In Media Res ran my short piece on the history of the motion comic today. I'm curious to see what fans and readers have to say about this formal phenomenon. Do you purchase them? Do you know about them? Do you like them? Essentially, my initial impressions have been that the American comic book industry sees a bright future ahead for motion comics while readers downright loathe them. I'll let you weigh in by following the link here.
For more on Women Comic Book Readers Day, my grassroots campaign to make the industry notice the female consumer demographic, proceed after the jump.
Women Comic Book Readers Day (set for September 21st because of the symbolic launch of Wonder Woman #1, DC's "reboot" of the title) came to me in the midst of a heated but thoughtful Twitter debate. Essentially, I'm on board with the theory of getting more diversity in the bullpens and on the page but I seemed to differ with some Twitterites about the methods (some even thought that the 6% number was an invention of my own but sadly that is not the case). Perhaps I'm being a optimistic humanist here, but I think we can bring about this change by affecting the American comic book industry's financial statements. Now, being an optimist, I thought it might be more beneficial to make female readership visible by encouraging friends, comics studies scholars, and comic book fans and readers to purchase a comic book title with a woman attached (writer, artist, perhaps even character) rather than organizing a boycott.
In order to keep the momentum going over the next couple weeks, I'd like to ask any willing female comic book readers and/or fans to submit their stories. This is a difficult topic to talk about and to analyze for numerous reasons, chiefly due to the lack of current statistical information and the lack of perspective from this demographic. This, of course, isn't because the readership doesn't exist but because we (scholars in comics studies, industrial personnel, fans and readers) just do not have enough information to begin discussions, analysis, and evaluation. For instance, when someone rightly questioned the surveys I re-printed in the previous post, I was hard pressed to offer an alternative. Does the rate of female readership really drop from 27% girls (1999 American Library Association survey) to 6% women (the 1997 comic book retailer survey)? Or has it grown since in the past ten years?
If you're a female comic book reader (a young girl, a woman, a retiree who reads Batman on an iPad, etc.) and would be willing to share your story and some of your concerns as a female reader, please e-mail them to me at damorton@ucla.edu. Feel free to do whatever you'd like on the topic but these are questions that I am particularly curious about:
- How did you get introduced to comics?
- What titles did you initially read? Why?
- What titles do you read now? Why?
- What genres are you drawn to?
- Does the gender of the protagonist matter to you?
- Does the gender of the talent (writer, penciller, inker) influence your selections?
- Where do you buy your comics? (Do you go to a comic book store, order them online, etc.)
- Do you purchase monthlies or solely read trade paperback reprints and/or graphic novels?
- Do you find the lack of women talent a factor in your readership?
- Are American comic books, due to the popularity of the typically male superhero, friendly to women?
- What do you read more: American comics or international titles?
Call it an exercise in cultural anthropology. I'd obviously prefer to run a general, comic book readership survey (not confined and/or defined by gender), but I thought it best to start small for now, particularly given the strong autobiographical bent of the questions. I'm open to hosting a statistical survey somewhere, but we need a huge sample to get any sort of meaningful data (distributing it to my friends and colleagues would not result in any objective real world data). Finally, I should note that the only comic book consumer habits I'm really able to speak about specifically are my own (and a Facebook thread I started on this yielded an incredibly diverse range of answers to these questions).
I cannot put enough emphasis on how much of this is a grass roots effort. If we want things to change, we need to spread the word. Facebook about it, Tweet about it (my account is @thecinemadoctor and the preferred hashtag is #womenlovecomix2), give each other comic book recommendations... Also, if anyone wants to design a dazzling JPEG for a rallying banner, knock yourself out. This is your creation as much as it is mine.
Remember, Remember, the 21st of September.
Finally, submit your stories. Please. These can be a great resource. Once again, my e-mail is damorton@ucla.edu. Thanks!
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