Jim Brocius of Cosmic Comics in Las Vegas, Nevada saw the comments on the attempt to attract new readers to comics (see, for example, 'Tony Caputo of Now Comics on Comic Formats'), and shares his opinion that kids aren't the best candidates to become comic readers:
In the ten years I've been selling comics I don't think that I've made enough from sales to kids to pay even a single month of rent. And yet, I still manage to bring in new readers. Comics can and do continue to attract new readers, but it is my belief that the entry level age is later now. Many of my customers who enjoy comics did not come to comics as kids but as teenagers or adults. This seems logical to me for many reasons, not the least of which is the poor parenting which seems so prevalent in society today. I do not allow unsupervised children in my shop. I have a sign on the front door which proclaims 'Children (and some adults) must be supervised to Enter' and I cannot remember how many times I have been thanked by my clientele for posting it but it is a regular occurrence. On the rare occasions when a well-behaved child enters I want to GIVE that kid a comic. And I do. But trying to cultivate this group as readers seems like a lost cause to me if their parents/educators have not instilled a love of reading in them BEFORE they get here. To be sure, many of my customers do cultivate their children as lovers of reading and those kids are a pleasure indeed to see. But they are in the minority of their age group(s). I can and do try to help the parents and educators who work towards the goal of instilling a love of reading comics in children -- but I can't do it without them.
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