there the only people who i care about.

Anyway enough of my babblin. Again, great column. Made me think and put out my emotions. Not done that before!

[AtomR]

Man, that column is about me :) That's my life story you just told there. I agree that the reason we read comics is because we got hooked at an early age and because of that we still read comics. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't read the issue where Storm looses her powers I wouldn't have continued reading comics. I remember like it was yesterday how I felt about all the relationships going on there. "Why did storm willingly allow Rogue, who weren't exactly friends back then, absorve her powers and psyche? Why did she get in front of the nullifier ray? Who was that red headed girl and why was that selene witch after her? Why is she calling Cyclops father when they are both so young." These are just a couple of the questions that made me come back. But there were hundreds more.

I also used to read comics on the way to work when I was younger and read comics but some times I'd hide the comics when the cooler kids came in. The odd thing is I would probably do the same today. I have lots of friends who know I read comics but I don't think they realize just how many comics or how important they really are to me, which is a bit sad. How can Books and paintings be considered art but the combination of both be kids stuff.

Anyways. Great article, Joel. You got me thinking... and nostalgic :)

[Alex Groff]

One reason a friend of mine, Rose, have mentioned for not reading is interesting: it gives them a headache. // Literally. // Comics make right and left brain work together: you have to see an image and read text simultaneously, and if you don't learn to do it early, it's difficult to do. Rose reads comics, but she has to read them twice: once for the words, and once for the pictures.

Otherwise, yeah, nail on the head. I don't think of myself as a completist, but I hadn't realized before that I am a collector of dreck (business cards, brochures, and comic books). And there are things that comics can do that movies can't-- starting with Seaguy and The Filth. Cool column.

[Nathan J. Wilson]

Interesting read.

For me it was Simon Furman's run on Transformers UK that captured me, and it still hasn't let go!

[Marcina Riley]

Generation X Issue 17. Last year of high school, flying home from my dad's, he asked if I wanted something to read because I hate flying. I ended up reading it so many times the cover fell apart. I may be female, but what drew me to the comic was Jubilee. I briefly remembered her cartoon counterpart and decided that was the one I wanted.

And yes I do like to categorize things. I'm still debating whether two cds by the same artist should be filed by album title or release date.

Wow, good article.

[Nathan J. Wilson]

I go by release date...

The big question is singles. All the singles after all the albums or keep the singles with the album they came from? ;)

[NicholasRogue]

I read comics to escape from the dullness and stupidity of reality.

[M-Angel]

Hi, Mi name is Manuel Angel and I'm a Comic-a-holic. (is that a word?)
For me the thing that got me started was..when they first started publishing the X-men here in Mexico, I remember the cover of my first issue it had Wolverine and Sabretooth on it and the title of the story was "Knight of Terra" (rough translation from spanish).

Then I moved to the U.S for a while, got Hooked into the Onslaught saga and fell in love with the rest of the marvel Universe (and with comics in their native language, in this case english) I moved back to Mexico and I discovered a comic book shop had just opened near my old school, and it sold the imported comics I read back in the states..since that day I´ve been going to the same place every thursday for the last 5 years.

that's my story, I'm 19 now people say I'm too old to be reading that kind of stuff but..I dont care

[Dylan McKay]

I love being the exception to the rule.

-When I was young, 11-13 I was a comics fan. But a fan in the sense of like people are movie or TV fans. I'd get issues here and there, never worrying about sequence or full stories or anything like that. I just liked to read the odd comic here and there. The only story from that era I actually bothered to collect was Legion's Quest. Then during Age of Apocalypse and Clone Saga, I just couldn't care anymore and left.

-Then, just over a year ago, at age twenty, I decided to try reading comics again. I remember making a concious decision to spend my money on comics. Part of it was to divert funds from junk food, partly because movies and tv suck harsh and books never seem to deal in the kinds of stories that interest me, or are too high on discription and short on dialogue, I love dialogue. And often comedic books are hard to find. And finally because I found myself enjoying the Justice League and X-Men Evolution cartoons.

