How do we get Society to realize that comics have grown up?

Comics have been traditionally known as childrens books. But we all know that comics have grown up a lot in the last couple decades. The creators finally realized that this medium could be more than what it was and decided to write comics for adults. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made the first step. Then in the 80's we got creators like Alan Moore and Frank Miller who built upon what Marvel did in the 60's. People all around the globe flock to theaters to watch comic book movies like Sin City, The Dark Knight, and Watchmen. Many non-comic book readers have seen what the medium is capable of. But it still seems like the General consensus is that comics are for children and the adults that read them need to grow up and read "real" literature. We are making small steps toward acceptance, but How do we get people to realize that comics are on equal level with every other form of storytelling? How do we get people to realize that comics have something for everypne to enjoy?

In my experience, most people today are music-bumping, video-game humping, TV groping illiterates...who read approximately one book a year solely because it's either: 1) a 50 Shades of Grey or Harry Potter type phenomena, or 2) a movie is coming out soon and they want to say they read the book first.

Why do we care what these people think?

We could just show people? Literally get the most mature comic in our collection, and show it to anyone who suggests we're being childish.

Seems like it could work.

Show the darker side of comics, there ya go.

illiterates indeed. Though yesterday's people let this happen to todays we are all at fault to some degree.

@reignmaker: I personally disagree with that stereotype. I know plenty of people who still read books on a regular basis. I feel that if the comics companys would put out that they have something for everyone, it would push the medium to new heights. Sales would go up and books would be less likely to be cancelled. It would also attract more writers to the medium and we might even discover the new Alan Moore.

@reignmaker: It's true. I met someone who thought the Dark Knight Joker was too violent and "scary" compared to the comic counter-part. Comic Joker skinned a man alive, then made him dance. Dark Knight Joker was just am average thug compared to him. I don't think the original Batman movies helped at all.

Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do. To the general public, comic books are for fat 30-year-old nerds that live in their mother's garage or little children that don't know any better and just buy them because they have Batman or Superman on them. Before I started reading the New 52, I thought the same way. To them, Batman is the same one we've seen as Adam West and George Clooney. Everyone I know thinks that Christopher Nolan reinvented the Batman franchise and turned a campy, stupid kids franchise into a dark, disturbing masterpiece. It already was a masterpiece, Nolan just brought that to the public (with no offense to Nolan, TDK is one of my favorite movies ever made, tied with Inception). As for what AweSam wrote, you have no idea how many people I know say that. I thought it too. I specifically remember a moment: I was watching TDK for the first time on TV a while after it premiered. My brother walked in and told me that The Joker was a serial killer in the movie, and that he was a serial killer in the comics. I argued with him that Joker was a mischievous trickster-person that robbed banks in the comics. That moment is stuck in my mind forever.

@v_scarlotte_rose: I agree. I were the only one on a school trip with something to reed on the boat(a bag full of The Phantom comics), and they were surprised by the quality of bout stories of artwork.

@waezi2: Fuck, I love the Phantom!!!

@waezi2: I'm not familiar with Phantom comics, but if it opened some peoples eyes, that's a pretty good thing.

Well done. :)

How else do you influence Pop Culture? By making really memorable movies based off of stuff.

@v_scarlotte_rose: You should find some old school Phantom comics. They are awesome. He is surprisingly popular in the Nordic countries.

@rulerofthisuniverse: what about Burtons Batman movies? They were dark as hell.

Considering I own a good number of comics/graphic novels written by writers like Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis it would definitely work. I remember my friend who is into the show walking dead was shocked when he saw some of the actual comic art because of the fact in many cases it's more gruesome than the show, and it manages to do it without color!

Spoiler for walking dead ahead.

He was totally disturbed and kind of sickened at the panel of Lori being shot threw the back and the baby in her arms being killed when her body landed on top of it.

@waezi2: I'll maybe look into it if I find some cheap sometime.

@waezi2: By today's standards? Not so much.

(But I still like them better than the Nolan trilogy.)

@vortex13: I actually had Warren Ellis in mind for this sort of thing, as Desolation Jones is probably the most mature thing in my collection.


I haven't read/watched any Walking Dead, but I have heard it's not exactly child-friendly.

@waezi2: They were, but you must remember, they were from Tim Burton. He's known for making incredibly dark movies, even on subjects that are definitely not dark. And, if you think about it, in between the Tim Burton movies we had the campy 60's show and the terribly dreadful, campy, stupid, and not dark IN ANY WAY Joel Shumacher films.

THIS.

This

@rulerofthisuniverse: point taken

advertisement, a sh*t load of advertisement, but for some reason people don't want to advertise comics outside of a company's or website's youtube.

So. What have we learned?

We have learned the first lesson. They will always hate us. We will never live in a world of peace.

