,4The Daily Tar HeelMonday, November 27, 1989
Spotlight
Comic books not just kidstuff to college collecters
By ELIZABETH MURRAY
Staff Writer
. Many college students wouldn't be
caught dead reading Batman, X-man,
Archie and Friends, or Richie Rich
comic books. After all, only little boys
. 1 1 1 t m. I 1
or pernaps nign scnooi siuucms uuy
comics.
Wrong, said Dan Breen, owner of
Second Foundation Bookstore in
Chapel Hill, who asserted that comic
books aren't just "kidstuff anymore.
He said that in the past ten years, comic
books have been expanding their read
ership to accommodate any reader from
age 6 to 66.
"What comic publishers have ac
complished as far as I'm concerned is
not so much bringing more people into
the store as keeping the people that
were there from leaving," Breen said.
Keeping its readers used to be a
problem for the comic industry, he said.
'They read comics until they are about
8 or 10, and then when they hit puberty,
they either decide it's kidstuff, or they
don't have enough money for comics
and girls, or they hold with it a little
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while longer. Then they get to 1 8 and
they say, 'Well, this is kidstuff. I've
really got to put this aside.'
"In the rare instance you have some
body who will get all the way to 2 1 who
finally says, 'This is really bad. I'm an
adult and I'm still buying comics,'" he
said.
In response to this problem, publish
ers have targeted the older crowd.
"Recognizing the fact that they have
this stigma attached to them of being a
kid's item, independent publishers
started producing more mature charac
ters, more mature storylines," Breen
said.
"A 10-year-old can read something
and get the storyline, and the 20-year-old
can read the same thing and under
stand more of the subtleties that would
have escaped the other one," he said.
"But that isn't to say that their enjoy
ment is any less. It's just different."
James Dunlop, comic specialist at
Jeannie's Books Shoppe in Durham,
described adult comics as those with
more sophisticated plots. "Some are
comics that make you think, and some
are pure escapism."
Breen said many of the 'adult only'
comics can be compared to 'adult only'
magazines. "There are some comics
that are so specifically adult that they're
contained in plastic." No one under the
age of 21 years is allowed to buy those
at Second Foundation, he said.
About 20 to 30 percent of the titles
on the rack are aimed toward those age
16 and older, Breen said. "There's
enough to go around and it's similar to
reading a very good piece of fiction.
Assuming it has a good story line, you
can read it and appreciate it for that.
"If you're a student of literature, you
can read it and understand it for the
roots from which it has sprung, the
storytelling tradition," he said. "De
pending upon what you bring to the
literature, you get a different level of
enjoyment."
Although comic readership has
broadened in recent years, it has en
compassed mainly males, Breen said.
"So far as science fiction, fantasy and
comics are concerned, the participation
of women is a very small minority from
the point of view of people who pur
chase it and from the point of view of
people who create it."
He said that out of Second
Foundation's subscription list of 200
names, no more than 8 or 9 of them are
women.
Dunlop, a Duke graduate and comic
junkie himself, also said that not many
women are interested in comic collect
ing. Even though there are more com
ics to choose from now, he said, not
many girls or women are interested in
things like G.I. Joe.
With comics ranging from 'Mickey
Mouse' to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles' to 'Batman', Dunlop said,
readership is diversified. "Subscribers
vary from people like myself col
lege graduates who are continuing our
hobby because we enjoy it to others
who are teenagers just getting into it.
There's a comic book for everybody."
Dunlop started reading comic books
when he was 10 years old and just kept
up the hobby, but he said he's not sure
what the attraction is for others. "Maybe
it's the artwork that keeps them going
and the fact that the stories are interest
ing," he said. "You have your good and
your bad. You have some you could put
up against any regular book and some
that are good for a little kid."
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