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| "Official Spokesman" |
But, the fly in the ointment is that comic books have a severe image problem. If you mention comic books to a "civilian, they will first think of our "official spokesman": The Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. Ugh....although CBG has had a few moments of heroism over the two decades that The Simpsons has been on the air, he's mostly an object of ridicule.
No boy wants to grow up to be the CBG, no man wants to hang out with the CBG and no woman wants to sleep with CBG (or even stand next to him on public transportation).
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| She looks SO happy, right? |
If you continue your conversation with your civilian friends, they will doubtless ask whether you watch The Big Bang Theory. These guys are only an improvement on CBG in that they are not obese. But they have the same basic problems as CBG: no boy wants to grow up to be those guys, no man wants to hang out with the Big Bang Theory Guys and women usually don't want to sleep with them (although it being a fictional show....the geek does occasionally get the girl).
If your civilian friend hasn't run away yet as you persist in talking about comic books, you might get asked if you dress-up at conventions. Now I love seeing good cos-play as much as anyone, but just because it is acceptable (even encouraged) for 22 year old attractive women to indulge their slave Leia fantasies, it is just nasty seeing some fat dude dressed up as slave Leia or seeing some obese woman dressed up as Catwoman.
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| I have no friends! |
I guess my general point is that comics DOES need new readers. If we don't get them, our hobby is going to become increasingly niche and will eventually shrivel up and die over the next decade or so. The shame is that there is so much to love about comics and there are more excellent comics being published now than ever before and it is easier to get them thanks to the magic of the internet where you can learn about and order off-beat material. BUT....as long as these folks are the public image of comic books, we aren't going to get new readers because they don't want to be associated with the public image of our hobby.
So, are there any action items? Well, I think the first thing to appreciate is that we've dug ourselves a pretty big hole. You can't wash off all this grime with some hand sanitizer. Nope! Our image needs some serious scrubbing (and dieting and shaving). We recently had "Read Comics in Public Day" and I cringe when that comes along because if you're going to dress like this dude....you're not really helping the cause. These "new readers" want to see people who look like them reading comics, not people who look like us.
I guess if I had a request of the loyal comic fans who read online forums, etc. it is this: Remember that every time you are seen in public with comic material in your hands, every time you're seen walking into the LCS, every time you leave a comic on your desk at work....you have an opportunity to either reinforce or dispel a stereotype.
- Dean Stell
The trick isn't to expect those fans who enjoy it not to dress up, stump each other with Batman trivia, and avoid deodorant like it was poison. Those people are always going to exist in comics, just like there are Star Trek fans who memorize Klingon. And hey, if that makes them happy, I say go for it (although the deodorant thing wouldn't hurt.)
ReplyDeleteTo me, what there needs to be is an alternative. Somehow, the general public is aware that it's okay to be a Star Trek fan without speaking in a made-up language, but they don't know it's possible to love comics without choosing a side in the great "Wonder Woman's pants" debate.
Respect your audience, by giving them intelligent comics of different types and genres, and comics (and their fans) will be worthy of respect.
Hey Jason.... I'm all for free choice. But there are consequences for those choices and if you dress like a freak and make yourself available for pictures with the news media at the con, you ARE screwing it up for everyone else. I kind of look at male cosplay like spontaneously singing in public: rarely acceptable.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that our ratio of normal dudes/comic book guy/effing freaks is all out of whack. If you look out at a con floor, you're got about 5% normal dudes about 75% "comic book guys" and about 20% freaks. If the balance were to tip towards the "normals" we wouldn't have the image problem that we have. But, there are only two ways to do that. One would be to get normals to enter the hobby at a higher rate than freaks and CBGs. I don't think this is likely. The other way is to convert some of our CBGs and freaks into normals. Heck, if you just got all the bad male cosplay to stop, it would be better.
Put it this way: are Twilight fans screwing it up for people who read Russell Banks and Philip Roth?
ReplyDeleteNo, because people are used to thinking of those types of readers as distinct from each other. Their views on "novels" as an art form isn't colored by the fan behavior of either type of reader.
Stories about people who dress up are going to attract people who like to dress up. Stories about growing up as a woman in Iran (Persepolis)? Not so much. Make it clear that comics aren't all about superheroes and you'll attract a different audience. It's an uphill climb to be sure, but I do think it's possible, and easier than telling fans what kind of fans they should be.
ShutUpTim! (Dude dressed as Slave Leia) is awesome, its not his fault he lost a bet. Please die!
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