Comic-Book Heroes Fade

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 17, 2000 | by Cheryl Wetzstein

Comic books, once read by millions of kids across America, increasingly are targeted to older teen-agers and adults, as children now prefer watching videos to any sort of reading.

Baby boomers and their parents grew up during the two heydays of comic books, when millions of Americans, mostly males, devoured the tales of superheros, cowboys, cartoon characters and weird scientists. Today, the comic-book industry is but a shadow of itself, shunted aside by consumer preferences for television shows, video games and computers. Boys' reading scores also have dropped -- senior-high-school girls have average reading scores that are 15 points higher than senior-high-school boys.

"One of the entrees to reading was comic books," says Don Bieniewicz of Vienna, Va., a 50-something who has a teen-age son and two young daughters. "When I was a kid, you could buy comic books everywhere. But now they're mostly in specialty stores ... and they're not even aimed at kids. They're aimed at older teens and adults."

Bieniewicz and other parents say they have trouble finding good comics for their sons -- ones with simple morality messages or the kind of heroism that once entranced boys age 9 to 12. Instead, comics are filled with "severe violence" and "action babes," making them unsuitable for children. "I don't want to put down what other people want to read and, obviously, the industry is feeding a market here," says Bieniewicz. "But are they missing part of the market, too? What about developing new readers?"

Where have the comic books gone? "They've been on TV," where children can watch them "instead of doing the hard, dirty work of reading," says Joe Little, a spokesman for the American Literacy Council in New York City. Others echo that observation. "Kids like videos, especially ones with sophisticated animation," says Amy Gardner, who works at Alliance Comics, a comic-book specialty store in Bowie, Md.

According to historical accounts, comic books began losing readers in the late 1940s with the advent of TV. The industry also suffered a near-fatal blow in the early 1950s when psychiatrist Frederic Wertham wrote Seduction of the Innocent, which argued that violent and salacious comic books were corrupting American youth. A Senate committee hearing on comic books and juvenile delinquency further fueled public outcry, forcing the industry to write a code of conduct for itself. Nevertheless, parents and teachers turned against comic books and sales slipped far below their 25-million-copies-a-month heyday levels (see sidebar).

Comic books enjoyed a revival in the late 1950s and 1960s -- known as the "Silver Age" to fans -- but today's industry is a remnant of itself. Reviving comic books for young readers would be a Herculean effort, say fans.

"They don't make many comics for kids," says Edwin Gumel, owner of EG Comics in Vienna, Va. "Archie still plugs along and there's Sonic the Hedgehog, but even Batman and Superman are geared toward college-age or better. And that's a reflection on who's buying them."

Education experts aren't sure that comics ever played a major role in children's reading. More than 20 percent of adults read at or below a fifth-grade level, according to the National Institute for Literacy. Although a "lack of comic books" has been heard before as a partial explanation for this problem, experts say literacy efforts include teaching phonics and using libraries -- not reviving comic books.

In the end, however, the final obstacle to a comic-book revival among children may be cost. Baby boomers and their parents will fondly remember getting a comic book for a quarter or a dime, but today's average comic book costs $2.50 and kid-friendly comics such as Robin and Sabrina go for just under $2 each.

RELATED ARTICLE: History of Comic Books in America

An Internet site, called the Comic Page, charts much of the first 100 years of comic books.

Pre-Golden Age (1896-1937)

1934: Famous Funnies debuts as the first newsstand comic book. It sells for 10 cents and reruns comic strips that have appeared in newspapers.

1934-35: Terry and the Pirates, Mickey Mouse, Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy debut.

1935: DC Comics issues the first comic books with original material.

Golden Age (1938-1943)

1938: Superman, published by Action Comics, debuts. Sales quickly reach 500,000 a month.

1939: Batman debuts.

Early 1940s: Robin, Andy Panda, Pogo, Sad Sack, The Atom, Woody Woodpecker, Captain America, Archie, The Spirit, The Flash, The Human Torch and Green Lantern debut, as do Justice Society of America; superheroes Wonder Woman, Spectre, Sandman and Hawkman; and Warner Bros. characters Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.

1941: More than 50 million people -- mostly male -- read comics each month.

1943: The comic-book industry sells 25 million copies a month and is worth $30 million.

Post-Golden Age (1944-1949)

1945-46: Superboy, Little Lulu, Black Cat Comics and Treasure Chest Comics debut.

1947-48: Romance and Western comic-book genres flourish: Young Romance debuts in 1947 and runs for 28 years. By 1948, Hopalong Cassidy sells 8 million copies a month.