Why are comic books so niche?

Like, most people know of superheroes through the movies, and even then, they only know a handful of comic heroes:

• Superman
• Batman
• Wonder Woman
• Flash
• Aquaman
• Green Lantern (And most people think that there is only one Green Lantern)
• Iron Man
• Wolverine
• Spider-Man (Fun fact: One of my stream friends confused Deadpool for Spider-Man)
• Fantastic Four
• Captain America
• Hulk
• Thor

And in terms of non-superhero stuff, most people only know of Archie and the gang. Not stuff like Archie's Sonic and Mega Man comics (okay, they're based off of video games which are about as niche as comic books). Yet despite this, comic books don't have much mainstream popularity to them. Why do you guys think this is?

comics were bigger once upon a time, but thanks to ignorant people needing a scapegoat, the Comics Code Authority was eventually formed which forbid comics from portraying certain things. A lot of comics genres disappeared at that time and basically only silver age superhero books remained. so basically they are all most people in america have known for decades, because they're the most mainstream.

even then, superhero books themselves, even ones with big names like batman attached, don't really sell that much. this is because with the proliferation of terrible grimdark storylines in the 90's, most children stopped picking up comics and passing the hobby on to the next generation.

comics have only very recently started to recover and other genres have been flourishing; the walking dead and scott pilgrim have been very successful, and other comics like sex criminals and saga, though not close to being enormous multi-media successes, have been gaining ground. even then, we still have a long ways to go.

this is not the case in europe or japan, which never had anything like the code. they have a lot more mainstream respect for authors, with people like Takehiko Inoue and Hergé being beloved national icons.

edited 29th Apr '15 7:19:23 PM by wehrmacht

It's a more complicated story than that.

The Code got rid of the horror and crime comics, but not the funny animal, teen and romance comics; and in the 70s horror comics came back (from titles like The Tomb of Dracula to stuff like House of Mystery, The Witching Hour, etc.)

By the early 90s most mainstream companies weren't publishing anything else but superheroes. And the superheroes were being targeted more and more at adults as well, so comic books became associated with nerds.

The alternative and underground comics scene, where the really interesting stuff is found, is not mainstream and thus, unknown to the general public excepting only the most well-known of the bunch. You can probably find somebody who's heard of Robert Crumb and maybe Art Spiegelman. Your chance to find someone who's heard of Daniel Clowes is somewhat lesser. The chance to find someone who's heard of Kim Deitch is far more lesser.

So, needless to say, that's why the art of comics is the way it is.

I dunno...I'd say the underground stuff is pretty niche too. At its best when it's satirical, but usually pretty self indulgent and self obsessed.

The majority of people are only going to be familiar with those characters who have been promoted across a wide variety of media. The ones that have had movies, cartoons, and tv shows as well as comics. 'Cuz the sad fact is, most people just don't read much.

Price and continuity. Versus other mediums and forms of entertainment, comics (at least American ones) are generally a bum deal since you're paying 3, sometimes even 4 dollars for 20 pages of story. And the nature of comics makes it hard to get into the story without investing a lot of time and work.

The other big factors are the fact that physical publishing has been in a downward spiral for a while (magazines and newspapers have been hit hard too) and the fact that most people don't like to go into comic shops.

One of the biggest factors is probably lack of access. Comics are really only sold through comic book shops, and only dedicated readers are going to go to those on a regular basis, and only if there's one located within a convenient distance.

Also, comics are really expensive. $4 for 20 pages is a lot. It's about 15 minutes of entertainment. It's a very expensive hobby.

There's also a perception of superhero comics being impossible to follow without reading all the older stories. This perception is supported by a lot of comic fans, who really should be working to dispel the idea. (And also talking up digital options for finding older comics - Marvel Unlimited has a fuckload of classic comics.)

A lot of people also associate comic books with superheroes, which limits the exposure of other genres.

