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Monday, October 25, 2004
Keeping it Casual
In my life I’ve had a few friends who have enjoyed comics as much as I do. Most of them are not like me, making that weekly trek into the comic book store and buying a few single issues to read for the rest of the week. Instead the majority of them are casual comic book fans. Most of the commentary about fandom describes those who arrive at the Direct Market store of their choice once (or more!) a week. That is probably who the major publishers of American comics are thinking of when they come up with what they think will sell. That certainly makes sense in some ways, but I think we should take a look at those who enjoy comics without such an intensity of purchasing and activity. Instead of painting with a broad brush and trying to come up with a Webster’s-worthy definition of what a casual comic book fan is, let me just describe to you what the friends who I feel fall into this category are like.
The first thing to notice is that the majority of them are reading comics through collected editions and graphic novels. They buy them through bookstores or some of the better comic book stores around them. Guess which is easier to find and drive to. A lot are reading these books because they borrowed them from a friend, either a fellow casual fan or someone who is more into comics. The books are bought usually about once to three times a year. The reason for buying them will usually be because they recognize the content from somewhere else or simply they liked what they saw in the store. Using strictly anecdotal evidence from experience with my small group of friends I can say that some of the more popular books are Preacher (and some other Garth Ennis stuff, like Punisher), Dan Clowes’ stuff, Maus (one of my friend’s parents actually owned this one), Tony Millionaire’s stuff, Frank Miller’s work like Dark Knight Returns and Sin City (a case of my casual friend knowing more about a title than me, not the last time this would happen), Hellboy, Watchmen and the Simpsons comics from Bongo. Something else that’s popular is the work of Jhonen Vasquez but for the life of me I’ll never understand the appeal of that.
That isn’t to say that it is always about graphic novels/trade paperbacks. I had one of my casual friends actually turn me onto Demo before I even knew about it. We were already shopping at the magnificently large Amoeba Music on Sunset when I suggested we also go to Meltdown Comics down the street. My friend didn’t read a lot of comics but was a toy fan so it was a go. When we got there I was looking through the Amy & Jordan book while my friend was discovering a new title that just came out a few months ago. She asked me if I had any idea what it was and I said no. She bought up the first and the third issues and seemed to really like them. The next month I would buy the second and fourth issues for her ay my store (she didn’t have time to make it to another comic book store any time soon) and found it to be a book that could be pretty good sometimes. I suppose it doesn’t always have to be the rabid comic fan that has to foist books onto his/her friends.
I suppose I bring this type of fan up because many publishers and other comic fans want to “convert outsiders” to the world of comics. Not an impossible task but I doubt one would find such luck getting a ton of folks to start changing their schedules so every Wednesday lunch break is a run to the comic shop. Instead of casual fans going that way I can see a lot more rabid comic fan going the way of the casual friends I have described above. Again I should say this hardly describes all casual fans. If anyone has any stories like these but are a little different I would love for you to share them.
P.S. This is a good site.
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