The Four Color Media Monitor

The Colorado Springs Independent interviews Walter and Louise Simonson, veteran couple of the comic book writers. Problem is that even they may be making the mistake of assuming that popularity for comics is seriously booming again:

During their 30-plus years in the comic book industry, Walter and Louise "Weezie" Simonson have seen ups and downs.

"The popularity of comics goes in waves," Weezie says. "They'll be popular for a little while and then everybody'll say, "Ah ... boring,' and then it drops off."

These days, the demand for comic books is back on an upswing. And Weezie has a theory as to why.

"The people who were reading comics through the last blast of popularity in the '80s and '90s are now old enough to be [making] movies and TV," she says. "I suspect those guys are doing now what they loved then."

I'm sure some of the people who'd read them during 80s and 90s have since had a chance to write and draw them too, but how far has that gotten in terms of sales? And not every writer or artist has truly pleased everybody since they began.

Also, look at how very few comics of recent are selling above 100,000 copies, and the audience today has dwindled down to but a shadow of what it once was. And when that happens, it's much more difficult to say that popularity has risen again.

I keep reading in papers like these that comics are popular again, when sales figures suggest otherwise. Can they not understand that to just talk about presumed rises in popularity instead of whether or not the stories are well written is not the way to do it?

Labels: msm propaganda