The Cupertino Courier

Cover Story

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Comic book stores still appeal to youngsters, but theyÕre drawing older crowds, too.

Flying High

omic book stores are getting a lot of action, thanks to new genre

By Emile Crofton

Even superheroes can have their downfalls.

In The Death of Superman, the hero lies dead, defeated by Doomsday and Superman's greatest weakness, kryptonite.

But, fear not, comic book fans, the hero does return.

And, just like The Man of Steel, the comic book industry has been revived. The resurgence has been fueled by several key events--most notably popular television cartoons, big-screen blockbusters such as X Men, Spider-Man and 300 and the popularity of Japanese anime in the United States.

According to local comic book shop owners Mel Nash, Ryan Higgins and Alan Bahr, these changes have enabled comic books to become key, multi-million-dollar players in the greater entertainment industry rather than simply "funny books" for children.

The Golden Age

Comic books first became popular in the 1930s with the introduction of Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Superman and Batman. Between the mid-30s and the end of World War II, this "Golden Age," as it is commonly referred to, continued to produce massive sales and beloved characters such as Wonder Woman and The Daredevil. But as television found its way into every household and the war ended, comic books lost their luster and became associated with juvenile delinquency.

Despite the Comics Code Authority, which created restrictions upon violence and anything vaguely sexualized in comics in the 1950s, the comics started reappearing and famous superheroes such as the Fantastic Four, Thor, Spiderman and the Amazing Hulk were born.

As years went on, the enforcement of the code began to wane, allowing more realistic superheroes and even non-superhero characters and plots to be introduced.

"Everyone and their mom were publishing comics," says Gene Yang, the author of American Born Chinese, the first graphic novel to win the 2007 American Library Association's Printz Award.

Holy collapse, Batman

But just as comics thought they had defeated their ultimate villain, another was waiting right around the corner: investment buyers.

"It was a classic example of market manipulation," says 44-year Sunnyvale resident Bahr. Bahr has owned the Heroes store in Campbell since 1995.

Investors had manipulated the market, and people were too caught up in buying. Companies were over-publishing, and the quality of the comic books decreased dramatically.

"People finally realized they would never actually make any money off of it, and the industry just collapsed," says Bahr.

Big-time comic publishing company Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996, which triggered the demise of numerous small comic stores across the nation.

The future of the industry looked grim; there was no superhero to save the industry from doom. Or was there?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the comic book industry began to regenerate. No one reason can explain the new industry boom, yet it took hold and has continued into the 21st century.

"I can't say exactly why it works today, but it does, and it works for a lot of different people," says Bahr.

Higgins, who has worked at Comics Conspiracy in Sunnyvale since 1997 and became the store's owner last year, says Hollywood was and still is one of the main catalysts for the current comic craze.

"All the 20- and 30-year-olds who grew up with comics and had Transformers are now the ones making the movies," he says.

The advancement of movie-making technologies has also enabled the comic characters to literally leap off the pages.

"They couldn't have done Spiderman 20 years ago. The special effects are finally letting the stories come out and actually be made, and obviously people like them; I know tons of people who have never read a comic but were in line before me at Spiderman."'

Nash, who opened Legends Comics and Games in Cupertino Square close to 15 years ago and its sister store located in the Oakridge Mall four years ago, also credits movies, but says television also played a significant role.

Mom knows best

"If you go back 10 years, not very many mothers knew who the X Men were or who Spiderman was," he says. Nash notes that a significant number of mothers are now part of his regular clientele.

"I hear a lot of mothers say that their kids will read a comic but they can't get them to read a book, and they don't care what the kids read, just as long as they're reading.''

Bahr mentions Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, which publishes stories aimed at more mature audiences, ages 16 and up, as helping to revive the industry. Imprint stories include fantasy, mythology, horror and Gothic themes. The line helped to bring in a new fan base into the comic industry, including women, science-fiction lovers and video gamers.

After Vertigo's success, companies built on what the imprint accomplished, Bahr says. Publishers began refocusing on quality stories and illustrations.

"Marvel has introduced a number of big writers," explains Nash. "You have Laurell Hamilton, who wrote the Vampire Hunger series, Orson Scott Card, who writes science fiction, and even Stephen King is writing comics now."

Yang attributes the boom partly to the influence of manga, or Japanese comics, and anime. Yang says manga brought the next generation into the industry and the industry into mainstream.

New Heroes

Even though superheroes and common themes of good versus evil are still perennial favorites, a number of new thematic elements, styles and subjects now grace the pages.

"The superhero stuff is still superhero versus supervillain, but the independent comics are huge now," says Higgins. "They're about slices of life, drama, romance, crime, comedy, basically everything; there are even a couple of political ones."

The graphic novel Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi, for example, features a female protagonist dealing with coming of age, politics and religion in a post-revolutionary Iran. The film version was recently awarded the 2007 Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival.

"It's just a matter of giving comics a chance," says Nash. "I think there is something for everybody."

Yang says that when the subject matter is broader, it reaches out to a wider audience. Today that wider audience includes librarians and professional educators.

"Before, many librarians and educators were against comics because they saw it as a major detriment to reading," Yang says. "However, they soon realized its constructive and beneficial use."

Today comic books have become an important part of the educational system. Comic books can be found in kindergarten through college as part of the curriculum.

"Today librarians use comics as gateways toward other readings," Yang says.

In addition to large comic book section in the Sunnyvale Public Library, teen librarian Jo Ann Rees has organized a number of comic book workshops over the years.

"Part of the story is the art, but when you read a really well-written comic book, it carries you away," says Nash. "The books allow you to use your imagination; movies can't reproduce that."

Leaps into mainstream

A number of comic books and graphic novels have achieved high literary honors.

Maus, a memoir and graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. The memoir recounts the experience of Spiegelman's father during the Holocaust.

Yang's award-winning American Born Chinese deals with the minority experience and discovering one's ethnic and cultural identity. Although it is fiction, Yang says bits and pieces are based on his own life.

In 2007 Time Magazine had Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, a graphic novel, as No. 1 on its Top 10 Best Books list.

A number of comics are also available via the Internet, which does help increase readership but isn't the same experience as picking up the book version.

"There is something very tactile about comics," says Higgins. "You can only sit at a computer screen for so long."

As for the comic book industry keeping its top-tier position in the entertainment empire, nothing is ever certain. But many believe comic books and their heroes will last through eternity.

"I think comics will last, even if Marvel and DC and the other big companies go away,'' Higgins says. "All some kid has to do to make a comic is grab a piece of paper and draw a couple of panels, and there is a comic book."

Staff writer Erin Hussey contributed to this story.