I believe it could not be a better time to be a comic fan. Whether you’re a hardcore or casual fan there is something out there for you.
To my surprise however, many articles have been written on how comics are now being outsold by manga — comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. To figure out what’s going on at a more ground level I spoke to Larry Harrison, owner of Harrison’s Comics in Salem.
With all the new various shows that have been released or are coming out with their comic counterparts, I wanted to find out if that actually had any impact on sales. ICV2, an online trade magazine that reviews and analyzes sales information regarding comics and geek culture, released a chart showing both digital and physical sales of comics. It was cited in an article at comicsbeat.com, discussing how 2020 was a big year for comics (the chart goes from 2012, which saw sales at $805 million to 2020 at $1.28 billion).
Harrison said that these movies and shows do help.
“A lot of people buy what’s in front of them at this point more so than I think they used to,” he said. “They buy what’s in the movies, what’s on TV, what they see, and we see big spikes across the board.”
So with the release of many shows and movies, why are the comic sales falling behind?
Harrison spoke plenty on the effects of COVID, telling me that manga series were put on multiple platforms during the pandemic to offer greater exposure. Manga sales have been increasing for some time now. A data chart published in the website statista.com shows the increase of manga sales in the U.S. from 26 percent in 2019 to 44 percent in 2020.
“At one point it was flying out and we couldn’t keep it in. So at one point it outpaced our comics,” said Harrison.
“Basically, what has happened with mainstream comics versus mangas is they are trying to push agendas in American comics too much,” he said when discussing both products.
What he is referring to here to put it bluntly is politics, sexual orientation and race. The suggestion is that companies have saturated the market with it.
Harrison spoke of a specific scenario in which a customer came in looking for a comic for their child.
“I recommended Spiderman, which always was a fresh book to go into for a young kid; it’s Spiderman; it’s simple,” he said. “Back then the only problem with it was, I did not realize after overlooking the first page, was that this was for a very young child. The first page with Spiderman is (when he is) being congratulated by two guys who just got married.”
The customer rejected the book and proceeded to look for something else.
Why is this an issue? Characters like Captain America are well known and obvious for being created in a political climate that’s reflected in the initial comic (the cover is Cap. punching Hitler, released in 1941). It can be summed up in Harrison’s own words.
“I think it was too much too fast,” he said.
Harrison said he doesn’t see the inclusion of diverse stories as a long-term detriment to comics, but due to the fact that it’s a medium that has been around so long, “people who start or get into comics are expecting the same thing they looked at 20 years ago.”
Readers just want a place to escape for a bit while rooting for their heroes, and whether that’s in a comic or manga they will go where they feel drawn to the panels.
