JeffHaas
Friday, July 16, 2010, 01:50 PM
Who We are
by Jeff Haas
In 1949, one of the very first examinations on the culture of comic book fans was conducted by Katherine M. Wolf and Marjorie Fiske, who were, "two social psychologists from the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research. The 1949 study, 'The Children Talk about Comics' was published in Communications Research," (Pustz 33). In this groundbreaking article, they suggested that comic book fans were, "nearly pathological in their attachment to comic books," (Pustz). Later, within the same article, Fiske and Wolfe would claim that, "children's interest in comics is patently violent and excessive...Once in possession of a comic book, the fan cannot stop reading," (Pustz). While this sounds like a relatively familiar and, invariably, innocuous accusation against comic book fans, further surmises by the psychologists become far harsher. Wolf and Fiske later describe the comic book fans as usually children of nonprofessionals who were, "unable to tell coherent stories...and used comic books to judge (and eventually reject) reality," (Pustz). They would later compare the fan's "addiction" similarly to that of morphine. There are probably numerous reasons why the psychologists concluded what they did about comic book fans. Variables, such as the relative newness of the medium, to a research bias against a predominantly male activity by two women professionals could easily explain the negative scope of the article. Either way, the article painted a singular view of the comic book reader circa the 1940's. But that was over sixty years ago. The content of those comics were far different then they are today in both tone and aim. Who are we today? How do the sales of today's comics reflect who we are? Lastly, this article will discuss the question of if there are certain groups excluded by the industry. By doing this, I believe we can have a greater insight into how to further grow the industry.
Some of the data that I found reveals about us exactly what we all probably have guessed already. The industry is one that is predominantly male driven. In fact, according to the research conducted by Valerie D'Orazio of the "Occassional Superheroine" website, approximately 90% of comic book fans are male. Curiously though, when a closer examination is partaken of the various traffic patterns of major comic book based websites such as DC Comics and Marvel, as tabulated by the site Quantcast.com, the numbers get very surprising. First you may be wondering, "What is Quantcast?" Quantcast is a website that is dedicated to, " [providing] detailed audience profiles for the advertising marketplace to learn more about what consumers are doing online," (Quancast.com). Assuming that their numbers are relatively accurate, the percentages of women who are visiting comic book related sites rises dramatically. According to Quantcast, the percentage of visiters who frequent the DC comics website that are female is 37%. That is almost four times the expected amount of females that are commonly expected to be purchasers of comics. Adding a level of validity to Quantcast's figure is the fact that Marvel's website is showing that 43% of their site hits are by women. Furthermore, two of the most popular online comic book stores, Mile High Comics and MyComicShop.com are also showing similar figures with Mile High receiving 34% of their hits by women and Mycomicshop with 31%. So how might we explain this divergence in demographics between online traffic by women and those of the comic book shops?
It is first important to throw out the idea that the numbers, as presented by Quantcast, could be inaccurate. Most of us who frequent comic book stores would not say that we see a third of the customers as being women. Keep in mind that sites like DC are paying Quantcast to tally their demographics in order to sell advertising on their sites and within their comic book pages. Having a larger percentage of women could conceivably help lure in more advertisers who are consequently willing to pay more for the space. But this is simply conjecture without any firm basis. There is a real possibility that these numbers by Quantcast are genuine. One observation made by Matthew Pustz is that, ”In most cases, women who enter stores quickly hurry out," (Pustz 8). Pustz continues by saying, "Women are turned off by comic shops' atmosphere. Female visitors become uncomfortable...as a result of gazes by male patrons....or by posters that frequently objectify women," (Pustz 8). This is what may make the online stores more attractive to women readers. They simply allow women to make their purchases in a more comfortable and relaxed manner. This may also explain the drastically higher hit counts on comic related sites, like Newsarama (34%). Women, just like men, want to discuss their favorite comic book and character(s) and seek the anonymity of the online medium to do so. Of course there are probably other women who enjoy all the attention they receive as being one of the few women on the website, but while remaining comfortably safe in their homes. Lastly, the popularity, or lack thereof, of comics such as Wonder Woman, is not necessarily a good barometer of what women may be seeking out to read. Just like men can be drawn by women dominated books like Witchblade due to its sex appeal, women could also be more inclined to buy the male dominated books. For this reason, the comic industry's attempt to lure more female readers by creating more female dominated books may not be the best solution. Content and marketing is probably the best method of luring in female readers. Perhaps stress the opportunity to buy the comics online and advertise the online sites in women frequented places and websites. Dark Horse comics, with over 40% of its hits by women, seems to be the best at this, probably due to their diversity of stories/content and genres. Maybe what this tells us is that comic store owners their male customers should attempt to be more hospitable to the women who enter their stores. They are fans just as we are. Let's try not to scare them.
