The Next Wave?

[blowout]

"In Europe, comics are serialized in magazines and/or sold in graphic novels. Only imported US comics are sold in pamphlet format."

 

that's not strictly true, there are many comics published and sold in the uk, mainly marketed towards children and sold in regular newstand/ confectionary/ grocery type stores.

[Kevin Boyd]

It depends on the country.

 

Yes you are correct, in the UK there are those children's comics that are still published and sold at newsstands. (.. like Beano? which is more like a newspaper isn't it?). Do you know of any children's adventure comics published in comic pamphlet format and sold at newsstands in the UK?

 

Since we don't really publish any children's comics any more in North America and sell them at the newstands other than Archie digests (does anyone buy these?) and the Disney Adventures magazine (not much comic material) we don't really have an equivalent to Beano in North America. Sure, some Marvel and DC books get sold at some newsstands, but distribution is shotty and sales are not strong at all.

 

Kev

[blowout]

beano, dandy, care bears and many others are pamphlet format comics, although they do contain several short stories with different characters. comics aimed at older kids/teenagers include 2000AD and others, which also contain stories with several characters.

maybe marvel/dc need to think about more comics like marvel knights which contain shorter stories showcasing several characters.

the matter of availability is also crucial, the above comics sell well in the uk because they are readily available to kids and can be bought when they are buying candy/ drinks/ mom is picking up newspaper etc.

comics need to be more widely available to pick up a less specialist reader base IMHO.

[Kevin Boyd]

All good points.

 

Comics are not readily available where kids might be buying candy here in North America, nor are they cheap enough for kids to afford to buy them.

 

Most of the examples you mentioned are printed on cheaper paper and are meant to be read by children, not necessarily collected (except perhaps for 2000AD).

 

Perhaps if we did print comics on cheaper paper at a lower price point and racked them near where kids might be buying candy, et al. they might perform better than they do now. But those are a lot of IFs IMHO, and some of these tactics have been long abandoned because they weren't considered cost effective (I'm withholding judgement on that myself, that's just what I've read).

 

Kids do like Simpsons comics and the occasional Archie book like Sonic the Hedgehog, but those books are RARELY sold anywhere but in comic shops or in obscure corners of the magazine rack in a corner store. They are rarely near any kind of candy rack (or candy store) and are usually outclassed by the gaudy covers on the video game magazines.

 

Kev

[Lantern]

Your points about the lower price points are well taken. However, that same reference in Asia Week also mentioned the "spending power of Japan's young -- a typical 10-year-old may have $1,000 in the bank from doting relatives." And that is $1,000 US not yen. Growing up middle class I never had that much when I was that young. Which brings me to another point already eluded to in an earlier post, availability of comics today. I can remember when comic racks were all over the place...7 eleven, grocery store, corner gas station, etc. Just the other day I was at a grocery store that had only on comic related publication, and that was the Archie digests.

 

Perhaps the underlying issues are marketing or even content.

 

 

[delekkerste]

There was an all-too-brief thread that recently addressed the distribution & marketing issues that have been mentioned here by you & others - you should do a search of the "Demise of Comics in Favor of TPBs??" thread. If you have some additional thoughts, that's a thread I would love to see brought back to life since not even close to everyone rang in on the topic with their opinion.

 

Gene

[Bonds25]

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