by Sarah Jackson

Created on: July 29, 2009

In order to create a new generation of comic book readers, we must first take into account the main interests in which young people share worldwide. A young comic reader is often stereotyped as being a bit of a ' nerd,' and comic books in general haven't had the best publicity with the young people of England. This could be part of the reason as to why comic books are not as popular in some countries as in places like America. The way to change this stereotypical view is to make comic books cool again. The majority of young teenagers share one interest, music. There are many different types and genres of music which is why there is something for everyone, regardless of age, background or gender. Teenagers look up to and imitate their favorite artists, buying their clothing lines, records and even perfumes, proving that music is one of the most influential parts of a teenagers life. Gerard Way is the lead singer of a band named My Chemical Romance. He openly shows his interest in comic books and illustration, and has also released his own comic book, The Umbrella Academy. This has opened a whole new door for fans of the band and also the comic industry. By working together and creating something new and fashionable, the comic book has been a success and fans who had never read a comic book before, now have the opportunity and interest to do so.

Instead of the main focus being on music, younger adolescence are highly influenced by television. Shows such as Ben 10 and Horrid Henry are the new generations favorite programmes and biggest interest. This generation, especially in England, aren't particularly exposed to a wide variety of entertainment and television is the most popular. The way to get interest from these young children is to interact and combine TV shows with comics books in order to give the children the opportunity to try and get involved in different activities. The objective shouldn't be to try to get the children just to buy a comic book, but to give them opportunities to experiment with new, fun and educational outlets. It is proven that this has worked in the past, with Batman and Spider-man both being extremely successful in not only the comic industry, but also in film and television.

The young generation are impatient and want things now rather than later. With the success of new mobile phones, laptops with extremely fast connection speeds and take away foods, quicker is better. The internet is another very influential and highly attractive factor in the young generations lives. Enabling people to check out the latest music, be involved in the highly successful social networking sites and even to access online comic books. This is very appealing to teenagers as is it fast, easily accessible and fun with sites such as onlinecomics.net. No longer do teenagers have to save their money and wait to get their comic books, they can easily access them on-line or order them straight to the door without having to leave the house.

I believe many teenagers don't think they have access or interest in comic books, but by more advertising, perhaps joining with other interests such as music, and creating 'cooler' stereotypes, we can create a new generation of comic book readers.

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