I was reorganizing my writing folder last week and found this forum post from 2018ish, and I think its observations are playing out. Subscribers, I’d love to hear what you think. Have you seen similar behaviors and attitudes? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
As a middle school teacher, one of the first lifehacks you earn is the knowledge that your students are magic oracles of future trends. My students were using Android phones long before any adult I knew. I’ve seen this play out over and over.
Here are trends that I am currently seeing related to comics.
First, the good news.
Given the choice, my students prefer to read sequential art. I have a class of very voracious readers, and yet my “Bone” books are the ones missing pages because they’ve been read so often.
Almost every student can name their favourite comic hero (especially if we include manga).
That said, here are the trends I believe will forever reshape the world of comics.
1) My students don’t care about physical things beyond their cell phones. This is the “declutter” generation. It is the generation that knows that they could get a piano for a song on Craigslist if they could convince their parents to pick it up. They do not collect for collecting sake (aside from Pokemon cards).
If they are going to buy a physical object, it needs to be “birthday present” worthy, with some sort of permanence: more a talisman of personality than a simple collectible.
Unfortunately, the 22-page comic is too fragile to fit this worldview. Of the 56 kids I’ve taught over the last two years, I can only think of two who might have purchased an actual comic book in floppy form.
2) My students are CHEAP - really, really, “why isn’t this free” sort of cheap. They’ve been raised in the era of “in-app purchases,” and even that they whine about (aside: If you want to wind up a middle school gamer, bring up “pay to win.”) The implication of this is that a four-dollar plus physical comic is just silly to virtually all of them, especially when they can most likely get it for free off the net for free if they “ask that friend.”
3) Art doesn’t matter; it’s the experience.
Sorry artists, but you know that meticulously drawn, full-color artwork that will make a good poster to sell at a con? Meh. Among my students, http://explosm.net/ rules (They don’t think I know, but I do. Ha!). And black and white Manga. They’ll giggle together over glorified stick figures but never stop to admire great inking or colouring.
Scott McCloud talks about how too much realism in the main character doesn’t allow the reader to put himself/herself into the story. I think he is on to something. It may be one of the reasons why Manga resonates with my students.
4) My students enjoy creating as much as consuming. I had a student obsessed with Hawkeye, but I doubt she’s ever purchased a 22-page comic. She takes what she’s learned from movies and the internet and spends HOURS writing fan fiction. Similarly, many of my students have YouTube channels. Remember, these are 11 to 13-year-olds I’m talking about. It goes back to the whole community and experience thing.
So, does this mean that comic books are on the verge of extinction? Maybe one day, at least the 22-page magazine “floppy” format. But that is just the format. And even that, not until all the 30-year-olds who love them pass away. I believe the digital revolution and associated societal changes will do to comics what it did to the music industry. It’s not that music went away, or even vinyl LPs; it’s just that its form and emphasis changed dramatically.
The good news is that the above can revolutionize the creator experience and increase the likelihood of earning a living by telling stories through sequential art. The key word seems to be “experience.”