Simba Information, the “market intelligence leader for the publishing and entertainment industries,” has just released 126 page report titled OVERVIEW OF THE U.S. COMIC BOOK & GRAPHIC NOVEL MARKET 2009-2019. The report’s intended for publishers and companies looking to enter this biz with a clear, informed understanding of how it works. Seeing as how the cheapest rung of its pricing platform is around $1,300, I don’t suspect I’ll be reading th full report any time soon, myself, but the Beat’s focused on one particular finding from the report - - 25% of comics readers are over 65.
There’s some discussion there about whether the statistics might be skewed for including comic strip readership, but I don’t think this finding should be that hard to reconcile. It shouldn’t really be that surprising, either, considering that we’re now 50 years past the watershed point in the 60s when readers started sticking with comics even past the usual drop-off age of 14. Hell, if you want some anecdotal evidence, the LCS I grew up going to had a middle-aged regular who’d come in every week and basically buy every single new comic on the shelf. I’m talking about an entire box of comics, week in, week out. And that was just one customer at one small store in an upstate New York suburb. I’m sure there are many more buyers like that guy across the country. == TEASER ==
As G-Man points out, this brings up the questions of who comics are made for, and who they should be made for. I suppose the knee jerk reaction to a notion like this is that comic companies are underserving children, but I think that (if it’s true) it’s actually a reaffirming sign that comics are being taken a little more seriously as a medium for all ages - - because I’m sure everybody here knows that the odious “comics are just for kids” stigma still persists. I mean, shouldn't a medium have an audience evenly distributed amongst age-groups? Discuss.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE. Order them on Amazon here & here .