A Forgotten Event

An important milestone in comics recently happened that didn’t get much comic book media coverage.

The milestone: Archie Comics just published its 500th issue in August. 500 issues is an awful lot for a comic that few people above the age of 14 will admit to reading. Why didn’t the event get more attention in comic book publishing, I wondered.

My best answer: Archie isn’t cool. The comic is a work horse that will never win an Eisner, nor will it top any reader polls. It’s not a glamorous enterprise, to say the least. But, it IS popular. Its 32 titles sell about a million comics a month, I’ve read. Those are pretty solid numbers for a comic that tends to not get much display space in comic book stores. You don’t see posters or preview issues of Archie comics.

No, Archie isn’t cool because it’s meant for children. As such, another interesting statistic popped out at me that I don’t think most people know. Of those 1 million rug rats, about 50 percent are girls from the ages of 7 to 14 (at least that’s the statistic I saw in The Plain Dealer). That’s an interesting statistic because I have often been told that less than 5 to 10 percent of the readership of comics are females. I’ve been told so often that this is a fanboy’s industry with a thick kryptonite ceiling, I almost believed it. But, seeing that almost HALF the readers of Archie ‘it don’t get no respect’ comics are young girls, I have to think that whoever thinks up these statistics just wasn’t looking in the right place for female demographics. I wonder if part of the reason that Archie is looked upon as uncool is that it is a publication that the white male comic book reader population doesn’t own lock, stock, and two Ennis-eque smoking barrels.

If the success of Archie tells us anything, it’s that girls like comics. And, why not? Girls supposedly read more than boys, women read more than men, if my women’s studies classes are anything to go by, that is.

The statistic also makes me wonder where the heck these girls are going to read after they stop reading Archie. The answer: NOT comics. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re going to tell me that maybe they outgrew comics. If this were the case, that comics can and should simply be outgrown at a certain point, then you’ve just accused every last comic book reader out there of having arrested development. The truth is that comic book fans continue to read comics after the age of 14 because there is actually product out there that appeals to their tastes and ages. The reason why girls leave comics after they become too old for Archie is that there are few to no comics out there that they can easily access (you know, like at a checkout stand). We are losing a little less than half a million readers when these young girls get older. That is a massive amount of people. In an industry that is somewhat on the ropes, the loss of these readers is almost akin to a tragedy.

Perhaps partly as a response to female readers enjoying Archie comics, there’s a movement out there to make comics more ‘female friendly’. Believe me, I support this movement with all my heart. Problem with that movement is that ‘female friendly’ means ‘child’ or ‘all-ages’ friendly. Hence, we have a lot of wonderful indie comics that are aimed at children. However, the movement simply does not target older children, let alone female adult readers. I dare you to name comics OTHER than Skeleton Key, Charm School, the mini-series Blue Monday, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Artesia, and Strangers In Paradise that even are marketed towards young women over the age of 14. I double dog dare you to name one that’s published by a mainstream comic book concern.

It’s great that there are getting to be more and more indie comics targeted at young boys and (especially) young girls who love to read. I fully support this sort of diversity in comics. What makes me cautious is that there seems to be so little out there for mature female readership.

What I am trying to say is, “What do you give these bright and perceptive girl comic book readers when they start becoming young women?” I guess the question I keep coming back to is this: why aren’t more mainstream and indie publishers targeting comics towards WOMEN?

Women aren’t girls. Women are adults. If it’s female friendly to a girl, it’s not necessarily friendly towards an adult. As an adult reader, I want to know, who’s going to court ME? I am heartily sick and tired of having only two choices:

I can read comics that are targeted for males 14 and above. Because the adult female reader doesn’t seem to exist as far as comic book publishers go (especially the mainstream), I have to put up with a dungheap of sexism at nearly every corner because I am forced to read comics that are always written by males for males. BUT, at least these comics are meant for adults and mature teenagers. At least they are willing to more or less treat me as an adult reader.

I can read ‘all-age’ ‘female friendly’ books that sometimes insult my maturity level and mental level because they are largely targeted at younger readers. When I read most ‘female friendly comics’, it’s like going to the best Disney or other G rated film possible. There are only so many G rated films one can take before one wants to encounter something meant for older audiences. As an adult, I want art with mature themes sometimes. I want substance. I want female friendly stories appropriate to my age level.

I feel like the forgotten audience. I suspect that the young women who stop reading Archie comics when they get too old for children’s comics, if they actually thought about such things, might actually feel somewhat the same way. I want there to be a comic book life for young women after Archie.

In short: I want WOMEN friendly comics.