美国国家公共电台 NPR Beyond The Pale (Male): Marvel, Diversity And A Changing Comics Readership

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

For most of their history, superheroes were white guys. That's changing. Alongside Superman and Captain America, there are more and more superheroes who are women or people of color or both. But this week, a Marvel¹ Comics executive seemed to suggest that this diversity might be behind a downturn in sales, and that got a lot of people talking. NPR's Glen Weldon reports.

GLEN WELDON, BYLINE²: Normally, the talk in a comic shop runs to who could kick whose butt³. But this week, the butt in question belonged to Marvel Comics.

ERIN LISETTE: Guys, maybe this was OK in the '30s, '40s, maybe even '50s. But come on.

WELDON: That's customer Erin Lissette at Fantom Comics in Washington, D.C.

LISETTE: There are these kids with brown skin and different textured⁴ hair and all these different features reading these books, and they never see themselves represented as the good guy, and that sucks.

WELDON: Lisette was concerned when Marvel's vice⁵ president of sales told the website ICv2 that he was hearing from some comic shop owners that, quote, "people didn't want any more diversity" and that it was affecting sales. That may be true at some comic shops but not here at Fantom. Assistant manager Leah Ly says readers and retailers⁶ who reject diversity aren't the whole story.

LEAH LY: There's such a vocal⁷ minority at this point because they've had everything to themselves for so long, and now they kind of have to share it and they don't want to.

WELDON: So is there any real evidence that diversity is depressing sales?

JOHN JACKSON MILLER⁸: I don't really see that there has been much of a slump⁹ at all.

WELDON: Not according to John Jackson Miller. He's an author of books and comic books who maintains comichron.com, a website that exhaustively tracks comic sales.

MILLER: The comics industry has seen its best stretch in many decades here over the last five or six years.

WELDON: That's because people are buying comics in more ways than ever. Comic shops, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores and, just in the last few years, digital downloads reach different readers and have different sales trends. Miller is a hard data guy who's happy to walk you through how something concrete like changes in price affect comics sales. But when it comes to something subjective¹⁰ and squishy like diversity well...

MILLER: I have always discouraged people from looking too closely at the numbers because the comic shop market only represents a certain portion of what is out there in general.

WELDON: And anyway, how do you define a slump? A year ago, Marvel released "Black Panther" No. 1 written by Ta-Nehisi Coates with art by Brian Stelfreeze. It was hugely successful, one of the year's top-selling comics. After that, anything might look like a slump. And for Ta-Nehisi Coates himself, what matters is not what executives say but what they put on the stands. Coates points to a new book out this week starring America Chavez, a lesbian Latina hero published by Marvel.

TA-NEHISI COATES: That was inconceivable (laughter), you know, 20 or 30 years ago. And so I don't think these folks are in the business of doing charity. So there must be some calculation that there's a base of people who, you know, will probably buy that.

WELDON: Given the changing demographics in comics readership, Coates doesn't think Marvel or any other comics publisher could go back to the old days of pale males in capes¹¹, even if they wanted to.

COATES: I haven't seen any evidence of that actually happening, which to me is the core issue. Are they going to abandon diversity or not? And I don't really see much evidence or much incentive¹², to be honest with you, to actually do that.

WELDON: Marvel wouldn't talk to us for this story, but they did later clarify to ICv2 that their commitment to their increasingly diverse roster¹³ of heroes remains¹⁴ firm. Glen Weldon, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE'S "ACTION HERO")

1 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

4 textured   

adj.手摸时有感觉的, 有织纹的

参考例句：

• The shoe's sole had a slightly textured surface. 鞋底表面稍感粗糙。
• Shallow burial seems to preserve chalky textured porosity. 浅埋藏似能保留具白垩状结构的孔隙。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

7 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

8 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

9 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

10 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

11 capes   

碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬

参考例句：

• It was cool and they were putting on their capes. 夜里阴冷，他们都穿上了披风。
• The pastor smiled to give son's two Capes five cents money. 牧师微笑着给了儿子二角五分钱。

12 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

13 roster   

n.值勤表，花名册

参考例句：

• The teacher checked the roster to see whom he would teach this year.老师查看花名册，想了解今年要教的学生。
• The next day he put himself first on the new roster for domestic chores.第二天，他把自己排在了新的家务值日表的第一位。

14 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。