Some of the recent topics in online comicfandom “trades vs monthlies,” “what to do about the kids” have got me reflecting a bit.

I think only in comics would you find people suggesting that customers have an obligation “to the industry” to purchase product in a certain format (monthly form as opposed to trade paperbacks) or that if you purchase both monthlies and trades you have claim to some sort of moral superiority over lesser fanboys/girls.

I started thinking a a bit about my own buying habits…

I tend to buy a mix of monthlies and trades. I try to support my local retailer, but they don’t always have what I want (not enough manga). So I also get trades from amazon or bookstores. I have a pull list at the store, I go every 2-3 weeks. I only buy trades of monthlies I already own when I miss some issues. Then I sometimes recycle the monthlies by giving them to my little sisters, which is why they have 6 of the 8 issues of the first 2 of hopeless savages series or random issues of hellboy

The most happening store I’ve been in recently that sold comics I went into when I was hunting down Alice 19th, and there was a giant banner across the entry to the store that said “Toys! Action Figures! Games! Manga!”. Inside most of the monthly issues had been shoved to the back of the store. The front of the store was filled with displays of LOTR action figures and video game stuff. A little further back was a huge section of manga, followed by the traditional waterfall displays and bins of your usual comic book shop. And since it was in a high traffic mall, there were quite a few people in the store, including some parents with their kids.

I didn’t have to buy comics because they were already sitting in my house, (yay! Avengers, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Captain Marvel, Hulk, Defenders, Doctor Strange, Batman, Superman, Conan, and X-Men.)
When I got sick when I was a little kid, my mom would bring a Supergirl (Daring New Adventures of Supergirl series) comic home for me to read. I always thought it was really cool that Supergirl had a magic comb that would transform the straight brown hair that she wore in her secret identity into blond Supergirl waves with one swipe. And then they killed her! Crisis on Infinite Earth bastards!
Also, I read Power Pack and I liked it! I was 9, shut up. Also, my little sisters read it when they were around the same age. You may slam Power Pack if you wish (June Bridgeman did), but sometimes I wonder if the way to get more kids to read comics is to actually attempt to make up new characters instead of retelling spiderman’s origin over and over again just because Spiderman 2 is coming out soon. Call me crazy.

When I was in middle school, my friends all loved Elfquest. In my geeky social circles it was cool to love Elfquest. Just like now, it is cool to love Yu-Gi-Oh or Naruto.

I was an X-Men junkie during the height of all the confusing crossover series during the mid 1990s. I collected a ton of the monthly translations viz put out of Mai the Psychic Girl and Area 88, and read Grendel and Cerebus and Zot.

Towards the end of the comic book boom, I got fed up and stopped buying any comics at all. I was sick of spandex and the portrayal of women in comics.

So my prescription based on my highly scientific study of my own memories for the always on the edge of the American comic book industry is anyone who wants to create more young comics fans should breed them themselves! Because it is going to take a long time to catch up to manga in the bookstores.

It’s nice that Marvel is trying, but I love this quote on the new marvel line, “It might have a little bit of a manga feel, only because right now that’s the ‘hot’ style in the current market for Marvel Age’s demographic, and we’d like to capitalize on that, but it’s not a manga line – it’s geared to getting new readers by offering the best stories and art that is the best match for both them.”

I think most kids in their demographic might be able to tell the difference between manga and “a manga feel.” And it will probably take a long time for the American comics industry to muster up the buzz, cool factor, and presence in chain bookstores that anime and manga currently has.