-I'm not a collector. Even now I'll pick up the last book of an arc and never bother with the rest, particularly in superhero books as non-superhero books are often to enguaging and full story relient to work that way, although I did enjoy jumping onto Lucifer mid arc, good dialogue does it for me so just having good dialogue, I don't necisarilly need the whole story around it. Sometimes I enjoy grabbing a random back issue, got a great issue of Question yesturday. But even outside comics I'm not a collector. As a child I'd buy action figures from all sorts of lines because I'd much rather have diversity than a collection. I've also always had bad experiences with collection, be it being unable to get those last twenty years or getting Nine Inch Nails singles and never listening to them. I'd rather just take each piece as it comes and enjoy it as is. That said, I do sometimes like reading up on back stories and the history of comics, but I think that's boredom related, and I am a stats nut, but have yet to work that into comics. I'm always switching up what comics I get, because, like I said, I like diversity.

At the end of the day, I get my comics every week because they are my prefered form of entertainment. They are like books where you can have all the descriptions in the world without any of the tedium of reading it, instead you simply let it soak in. They say a picture's worth a thousand words and that's true, it would take a writer a thousand words to describe one single panel by a good artist. Comics are like a movie or TV show where all the acting is spot on, although I have found Teen Titans to be poorly acted, there's always one or two frames an issue where the character expressions look false in a bad way. See Captain Marvel's smile in Kingdom Come for false in a good way. I like comics because I believe they are the best and most adaptable storytelling medium.

[Jeanne]

Started reading comics in my first year of graduate school, about 6 months after I got married. I had a long bus-ride to get to class, and a convienience store on one end and a comic book shop on the other. I couldn't read or study on the bus...it made me carsick. Out of boredom I picked one up at the convienience store (the first issue with Joseph) and thought I would buy it to occupy me on the drive back. I've been picking them up ever since.

There was a huge stigma against reading comics when I was younger, but by the time I got married, I didn't care any more.

Jeanne.

[Lobster Johnson]

I got hooked on comics by my dad. He bought X-Men #129 for me when I was a little kid. but I didn't start collecting untill after a few years. (Can't start a collection when you're only money comes from mooching of your parents).
I'm still hooked because it is just an amazing form of entertainment. It combines the quality of good stories you read in books with the impact that only art can deliver.

And I do read comics on the train or in the bus. I know people look at me. But I don't know them and will probably never see them again in my life. So who cares what they think about me?

[Patrick James]

This is a really thought-provoking column, Joel. One of my favorites in fact. Not because you brought up any points that were groundbreaking or surprising, but because it made people, myself included, feel something.

[Radiate]

INteresting column Joel,and very,very true...

RADIATE!

[Alex Guillen]

comics have always been a great read and why discredit them as just "kid's stuff" when you so many great stories going on with novelists and why do they write comics? Because they can identify with those characters and they're really complex just like normal literary characters only that these have flashy costumes and are artistically interpreted to the viewers (contrary to the books which you can use alot of your imagination).
I personally enjoy them alot. Why? because I can identify with the characters like Peter Parker and they just grow on you that you really care for them plus it's just awsome to read about all those adventures we wish we could see, it's just stretching our imagination to new fantastic places.

[bugalugs1]

Read Batman and JLA on and off from a very young age (always had the Batman series on during the school holidays and it kind of stuck)

the British first issue of Secret Wars got me totally into the Marvel Universe

But the first X-title I had was "Freedom is a 4 Letter Word" (206) and that was it, I fell in love with the characters, especially Shadowcat ("If my hair were not already silver....that girl....")and Rachel (why was she so upset about Cyclop's new wife? (I had no idea of Jean Grey at the time so had no conceptions of Maddie's issues)

Then I met the New Mutants and Illyana..........

