Since I started working from home due to Covid, I am able to listen to a lot of podcasts/youtubers. I was listening to Nerdrotic and he was talking about that new Emilia Clarke comic book, and of course she mentioned that there isn't enough "representation" of comic book creators and said that the ratio of male and female comic book fans is 50/50. Nerdrotic said that the 50/50 stat comes from a facebook poll from a few years back. It honestly sounds like the whole "women make up half of the gaming population" they try to push. Does anyone know the actual stats on comic books?
He was saying that when he owned a comic book shop that at most (and this was with him actively trying to market to women) it was a 70/30 ratio which sounds more accurate to me. There have always been women interested in nerd/geek stuff, but for some reason companies started to think it was a good idea to ignore the mostly male fanbase and cater to women exclusively.
I enjoyed the MCU movies (don't care to watch any more of them) but one downside was that all of a sudden everyone became a comic book fan. I can't tell you how many comic book groups I used to be in only to find out that being a "big comic book fan" only meant that you saw a few MCU movies. It can't be a coincidence that all of a sudden you saw a massive rise of fangirls who claim to have been fans all their lives and talk about evil white nerds and gatekeeping.
I know I have heard the phrase "women ruined comic books" but I would say hiring men and women who are clueless/don't respect the lore/downright hate comic books to write comic books or direct comic book movies is what ruined them. At least there are independent comics still around but we will probably never get another Kirby or Stan Lee on a mainstream level. Marvel will just keep doing workshops to get girls into comic books.
So with my original question, what would you say the ratio is? I would say it skews way more male once you get into the hard core collectors who have stacks of long boxes full of comic books. I personally have only met one woman who is a hard core collector. Like I said, there have always been women in the hobby, but a major red flag is a man or woman who can't shut up about representation. If only I could go back 15 years and warn nerds to beware of the "gospel of representation".
And for all their talk about representation they make things worse by giving jobs to people who seem to hate comics. I’m black and I get wary of any new black comic book writer that is inevitably touted because most likely they will turn some character into a platform. Same goes with females or other minorities. So I would imagine that I’m not the only one that is wary. But this is what happens when you don’t hire people based on merit.
I miss the days of characters like John Stewart. I ended up liking him a bit more than Hal Jordan, but we can't have that nowadays without some forced messaging.
Agreed. I enjoy his comic books along with Hal Jordan. I used to want to see him in a live action movie but they will just use him as a “platform”.
It's definitely making things more divisive and lower quality. They'll try to turn an established hero non-white or gay, or create some after school special, weak, new minority superhero that no one could like, with no real character, or just make the minority a clone of the original with a slightly different costume. They're giving jobs to activists and people who can't write and won't attract minority readers or even keep White readers. I don't know what the breakdown is racially for shops, but it is predominately White from what I have seen in readers, though i know South Americans like their comics too, and Asians especially, so there might be a little something to just not appealing to what would otherwise be readers. But then the minorities should/could make their own stuff. And they do, and always have. There are not only established female writers but Black ones too, and a lot of Black artists that these ratio concerned types keep ignoring. Also Black characters created by Whites. I for one am still looking forward to more Spawn. There are other characters already existing too that could be beefed up, they wouldn't even have to create new ones. I think what's going on is the same as what sort of happened with cartoon network, people hiring friends/people they slept with and the writing and fans suffering; no qualified people, minority or otherwise getting in.
Spawn was awesome. I saw plenty of ppl of all colors buying the comic.
Unfortunately they hire not only by skin color but also by ideology. So they will not hire someone of color who loves comic books and has talent but they will hire a person of color with strong ideological convictions that is ok with making comic books.