Many of the other demographics of comic book readers also appear to buck the expected trend of who we are. According to CensusScope.org the percentage of people in the US who identify themselves as African American is 12.1, (http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html). Those of us, in the US, who identify themselves as hispanic is only slightly higher at 12.5%. Keep in mind that this census data is based on the figures from the 2000 census. The numbers can be expected to currently be noticeably higher. According again to Quantcast the percentage of African Americans who visit sites such as Marvel, DC, IDW, Superhype and Mycomicshop tends to consistantly range from 15-18%. The only deviations from this range are found at sites such as Mile High Comics (8%), Dark Horse (5%) and NewKadia (9%). So, in other words, the percentage of comic book readers who are African American surpasses that of the overall population in this country. The percentage of those who identify themselves as hispanic, who frequent comic book based sites, and thus are potentially readers, tends to have great varience depending on which site one looks at. For instance comic book buyer sites like Mycomicshop and NewKadia tends to remain close to the national population averages with 11% and 13% respectively. Mile High deviates again with only 6%, probably because of their higher prices. The publisher websites like DC and Marvel show a range between 9% for Dark Horse to 16% with Marvel. Again this averages out close to the nation's average. Sites just discussing comics like SuperHype tend to maintain this trend. It should be noted that I do not have ANY averages for either African Americans or Hispanics who frequent comic book stores. Along with the percentage of people who identify as being Asian nationally, (3.5%), also being close to the figures that I saw when viewed Quantcast, it seems that the comic book reading holds consistant within a population regardless of race. This really surprised me because according to Grist.org, the percentage of African Americans and Hispanics who live below the poverty line is about 24%. Most estimates of comic book readers suggest that the vast majority of readers are either from families, or who themselves, are making north of $30,000 a year or in other words, well above the poverty line. This seems to suggest that many people who are below the poverty line are still finding a way to buy comics. Again this could be the difference, like with women, of those who are interested in collecting comics, but are not actually reading comics at this time. One way of looking at this is that there is a great wealth of potential readers out there who would be buying comics if they were more affordable. Websites like Mycomicshop and Newkadia tend to be less expensive with their back issue comics which could explain their higher then expected figures.
The final list of numbers we will look at before we take a look at what this all means, suggests that the majority of readers are between the ages of 18-39, (http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/05/10/superhero-comic-reader-stats/), tend to be single, without children, educated and with a disposeable income. Again these numbers are what I, and probably many others expected these numbers to be. It makes sense that those of us who are buying comics are doing so because we can afford to spend the money on them. We can afford to because we have disposeable income, probably due to the fact that we tend to be single with no children, which means no mouths to feed or other financial responsibilities. We continue to buy comics because we can. For a brief look at the numbers, most sites show that at least two-thirds, with the exception of Marvel, of people visiting these sites have no children. The tabulations also reveal that 75% of visiters have incomes that are above $30k. The only factor that does not seem particularly weighted on one side or the other is education with the numbers split almost 50/50 between those with no college and those who are either college grad or grad school level. So what does this mean from the standpoint of content and sales?
