When this project presented me the opportunity to approach comic books with a critical view, having learned so much about identifying critiquing and challenging ideas of inequality throughout the semester; I became excited about the prospect of seeing comics through a new perspective. I ended up reading many titles that I had never heard of, or outright dismissed, and enjoyed them. I certainly challenged my own prejudices and realized some of my biases when it comes to comics and other media. My biggest takeaway is that good stories wear different disguises, and that people from all ages and walks of life can learn from each other's stories.
The main reason I took this topic was because, as a comic book consumer, I have been seeing a trend of inclusiveness in the characterizations from the big publishers in the last couple years. Most noteworthy were Dr Jane Foster's official transformation to Thor, Carol Danvers taking the mantle of Captain Marvel, and Midnighter headlining his own monthly title. On the surface it seemed exciting, they were trying to appeal to more people, or maybe sell comic books to more -kinds- of people? But that didn't seem so bad in either case. I was curious to know more so I studied a bunch of titles and some sales figures to see if the hype was for real.
For Presentation: Sales Research
Defining the process was my first challenge. I started to notice that reading one issue sometimes wasn't enough to get a sense of the book's value. For some I read a 4 or 5 issue arc, and I found those more enjoyable. Another challenge was the lack of good research. After I had enjoyed a bunch of different series, I began to wonder if these books, however good they might be, were actually considered successful or if people were even reading them. Most of these series are brand new, and I hadn't even heard of some of them before. I could not find any research on comic book sales based on gender, although I'm sure something exists out there that would make the research information better.
Since I could only read so many comic titles in the last couple months, I found that it was easiest to focus my blog on introducing readers to titles. This way I could give a brief explanation of the series, enough to give someone the premise and a sense of the artwork, but without spoiling anything. Intros were the best way to get the most information out about different titles. Ultimately I would improve the project by doing better quality of research, and finding a way to integrate that research in the blog's information.
Blog Link: intro to heroes
Once I finish reading more titles, and have more consistency in the titles I read weekly (when i finally catch up) I will expand the focus to more than just series, and also highlight writers and artists as well. I read a larger variety of comics than ever in a short time and I feel better for it, it has helped me discover new writers to follow and also to better understand the importance of representation.
Jessie Reyes | MEDIA 38400 | Women & the Media | Fall 2015
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