Which is why control and nonviolence are essential. We must prove ourselves a peaceful people. We must give the ordinary humans respect, compliance, and understanding.

And we must never mistake that for trust.

Sounds like a peaceful revolution

How do we show them? The movies are doing a good job. It's up to us to show our friends what an actual comic book is. Buy them a good one and just let them have a taste. Nothing else we can do.

But I also agree with this:

Wow.

I'm kind of surprised, I really don't think it's that bad -- is it? I mean, I have had strangers approach me and inquire as to what I am reading when I am out in public -- I had a particularly enjoyable conversation with a gentleman last year on an airplane who recognized what I was reading and people around us were paying attention. If anything, I think it's the physical comic itself that lends itself to the idea it's not "real" book -- carrying around trades or nicely bound graphic novels goes a long way.

I am with the crowd that says there should be more of a push, marketing-wise -- but this idea that comics are for basement dwelling man-children has been done to death. If you want to get the genre picked up, then get out there and read them out in the open -- the more it's seen, the more accepted it will be (I can't believe I am saying this -- I really don't see the stigma attached to comics. I really, really don't).

Just talk about them more. I wouldn't want to contribute to the attitude of an "us" against "them" attitude.

We kill them with weapons made out of comic book paper.

@lykopis:

I understand what you are saying about avoiding an "us vs them" mentality, but this society we live in is obsessed with "growing up" and doing "adult" activities which cannot be fun under any circumstances . Because society sees reading comic books as fun, they don't think it is mature, which generally makes them look upon comic readers as immature and unsophisticated.

But I agree with you about making comic be seen more. The more they are seen, the more they will become "normal", which is why I think comics should be in other places besides comic shops. Like shipping them to places like Wal Mart every Wednesday to advertise to shoppers.

@lykopis: Having a comic out and about is helpful. Several summers ago my cousins read World War Hulk and a volume of silver age Flash stories that I brought with me. My 8 year old cousin went from thinking Batman was for 3 year olds to not being able to shut up about Reverse Flash.

You're not a X-Men reader, are you ;)

@eternal19: By putting out more issues like Superior Spider-man #5. That cover art screams. "I've grown up."

Make a Deathstroke movie and people will start to realise.

Porn comics, duh

Treat them like any other medium.

BB

Honestly with all the darker modern movies and stuff like Watchmen having existing films(even if it actually felt less mature than the comic), I'd say that most members of society sort of get that comics aren't just for kids these days.

Some comics have grown up, most have not. It depends entirely on the skill of the writer and the creative direction. So I think it would be a misnomer to say the industry has grown up. After all, a lot of very gritty and realistic stories are, at the end of the day, more basic than a short story. "Maus" and "Persepolis" have already gotten critical attention, so it seems to me that readers generally do know that some narratives adapting this visual format are for mature readers while the general audience is not that mature anyway, so I think this may be a false question.

Just start talking about it, and they'll listen.

I've got plenty of my friends into comics simply by sharing my passion

@waezi2: Watch the language mate.

cancel comic book men

I've shown some of my friends some of my comic books and even taken one or two to my local comic book shop; took a few to Free Comic Book Day and they loved it. It depends who your friends are and whether they want to keep an open mind and see what the comic book industry has to offer nowadays. I find it slightly frustrating when some people criticise the current generation with stereotypical ideas and beliefs, I'm 18 and can say that not all of us are "video-game humping, TV groping illiterates", although we do like our music quite a lot (I speak for me and my friends), but some of us read extensively and that's not counting the reading we NEED to do while studying. Although I won't go as far as saying we're all saints, I've met quite a few people my age who haven't got much to look forward to in life, simply because they do nothing productive with their lives.

Knew this dialogue straight away. X-men vol. 3 issue 1 if anyone doesn't know it...

Epic post veshark....

Well I knew it was from an X-Men issue, but it was also 4AM and I didn't have enough brain left to ponder

@deranged_midget: Sorry, I will behave.

Through celebrity endorsements.

It do not think it matter that comics have grown up, some people just do not like to receive stories in the graphic form.

We don't.

Haters gonna hate! Seriously though why should we care? Since when do you care what others think? I think that's why most of us turned to comics in the first place. Most of us did not fit in with the popular crowd and discovered something special in the world of comics. Then we were surprised once again as adult with the level of sophistication in our favorite childhood medium. If you are able to convince a friend or co-worker that comics are not a childish medium good for you but do you really want comics to become more bland by having them cater more and more to the status quo? Nah. Leave it weird, leave it odd, leave it mysterious, taboo and unregulated by the all the passing fads as much as possible. I don't read comics because of what others think. I read it because it entertains and inspires me.

@arinya: Damn straight. Comics shouldn't copy trends they should make their own. I love comics for being strange, out worldly, the kick ass bright costumes including capes, but most of all thy stood as their own medium.