Actually I agree with Cliffy to a certain extent, at least in the long term. This lack of diversity is what makes the reading comic books to be considered a geek hobby, a label most people avoid. Most of this I think can be attributed to super-heroes, and to a lesser extent fantasy proper, dominating the medium.
Super-heroes are seen as being campy (thank you Batman TV show), something that most people don’t see as something they can develop a long term devotion to. Also it doesn’t matter what type of stories you write involving super-heroes, as long as super-heroes are in the story it’s not seen as being serious, or more specifically adult. I mean, comics are pretty much the only place where the protagonist is from another planet, gets a funky high from a yellow sun and can deflect bullets with his bare hands; that just doesn’t sound serious or adult.
Add to this the common perception of comics fans and you have a medium that most people won’t develop an interest in out of fear of guilt by association. Your average fan can rip off minutiae about super-hero universes and that’s a level of devotion that most people find to be odd, about a topic that most people consider trivial. And let’s be honest, when you go into a comics shop most people in there don’t look like varsity football players; there are a higher proportion of people than the normal population who look like they couldn’t get a date if they were shopping in the produce section of the supermarket (and they’re probably wearing Wolverine T-shirts). They don’t have to make up the majority of comics readers (and I don’t think it should matter even if they did), but they do fulfill the definition of geek and that’s something most people don’t want to associated with.
In terms of the comics industry as a self-contained industry it doesn’t look too promising either. Since comics is the only medium dominated by a genre, fantasy, or to be specific its subgenre, super-heroes, that doesn’t allow for a lot of variability in terms of what is published. Yes, smaller publishers may print more stuff that might be considered mainstream (thrillers, drama, etc.) but guys in tights dominate the market and you can bet that Oni would change its publishing to super-heroes in a NY Minute if they thought they could get the sales of Marvel or DC.
I fear that innovation is being choked out of the market. The majority of works that people declare to be innovative are still based in super-hero roots and are only exploring that subgenre, not breaking new ground outside of it (Watchmen, DKR). Maus was a Pulitzer prize winner and yet I’d be willing to bet that ninety percent of regular collectors have never read it and quite a few have never even heard of it. If there isn’t a heartier demand for innovation then there won’t be any innovative books published thus causing a glut of derivative material, more so than you see in other mediums, and actually I think this has already happened.
Take a look at this link to a comics market share chart: Diamond Comics Distributor. Publishers who primarily print fantasy and its subgenre super-heroes control over eighty percent of the market. Also take a look at the top twenty published comics and the top twenty graphic novels: super-heroes comprise 95% of the top comics, graphic novels do a bit better with (by my count) super-heroes comprising only 50%. Once you toss in all fantasy and sci-fi though the numbers hit 100%. Not a whole lot of variety there.
This also ties back into comics not being a medium desired by the average Joe in that if some guy walks in off the street into a comics store he’s not going to see a whole lot to interest him. Most people will simply be turned off by a lack of variety in their possible selection, and the fact that most of the available selection is fantasy won’t help matters either. Fantasy is decidedly uncool to most people unless it’s on a TV or movie screen.
I also have to mention that the average age of comics readers goes up and the number of comics readers keeps shrinking. Your average reader is now in his mid to late twenties, whereas forty years ago they hadn’t even hit their teen years. This all by itself does not bode well for the future of the industry.
This average age of the reader coupled with the tendency for the readers to be rabid about facts and details only makes matters worse. These two factors are what are leading publishers to print multiple issue, open ended story arcs that have to adhere to years of continuity. This means that if a guy off the street does walk into a shop and he actually picks up a book he’s likely going to be confused as to what’s going on (synopses in the front of books helps fight this, but the reader is probably still going to be disoriented). That’s not a reader who’s likely to come back. I could see this being fought somewhat if the industry moves away from 22 page comics towards graphic novels, and I suspect that one day we’re going to see that happen.
Now who knows, I could be completely wrong and the recent spate of successful super-hero movies may cause a huge spike in comics sales that shatters the old barriers associated with comic books. Or maybe there will be a giant surge in diversity that manages to overcome the geek stigmatism around comics and that will lead to higher sales. However, I suspect that any surge in sales due to movies will be temporary at best, lasting only a few years at most, and I don’t see any diversity surges in the near future either.
Marvel and DC will never fully disappear as long as they hold the rights to such icons as Spider-Man and Superman, and comics will never disappear as long as someone has the urge to draw a story, however comics as an industry I suspect is slowly drawing to a close.