As far as content is concerned, current trends seem to follow the expected path, considering the demographics with sales figures favoring a darker more serious tone to the comics. Over at DC the Blackest Night storyline was a major player in the sales charts, increasing any title that came into contact with it. Sales of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps showed an almost doubling in its sales from prior to the kick-off of the event. For instance Green Lantern #30 had sold roughly 65,000 copies while GL #43 sold over 105,000 copies. The event itself was also a massive success, not only eclipsing that of Marvel's Siege, but easily surpassing that of Final Crisis. The first issue of Final Crisis sold over 145,000 copies while Black Night #1 sold over 177,000. And before anyone notes the higher anticipation to Blackest Night, they should remember that not only was Final Crisis sporting the writing of Grant Morrison, but people also knew it would feature the "death" of Batman and the culmination of storylines that began way back in Identity Crisis. I would consider Blackest Night a far darker storyline then Final Crisis. Grant Morrison's writing tends towards a weird factor, but one that skews younger. For instance, adding the Legion of Super Heroes and their "Miracle Machine". A similar trend appears at Marvel where their most recent event book, "Siege" has not performed as well as the more serious events such as Secret Invasion and Civil War. This is not to say that the grimmer the comic the better it will sell. Just one look at the recent trend of DC''s Vertigo line is enough proof that comics bearing the mature label are simply not selling. Fables is in danger of very shortly falling below 20k in sales for the first time in its history, just like Hellblazer is expected to fall below 10k in sales in a month or two. On the other hand, titles that are considered lighter fare like Superman and Spiderman are slipping horribly in its sales. For that matter so are Wonder Woman(excluding the 600 gimmick issue), Deadpool, and Fantastic Four are plummeting down the charts. Action comics, according to The Beat, are experiancing sales that are over 45% below where they were at this point five years ago. Superman comics are 70% down and are also in danger of falling below 30k in sales. Action Comics fell below that mark several months ago. Wonder Woman, even with its march to issue 600, has sales that are only selling 25,000 copies, but are at least merely down 12.5% from five years ago. The trend continues at DC with its Supergirl and Batgirl comics. One title that does seem on the move, finally, at DC, is Green Arrow, a character whose most recent storyline has him as a fugitive in the eyes of the law and fellow superheroes following his murder of Prometheus. Prometheus had just badly injured Green Arrow's former sidekick, Red Arrow. A far darker storyline for the character.
Over at Marvel, sales of Amazing Spiderman are barely holding above 50k. Its May sales are at 53k. Fantastic Four is selling at merely 35,000 copies and Deadpool, with all its hype has fallen to 43,000 copies. Further evidence that the audiance leans towards darker matieral is apparent when one looks at Captain America. While Bucky/Winter Soldier has led the title as a more violent version of Captain America, sales of Captain America had been the best it has been in years as discussed in detail in Issues article, "The Relaunch". Comics that are even more oriented towards children and lighter fare like those from Johnny DC sell so poorly that The Beat normally adds a disclaimer noting them as children's comics to explain why they are allowed to survive with sales so low. For instance Billy Batson & the Magic of Shazam sells just over 4,000 copies a month. As far as independent comics are concerned those that sell the best are also more adult in nature like the very serious Walking Dead comic, Hellboy and Dynamite's The Boys. In other words, while a successful comic currently is one that does not have a Mature label attached to it, the ones that are the most popular tend towards darker and more mature sensibilities, though with a flare for superhero action. In other words they are modeled for people who are normally educated and are over twenty years of age.
So what do these demographics tell us about how comics should be marketed to increase their readership? I think the most sensible way of reading the demographics suggests that there are more potential readers who are either women, African American or Hispanic. They are interested in comic book characters but who may not be buying the comics. Also, considering that 24% of African Americans and Hispanics live below the poverty line, perhaps there are not enough comic book store to which they can have access. Since comic book store owners, reasonably, are looking to place themselves within an area which presents their largest customer pool, it would make sense that few would spring up in lower income areas. To combat this issue, I would suggest that comic book publishers, mainly DC and Marvel (because they can afford to do it), should 1) lesson the cover cost of their comics. In doing this, it is true, that their profit margins would go down drastically. Ideally, however, they would recoup their profits by selling in volume. In other words, there would be more people buying their titles. This would be a major boon to the comic book industry. The more readers there are the more stores that spring up. This would also help inch comics towards acceptance in the mainstream community which would not only the business side of comics, but could lend itself to improving the diversity of comics. For those of you who like the idea that comics are a fringe hobby, I ask you to think on the fact that more readers would bring in new comic book companies. Having new and bolder voices in the industry is a good thing. According to recent reports, the Hasting company is already moving in this direction by bringing in comics into many of their stores, making them the largest comic book chain in the country. The second step is for Diamond Distributors to increase the profit margins that comic store owners receive on the comics they sell. This would allow for more comic book stores to spring up, which would give access to more people who would have a comic store in their immediate vicinity.
