Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by retailer Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett talks about ideas for attracting readers to comic books:

In my last column I confessed to having committed the high crime of attempted market manipulation and promised that this week I’d reveal the kind of titles I’d “dictate” Marvel and DC to publish instead of what they’re doing now, which is publishing more superhero titles than the market can support.  It’ll come as no surprise to regular readers that I’d like to see a wider variety of genres but it’s more than my personal preferences at work here. By going “off genre” (romance, mystery, historical, adventure, etc.) you’d have the added benefits of a) offering something to fans that they aren’t already buying and b) might actually appeal to a larger bookstore audience once a series had been collected.

Of course we’re talking about Marvel and DC; if this is going to happen they’ll have to already own the characters for all these theoretical new titles, because until they change their contracts, no one is going to create a major new character for them.  OK, sure, Grant Morrison does it all the time, but as much as I’m looking forward to the first appearance of Big Atomic Lantern Boy in an upcoming issue of Final Crisis, he’s not a face that’ll launch a thousand lunchboxes.  More often than not he dons his miner’s helmet and starts digging through the substratum of the company’s archives, which is how DC’s little remembered and unmourned Spawn of Frankenstein was transformed into just plain Frankenstein, one of last year’s best comics.

But he’s just one man and there are so many characters. Just off the top of my head, DC has Jonny Peril, Hop Harrigan, Lady Danger, Astra, Tom Sparks Boy Inventor, Radar the International Policeman, and Tomahawk (with or without the Gorilla-Ranger).  And I’ve written too much already about how Marvel could move into the girl manga market via characters like Golden Girl, Sun Girl, Miss America (she’s sixteen, Muslim and wears a hoodie instead of a skintight outfit), and The Phantom Blonde (it’s Hannah Montana with a domino mask), if they’re done in the same style as Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.  But that’s not to say we couldn’t also welcome the return of Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal and Blaze the Wonder Collie (do I have to do everything myself -- he hunts zombies now, OK?).

To avoid future comments, it’s important to note that I don’t know if this would actually work or not, but it’s pretty clear what they’re doing now isn’t working either.  Plus I’m not blind to what the companies are doing now to create diversity.  Marvel has the Marvel Adventures/Illustrated lines; and while I know I quibbled over what Marvel was doing with its recently acquired European material, when I actually sat down and read an issue of the first release of their non-line (seriously, in olden days it would have been given some kind of high sounding but ultimately meaningless brand name), Sky-Doll, I found it reads pretty well at reduced size. And of course, DC gets a lot of credit for just publishing a new Tor miniseries.

Basically Marvel and DC are in denial and nothing is going to change until they first admit there’s a problem, and I’m not holding my breath.  In one of my previous columns I heralded the return of Chuck Dixon to DC, hoping it might signal a return to greatness, but after reading some of his online comments about the company after announcing his departure, it leads me to believe things aren’t just darker than we think.  They’re darker than we can think.

Exhibit #1, this panel (see above) from Action Comics #866; frankly, words fail me.

I’m still catching up on my magazines after my Las Vegas trip, but I did notice that the June 6th issue of Entertainment Weekly contained the article “Why I Hate Superheroes” by Chris Nashawaty.  It’s heavily illustrated and runs several pages, but Chris never actually gets around to saying why he hates superhero movies, other than he’s just not a comic book guy (though a sidebar establishes how much he “pines” to see the movie version of Watchmen) and there are too many of them coming out this summer (with which I really can’t disagree).

How ubiquitous has comic book awareness become?  In the June 13th issue of Entertainment Weekly in the Hit List feature (page 14 if you’re really that curious) #6 out of ten was this: “New comic will redefine relationship between Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.  Let’s just say there were some awkward moments in the Bat Cave’s “Jungle Room” around about 1974.”

Before this you’d have to go online to get this kind of smarmy, unnecessary sex joke about superheroes, but here it is in a glossy weekly magazine.  Plus, to add insult to injury, it doesn’t mention the comic, Trinity, by name.

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