There may only be a handful of comic book shops in South Africa but they all geared up for Free Comic Book Day.
On Saturday anyone who entered a participating comic book store could select a free comic book specially produced for the occasion.
This year the titles included Iron Man/Thor, GI Joe and Doctor Solar/Magnus. For the kids, there are Archie’s Summer Splash, Toy Story and Shrek & the Penguins.
“It’s a celebration of the medium,” said Mahdi Abrahams, co-owner of Readers’ Den in Claremont, Cape Town. “It was started by the comic book industry in the US in 2002 to market the medium to a wider audience, to draw new people in and to bring back people who used to read them and then stopped.”
Abrahams said many older people, who used to read comics in their youth, are surprised to find that the medium even exists today. “Many people think they died out years ago. They say, ‘Oh wow, these things are still around?’ It’s a nostalgia trip for them,” he said.
At Readers Den, the free comic book table usually spills out onto the walkway come the first Saturday in May, and people bring their families and friends to browse the titles.
Too young
Things are a bit different at Melville’s Outer Limits, one of the oldest comic book stores in Joburg. Owner Grant Charlton said he isn’t too optimistic about new customers sticking with the medium after the big day. ‘We’re not in an area with high schools. There are some primary schools but the kids are a little bit too young,” he said.
It may seem counterintuitive but comic books aren’t really a kid thing.
“Traditionally, the typical reader was 10 or 12 years old but they’ve grown up with it and stayed with it,” said Abrahams. “Comic storylines have become more sophisticated and the art has become more detailed.”
And they’re pricey. The average single issue comic book goes for around R70, and long-form comic books or graphic novels are usually priced around R180, if not more. To collect, you’d need to have a steady form of income. So the average comic book collector in South Africa is aged somewhere between 25 and 35.
There’s no denying that in South Africa, comic books are a luxury item and a niche item.
“There are only eight or nine comic shops in the country and I think they’re all existing on the same five or six thousand customers,” said Charlton, who added that this excludes the “drop-in” customers, the 20 000 to 25 000 people who’ve ever bought a comic.
A minnow of a market
Although South African audiences lap up movies like Iron Man and X-Men, which are based on comic book characters, the comic book market is just a minnow compared to the whale-sized US market. Last year, Diamond Comic Distributors, the largest comic book distributor in North America, sold over $500-million worth of comics and graphic novels.
Charlton blames the lack of a reading culture for South Africa’s tiny comic book market. It’s also about exposure, he said. “If comics got as much exposure as computer games, we’d be sitting pretty,” he said.
But this is not the case. Shane Brocklebank, owner of Cosmic Comics in Blackheath, Johannesburg, said comics were much more visible in the 80s. “People used to buy comics from corner cafes, off a spin rack. But there aren’t a lot of cafes any more,” he said.
Because comic book shops cater to such a small audience, vendors today have to find ways to keep costs down. And that often means opting for low rent in out of the way places, which in turn means low visibility.
“In America, comic book shops are on the streets and people walk in the streets. Here people go to shopping malls, and they [malls] charge a lot for rent,” said Brocklebank.
So neat little comic shops, with their superhero posters and their action figures exist largely on the periphery of mainstream shopping zones. And if you don’t know where to look for them, you probably won’t find them. Maybe Free Comic Book Day has done something to change that.