The other thing that the demographics tells us is that comics reach the primary audiences that advertisers want. When one looks at ratings for television shows the important numbers advertisers look at is the 18-34 age group, especially women who are expected to be higher spenders then men. Comics reach that audience. They are also reaching those with a disposeable income. It is important for companies to realize that fact. The more widely known these demographics become, the more likely it is that comic books will be able to charge more money for ad space in their comics. Comics are a business like any other, and money is its lifeblood..like it or not.
In the end, what the demographics atest to is that you and I are not alone. There are many fans of comics out there and probably many more who are just waiting for the opportunity to come aboard, budget and convenience permitting. Not only that, but comics appear to reach across race relatively equally. A good story is universal.
Biblio:
Pustz, Matthew. Comic Book Culture. University of Press Mississippi. 1999.
Johanna. "Superhero Comic book Reader Stats". http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/05/10/superhero-comic-reader-stats/
Occassional Superheroine. http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2008/01/demographics-of-mainstream-comic-book.html
Quancast. http://www.quantcast.com
Censusscope. http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html
Grist. http://www.grist.org/article/poverty1
All sales figures provided by Comic Chronicles. http://www.comichron.com/
The Beat: http://www.comicsbeat.com/category/news/sales-charts-news/
Next article: How Far We've Come. Where we will look at the progress comics have made in the world from College accredited courses, to mainstream awards, and where there is left to go in our battle for respect.
by Jeff Haas
In 1949, one of the very first examinations on the culture of comic book fans was conducted by Katherine M. Wolf and Marjorie Fiske, who were, "two social psychologists from the Columbia University Bureau of Applied Social Research. The 1949 study, 'The Children Talk about Comics' was published in Communications Research," (Pustz 33). In this groundbreaking article, they suggested that comic book fans were, "nearly pathological in their attachment to comic books," (Pustz). Later, within the same article, Fiske and Wolfe would claim that, "children's interest in comics is patently violent and excessive...Once in possession of a comic book, the fan cannot stop reading," (Pustz). While this sounds like a relatively familiar and, invariably, innocuous accusation against comic book fans, further surmises by the psychologists become far harsher. Wolf and Fiske later describe the comic book fans as usually children of nonprofessionals who were, "unable to tell coherent stories...and used comic books to judge (and eventually reject) reality," (Pustz). They would later compare the fan's "addiction" similarly to that of morphine. There are probably numerous reasons why the psychologists concluded what they did about comic book fans. Variables, such as the relative newness of the medium, to a research bias against a predominantly male activity by two women professionals could easily explain the negative scope of the article. Either way, the article painted a singular view of the comic book reader circa the 1940's. But that was over sixty years ago. The content of those comics were far different then they are today in both tone and aim. Who are we today? How do the sales of today's comics reflect who we are? Lastly, this article will discuss the question of if there are certain groups excluded by the industry. By doing this, I believe we can have a greater insight into how to further grow the industry.
