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Monday, September 10, 2007

Baltimore Comic Con: The Face Of Mainstream Comics

the Jim Lee line at the Baltimore Comic Con

As much as I was dazzled by the sheer pageantry of the San Diego Comic-Con, Baltimore's show this weekend was the one I enjoyed more. It was a chance to catch up with a bunch of old friends and make some new ones. But it was also a place where I could see more clearly the face of mainstream superhero comic book fandom, those who visit regularly the hundreds of smaller comic stores across the country.

Though they purchased some key Vertigo titles like "Fables" and "Preacher," this was largely not a crowd into "indie" comics. The biggest draws for them were the handful of ultra big-name guests who attended, such as Mike Mignola, David Finch, and Jim Lee (whose long line of autograph seekers cut through the convention hall).

These and other such artists were treated like celebrities, people whose signature on a copy of their favorite comic meant so much to fans. It was likely that some convention attendees, once their quest for a Mignola or Lee sig was completed, did a little bit of comic shopping and went home, their convention experience complete.

Where does that leave the independent exhibitors and comic creators who attended -- or the webcomics people, for that matter?

The truth was that the sense of willingness to try new things on the part of the attendees -- seek out new books and talent -- was relatively small. At least much smaller than San Diego or New York.

Some webcomics creators expressed frustration about the con, noting this lack of attendees who were even receptive enough to take their flyers.

"In a few cases they actually gave my flyer back and refused to look at it" one webcomics exhibitor reported. "In all the many conventions I've been to, that has NEVER happened."

The same exhibitor noted that their success in anime conventions has been far greater, even though their webcomic is not related to manga. "Anime fans just have much more of an adventuresome energy, and want to try new things."

Who was the average Baltimore Comic Con attendee? While making unscientific generalizations is hardly enough to replace solid marketing data, I'll take a shot anyway:

About two-thirds of the attendees were white, and more than two-thirds were male. Many of the women attending did not look like comic book fans but seemed to be the girlfriends & wives of comic book fans. The biggest age group seemed to be mid-20s-40s. They often had their children with them (of either gender). There were teenagers, but not a tremendous amount.

Few dressed up in costume, and of the ones I saw most were characters from Star Wars.

This is in sharp contrast to the attendees in San Diego, of which there were far more females & far more young people.

Also, I have to note that this was the first convention I have attended in a long time when I had that old "squicky" feeling about being the only woman at the comic boxes. I did not feel 100% comfortable. That largely comes from, in most cases, being the only woman at the boxes, the toy shelves, the spinner racks, etc. I felt self-conscious.

I think what I saw at Baltimore was the "face" of the mainstream superhero comic book reader -- the demographic that major comic book publishers have depended on for decades.

But that face is getting older. And there did not seem to be enough young people to replace them, at least at this show.

Now, the "alternative" comics expo SPX will be held in Bethesda on October 12th & 13th -- not that far away from Baltimore. If the show is anything like MoCCA in New York City, there will be far more diversity of race & gender. Will the type of people who attend SPX tend not to check out the Baltimore Comic Con (and vice-versa)?

Has comics truly become a place of two distinct houses -- mainstream (superheroes) & "indie" (everything else)? Can you bring those two houses under the same roof? How much outreach to the other house should be done? Is such outreach worth it?

And is it worth it for the major comic publishers to try to reach out past their traditional base, when that base comes out in such strong numbers in conventions such as Baltimore?

The only answer I have for that is, again -- there are not enough younger members of that fanbase to replace the older ones. So if a company invests 75% of their product into giving exactly what that fanbase wants -- and not exploring & nuturing & growing new fanbases -- they are setting themselves up for obsolescence.

But I do not see that as what is happening. I think DC and Marvel finally "get" the broader base that they need to appeal to (though their results may vary).

And what will probably happen in 10-15 years is that the traditional superhero comic book as we know it will be a specialized "niche" of the comic book industry in total -- just another genre to choose from in a graphic format.

And the traditional mainstream capes & tights comic convention will be as "niche" as the anime conventions.

10 comments:

  1. It's now three different houses.
    After doing two anime cons and three capes and tights cons this season (and one indie coming up), I have to say that comics are in three houses. However, Indy and Capers are now the niche. Anime has definitely taken over the mainstream status now.

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  2. Thanks for this, I think it goes a long way to explain why porprietors and workers in smaller shops in smaller towns still think (proverbially) that girls don't read comics.

    I'm curious to know to what extent you think con-goers are representative of the wider group of actual buyers.

    I get the feeling that for a lot of online commentary (I don't mean yours), con-goers+bloggers+forum posters=the entire audience, and/or the entire possible audience.

    Those people who just buy and love the comics (in the old days at newstands, now at bookstores), but don't participate in so-called fandom, seem to be left out of the picture.

    It would be ridiculous to look at mainstream music, or television, or movies this way, and I wonder if it keeps comics marginalized.

    And I wonder whether we get a distorted idea of what the audience is, and likes or dislikes, because of it.

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  3. >>Also, I have to note that this was the first convention I have attended in a long time when I had that old "squicky" feeling about being the only woman at the comic boxes.<<

    Very interesting comment. I had a similar feeling a few years ago, when I attended Wizard's one attempt to hold a con in Boston.

    I was 8 months pregnant, and got lots of stupid comments from people running booths about how big my belly was, shouldn't I be sitting down, should they boil water, etc.

    Instead of embracing the fact that there was a customer at their table eager to spend money, they had a difficult time grasping the concept that someone female who was a grown-up mom could be interested in funny books.

