Kids and Comics

[Aaron Walther]

Like a lot of people around here, I'm a strong advocate of getting kids interested in comic books. If you fellow artists and writers are interested in a positive story, I'd like to share this little (lengthy) anecdote that happened to me over the weekend.

I was in Texas visiting family. A cousin of mine had gotten married a few years ago and his wife has three children from a previous marriage. I was meeting these new cousins for the first time on Saturday. Of particular interest was the young boy of 12 or 13 years of age, whom we'll call Remington.

Young Remington is a restless child with some emotional issues, takes medication for ADHD, and probably some other things that I don't know about. There was probably about 50 or 60 people there for my grandmother's 80's birthday. Aunts, Uncles, Children, Grandchildren, and Great grandchildren were rolling in and out of the old Texas farm house all day. At a certain point, most people had congregated inside, filling the house and carrying on conversations wherever they could sit.

In one room, the television was on and somebody was cycling through channels when Star Trek came on. Remington insisted Star Trek be left on and proceeded to talk to nobody in particular about the show. After a while it became clear to me that he didn't actually know much about Star Trek and I began answering a lot of the questions he was posing. Our conversation moved on to other franchises such as Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Batman.

At this point, I decided to give him a copy of my comic book (I try to have a few with me at all times). This boy, who had been running around non stop all day, sat quietly for 30 solid minutes reading this little 28 page book. It turns out that he had only read one comic before, shown to him by a friend, and he didn't understand it because the story wasn't finished at the end of the book. Although, he was very interested in science fiction and superheroes, has lots of video games featuring Spider-man and Batman, seen lots of movies, he had never been given a comic book. He knew that these movies and games were based on comics, but had only heard about them, never really read them.

Remington lives in the country and has no access to comics. He doesn't read webcomics because he doesn't have the patience to sit at a computer. I say with all modesty and humility, Remington's mind was blown by this comic. I didn't tell him that I wrote it.

The next day he came up to me and asked why I didn't tell him that I made comics. He spent the whole day asking me about comics of all kinds. Who were all the Marvel characters, who were all the DC characters, what kind of stories are there, and so on. Most importantly, he wanted to know where to get more comics. I went through the whole process with him, told him to look in comic sections of book stores, told him to talk to his parents about finding a comic book store in the city, and told him to look for some online stores. I also promised to mail him a bunch of my old comics that I don't read anymore.

I was struck by this incident because it was such a perfect example of the problem so many comic creators complain about these days. Kids love comics. There is a whole generation of kids who are interested in comics but have no access to them. It's not just the lack of newsstand distribution. It had never even occurred to anyone in my family to buy Remington a comic and he didn't know where to ask for them. Comics aren't seen as a viable form of entertainment, they are a niche, expensive, collectors hobby.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but comics need to be cheap, disposable, and available to kids. I'm not saying that everybody should be making all ages material, just that we need to be conscious of kid's interest in comics. It's the only way to grow the medium. I'm glad to say I grew the audience by one more reader.

[JMelloul]

I found this to be a very touching story. I can relate to this on a personal level as I have a sibling with ADHD of about the same age as Remington. Furthermore, as someone who's trying to make an all-ages (but more kids-focused) comic right now, it's always nice to hear about children and pre-teens at that age, I suppose, finding out more about comics especially when it may be beneficial for them in some way.

[TheDeeMan]

I agree. Comics forgot YEARS AGO that kids and not grown ups is the foundation upon which this industry was initially built and because they have comics have lost kids to manga.

Dee

...............................................
CHEVALIER: THE QUEEN'S MOUSEKETEER. A fabled fairy tale of enor-mouse proportions. Coming in september.
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/moniquem/chev/series.php

[Kors]

I've gotten mine started early....my 4 year old daughter has a stack of powerpuff girls and old torn batmans that she likes to sit and peruse regularly. My 11 year old step daughter is insistent on being a great artist since she watches me draw and color for hours on end. The great thing about kids is: if they see you enjoying it, or if you show some proficient knowledge in the area, they'll soak up the info like sponges and really get into it. Most of us horde our good comics in long boxes that never see the light of day...if that's the case go to the flea market and get some less than mint book and leave them around for your kids...they'll love it.

[Scribbly]

What about making a comic about a child called Remington.
A restless child with some emotional issues that takes medication for ADHD,
and probably some other things that WE don't know about?

What about making a comic having him as lead character for starting?
How do you like that?

[Aaron Walther]

Scribbly, you so crazy. That's why I like you.

[MBirkhofer]

yeah. absolutely.

Here is another one. Gabe Newell on game Piracy.
"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country three months after the US release and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
Not a word there, that isn't directly relatable to comics.

