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Comment by vidarh | Hacker News Reader

> I'm guessing Marvel, DC et al have done a lot of research over the years and found out yep, it's pretty much only males that read comic books.

When the vast majority of their output is targeting a mostly male demographic, and being sold almost exclusively in an environment that attracts mostly men, that may be so. But it is a situation of their own making by making their product offering so niche.

> are really only frequented by men because WOMEN DON'T CARE ABOUT COMICS

... in the US. Unsurprisingly, given that they mostly sell products not targeting women... in the US.

Basically, if they want to change that and widen their market - which is clearly possible - given that this is a US pecularity - they need to be willing to invest in it over time. Their alternative is to fade into irrelevance, given that they've managed to even lose a lot of the younger demographic too in the US.

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> When the vast majority of their output is targeting a mostly male demographic, and being sold almost exclusively in an environment that attracts mostly men, that may be so. But it is a situation of their own making by making their product offering so niche.

I think you've got the order of things mixed up. No company intentionally wants to cut their customer base in half. They've tried to attract female readers. They'd be stupid not to! Women just aren't attracted to comic books.

And don't forget that comics _used_ to be sold in book stores, gas stations, etc. Now they aren't. You know why? Because across the board hardly anyone, relatively speaking, reads comic books. They're niche because they're just not that popular in general.

> ... in the US. Unsurprisingly, given that they mostly sell products not targeting women... in the US.

Because in the US, women don't care about comic books. It's a chicken and egg debate for the ages, clearly.

>> Women just aren't attracted to comic books.

This is the same kind of thinking when men says "Women just aren't attracted to science or computers". Ignoring all the social cues that discourage women from those activities.

I think you're missing the point that in other parts of the world people (kids, adults, men, women) do read comic books. In those other parts of the world, where comic books are read by all sorts of people, they are not so overtly sexualized as those in the USA.

Maybe you're right that non-young-male-Americans are genetically incapable of liking comic books as a medium, but it seems more likely that Americans are no different from Europeans, and would like comics if they just made comics for them.

> Maybe you're right that non-young-male-Americans are genetically incapable of liking comic books as a medium

It doesn't have to be genetics. It could just be that the opportunity for a cultural development that would favor broader popularity of comic books in the US was missed -- the development of that culture is not independent of things like the currently existing set of other media options, pre-existing cultural perceptions of pictorial media, etc.

The cultural popularity and associations of particular art forms are path dependent.

> but it seems more likely that Americans are no different from Europeans

Huh? There's tons of ways in which Americans are culturally different from Europeans. Is it so crazy to think comic book tastes might be one of those differences?

> And don't forget that comics _used_ to be sold in book stores, gas stations, etc. Now they aren't.

Most of the general book stores I've been in recently say you're wrong.

Also, kids used to not have ubiquitous, interactive, 3D, pocketable animated stories, so, you know, the competition for comic books has changed.

Complaining that comic books have become less ubiquitous are more alternatives have become ubiquitous is like complaining that radio dramas no longer have mass market appeal.

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