What do we know, what do we want to know?
This is a straight up call for advice, guidance and help.
In my day job, I do a lot of research, and one of my primary skills is in the collection and analysis of market research data.
So, I'm opening an offer here to any GW reader who wants to get some numbers behind an argument, or assess the attitudes, or just get some opinions from words into pie charts and graphs.
What do you want to know? What would you like me to research?
At the same time, what I'd also love to hear about is any existing research into comics that uses market research surveys, questionnaires, stats etc. I've found virtually nothing in the marketing literature I have at my disposal, and I'm not up to speed with comics specific research yet (name some good journals and journal databases for the uni inclined amongst you).
So, what do we know? What do we need to know?
This reminds me of a comment I got in a debate where I referenced the WiR list, and it was dismissed because there wasn't an "objective comparison" between men and women in comics. Even when I linked to the Dead Men Defrosting article, I didn't make a dent. What would an "objective comparison" list have to be like, then?
I sometimes hear the statement that the audience for the US comic industry is shrinking, and it's apparently not doing all that well. At the same time, people cite that manga is dwarfing US comics. I wonder, if it wouldn't be too big of a task, it was possible to compare how "successful" the industries are, maybe in terms of readership, profit, or distribution (I guess comparing how manga vs. comics fare outside the direct market, in traditional book stores). Anytime someone claims a Big Event is a masterpiece, or things are so peachy, it'd be nice if there were evidence to show if it was true or not. (Sometimes I wish there was a Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes for comics…). It's probably a big task to go through it all and pull together, though…
Comment by JLG — August 12, 2006 @ 8:43 pm
I'd like to know more about the correlation between Fangirls Attack/Girl-Wonder and Friends of Lulu. I envision taking a week's (or more, if ambitious) worth of posts to FA and surveying the posters, asking them if they were familiar with FOL, if they were members, and why or why not.
I just find it interesting that FA and GW seem to have done more activities for raising awareness of the issue in their few months of existence than FOL has in years.
Comment by Johanna — August 13, 2006 @ 12:36 am
I just find it interesting that FA and GW seem to have done more activities for raising awareness of the issue in their few months of existence than FOL has in years.
It was years before the FOL had any sort of website.
And, amongst the Tarts there has been some theorizing as to why this is — the FOL was founded by and for years had as its mainstay — an older, less tech savvy, generation of women.
ST happened because we had a comp-sci major and 2 network admins amongst the initial base.
Also, for years, the FOL board wasn't the sort that you saw out there in the trenches on the message boards chatting away with the rest of fandom — again, this may have to do with the less tech-savvy aspect of it. Same goes with mailing lists. There was *never* and active, chatty FOL email list for discussion of life, comics, and the universe.
This generational divide also impacts the FOL in a non-tech way. In the FOL that I experienced there was a lot of what I will call "old skool" feminism, and that's a bit different from modern feminism. During my brief membership and experiences volunteering at the FOL booth when I told some of the senior members what sort of comics I read and enjoyed, their treatment of me suddenly changed from warmth to polite civility. And my fellow Tart, Karon Flage — who had similar tastes to mine — was flat out told she was reading the wrong comics when she tried to touch base with the FOL.
This may have changed in the intervening years; but for many of the founding Tarts, our intial contact with the FOL left a bad taste in our mouths. We, and our ideas about comics DID. NOT. BELONG. (Some later Tarts had positive experiences and are/were active members.)
And, finally, FA and GW being not formally incorporated businesses, with less rules to obey can be more flexible in their response.
That's just my .02 on the matter.
Comment by Katherine Keller — August 15, 2006 @ 6:25 am
Stephen –
Business and Marketing are *so* not my area of expertise. However, I do work in an academic library and have access to many databases.
http://www.library.unlv.edu/subjects/business_electronic.php
If you see a database description that looks interesting (sorry, you won't have access to play with them) e-mail me and I can run some queries for you.
Comment by Katherine Keller — August 15, 2006 @ 6:27 am
i'm also an academic who allegedly does "research" on comics and stuff, and i know my way around libraries and databases. i'd like to know what this "women/feminists don't buy comics" is based on. really. where's the data, and how does it stack up against women's consumption of other media? if we're going to argue for why comics should be responsive to a huge brain-having segment of their audience, i think we need to be able to model it on real information.
good luck, you're an angel for getting into this…
Comment by serena kitt — August 16, 2006 @ 2:24 pm