[Blackjaxs]

I started reading comics, by way of the Archie's in 1989. When I started it was really something to do. By the time 1991 hit I had kind of grown weary the in's and out's of the Riverdale gang and moved over to a new book that was called Sleepwalker, published by Marvel. That was the title that made me a Marvel fan and not to soon after it I started with the X-Men Muir Island saga and have been a fan ever since. Over the years I have amassed over 2000 comics and countless titles. The two issues that trully made me know how much I love these books where X-Factor #87 & Uncanny X-Men # 309, for showing that comics where more than far-fetched action plots. I am not the same collector that I was before I graduated High School in 1997, but I still to appreciate what comics meant to me in my early teen years. So I continue to be a fan, in spite of the different direction my life has taken in the last few years.

[russbrett77]

"Everybody's first comic is free."
--Bill Jemas

When I was in elementary school my grandmother started giving me Archie comics when i went to visit. I got hooked and started pulling them off the spin-rack at my father's pharmacy. A few years later, one of the guys who worked at the store was talking to me about the "coolest villains ever." He was talking about the Warwolves, and Excalibur #2 became my first Marvel comic.

I was hooked from the start. The relationship between Kitty, Kurt, and Rachel immediately drew me in (not to mention the HOT Meggan and the resulting tension between her Kurt and Brian). Soon thereafter (around Inferno) a friend at school told me that Kurt, Rachel, and Kitty were originally members of the X-Men. So I started collecting X-Men. And then X-factor... and then New Mutants... and then X-Force... and then Cable... and then Generation-X... and, well, you get the idea.

But since then I've actually refined my tastes a little. 5 years ago, if it didn't have an X in the title (or have some relation to the X-verse) I wasn't reading it (and I was reading ALL the x-books). But now I've dropped some X-verse books and picked up some non-X books (Runaways, Supreme Power, the ENTIRE Ultimate line).

At some point maybe I'll take a look at what DC is doing.

As for feeling silly reading comics in public... whenever anyone makes a comment, I just tell them that comics are the reason I bought Marvel stock (MVL) at $5 per share.

[UltimateFan]

Originally posted by Joel Phillips
The great strength of comic books is that the kinds of stories they tell, and the manner in which they tell them, are very hard to tell in any other medium. Conventional, non-graphic fiction could never have invented the superhero and made it anywhere near as successful as comics have. Without the ability to watch the battles, the spectacle, little kids would never have become enamored with Superman, Batman, and all their descendents. It’s for this reason that, though I from time to time enjoy less action-oriented comic fare, it is the action-packed and/or visually stunning stories – be they superheroes, crime stories, horror, fantasy, science fiction, etc. – that are the reason we continue to buy comic books month in, month out. Yes, movies can do all those things too. I’d even go so far as to say they can do them better*. But they can’t do them once a month FOREVER, the way comics can. Nor can they go as deep into the minds of their characters as comics can, through the narrative box or the facial nuance that can only be captured in a static image.


What about TV shows, which release a new show every week?

[Captain America]

I remember how I started collecting superhero comics...

One day, I bought an action figure called Sauron from a Toymaster store. On the back of the box, were an array of characters with funny names in colourful costumes. I decided I wanted Wolverine, so my Dad went in to get it for me. When the store didn't have the figure, my Dad did what he thought was the next best thing: he found and purchased a comic about the character! And better still, the final panel of this comic featured...Sauron! So, of course, I had to pick up the next two parts of the three part story.

This comic also had two other characters in it that I had never seen or heard of: Jubilee and Rogue (also Professor X on a video comm link - I thought he looked like a bad guy!). The next month, I got an issue of X-Men: Rogue and Professor X were in it, as were many of the other people from the back of the toy box. When my Dad went in town again, he picked up X-Factor by accident because he thought that was X-Men. He soon got Uncanny X-Men too. By the time the Age of Apocalypse had ended, I was collecting Wolverine (the one that started it all), X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, Generation X, X-Man, Cable...er, hopefully I've not left any out. So yeah, it all started with a Sauron action figure. Heh.

