Comics for Thought: Sharing the Goods

Comics for Thought: Sharing the Goods
By: Damien Wood

Recently, Wildcats 3.0 was cancelled due to a lack of sales. It wasn’t the first decent book to get the axe when not enough people were paying attention to it, and it most certainly won’t be the last. But I have to wonder why. Why does one of the smartest, most stylish books on the racks right now get its life-support cut?

The only reason I’ve been able to come up with is that it’s us. It’s our fault.

I know for a fact that there were a fair number of people picking up this series. The problem might be that we weren’t telling other people to do the same. Or if we were, we weren’t telling enough people, or weren’t saying it loud enough, or whatever. Regardless, it all comes down to us. Comics are our chosen reading material and our artform. Reading material is only entertaining if it’s being read. An artform is only relevant if it’s provoking thought. Comics can’t do these things if nobody’s interested. We need to make them interested – otherwise sooner or later there simply won’t be any titles of quality left to cancel. At that point, we’re all just plain out of luck.

It’s a matter of getting comics noticed, and the answer needn’t be that difficult. Share. When you buy a comic book and you like it, tell someone. Tell a lot of people. Hey, show someone. Show a lot of people. Make them see the pull of the reading material and the beauty of the artform you all claim to be so passionate about. Prove your worth by proving its worth.

Every time one of us buys a comic, flips through it once, then just tucks it away in a box, it’s contributing to the pending demise of that series. When one of us buys a comic not even to read it, but to just try and turn a profit, it’s even worse. Comic books are not a secret society collectible – bring them up out of the basement and spread them around instead. Yes you, troglodyte. Comic books are not a means to put your children through college – crack them open and get your kids reading them instead. Yes you, pappy. We only get out of this what we put into it.

It’s important to understand that the publishers and retailers getting these books to us often rarely do a whole hell of a lot to advertise what’s out there (topics all of their own for other days). Word of mouth among ourselves and those around us is really all we’ve got, so the more the better. Hype is this industry’s lifeblood. Remember that. Make sure everybody knows which comics you’re enjoying – otherwise the comics you’re enjoying might end up next on the chopping block.

Next Friday: Advertising Comics

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The opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the writer, and are not necessarily representative of TNI.

When not enlightening the masses and saving the world in service of TNI, the entity known as NmX attempts to carry out a semi-normal life as a writer and a student of journalism under his not so secret identity, Damien Wood.

Look for his online projects "I Will Speak. You Will Listen." and "Mental Puppetry" sometime in the near future.