May 7 is Free Comic Book Day. But your local comic book stores are hoping you’ll actually buy something.
They also hope people who buy tickets to superhero blockbusters — like Captain America: Civil War, which was released this week — will get curious about the origins of the big-screen heroes.
Many of Hollywood’s biggest franchises are based on comics, and it’s a trend that shows no signs of abating. From now until the end of 2020, there are already 30 confirmed release dates for superhero movies. And that doesn’t count popular television shows based on superhero comics such as Netflix’s Daredevil and Jessica Jones.
Superhero movies and comic adaptations are moneymakers: As just one example, DC’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has grossed more than $830 million worldwide since its release in late March.
According to most accounts, the rise of the superhero industry has helped create customers for Westfield Comics, a Madison institution since 1979. “Initially, it seemed when we started, there was a smaller group of people who were interested in comics, and as the movies and graphic novels have become more popular and more numerous, that has turned a lot of other people who weren’t comic fans into comic fans,” says Sherill Anthony, owner and founder of Westfield Comics.
In past decades, the business — which began selling comics through a mail-order service before opening two retail stores, on Mineral Point Road in 1990 and on Williamson St. in 2010 — has been a central resource for Wisconsin comic collectors.
When Anthony launched the business, she was a cash-strapped single mom working on a graduate dissertation in clinical psychology while raising two sons. Through her sons’ interest in comics, she switched her focus and decided to launch a business venture, buying and then reselling a collection of used comics she bought with money borrowed from her parents.
“It piques people’s interest, especially if they go to a movie and they find out that it’s based on the comic book,” says Bob Moreau, manager of Westfield’s Mineral Point Road location. “It happened a little over a year ago when Guardians of the Galaxy came out. A lot of different people and age groups liked it, and they came in and wanted to find out where these characters came from.”
Shawn Spurlock, the manager at Graham Cracker Comics, which opened last June on East Washington Avenue, says movies bring in new customers. “It used to be a hobby for nerds, and now everybody is going to see these movies, and they see that there’s merit in the storytelling,” Spurlock said. “It’s not just for kids in short pants anymore.”
But not all comic book retailers are celebrating the flood of superhero movies. Bruce Ayres, manager at Capital City Comics on Monroe Street, says sales in his store are at an all-time low, something he attributes to films dumbing-down the original stories. “You’ll run across millions of Batman experts because they saw the TV show or the movies, but have never read a Batman comic book,” Ayres says.
But Moreau disagrees, saying certain comic series like The Guardians of the Galaxy have been reinvigorated and placed back onto shelves because of movie adaptations.
Guardians of the Galaxy became a huge hit for Marvel and Disney, launching even more comics; Marvel is releasing comics for Star Wars and character spin-offs like Black Panther to tie in with Captain America: Civil War.
“It’s getting the word out there,” Moreau says of major superhero releases. “Everybody is embracing their nerd side.”
