Do comic book retailers really do enough in your area to publicize the comic book as entertainment and hobby?

Answer 1

Comic Book stores DO make a lot of money, but they spend almost all of it just staying in business.

You do have the "preaching to the choir" problem a lot. I didn't do enough advertising for my store before I closed; it would be one of the things I'd change today.

But in my experience, comic book movies didn't drive customers to the stores for the comics. Neither did comics adaptations of comics-related movies. If you ordered 10 of something, you'd sell 2 or 3, not enough to break even. And you couldn't return them. If you only ordered 2 or 3, you'd have 8 or 12 people asking for it after you ran out & would be unable to get a re-order. It was very frustrating.

Answer 2

Here's the problem. Comic book retailers don't make much money. They can't really afford a lot of promotion. They Have Free Comic Book Day every may, sponsered by Diamond Distribution.. But most of the people who show up for that are already customers.
Kids don't like the traditional comics, they like Manga which they can buy at Borders Books.... The fans of the traditional monthly books are getting older and older... so the publishers are skewing the storylines towards this more mature market. Making them even less accessible to new readers. These days a comic is considered successful if it sells 20,000 copies a month. 20 years ago, DC was considering cancellation of Detective Comics because it's sales dropped below 70,000.
People will go see Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Batman... 300 on the big screen, but how many of those people will go buy the comics.
How many people who saw Forrest Gump went out and bought the Novel?

Answer 3

I would say they really wouldn't need to. With the popularity of graphic novels, it draws more people to the comic stores. I think movies based off comics are another way to attract future comic buyers.

I personally have a taste for indie comics made by regular people and some superhero. I also like furry comics because I'm a fan of anthromorphics. :3

Answer 4

no they don't and they all complain how they are losing business to things like the internet and video games, I have been collecting for a bout 15 years and my son enjoys it when I tell him about some of the stories that I love and he can't wait to read them, and he will when he is a little more mature for some of these books, but I think it would be better for business with all of the recent comic book movies that have come out to entice kids to want to read about these characters more