Stay classy, comic store guy

[angelophile]

I can't help but wonder if comic store owners, like those cheering on the Scans_Daily troll on Twitter, would have less cause to complain about S_D losing them custom if they didn't insist on pulling stuff like this.

Now I know that this guy doesn't represent all store owners, but it certainly gets me churning over the fact that I've never encountered a single comic store yet that appeared... welcoming. Pretty much every store I've been in has had that "secret club" mentality, and often a secret club with "BOYZ ONLY" written on the door.

And it's hardly an original thought, but it's noteworthy that, while comics retailers are quick to blame a number of things for declining sales in comics over the last couple of decades, the one thing they don't actually change is their own stores. I think it's quite telling that, instead of trying to encourage a new generation or demographic of comic book readers into their stores, this store owner decided that plastering pictures of bared boobs around was the way to encourage people in.

There's been a lot of talk about the publishers running down their own customers (and, frankly, even my own local comic store owner described Marvel as treating their own customers with contempt, so it's hard to argue they don't) but equally store owners also can't seem to get it out of their heads that the only people who they'll ever get through the door is the horny fanboy demographic. Hell, I resent stuff like that. The idea that a flash of some boobs is all it takes to perk my interest is irritating and the sort of mentality that spawned Michael Bay's Transformers and this sort of nonsense.

Perhaps it's not just the publishers than need to change their outlook on their customers.

(And yes, I still recognize the irony of using a Dave Sim icon for any post that touches on feminism.)

Comments

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

...

What Cerebus icon?

[sandoz-iscariot.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a stupid picture.

I think you're dead-on about comic shops. I've been a comics fan since I was a kid, but until I could drive on my own, my parents never let me go into a comic shop unescorted because they'd look at the posters of Lady Death on the windows or the statuettes of Emma Frost in corset and panties and assume that a lot of the store's products were pornography. It certainly wasn't kid or woman-friendly, and who knows how many customers were lost because of the shops' image. Part of the problem is higher up than the retailers, definitely--the people who make those posters or draw all their female superheroes in thongs. But if they want their businesses and the industry to survive they've got to be better than that and welcoming to other people.

I'm lucky that I have an LCS now that is really kid and women friendly (at least a small part of that, I think, is that it doesn't completely shut out manga the way some of the other shops I've visited do) and looks like any regular bookstore inside. Not the dank, porny, basement-y comic shops that support the stereotypes. It's a place I really like giving my business to.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Yeah, unfortunately places like that seem to be the exception rather than the rule, in my experience. I mean, in London there's places like Forbidden Planet, which is basically the Burger King of comic stores and pretty much entirely non-threatening, but aside from that, pretty much every store I've been into has fitted the mold of being unwelcoming. My current store isn't in terms of the sexist posters or anything like that, but just in terms of layout - they have more stock than the store could ever contain well and you literally have to climb over longboxes and piles of graphic novels to reach the counter. While I don't mind that, it's not the sort of place that kids must feel welcome. (I think my niece finds it quite scary, in fact.)

While I'd hate to see comics stores become the soulless environments like Starbucks, there's a lot of improvement at the ground level to bring in new customers and new readers. There's not a great deal of point producing books that are ideal for new readers, like, say, Runaways or Ultimate Spider-man, if people don't feel comfortable stepping into stores. The Lady Death posters or stuff like that linked really don't help with that. Those in the comics industry often wonder why brilliant audience figures for superhero movies and apparent popularity across the spectrum don't translate into comic sales, and the stores themselves have to be part of it.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I almost posted this to NoScans_Daily, but I suspect it would be seen as an attack on retailers by some of our critics.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Screw our critics! Post it and if they don't like it you can blame me. =)

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

I honestly want to make NotNotScansDaily and post tweets like "The grim pants-wearing feminists continue to like comics. Nothing is right in the world."

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

LOL.

I'm trying to remember who it was that first said "grim pants-wearing feminists" and drawing a blank.

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

I think it was the Christian site parody about Scans Daily?

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

Ha, I got it: Christwire's Wonder Woman DVD review.

[parsimonia.livejournal.com]

It's true, so many comic stores are dimly-lit and cluttered. I suspect that most people who read comics regularly get rather used to a certain amount of comics-related clutter, so maybe store owners don't see it.

[distractedone.livejournal.com]

Really good post and I totally agree. If LCS's want more business, then they should definitely appear as if they want customers.

[cleome45.livejournal.com]

How can I tell if my pants are grim, anyway? They look the same to me as they always have? O_o

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

Your pants aren't grim, you are!

[cleome45.livejournal.com]

It's Mom and Dad's fault, because they didn't hug me enough when I was a little kid. [sulk] Also, I never got my pony. [pout]