Some of the data that I found reveals about us exactly what we all probably have guessed already. The industry is one that is predominantly male driven. In fact, according to the research conducted by Valerie D'Orazio of the "Occassional Superheroine" website, approximately 90% of comic book fans are male. Curiously though, when a closer examination is partaken of the various traffic patterns of major comic book based websites such as DC Comics and Marvel, as tabulated by the site Quantcast.com, the numbers get very surprising. First you may be wondering, "What is Quantcast?" Quantcast is a website that is dedicated to, " [providing] detailed audience profiles for the advertising marketplace to learn more about what consumers are doing online," (Quancast.com). Assuming that their numbers are relatively accurate, the percentages of women who are visiting comic book related sites rises dramatically. According to Quantcast, the percentage of visiters who frequent the DC comics website that are female is 37%. That is almost four times the expected amount of females that are commonly expected to be purchasers of comics. Adding a level of validity to Quantcast's figure is the fact that Marvel's website is showing that 43% of their site hits are by women. Furthermore, two of the most popular online comic book stores, Mile High Comics and MyComicShop.com are also showing similar figures with Mile High receiving 34% of their hits by women and Mycomicshop with 31%. So how might we explain this divergence in demographics between online traffic by women and those of the comic book shops?
It is first important to throw out the idea that the numbers, as presented by Quantcast, could be inaccurate. Most of us who frequent comic book stores would not say that we see a third of the customers as being women. Keep in mind that sites like DC are paying Quantcast to tally their demographics in order to sell advertising on their sites and within their comic book pages. Having a larger percentage of women could conceivably help lure in more advertisers who are consequently willing to pay more for the space. But this is simply conjecture without any firm basis. There is a real possibility that these numbers by Quantcast are genuine. One observation made by Matthew Pustz is that, ”In most cases, women who enter stores quickly hurry out," (Pustz 8). Pustz continues by saying, "Women are turned off by comic shops' atmosphere. Female visitors become uncomfortable...as a result of gazes by male patrons....or by posters that frequently objectify women," (Pustz 8). This is what may make the online stores more attractive to women readers. They simply allow women to make their purchases in a more comfortable and relaxed manner. This may also explain the drastically higher hit counts on comic related sites, like Newsarama (34%). Women, just like men, want to discuss their favorite comic book and character(s) and seek the anonymity of the online medium to do so. Of course there are probably other women who enjoy all the attention they receive as being one of the few women on the website, but while remaining comfortably safe in their homes. Lastly, the popularity, or lack thereof, of comics such as Wonder Woman, is not necessarily a good barometer of what women may be seeking out to read. Just like men can be drawn by women dominated books like Witchblade due to its sex appeal, women could also be more inclined to buy the male dominated books. For this reason, the comic industry's attempt to lure more female readers by creating more female dominated books may not be the best solution. Content and marketing is probably the best method of luring in female readers. Perhaps stress the opportunity to buy the comics online and advertise the online sites in women frequented places and websites. Dark Horse comics, with over 40% of its hits by women, seems to be the best at this, probably due to their diversity of stories/content and genres. Maybe what this tells us is that comic store owners their male customers should attempt to be more hospitable to the women who enter their stores. They are fans just as we are. Let's try not to scare them.
Many of the other demographics of comic book readers also appear to buck the expected trend of who we are. According to CensusScope.org the percentage of people in the US who identify themselves as African American is 12.1, (http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html). Those of us, in the US, who identify themselves as hispanic is only slightly higher at 12.5%. Keep in mind that this census data is based on the figures from the 2000 census. The numbers can be expected to currently be noticeably higher. According again to Quantcast the percentage of African Americans who visit sites such as Marvel, DC, IDW, Superhype and Mycomicshop tends to consistantly range from 15-18%. The only deviations from this range are found at sites such as Mile High Comics (8%), Dark Horse (5%) and NewKadia (9%). So, in other words, the percentage of comic book readers who are African American surpasses that of the overall population in this country. The percentage of those who identify themselves as hispanic, who frequent comic book based sites, and thus are potentially readers, tends to have great varience depending on which site one looks at. For instance comic book buyer sites like Mycomicshop and NewKadia tends to remain close to the national population averages with 11% and 13% respectively. Mile High deviates again with only 6%, probably because of their higher prices. The publisher websites like DC and Marvel show a range between 9% for Dark Horse to 16% with Marvel. Again this averages out close to the nation's average. Sites just discussing comics like SuperHype tend to maintain this trend. It should be noted that I do not have ANY averages for either African Americans or Hispanics who frequent comic book stores. Along with the percentage of people who identify as being Asian nationally, (3.5%), also being close to the figures that I saw when viewed Quantcast, it seems that the comic book reading holds consistant within a population regardless of race. This really surprised me because according to Grist.org, the percentage of African Americans and Hispanics who live below the poverty line is about 24%. Most estimates of comic book readers suggest that the vast majority of readers are either from families, or who themselves, are making north of $30,000 a year or in other words, well above the poverty line. This seems to suggest that many people who are below the poverty line are still finding a way to buy comics. Again this could be the difference, like with women, of those who are interested in collecting comics, but are not actually reading comics at this time. One way of looking at this is that there is a great wealth of potential readers out there who would be buying comics if they were more affordable. Websites like Mycomicshop and Newkadia tend to be less expensive with their back issue comics which could explain their higher then expected figures.
