10 ms·

Garfield, Dilbert, Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes is about the extent of my comic repertoire Taking a 7 year old to a comic store is like tasking her to a pg 13

Garfield, Dilbert, Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes is about the extent of my comic repertoire Taking a 7 year old to a comic store is like tasking her to a pg 13 movie.. . Not too surprised it didn't work out. Comics tend to deal with adult themes and are aimed at older people.

cauterized 12y ago
When I was a kid, comics were for all ages. When my parents were kids, comics were for kids. That seems to have changed.
- xienze 12y ago
  Because kids don't read comics. When your demographic changes you have to adapt or die.
  - Vivtek 12y ago
    Back then, comics were ten cents. Now they're twenty bucks. Kids don't read stuff that costs twenty bucks.
    - xienze 12y ago
      Twenty bucks? Show me the regular run issue that costs that much. And it's not about the price, kids would much rather play with a tablet than read a comic (or go outside, even).
      - danielweber 12y ago
        The price still adds up. When I had tens of dollars a week of paper route money, it was easy to get a pile of 75 cent comics every month. I might just be an old grump, though.
  - cauterized 12y ago
    Do kids not read comics because they wouldn't be interested in them? Or do they not read them because they're no longer kid-friendly? Which is cause and which is effect?
    - xienze 12y ago
      Well, for the past 10 to 20 years kids have been reading comics less and less because they have TV and the Internet. Kids don't even go outside as much as they used to. Things change, and the comic book companies are adapting as best they can.
      - cauterized 12y ago
        Kids have had TV for 60 years.
        dragonwriter 12y ago
        > Kids have had TV for 60 years. Most haven't had TV with on-demand 24-hour access to child-targetted programming for nearly that long, however. And even less time have they had portable, go-anywhere screens with the same thing.
        surge 12y ago
        Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon not so much.
        cauterized 12y ago
        Nickelodeon's been around for 30. Cartoons or family oriented shows at all times when kids aren't in school, since the 1950s.
    - ashark 12y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book#The_Modern_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book#The_Modern... The shortened-to-the-point-that-it's-mostly-wrong version: Prices went up for a variety of reasons, ordinary stores stopped stocking them, and the only way the companies found to move enough issues to avoid total disaster was to target men in roughly the 14-40 age range through dedicated comic book shops, embracing, in the process, a sub-genre of "grittier" comic story lines that had gained some traction.
thret 12y ago
Archie, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Asterix, Tintin... Old comics, from the 1980's or earlier are pretty safe. These days the audience is 15+ guys. Soft porn and hardcore violence. Why would he take his 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son to look at that? For kids that young seeing is believing. My nephew at 6 watched Star Wars over Christmas. You explain that it isn't real, they are actors in a play, playing characters - he's been in several plays himself - and then later on he says 'but it must be real, because how could they make a whole planet?'.
- vidarh 12y ago
  > Why would he take his 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son to look at that? Presumably because he himself remembered how it used to be, and did not realise that the age bracket had shifted so dramatically. Even US comics used to be kid friendly.
  - rockdoe 12y ago
    Early(?) Simpsons had Bart going to the comic book store all the time, and he's a 10 year old. Sounds like that part of the show has now aged!
prof_hobart 12y ago
Taking her to that particular one might be, but my local one caters pretty well for the pre-teen girl market (as well as the more adult themed stuff). My daughter drags me in there every time we go into town.
mason240 12y ago
This is the moral panic of the religious right all over again. Just like during the 80s and 90s, this one is aimed at sanitizing all adult aspects of society and making everywhere a "family friendly" place.

cauterized 12y ago

When I was a kid, comics were for all ages. When my parents were kids, comics were for kids. That seems to have changed.

xienze 12y ago
Because kids don't read comics. When your demographic changes you have to adapt or die.
- Vivtek 12y ago
  Back then, comics were ten cents. Now they're twenty bucks. Kids don't read stuff that costs twenty bucks.
  - xienze 12y ago
    Twenty bucks? Show me the regular run issue that costs that much. And it's not about the price, kids would much rather play with a tablet than read a comic (or go outside, even).
    - danielweber 12y ago
      The price still adds up. When I had tens of dollars a week of paper route money, it was easy to get a pile of 75 cent comics every month. I might just be an old grump, though.
- cauterized 12y ago
  Do kids not read comics because they wouldn't be interested in them? Or do they not read them because they're no longer kid-friendly? Which is cause and which is effect?
  - xienze 12y ago
    Well, for the past 10 to 20 years kids have been reading comics less and less because they have TV and the Internet. Kids don't even go outside as much as they used to. Things change, and the comic book companies are adapting as best they can.
    - cauterized 12y ago
      Kids have had TV for 60 years.
      - dragonwriter 12y ago
        > Kids have had TV for 60 years. Most haven't had TV with on-demand 24-hour access to child-targetted programming for nearly that long, however. And even less time have they had portable, go-anywhere screens with the same thing.
      - surge 12y ago
        Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon not so much.
        cauterized 12y ago
        Nickelodeon's been around for 30. Cartoons or family oriented shows at all times when kids aren't in school, since the 1950s.
  - ashark 12y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book#The_Modern_Age https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book#The_Modern... The shortened-to-the-point-that-it's-mostly-wrong version: Prices went up for a variety of reasons, ordinary stores stopped stocking them, and the only way the companies found to move enough issues to avoid total disaster was to target men in roughly the 14-40 age range through dedicated comic book shops, embracing, in the process, a sub-genre of "grittier" comic story lines that had gained some traction.

thret 12y ago

Archie, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Asterix, Tintin... Old comics, from the 1980's or earlier are pretty safe. These days the audience is 15+ guys. Soft porn and hardcore violence. Why would he take his 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son to look at that? For kids that young seeing is believing. My nephew at 6 watched Star Wars over Christmas. You explain that it isn't real, they are actors in a play, playing characters - he's been in several plays himself - and then later on he says 'but it must be real, because how could they make a whole planet?'.

vidarh 12y ago
> Why would he take his 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son to look at that? Presumably because he himself remembered how it used to be, and did not realise that the age bracket had shifted so dramatically. Even US comics used to be kid friendly.
- rockdoe 12y ago
  Early(?) Simpsons had Bart going to the comic book store all the time, and he's a 10 year old. Sounds like that part of the show has now aged!

prof_hobart 12y ago

Taking her to that particular one might be, but my local one caters pretty well for the pre-teen girl market (as well as the more adult themed stuff). My daughter drags me in there every time we go into town.

mason240 12y ago

This is the moral panic of the religious right all over again. Just like during the 80s and 90s, this one is aimed at sanitizing all adult aspects of society and making everywhere a "family friendly" place.