WE MAY BE WITNESSING THE END OF MONTHLY COMICS AND COMIC SHOPS

We're all very sentimental about the comics we read when we were kids. Those of a certain age remember when one cost either a dime or twelve cents. We were appalled when they rose to fifteen cents but we somehow adjusted. The resulting comics didn't markedly improve. They more or less remained the same. The industry was just catching up with rising prices and shrinking markets. There was also competition from less-restricted forms of comics in underground comix and also black and white magazines that flouted the Comics Code Authority which had rendered the rest of comics kid stuff. Being kids, most of us didn't notice...until we did. 

We grew up and became aware of the complexities of the world in which we were living and all the birds and bee stuff altered our perspective on representations of the human form and interpersonal relationships. More mature matter slowly entered the world of comics and with it great and grave controversy. The arguments that flared up then have followed readers and the industry ever since. Eventually, the Comics Code Authority would lose sway. Their ability to affect distribution was soon challenged by change of venue from newsstands and candy shops to comic shops proper. 

These temples of the written word and artistic expression greatly expanded the consciousness of the average reader and provided creators far greater license to enlighten or simply shock and appall. The overall quality of comics improved but prices also skyrocketed to the extent that it could reasonably be said that with few privileged exceptions, comics were no longer kid stuff. What kid had the kind of disposable income to buy comics in the dollars rather than pennies, nickels and dimes? Of more affluent kids who might have had such money, how many had the encouragement or approval of parents to read comics? It was, and remains, a dilemma that left the primary market for comics in the not-too-distant past out in the cold. 

Some say that 1986 with watershed contributions by Alan Moore and Frank Miller was the year it all changed permanently. With more companies beginning to challenge Marvel and DC, the superhero may have continued to be the six-hundred pound gorilla in comic shops, but other kinds of titles, some jettisoned decades before by the combined influences of Dr. Wertham and Congress, were becoming more prominent. 

It felt as though comic shops and monthly comics would be safe forever, but the one constant throughout history including human experience was, and remains, change. We may be witnessing the end of both venerable institutions. It may not happen overnight. There may be some appeal related to nostalgia. Campaigns to keep alive your comic shop may mirror similar efforts to keep drive-in theaters open and other touchstones of the past. The same may be true of monthly comics, but some change including elements you may not like are inevitable. 

The key to keeping both afloat is out of the hands of most of us. Decisions are being made in boardrooms by people who move companies around the same way most of us shuffle through junk mail. We may keep one piece out of ten for reference, but most goes into the can. Such a waste of trees! In the past six months, countless rumors have been circulated about the biggest comics producers. If they're on the chopping block, how safe can other companies possibly be? 

They're not talking about cutting ties with well known characters with profitable ties to movies and TV shows. They're not necessarily talking about ending the production of graphic novels and manga. They're just finding it hard to justify the continued investment of large amounts of money into books that simply are not selling adequately (according to their standards). 

Into this already volatile situation is the admixture of those who vehemently and violently oppose the expansion of markets by appealing to people who hitherto have remained unrepresented and underrepresented. The hue and cry against powerful female characters, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community has been loud and constant; and the reasons given have been transparently without merit. Simply, the inclusion of people who are different from you does not in any substantive way threaten you. Moreover, it is the influence of such spiteful people who are destroying what is perhaps the last chance for monthly comics and comic shops to remain economically viable, i.e., expanding markets and profitability through diversity. 

An existential question that must be raised is whether or not a parallel market that caters to such people also provides avenues for revenue not currently being maximized? Should comic book producers create content for hatred and ignorance? Should there be a track more likely to appeal to less expansive and inclusive people; and, if so, should such a market be permitted to blot out lines based in diversity? 

Frankly, I think a comic producer that would publish venom or hatred with plausible deniability by conspicuously creating less culturally-diverse content would be ignored by xenophiles. Moreover, I think it would be the definitive end of the comics industry to adopt hateful rhetoric and opinions no matter how plausible the deniability. There really is no room economically or ethically for ignorance and hatred. 

What then about content creators who independently produce material to appeal to such demographics? Well, to be frank, that's already happening, but I'm not sure you're going to find such material in your average comic shop. If word got out that a comic shop was providing that kind of content to customers, they would be easy to ignore; and countless, bigger and better organized online providers would easily fill the gap. So, too, would online comics that are generally more convenient and less expensive. I happen to like hard copies of my comics, but I'm part of a dying breed. Plenty of younger people are perfectly satisfied to read their comics on their phones and other devices or to buy hard copies through the online super store rather than the local comic shop.