The final list of numbers we will look at before we take a look at what this all means, suggests that the majority of readers are between the ages of 18-39, (http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/05/10/superhero-comic-reader-stats/), tend to be single, without children, educated and with a disposeable income. Again these numbers are what I, and probably many others expected these numbers to be. It makes sense that those of us who are buying comics are doing so because we can afford to spend the money on them. We can afford to because we have disposeable income, probably due to the fact that we tend to be single with no children, which means no mouths to feed or other financial responsibilities. We continue to buy comics because we can. For a brief look at the numbers, most sites show that at least two-thirds, with the exception of Marvel, of people visiting these sites have no children. The tabulations also reveal that 75% of visiters have incomes that are above $30k. The only factor that does not seem particularly weighted on one side or the other is education with the numbers split almost 50/50 between those with no college and those who are either college grad or grad school level. So what does this mean from the standpoint of content and sales?
As far as content is concerned, current trends seem to follow the expected path, considering the demographics with sales figures favoring a darker more serious tone to the comics. Over at DC the Blackest Night storyline was a major player in the sales charts, increasing any title that came into contact with it. Sales of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps showed an almost doubling in its sales from prior to the kick-off of the event. For instance Green Lantern #30 had sold roughly 65,000 copies while GL #43 sold over 105,000 copies. The event itself was also a massive success, not only eclipsing that of Marvel's Siege, but easily surpassing that of Final Crisis. The first issue of Final Crisis sold over 145,000 copies while Black Night #1 sold over 177,000. And before anyone notes the higher anticipation to Blackest Night, they should remember that not only was Final Crisis sporting the writing of Grant Morrison, but people also knew it would feature the "death" of Batman and the culmination of storylines that began way back in Identity Crisis. I would consider Blackest Night a far darker storyline then Final Crisis. Grant Morrison's writing tends towards a weird factor, but one that skews younger. For instance, adding the Legion of Super Heroes and their "Miracle Machine". A similar trend appears at Marvel where their most recent event book, "Siege" has not performed as well as the more serious events such as Secret Invasion and Civil War. This is not to say that the grimmer the comic the better it will sell. Just one look at the recent trend of DC''s Vertigo line is enough proof that comics bearing the mature label are simply not selling. Fables is in danger of very shortly falling below 20k in sales for the first time in its history, just like Hellblazer is expected to fall below 10k in sales in a month or two. On the other hand, titles that are considered lighter fare like Superman and Spiderman are slipping horribly in its sales. For that matter so are Wonder Woman(excluding the 600 gimmick issue), Deadpool, and Fantastic Four are plummeting down the charts. Action comics, according to The Beat, are experiancing sales that are over 45% below where they were at this point five years ago. Superman comics are 70% down and are also in danger of falling below 30k in sales. Action Comics fell below that mark several months ago. Wonder Woman, even with its march to issue 600, has sales that are only selling 25,000 copies, but are at least merely down 12.5% from five years ago. The trend continues at DC with its Supergirl and Batgirl comics. One title that does seem on the move, finally, at DC, is Green Arrow, a character whose most recent storyline has him as a fugitive in the eyes of the law and fellow superheroes following his murder of Prometheus. Prometheus had just badly injured Green Arrow's former sidekick, Red Arrow. A far darker storyline for the character.