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  4. ^ From what I can gather of comic sales (I've spent an hour going over all the figures I can find), American superhero comics are still slightly edging out manga in total sales dollars, and the most popular superhero titles (Ultimate ..., Civil War, Astonishing X-Men, etc.) desperately need to improve their content, distribution, and synergy.

    The direct-market sales figures drop since the late 80s and early 90s isn't far off from matching the drop in store numbers, which suggests that geographic penetration is a driving problem in single-issue sales. Newsstand and grocery store sales have collapsed, while Manga (via ... Beat, etc.) is finding inroads there, and Archie is still thriving.

    Content I'll leave aside, but synergistically, Marvel and DC need to take steps to ensure that their animated programs and comic books share similar content. Naruto sales seem driven largely by the animated series, as X-Men sales were somewhat during the 90s; this appears true for several other manga titles as well. The American animated product-printed material disconnect is a severe disadvantage American superheroes have relative to manga.

    All said, the comics picture seems relatively balanced between American heroes and manga stories at the moment (with non-superhero American comics out there somewhere), but momentum clearly favors manga. Mismanagement and poor adaptation (especially at DC, whose superhero market might collapse if not for Marvel's resurgence) are clearly hamstringing American efforts, but thanks to history (how many parents love at least one superhero, and how many read manga?), the battle is still probably the Yankees' to lose.

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  5. ^ The caret shouldn't be there above.

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  6. >>I'm curious to know to what extent you think con-goers are representative of the wider group of actual buyers.

    I get the feeling that for a lot of online commentary (I don't mean yours), con-goers+bloggers+forum posters=the entire audience, and/or the entire possible audience.

    Those people who just buy and love the comics (in the old days at newstands, now at bookstores), but don't participate in so-called fandom, seem to be left out of the picture.<<

    I think these readers are very much a part of the picture, but are left out of conversations about comics. (Someone must be holding up X-Men sales, after all [thankfully].)

    Most comic readers these days seem to shop at the bookstore, rather than the comic shop.

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  7. This was the 3rd consecutive Baltimore Comic Con I attended, the second with my wife. I did not think that this was the best convention, but it still was a worthwhile event for us and several artists/writers that I talked to. I was told several times that creators wished the convention was three days long instead of just two. They sold lots of books and did not have to pay for SDCC airfare/hotel costs.

    OS is correct - there were not a lot of young people there, especially for a convention that had panels addressing the lack of kids comics or ability to reach kids. That said - Andy Runton was slammed all weekend with sketch and autograph requests from kids and adults that are fans of his Owly.

    The Top Shelf booth was busy besides Owly and the Adhousebooks booth was extremely busy on Saturday, with the James Jean and Paul Pope art books on display.

    I think alot of the webcomics/mini comics people had terrible placement. The non-superhero/non-pin-up tables seemed to be lumped behind the dealer area where it was hard to attract attention. I also thought that there was fewer interesting alterna-comics this year. Too many Red Sonja/Punisher/superhero clones.

    I saw a number of women at the show, especially at the Mignola, James Jean & Paul Pope, and Mike Weiringo-tribute panels. Admittedly, no where near the percentages at SDCC and I did not go to the DC/Marvel/Image/Top Cow panels.

    I did sense some of the fanboy creep factor in the dealer aisles -but it was more of the Comic Book Guy variety. Luckily my wife did not feel uncomfortable.

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  8. There are lots of things contributing to the demise of superheroes as the dominant genre of the "graphic format" and doomed to be a niche product.

    The most obvious is that, 25 years ago you could still get them in many stores - now they are mostly relegated to comic book stores only and there aren't that many of those.

    There is also the matter that superhero comics used to be entertainment for kids that has largely been transformed into adult oriented reading - and there are too many adults that find superheroes as they are in comic books pretty damn silly. Even if you could get them to read the graphic form, they aren't going to read a superhero comic.

    Plus, the actual industry has been relegated to the role of product development - the comics are the lowest on the totem pole - movies, tv, toys, they're all far more lucrative. The comics themselves just don't matter to most people.

    One has to wonder why this is a booming golden age for young readers in the publishing world and superhero comic books, the natural young readers format, have not been able to scoop up much of that business.

    I think you saw the reasons in Baltimore.

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  9. Something we tend to forget about conventions is they appeal to the die hard fans. People willing to stand in long line ups and pay for the privilege of doing so.

    Which leaves the more casual, non-die hard fan out.

    I covered about 5 different comic conventions in Toronto this summer. A small summary of the big 3:

    One tried hard to make it as female friendly as possible by bringing in a ton of female creators and having panels dedicated to them.

    Another was a mini-San Diego with Sci-Fi, Horror, Video Games, RPG, Anime and other elements mixed in.

    And there was the free artist based festival that mainly featured indy artists.

    The best convention for bringing in females? The free artists based festival. No cost to get in, took place at a college and not a convention centre, no dealers with back issue boxes selling collectibles. There was one room where the store putting it on set up with their GNs and everything else was the creators selling their own wares.

    I don't think traditional conventions show the face of comics. I think for the most part, they only show the die hard collector face of comics. Everybody else finds something else to do that day.

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  10. "There was one room where the store putting it on set up with their GNs and everything else was the creators selling their own wares."

    Good point! If I were running a comic con, I'd have the dealers swap places with Artists' Alley. If you're coming to buy old stuff (or Star Wars figures), you won't mind walking past a few publishers' booths. The reverse doesn't really hold true, tho'.

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