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.
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.