Why do I continue to pick up these superhero comics? Well, there are a few factors. A bit of escapism, and I like that these characters are heroes. Inspirational really, that they continually put their lives of the line for the greater good - especially the X-Men, because they are feared and hated, etc. but carry on regardless. I've followed these people for most of my life, I'm 19 now and started collecting at the age of 7 - I care about the characters, and obviously want to know whats happening with them, so dropping x-titles is not an option. I recently dropped Weapon X and New Mutants v.2 - there were no heroes to support in Weapon X, I didn't like the people I was reading about, at all. I didn't care for the new cast in New Mutants, but I gave them a chance, and they didn't hold my interest. The slow build up of the book and incosistant art didn't help of course.

I have started of late to pick up title outside the x-universe. I now get MK 4, Avengers, and Amazing Spider-Man. Heck, I'm even getting the Supergirl arc of Superman/Batman (although it's not all that good - not bad, but nothing special). In the end though, I care more about X-Men, so pick up the books even when the writing isn't very impressive (logically speaking, the last few years of X-Factor and the entire run of Mutant X were a waste of money). I don't buy substandard issues because I'm a completist - I get them because, even if the writing is poor, I need to read the lastest developments, see what's going on with Cyclops and Wolverine and Beast, and so on.

I like heroes. I like what they stand for. I guess, in the end, that's why I read comics.

Plus they're very entertaining and the arts sometimes pretty :)

[Shiva]

i read comic books because its an escape for me from other things in life plus its different...I read lots of books and magazines, and I love watching movies and I have a very large music collection but the collection I have is comic books because they're like supersoap operas...they blur that line between fiction and nonfiction and I like that, its just something that you cant get anywhere else...

[Dylan McKay]

I think the 6 million dollar question is. Why is it that romantic comedies work well in comics (Ie. Liberty Meadows, My Faith in Frankie etc...) yet suck in every other medium?

['zel-J]

Originally posted by Joel Phillips

After they are older, and societal opinions about comics begin to influence them more, they become far less likely to try comics on their own.


Oh, oh, can I be the exception that proves the rule?! (jumps up and down in excitable manner which belies her advanced age).

When I was a kid I read British Girls' comics, maybe swiped the odd American one from my brother, but I never followed the likes of Superman etc. When I was in high school, there's no way I'd ever have read a comic- it would have been social suicide (teenage girls can be very unforgiving, that hasn't changed since my day, I'm sure!), so I missed the big collecting craze.

However, I did watch superhero cartoons as a kid, and one day I was in a bookshop that had a graphic novel section. On a whim I bought one, then a few more, and eventually I found a comic shop that wasn't too intimidating, and started reading some monthly titles (I started with an issue of Uncanny).

Believe me, aside from the fact that comics are seen as "for kids", finding a shop was the big hurdle in the path of my getting into comics. No offense intended, but these places tend to be a male preserve- it can feel uncomfortable to walk in and be the only girl. Or worse, to have the checkout guy point you in the direction of the Buffy merchandise the minute you walk in, just because you're female. I'm sure that must lose a lot of potential sales to women who got interested after the Batman/Spiderman movies...

Mind you, the thing that bugs me is when people lay into comics, when they've not read any since that copy of the Beano they bought in 1974. Then I realise that I used to be exactly the same a few years ago, which is really scary!:eek:

[Ann Nichols]

Ahem: if the book is one of a series, you can buy the other books in the series. If it's a movie you just watched, there may be a novelization of the movie or a book(s) the movie was based on.

I read comic strips when I was a kid (still read them), but we seldom had comic books unless someone gave one to us or it was vacation time (you want to take 3 kids across several states in an unairconditioned station wagon, you want them to have SOMETHING entertaining -- trust me on this).

I started earning my own pocket money in 1968 -- the summer before my 13th birthday. I loved cartoons, especially adventure ones, but my Dad told me I was getting too old to watch cartoons.
Well, I could buy my own comic books and they were like static adventure cartoons. When I stopped buying American comics in 1983-1984, I was still "reading" manga [available only in the original Japanese].

Over the years I got some American comics as gift from a friend who was determined that I was going to read "Sandman", "V for Vendetta", "Sebastian O", etc. I enjoyed them, but felt no urge to return to the medium.

