Nick Smith of the Pasadena Public Library in Pasadena, California read Snow Wildsmith's recent Talk Back regarding comic books for kids (see "Snow Wildsmith on Comics for Kids") and shares his librarian experience on the subject.

Snow's commentary touched on some important points.  As another library person, and one who frequents three comics stores regularly, I have noticed something interesting:

Only one of the comics stores I go to has an actual display of monthly comics suitable for kids.  The other two don't even bother with a real display.  The second has a small display of comics and graphic novels for kids.  The third has a very prominent display of graphic novels for kids, but only a handful of comics, mostly from Archie.  All three have mentioned that monthly comics for kids are dying out.

Partly because the comics field moved away from having comics visible and available at non-specialty stores, many kids never got into the habit of buying monthly comics.  The revival of comics in the form of graphic novels has not led to a new generation of readers of monthly issues.  Now, the actual sales of comics for children are tiny.  Even a "successful" franchise like Tiny Titans sells very poorly in its monthly format.

The products from Random House, Scholastic, Kids Can Press and others that know what they're doing are much better quality [physically and creatively], and much better sellers than the comics for kids from DC or Marvel.  In addition, the bindings on many of the trade paperbacks from Marvel, especially, are unusually weak.  Our library system has had to give up on carrying the digest-sized Marvel books, because they simply fall apart after a short time.

Most of these non-traditional graphic novels are also non-superhero graphic novels.  There have been exceptions, including the Lunch Lady books, in which the lunch lady at a school cafeteria has super powers.  Mostly, though, the successful graphic novels for kids have been in a variety of styles and genres.  At our library, Bone, Amulet, Babymouse and Sonic the Hedgehog are the hot items, followed by Pokemon.  We get requests for superheroes, but not as many.

Marvel and/or DC could change things.  What they would need to do is to produce more kid-friendly superhero books in graphic novel form, with bindings durable enough for libraries, schools and parents to be happy with the results, and with stories good enough for the kids to enjoy.  Good Batman or Spider-Man graphic novels for kids would go a long way towards building a new generation of superhero fans.

The opinions expressed in this Talk Back are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.