QUILLBLOG

How comic books have abandoned children

With all the talk about graphic novels and comics-for-grownups now reaching the mainstream media, few people have looked at the problem of comics for kids: the problem being that there aren’t any, or at least there are very few. Brad Mackay on the CBC Arts site laments the “near vacuum that’s been left in what was once a thriving market for well-crafted kids’ comics.” Even superhero comics are now being purchased not by children, but by adults who read superhero comics when they were children. Mackay writes: “As the quantity and quality of kids’ comics drops so does the number of children reading them, which eventually will cut off the supply of adult readers who are willing to spend $40 on a hardcover comic. The free-falling circulation and readership numbers experienced by the North American industry over the past 15 or so years is evidence of the theory in action.”

Related links:
Click here for Brad Mackay’s CBC Arts story on the lack of kids’ comics