IS SENSUALITY AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN THE SALE OF COMICS?

Have comics really changed since their early days? In looking back the male characters are portrayed as muscular and strong and the female characters are portrayed as wearing skimpy outfits and using their wits and special powers or equipment to subdue the bad guys. And so it remains even to this day.

So then is it sexploitation? Or does it even matter?

Here is an interesting conversation about this subject.

November 11, 2012

ONLINE COMIC BOOK SHOPPING-WHO DO I TRUST?

Coming is an analysis of online comic book stores and just which ones are suitable to your needs. As this will involve alot of time examining as many shop online as I can find that serve the USA it may be a few months before my findings and recommendations will be published.

But to begin there are definite attributes that you, as a consumer, can look for in selecting that shop that will meet your overall needs. These are the basic 5 that I can think of at the moment and they are all interconnected:

1. Care for the customer

2. Accessibility of shop personnel and presence of FAQs

3. Availability of a wide range of comic manufacturers

4. Ease in use of online shop and in of making a purchase

5. Straight up shipping info and tracking

Because there are a wide variety of shops online, from major outlets to small town stores that do not sell online, only those shops that offer online sells will be considered.

Stayed tuned!

August 2012

ARE COMIC SHOPS OBSOLETE?

Back in the early 1990s the comic industry in the Santa Maria area was in its heyday with 5 independent shops that sold comics and related merchandise besides a newstand which carried some comics. Yet as time went by slowly comic shop by comic shop faded away as the local market base dried up. While many may point their fingers at speculators for driving up interest in comics that lead to an exaggerated market and to over-production by comic manufacturers, best illustrated by multiplicity of covers for the same issue and the push to buy all, the simple nickel and dime reality of the marketplace was that the comic industry was not fully attuned to the interests of its potential readership, instead opting to print out storyline after storyline of well established super heroes while hyping the market to buy into characters that had seen their glory long past.

In a way the independent comic book shop was a sort of fingertip of the Diamond Distribution System, supposedly feeling the pulse of the marketbase by the pre-orders of the shop owners and by those in the readership who opted to take a chance with the pre-ordering system. Yet this system apparently failed to see the handwriting on the racks of comics as retailers opted out at recommended titles in the hopes of maintaining their client base. A change had not only came to the marketbase but a hope for something dynamic by interested readers only lead to the ho-hum of monotonous covers and storylines. Fortunately some new titles with new characters in new universes did emerge to counter the growing disinterest in the early 2000s but these appeared, with exceptions, to be short-lived.

Part of the process that lead to buyer indifference has been the growing failure of the independent comic shop. As shops closed the access of a walk-in market was destroyed and unless internet access was available the marketbase moved on to other interests, such as the more stable gaming which may have bled off what interest there had been in comics. So now, in the 2010s, we have reached the plateau where the comics industry has reacted to a dimishing marketbase by offering digital comics online and the rather chaotic growth of online retailers, with a volume of attempts that only lead to eventual demise. Today, the independent comic shop seemed to have retreated into the sanctuary of metropolises into locations where easy access to the shops by what is recognized as the marketbase (generally young, students with cash to burn, hardcore collectors, and serendipitious spenders) may be found.

For smaller cities and towns the industry is not physically apart of the shopping browse. For these only the net has provided a means to maintain contact with an otherwise inaccessible industry. But has today's market and financial realities pushed the industry closer to the edge? Are comics becoming something only for the hardcore collector? Is the independent comic shop becoming obsolete in a world that has become digitalized and your comics are only an Amazon shipment away? This may well be the decade that heralds the end of the independent shop.

August 27, 2012: And to add to this is the availability of digital comics. At the website ComiXology there are currently 1343 comics available for NO COST AT ALL. That is right! FREEEE COMICS. CliX here to CEE!

May 5, 2009

BURGER KING HANGS OUT ITS ASTEROIDS!

Initially when viewing the content at the link www.whenkingonsattack.com/ I was caught by surprise and found the content to be outlandishly humorous. HOWEVER, on subsequent visits I found myself asking: What is really happening here? Is the product line of the Star Trek glasses being promoted by this level of gutter humor? Is Burger King putting itself down over the product line by self-flagellating its own icon?

Perhaps this icon of Burger KING illustrates the inability of this company to make an effective contact with its consumer base. With a painted puppet face who can really relate to a character that toots its own horn when in reality it fares a poor second to the real leader of the pack, McDonald's, which has adopted a character that is both human and humane in its representation of this most successful company.

And that may just be the issue here with the content at whenkingonsattack: humanity. There was a day when comedy employing elements of violence was successfully championed as slapstick, but what whenkingonsattack portrays is not slapstick. It is an affront to the product line itself and to those who are fans of the Star Trek universe. It is also an offense to consumers who would be turned off by the brutish display of gutter violence and innuendo, who are mostly parents. While its targeted audience MAY be between the age of 8 to 12, even they after repeated exposure would only become numb and disinterested by the contact.

Yet this website was an expensive undertaking by Burger King. Not only in terms of the financial costs but in terms of the time it took to develop the concept and construct it, film it, and work up the website to hang it up for the world to see. And just what was that? The next time you see a Burger Kingon, punch him in the asteroids? Repeatedly so?

This is no way to develop interest in any product line.