Over at Marvel, sales of Amazing Spiderman are barely holding above 50k. Its May sales are at 53k. Fantastic Four is selling at merely 35,000 copies and Deadpool, with all its hype has fallen to 43,000 copies. Further evidence that the audiance leans towards darker matieral is apparent when one looks at Captain America. While Bucky/Winter Soldier has led the title as a more violent version of Captain America, sales of Captain America had been the best it has been in years as discussed in detail in Issues article, "The Relaunch". Comics that are even more oriented towards children and lighter fare like those from Johnny DC sell so poorly that The Beat normally adds a disclaimer noting them as children's comics to explain why they are allowed to survive with sales so low. For instance Billy Batson & the Magic of Shazam sells just over 4,000 copies a month. As far as independent comics are concerned those that sell the best are also more adult in nature like the very serious Walking Dead comic, Hellboy and Dynamite's The Boys. In other words, while a successful comic currently is one that does not have a Mature label attached to it, the ones that are the most popular tend towards darker and more mature sensibilities, though with a flare for superhero action. In other words they are modeled for people who are normally educated and are over twenty years of age.
So what do these demographics tell us about how comics should be marketed to increase their readership? I think the most sensible way of reading the demographics suggests that there are more potential readers who are either women, African American or Hispanic. They are interested in comic book characters but who may not be buying the comics. Also, considering that 24% of African Americans and Hispanics live below the poverty line, perhaps there are not enough comic book store to which they can have access. Since comic book store owners, reasonably, are looking to place themselves within an area which presents their largest customer pool, it would make sense that few would spring up in lower income areas. To combat this issue, I would suggest that comic book publishers, mainly DC and Marvel (because they can afford to do it), should 1) lesson the cover cost of their comics. In doing this, it is true, that their profit margins would go down drastically. Ideally, however, they would recoup their profits by selling in volume. In other words, there would be more people buying their titles. This would be a major boon to the comic book industry. The more readers there are the more stores that spring up. This would also help inch comics towards acceptance in the mainstream community which would not only the business side of comics, but could lend itself to improving the diversity of comics. For those of you who like the idea that comics are a fringe hobby, I ask you to think on the fact that more readers would bring in new comic book companies. Having new and bolder voices in the industry is a good thing. According to recent reports, the Hasting company is already moving in this direction by bringing in comics into many of their stores, making them the largest comic book chain in the country. The second step is for Diamond Distributors to increase the profit margins that comic store owners receive on the comics they sell. This would allow for more comic book stores to spring up, which would give access to more people who would have a comic store in their immediate vicinity.
The other thing that the demographics tells us is that comics reach the primary audiences that advertisers want. When one looks at ratings for television shows the important numbers advertisers look at is the 18-34 age group, especially women who are expected to be higher spenders then men. Comics reach that audience. They are also reaching those with a disposeable income. It is important for companies to realize that fact. The more widely known these demographics become, the more likely it is that comic books will be able to charge more money for ad space in their comics. Comics are a business like any other, and money is its lifeblood..like it or not.
In the end, what the demographics atest to is that you and I are not alone. There are many fans of comics out there and probably many more who are just waiting for the opportunity to come aboard, budget and convenience permitting. Not only that, but comics appear to reach across race relatively equally. A good story is universal.
Biblio:
Pustz, Matthew. Comic Book Culture. University of Press Mississippi. 1999.
Johanna. "Superhero Comic book Reader Stats". http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/05/10/superhero-comic-reader-stats/
Occassional Superheroine. http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2008/01/demographics-of-mainstream-comic-book.html
Quancast. http://www.quantcast.com
Censusscope. http://www.censusscope.org/us/map_nhblack.html
Grist. http://www.grist.org/article/poverty1
All sales figures provided by Comic Chronicles. http://www.comichron.com/
The Beat: http://www.comicsbeat.com/category/news/sales-charts-news/
Next article: How Far We've Come. Where we will look at the progress comics have made in the world from College accredited courses, to mainstream awards, and where there is left to go in our battle for respect.