Alex Heizer

I’ve mentioned this before, but DC Comics’ new 52 reboot, which became a reality yesterday, really highlights an obvious reason to me why comics aren’t being read. They don’t exist!

I don’t mean DC isn’t publishing them, or that specialty stores didn’t have an amazing amount of JLA pre-orders (I read 200k for that title alone?). But what I mean is, for anyone NOT already interested in comics they just don’t exist.

I went to Walmart, the US’ number one retailer. Lots of comic hero movie tie-ins. LOTS of kids and young adults. Zero comics. I went to Barnes & Noble. Lots of hero movie tie-ins and TPBs. Lots of young adults. 6 Marvel titles, zero DC titles. I went to Target. Lots of kids and young adults. Lots of hero movie tie-ins. Zero comics. My local grocery store. Lots of hero movie tie-ins. Lots of kids. And…

…you get the idea. The list is endless.

At the risk of being called out-of-touch, I won’t say “when I was a kid…”, but when I was, comics were everywhere. The drug store, the Woolworth and Kiddie City (before Walmart, people…), the 7-11, the grocery store, the mall, the office of the campgrounds in the woods where my family took vacation, the Turnpike rest areas. All of these places had comics, and I or my parents bought them 3 or 10 at a time. Comics were not invisible, they were omnipresent.

When I see super hero movies making millions of dollars, attracting millions of interested viewers (unlike TV, which is passive — people have to choose to haul their butts to a movie theater and pay $10 to get in), and the comic companies are complaining about sales I have one thing to say to them: GOOD! Because you are obviously really, really, really REALLY bad at business. Or abysmally stupid. Back in the day, smart business people took their wares to where their target market was. They had carts loaded with the day’s catch, or some kind of craft like wooden boxes or whatever. They didn’t make their customers go out of their way. Why? Because in order to sell, you need to get your product in front of the people who you want to buy it.

I’m not knocking comic book specialty shops. If it wasn’t for comic shops I’d never have read any manga 20 years ago and based on media reports it seems like they all went over the top with their New52 launch parties. But the fact is, the writing is there. The artwork is there. The MARKET is there. You know it is when non-comic stores sell tons of comic-branded gear like Spencers Gifts’ new Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman backpacks for girls. You know it is when there are lines at the box office for the latest Batman movie. You know it is when the local grocery store in a rural midwest town of 1500 sells a ton of hero-branded breakfast cereals.

The market is out there. Where are the comics?