100 Million Comic Book Reasons

I see two divergent qualities evident in comic books that are reasons millions of people have bought, read, collected and discarded them. Most obvious is the story/artwork aspect that people enjoy on different levels. This is the main reason, perhaps, to buy a comic book. Maybe even for persons to create comic book work. The other reason I see to buy a comic book is for its object quality. Leaving the story aside, a comic book has numerous physical qualities and design features that make comic books a unique Art Product. The cover, the format, paper, binding, logo, blurbs, back cover content to name a few. Many like me buy comics just for the cover, or to flip through looking at the artwork.

Collecting 6 issues of a comic book and buying a trade that collects those same 6 issues are two very different experiences. One's preferences for one or the other of these is an indication of which of my two qualities of comic books a person prefers. I can't say one one is superior to another, taste doesn't work like that. Life is a series of fine distinctions to be made.


The work 100 Million Comic Book Readers is my epic poem of Comic Book Distribution reform. Like all of my writing it is more long, dense and difficult than it's audience is inclined to tolerate. This piece particularly missed the mark because it begins baldly with an underlying truth the audience either does not perceive or holds tightly to the denial of.



As I clearly understood few would even attempt to read this work, and that the tradition of epic poetry is an oral presentation, I had the inspiration to ask a talented web voice personality to record a recitation. I look back in awe that I had the nerve to ask her, and am even more astonished that Grammar Girl granted my wish. Still, the preface of this work discribing historical and current artistic aspects has skewed since the time I wrote it.









In my day comic books were written for an 8 year old audience. This aspect caused a typical comic book reader to lose interest in teenage years, and sometimes later in life return to reading then with nostagic interest in their goofy, nonsensical quality. However gradualy from about the late 1970s to the present; comic books began to be aimed at older and older readers. The effect of this seems to be many readers continue reading happily while most drop them for many reasons of their own. Perhaps you see where this is going, and since I don't need another epic here I'll try to make a point instead.

Story oriented readers enjoy trades, and perhaps might prefer less costly digital distribution of comic books. Collectors prefer hunting for issues and wish they would continue and be easier to find. My efforts to start a conversation about changing the present inequitable system of comic book distribution were so unsuccessful it broke my heart. Not one person seemed willing to consider that any such change was remotely possible, even thinkable. Please hear this Epic Poem and wonder.