The Four Color Media Monitor

Writer and historian McCloud says that there's more girls reading comics now, and children too:

There are some fantastic comics for kids right now. These include the work of gifted cartoonists such as Raina Telgemeier and Vera Brosgol, as well as some new classics such as Jeff Smith’s Bone or Kazu Kibuishi’s Amulet that kids are just eating up at book fairs. One of my favorite books from last year was a young adult book called This One Summer, by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, which won the Caldecott Honor Award. It’s heady reading, even for adult audiences, and it really ushers in the power of the art form. Another great kids’ comic, El Deafo, received the Newbery Honor Award.

But, as should be clear, these aren't superhero comics from the Big Two that anybody's trying out, and no wonder. With all those crossovers, bad attitudes towards women, gratuituous violence and other dishonest tactics that are now clogging superhero comics, it only figures few women would care, as I'd noted earlier. I'm guessing some of these new comics for women and children are also printed more as paperbacks and not as pamphlets, which makes it easier to find them in mainstream bookstores, and to buy them online too.

So comic books today can have a chance. It's just the mainstream superheroes whose prospects aren't looking good.

Labels: dc comics, indie publishers, marvel comics