Comic distribution needs to have a much, much, much better service. Both digital, and brick and mortar. B/M comic has largely been reduced to niche, basement shops. Not a place you would take kids, and certainly not on a whim. They are largely not family friendly environments.
The secondary part is just plain raising awareness. You don't advertise, you don't sell, its as simple as that.

Digital comic distribution. No social media tie-ins. No STEAM for comics. That is what we need. We need someone with $ to make STEAM. Comixology is not Steam. Its Origin at best.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by MBirkhofer

yeah. absolutely.

Here is another one. Gabe Newell on game Piracy.
"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country three months after the US release and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."
Not a word there, that isn't directly relatable to comics.

Comic distribution needs to have a much, much, much better service. Both digital, and brick and mortar. B/M comic has largely been reduced to niche, basement shops. Not a place you would take kids, and certainly not on a whim. They are largely not family friendly environments.
The secondary part is just plain raising awareness. You don't advertise, you don't sell, its as simple as that.

Digital comic distribution. No social media tie-ins. No STEAM for comics. That is what we need. We need someone with $ to make STEAM. Comixology is not Steam. Its Origin at best.

Listen to this man he makes sense!

Uber-coloring job on that Booster Gold pin-up in your deviant gallery by the way.

[Aaron Walther]

Yeah, Mike has been preaching about needing a STEAM for comics for a while now, and he's dead right. I wish I had the time and the resources to do it myself.

[MBirkhofer]

yeah. there are a number of things about it.
Steam is a platform/service. Not just a storefront. It's really important to understand that.
Friend-lists and the like.

I should be able to buy a comic. Then SHARE that comic with friends(including those outside the service). Linking a page, (up to 5?) Fan communities within the program. Forums to talk about it. Fanart. etc.
A place where even the creators can mingle with the readers.
Connectivity to facebook, reddit, etc.

Kids are more in tune with digital fronts then adults obviously. But at the same time, this is counter to Aaron's Op. Wherein there is still truth. Digital still requires phones, tablets, PC's. Granted the proliferation of tablets is a great boon for comics.
this is a much harder problem to answer. As the problem lies with stores. Which we don't really have any control over. If comic shops were more family friendly, in malls it wouldn't be much of a problem. But, comic readership is too low for any to afford that.
I think it is up to Marvel/DC etc to step up a bit. Advertising is expensive, but it pays for itself. Even if they need to jointly buy, its in their best interests. They NEED to raise readership all around. Look at the milk coalition. Big3 need to come together and form an advertising coalition and promote the entire industry.

Kids don't read comics because they don't know they exist or where to get them. its as simple as that.

[Scribbly]

Do you mean the direct market system for comics is all wrong after all?

All those superhero movies are not constituting advertisement for Marvel and DC comics?

Comics readership was, is and always will be very low compared with any other
form of entertainment, this can not be changed with a magic wand touch.
Comics is and always will be a subculture. A niche.
Is a product that only reach the interest of a determined kind of people.
Comics are not for everybody and not everybody is meant to be for comics.

There are many magazines for children that still are sold in newsstand system.
Inside these pages there are comics for kids as well.
Still the consume is very limited.

The big two are producing a variety of 150 titles every month, each of them.
Not counting Dark Horse, Image and the other mainstream comics publishing houses
that also are breaking in.
And if these books are produced, therefore it means these comics
had been sold already by the direct market system. Every month.
Million of mainstream comics books that are sold out in America and all around the world.
Every month.

So where is the agony of the American comic market? I don't get it.

If you want sell comics to children, ( Which is to sell a literary addiction, BTW.)
First you need to sell the idea of comics
to parents, teachers, tutors and educators of the child.
They are the filters.
That is how the things work.

[TimR]

Wrong Scribbo!

No self-respecting kid would be caught dead with a comic that met with the approval of teachers, parents, educators, etc!

[Scribbly]

Originally Posted by TimR

Wrong Scribbo!

No self-respecting kid would be caught dead with a comic that met with the approval of teachers, parents, educators, etc!

Exactly. That is why there is not comics for children that are produced by big houses.
(Except by Scooby-Doo and few famous and well known "by parents and educators" animation licences.)

Too much trouble and censorship to put them up and at the end the kids will like
something more spicy and less dull and boring.

PG13 and up is where comics start being interesting for kids.

[TimR]

I think kids always read one level up from what they're "supposed" to be reading - they want to read whatever they think the older kids are reading.

Here's the cover to a "kid's comic/ magazine" idea I've been messing with lately.. Idea is it would basically be all-ages comics, but with a few stories & articles to round it out:



Currently looking for contributors. See here:
http://www.timrockscomics.blogspot.c...uidelines.html

[JMelloul]

Originally Posted by TimR

Currently looking for contributors. See here:
http://www.timrockscomics.blogspot.c...uidelines.html

Link didn't work for me. Not sure why. Here's one that should:
http://www.timrockscomics.blogspot.c...uidelines.html