From: Moreno Roncucci <[moreno r] at [queen.shiny.it]>
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 03:50:44 +0100
Subject: Re:  Marvel continues self-destruction

- -Poster: Moreno Roncucci <[moreno r] at [queen.shiny.it]>

At 20.09 10/01/96 MET, you wrote:
>-Poster: The Pulse!  <[m--is--e] at [cs.vu.nl]>

>I'm afraid that's going to happen too. While i don't think superhero-books
>are necessarily "barbaric i do think the field needs to let in alternatives
>to the current mainstream of action/adventure comics. This and the scenario 
>i sketched in an other post WON'T necessarily lead to a sort of "good taste
>Utopia". What i see at the moment is a shift in the american comics field of
>a industry depending on superhero/action&adventure comics to an industry 
>depending on action/adventure and the more accesable alternate comix.
>Which means a reading public more like that in Europe of mostly twentysomething
>somewhat literate readers. I don't know IF such a shift would be good for the
>industry; granted we must break out of the superhero deadlock, but if the 
>alternate comix are more accessable to a mainstream, non-comics reading
audience?

Here in Italy 90% of the comics published are shit, too. But the top-selling
super-hero book don't reach 35.000 copies. 

The top selling western reach over 600.000 copies each month. The top
selling sf book reach 350.000 . Disney varies between 450.000 and 1.000.000.

And Dylan Dog, a Horror/Dark Humor/ecological/adventure book, reach
1.000.000 copies...

This in a nation of 55.000.000, in which the top selling family magazine
sell a little over 2.000.000...

I don't think that Italians are too much different from Americans. So I
think that if mainstream books will become the rule instead of the
exception, you will see the same amount of shit, but the comics shop will
see a lot more money.
And more comics shop mean more selling points for the alternative comics.

Talking about Italian comics, which Italian comics creator do you know? Yes,
I know that Manara, Pratt, Mattotti and Crepax are known in the USA, but do
you have ever read anything by Magnus, Ivo Milazzo, Sergio Toppi, Andrea
Pazienza, Filippo Scozzari, Dino Battaglia, Vittorio Giardino, Tanino
Liberatore, or others?

Ciao!
Moreno Roncucci