I went to the sports cards shop today (usually go about twice a month) and it is next to the comic book store which is great for me. After I got some cards I went to the comic book store and went to the back issue section. This store has a small Manga section and the rest is mostly back issues. As always it was myself and some other dudes going through long boxes. It is like that pretty much every time. A bunch of guys around my age (maybe the youngest being in their 30s) going through long boxes. There is another bigger comic shop near me (haven't been since they had day for women and "non-male genders") that had a big Manga and tabletop sections that had a number of young people and the main product for women is the Manga section.
Every time I'm at the comic book store I can't help but wonder if anyone at Disney Marvel has ever been to a comic book store. Heck, do any of the people in charge of DC/Marvel ever go to any shops. Can't help but chuckle every time I think about some executive saying "look at the overwhelming number of dudes buying comics, clearly that means we need to market to teenage girls". Reminds me of the line by Eric July that modern comics are made for 14 year old girls on Tumbler who don't read comics.
Kind of the same annoyance as when I see those rom-coms or Christmas rom-coms (I make sure to support the Great American Family channel) and you see how they churn out content that is aimed to what women enjoy and nobody is brought in to subvert, you never see an ugly dude in those movies either.
Oh well, like I said it is silly to get annoyed and at least I know where to get older stuff. Like the used bookstore nearby has a ton of old sci-fi and fantasy.
It's annoying because you're a fair minded person. You can see the unfairness and the hypocrisy of these subversive elements, and because your a decent and moral person it irks you. Sorry I didn't mean to speak for you, but that's how I see it.
They attacked the boy scouts and they bent but the girl scouts said girls deserve their own spaces. You being a fair person would say let everyone have their own spaces, and mix spaces, let everyone have the freedom to pick. These fuckers hate freedom because freedom saps their control
Remember the sob stories where women would cry about being the only girl in a comic book store and some “evil nerd” harassed her (aka asked her what comics she likes). Or crying about video games. I remember back then thinking you entered a male dominated hobby and are upset that a lot of males enjoy said hobby
And thanks for the kind words
The problem with most females is no one holds them responsible for their feelings. When they say they are uncomfortable the majority of dudes will wonder what they did and how to fix it. Instead of telling the girls well we aren't picking your emotions, you are handle them or leave we don't need to cater to your fee fees.
I would suspect you've been uncomfortable somewhere and you were probably told some variation of "cowboy the fuck up" or "man the fuck up." Because men are taught to be responsible for their feelings. If your uncomfortable overcome it or leave. Women aren't treated that way.
True. My dad had zero patience for whining when it came to his sons. His “advice” was to shut up and try again. My sister could freely whine and get comfort
It’s because the people ruining it are disingenuous. They don’t care about comics, video games, anime, etc. It just that it’s popular now so they are moving in. Having grown up in the 90s I always find it funny when they make the claim girls were unwelcome in these spaces. Girls avoided those spaces. The reality is if group of girls came up and said he we want to hang out and play video games or watch anime with you guys I doubt they would be turned away unless it was because it was an obvious set up. What’s even more amazing is these invaders managed to turn Star Wars from a billion dollar franchise to one that rivals the sci fi Shylock featured on MST3K.
Yep. My friends and I rolled out the red carpet for any girls who showed an interest in nerdy stuff
It's not silly at all. The locusts hate everything about you and want to destroy what you enjoy.
Good point. Overused statement, but gatekeeping is important. I think it was either Chris Gore or Alan Ng whose review of The Marvels said "this movie was made for teenage girls but not comic book fans". Of course some people got upset and said teenage girls can be comic book fans. Sure they can, but not in large numbers which was proven by the fact that mostly men went to see the movie.
Thankfully the sports card hobby hasn't been attacked yet.
I doubt it. They're the kind of people who live online on social media in their echo chambers all day.
On a somewhat related note, I occasionally watch https://www.youtube.com/@AlphaInvestments69 It's some guy who invests in trading cards (mostly Magic, Pokemon) professionally. He stays out of politics and only talks business.
He frequently talks about how Hasbro doesn't know much much about brick and mortar card stores or even gives a shit. For example, Hasbro dumped a ton of product below cost on Amazon which killed a bunch of TCG stores and caused many others to shun their products. Basically, these people are terminally online and the execs know nothing about trading cards as the hop from unrelated industry to industry.
Thanks. Will check it out
Those cheesy Christmas time rom-coms are one of the few things left that actually know their audience and don’t try to pander to men or the mentally ill.
Its why disney and the ilk are buying up rights to publish or even straight out trying to buy anime IP's.
Gambit, and Jubilee were cancelled. Wolverine was extra badass when he was mentoring Jubilee.
Why were they cancelled? I thought that was a good mentor/mentee relationship.
Idk. They were both good. It was right before they restarted the universe the first time, and I dropped it completely. I bought my kids books like the encyclopedia of the original universe.
Comic book writers/industries have hated their readerbase for a long time, longer than woke has been a major talking point.
One problem with them that they refuse to ever actually address, is that they are a fucking impenetrable medium. All the big and popular books have been ongoing for decades, and its anxiety inducing to even consider a commitment that big on something new you might like.
Sure there are reading guides to skip the unnecessary parts, but that's asking you to do homework to give them money. And they do their Rebirths constantly, but then reference or expect you to recognize something from the old books anyway. Its issue upon issue that prevents anyone from starting to read them.
Which means its the same old audience as always, never growing and never wanting change. The same handfuls of dudes that read them as a kid 30+ years ago, and those are the least cool demographic for these companies to be seen appealing to.
So they hate it and constantly keep hoping that if they force these guys out, to make them stop reading, then cooler demos will finally feel like it isn't "uncool and gross" to be reading comics. Which is how the nerd infiltration has worked in every other medium. But, like I said, its impenetrable for new readers to even start.
Great thing about Manga is that it’s easy to pick up issue one and start reading.
Also Manga has a variety of genres. It’s a simple fact that some genres appeal to more women and some appeal to more men. Super Hero comics tend to appeal to more guys, and same with sci-fi. My annoyance is that they see this as a problem and think everything has to appeal to women.
Like you said you can make new stuff but you gotta know the audience which they don’t
The problem is they've already even solved those issues, they have just needlessly separated it out as "graphic novels." Which means its sold in a different area or even stores as my local shop only sells Comic Books while "graphic novels" are sold at Barnes & Noble (which only sells big omnibus classic comic arcs otherwise).
And the only difference I can ever find between comic books and "graphic novels" is that comic books are full color, are limited to capeshit (or at least DC/Marvel and their employees only) and otherwise cost more per page. Whereas a "graphic novel" is just manga made in America, with all the benefits that brings.
But "graphic novels" have almost no marketing or industry foothold. Scott Pilgrim is basically the only one that ever made waves that I can think of, and the movie is mostly responsible for that. So despite having fixed all the main issues with comic books, they are just forgotten.