Sideshow Vote II: What strange symbols on this piece of paper

[broodblik]

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." — Cicero

I have always been reading and my love for reading started when I started with comics. I cannot see a world without books. I still find it quite strange that it looks like people has just stopped this "art". Now this question is more about why children do not read comics anymore:
-   It is a culture thing parents don't and the children followed
-   Some parents still believe comics are "junk"
-   Too many distractions NetFlix, PlayStation, Switch etc.
-   The paper media is dead (and many of the comics are only available in paper format)
-   Too expensive
-   It is more to do with the distribution networks (availability)
-   Only nerds and weirdos read comics my children are in the first team of any sport
-   No way my children love comics
-   A combination of the above......
-   Something else people.......

[Colin YNWA]

Alas this answer is no use to you but

A little of them all!

[AlexF]

If you mean 'Why don't kids in the UK read newsagent-style comics any more in the big numbers they used to do in the 502/60s/70s', I think the answer is a relatively simple combination of a) too expensive (to make and print and then sell) and b) they can't compete with TV/YouTube

BUT I actually think that overall as many kids read some kind of comics today as ever did - it's just that these kids are older than before and tend to read the ones that look more like books, whether that's Manga or Dogman or Raina Telgemaier and the like. I don't have hard evidence for this but my experince in bookshops is that the comics section, for both adults and children, keeps getting bigger and bigger. I have seen hard (Nielsen) stats to show that Manga sales have gone mental in the last 2-3 years, matching the same explosions as in 2002-2005ish.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

My kids (now really adults) read comics. My eldest reads both the prog and the Meg each week/ month, as well as multiple Marvels. My youngest is more of a DC fan and reads whatever is put in front of her.

They've always read them. But then, they grew up in a house with 13000 comics freely available.

Are comics their "main thing"? No, that would be games, but they consider comics as legitimate as books, films and streamed tv shows- certainly neither have ever mentioned comics being something they should "grow out of".

But walking into WHSMITH, I see the main reason most kids don't read them: they are still plastic-wrapped shite that appeals to no one except the editorial team involved. I still can't quite see the logic of the media tie-in comics that choke up the shelves. Unlike when we were small, those media properties are available *at any time*. There's no waiting a week between installments, they are streamed, and can be accessed 24 hours a day. If a seven year old wants Ben10 or whatever- it's there with a click of a button, not once a week on Saturday mornings if mum and dad let the TV go on.

And anything that isn't a tie-in is shoved at the other end of the shop, where 2000AD (and, horribly, Monster Fun) sits with the adult mags- where the kids don't see them.

There are many other reasons of course, but I'm in a rush. And this kind of stuff makes me cross.

SBT

[Proudhuff]

-   It is a culture thing parents did so the children don't.

[Funt Solo]

Mini-Solo loves reading material of all formats, including comics and GNs. The "weekly anthology" format that I still enjoy doesn't really exist here in the US, though. So, that's not part of the table from which Mini-Solo can fill a plate.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

was in my local big bookshop this morning for the first time since the plague set in ... the 'grown-up' graphic novel section is about a quarter of the size of was the last time i was here - and is still mainly built around watchmen, maus and batman.
the ya and kids graphic novel section, however, has doubled in size. and manga - at least half of which seem to be funny and/or romantic in nature and definitely aimed at the teenage girls who were sat on the floor utterly engrossed - occupies dozens of shelves now.

ya graphic novels are everywhere now (i saw a whole shelf of various heartstopper volumes in sainsburys - albeit thanks to netflix).
as mentioned many times elsewhere in this parish, there's a fabulous weekly anthology comic aimed (roughly) at sprogs aged 6 to 12 or so that is well into its 500s now in terms of issues.

give the kids what they want and this art form is unbelievably popular.
tell them what they want, however, or bore them, or talk down to them, and they will rightly move on to something else.

simple, really.

No way my child loves comics

[broodblik]

Wednesday is the time when new symbols on paper are revealed

[broodblik]

Voting Closed

Basically it is something of everything