Then, last year, I started watching "X-Men Evolution" and fell for Prof. X. Last June [21st] I walked into my local comics shop to try to buy "X-Men Evolution" comics. There weren't any new episodes of the show yet, so I decided to try regular X-Men comics for my Xavier fix. I was determined to buy only issues with Xavier in them. Well, it got so I was interested in the stories in "New X-Men" and "Uncanny" whether Xavier was in the issue or not. I bought back issues, TPBs, a few hardcovers... I subscribe to X-Axis and sometimes bought issues just because I liked the review. Wound up getting "New Mutants", XXM, "Emma Frost," "1602", and "Mystique" -- even "Ultimate X-Men". Of course I'm getting "Excalibur".

Today I found myself buying "District X" 1 & 2 because of recommendations and, and Thor: Son of Asgard #5 just because I used to love the tales of Asgard shorts back in the day (a lot more than Thor's regular adventures, in fact). Last week I was buying "X-Statix" and "Weapon X"...

I seriously doubt that I'll ever reach the point again where I'm buying every non-reprint title Marvel puts out and about 2/3rds of the DC line, as I was when I was seriously addicted over 20 years ago, but I do enjoy the pictures and the words. I care about some of the characters [duh]. I can't remember a time when I didn't love illustrations in books (I own several editions of some books based on illustrations or cover art) and comic books give me plenty of art to enjoy!

BTW, back when I was reading comics before, I used to get a lot of "Gee, I nevuh met a GIRL comics fan before". I am so glad there are so many more of the female persuasion these days.

[david r]

For me, it started in the Summer of 1978. I was only 7 years old, and my mother had taken me to be introduced to my new babysitter. I was to stay over at her place every other weekend, and I went outside to explore. I discovered a 7-11, and inside was a rack of comics. I bought "Fantastic Four" #198 (Invasion, with Reed breaking into Doom's Castle to rescue his teammates.)

Wow, This stuff is great!! I'm sure I thought that. I soon discovered the X-Men with #113 (Magneto under the Volcano), Marvel's Godzilla and Devil Dinosaur. This being 1978, the "Star Wars" comic really jumped out at me. And later that year, I started buying "The Micronauts."

Marvel's books were more diverse then IMO. I remember "Tomb of Dracula", Howard the Duck, the Invaders, Werewolf By Night, Conan the Barbarian, John Carter of Mars, What If?, Master of Fu Manchu, Machine Man, Man-Thing. I didn't buy any DC. No one I knew bought DC.

My favorite books during the 80s were the FF, Incredible Hulk, Avengers, John Byrne's Alpha Flight. But by 1990, I'd stopped buying most of those series. My passion had become X-Men. It was entering areas I had never seen a comic book go. But after Chris Claremont left, I feel there was a dramatic drop in quality. By mid-1992, I reluctantly stopped reading X-Men.

I was still reading Alan Davis' "Excalibur" run. And Peter David's "Hulk". But by 1995, I was buying no more comics.:(

[Post]

I like everyone else got turned on to comics by a kid in 6th grade. He had a flashy comics with spiderman and venmon on it. It looked cool and it grew from there so ten plus years later im still going stronger then ever ( do to the fact I now can afford everything I want to buy). The question I pose are kids still getting turned on to comics? It seems that most people here, and even when I go to the store are between 18-early 30's. Comics are becomming harder to find, most of the time only being able to find them in stores for comics only. Where are the new fans?

[Dylan McKay]

The 5 million dollar question is, if the majority of comics fans are over 18, why do mature readers comics sell so poorly?

[david r]

Originally posted by Nalyd Psycho
The 5 million dollar question is, if the majority of comics fans are over 18, why do mature readers comics sell so poorly?

Because one of the reasons we read comics is for the nostalgia factor. And that would be the superheroes. Mature reader comics are not nostalgia. And they don't attract the kind of attention by the Big Two.

[Dylan McKay]

I find that strikingly depressing...