The '90s hurt the industry a lot, too. There were so many gimmicks, and so much garbage, and the industry imploded and people stopped caring about them. But comics had been steadily declining for a long time even before that.

i THINK sales were doing better in the 80's before they plummeted? i'm not sure. i know tdkr and watchmen sold well, though i know that denny o neil and neal adams' batman run didn't do so well despite being pretty awesome.

This is probably a major part of it, compounded by the fact that 90% of the time anymore you need to invest in at least 3 or 4 issues to get a complete story.

Do comic books still have a space in bookstores?

Last I checked it's generally $4 for 32 pages, which is a better deal, but then again, comics are no longer printed on low-quality paper.

The big problem, though, is the near-total dominance of superheroes and the fact that most comic fans are satisfied with that. As late as the 70s DC and Marvel published stuff other than superheroes. Marvel even got in on the underground comics boom of the early 70s. But now - imagine them publishing anything else.

edited 30th Apr '15 4:26:31 AM by Aldo930

Isn't comics = superheroes an American thing mostly? Heck finding super hero comics in general store is almost hard over here <_<

So I can safely say that price is a big factor?

This might be a similar reason as to why Video Games are generally niche.

Bookstores are becoming less and less common, aren't they? Last time I've been in US it was a pain to find one. And that bookstore didn't seem to sell comics that weren't manga.

As for page count. I don't know how it is the indie industry, but the super hero stuff is definitively just 20 pages.

True, bookstores are sadly dying out, but I know that at the very least the Barnes and Nobles near where I live has a section set aside for comic books, which is independent of the section set aside for manga.

I wouldn't say video games are niche at all. It's a bigger industry than Hollywood at this point.

edited 30th Apr '15 9:15:38 AM by comicwriter

They're dying, but it's a slow death.

If superhero comics are just 20 pages, not counting the ads, then that's freaking highway robbery.

The industry standard is apparently supposed to be 32 pages... so either they've been scrimping on the pages or there's way too many ads.

In the US:

Average paperback novel: $8.00 - $10.00

Average manga volume: $10.00 - $13.00

Average comic tradeback: $15.00 to $20.00

There was a a bit of a page number difference for the last two. Manga had about 20 pages more.

edited 30th Apr '15 9:29:35 AM by Parable

Unfortunately, it's true. And it's been shifting downwards from when it was 22 pages not that long ago, alongside recently shifting the price upwards from $3 standard to $4 standard. It's not just Superhero comics, either.

Comic publishers are gradually charging people more for less product.

It's only a matter of time before they run out of pages to take away and hit a ceiling of how much people will pay.

And at the market's prime you could get an issue of Shonen Jump or Shojo Beat for around 5 dollars.

So basically for just 2 dollars more you got a phonebook-sized comic when DC and Marvel were still charing 3 dollars for 22 pages.

Jesus H. Christ. That's just highway robbery.

No wonder comics are niche.

comicwriter: It's a gray area for video games being popular. On the one hand: Film Appreciation is more widespread than that of video game appreciation. Plus we have the whole "Are Video Games Art?" debate. On the other hand: Mario, Pokemon, IOS games, Team Fortress, Final Fantasy, Halo, Call of Duty, GTA, Zelda, Assassin's Creed, and Madden are all popular (at least among my fellow high school students). I'm thinking all video game franchises. Most of them are more niche than others in the US.

I think most book stores do have a Graphic Novel section. Single issues are more-or-less gone from book stores. But yeah, book stores are dying out, so that's not much help.

The page count of comics varies a little bit. 20 pages of story has become the norm, but you get some comics that fit a couple extra in. But the days of 30+ pages is long gone, special issues aside.

So is it twenty pages to a comic not counting the ads, or just twenty pages of comics period?

Not counting ads. 20 pages of story.

it also leads to other problems; everyone complains about slower issues so it puts pressure on creators to have really fast-paced stories that get wrapped up very quickly, since they only have about 20 pages to work with every month.

The shared nature of super heroes stories don't help either. It is hard to do long time decompressed stories when you often need to tie in with the big events.