Here we go again with the revisionist history about The Cat
Robert J replied on
"Did not find it's intended audience" is a false conclusion.
The fact is, there were so few women reading superhero comics at that time that there were not enough to support a comic targeted to women. That is a fact. The Cat, Shanna and Night Nurse were a group of three titles targeted directly to women. This effort was just as conscious as the effort to target black readers around that same time with several Blaxploitation inspired titles. There were just as many ad's in the advert pages promoting those titles as any other Marvel title. But at that point, the female comic audience was fragmented to the point of non existence and all three titles were doomed to fail. But apparently the comic history revisionists don't like hearing that. I see this all the time. And if these revisionists had even a basic, cursory understanding of Marvel bronze age history and the demographic of the time, they would know this. Actually, a freaking phone call to Roy Thomas would clear it up in about 2 seconds. Picking up an old issue of Comic Book Marketplace or Alter Ego would clear it up even quicker. But that would require actual work, it would require one to want to know the truth and it would shatter the illusion that there was this grand, mythical female fanbase in the 70s and we could not constantly parrot the tumblr talking point that billions and billions of women always read comics and it's just those terrible male executives refusing to take their money. Well, in the early 70s, there was no female dollar to be found. It was not there. The female dollar did not begin it's slow trickle back into the comic book marketplace until the 80s. Hell, even people like Trina Robbins and Louise Simonson have talked about this and know this to be true. Why is it so hard for contemporary women in comics to accept this objective truth? There are plenty of women reading comics today. Tons. And that's great. So why is it so hard to acknowledge that this was demonstrably not the case in the silver and bronze age? This lie is ridiculous and needless. It's like lying about your shoe size. Who cares? Just accept the truth and move on.
Now, feel free to continue with the revisionist history, already in progress.
"Did not find it's intended audience" is a false conclusion.
The fact is, there were so few women reading superhero comics at that time that there were not enough to support a comic targeted to women. That is a fact. The Cat, Shanna and Night Nurse were a group of three titles targeted directly to women. This effort was just as conscious as the effort to target black readers around that same time with several Blaxploitation inspired titles. There were just as many ad's in the advert pages promoting those titles as any other Marvel title. But at that point, the female comic audience was fragmented to the point of non existence and all three titles were doomed to fail. But apparently the comic history revisionists don't like hearing that. I see this all the time. And if these revisionists had even a basic, cursory understanding of Marvel bronze age history and the demographic of the time, they would know this. Actually, a freaking phone call to Roy Thomas would clear it up in about 2 seconds. Picking up an old issue of Comic Book Marketplace or Alter Ego would clear it up even quicker. But that would require actual work, it would require one to want to know the truth and it would shatter the illusion that there was this grand, mythical female fanbase in the 70s and we could not constantly parrot the tumblr talking point that billions and billions of women always read comics and it's just those terrible male executives refusing to take their money. Well, in the early 70s, there was no female dollar to be found. It was not there. The female dollar did not begin it's slow trickle back into the comic book marketplace until the 80s. Hell, even people like Trina Robbins and Louise Simonson have talked about this and know this to be true. Why is it so hard for contemporary women in comics to accept this objective truth? There are plenty of women reading comics today. Tons. And that's great. So why is it so hard to acknowledge that this was demonstrably not the case in the silver and bronze age? This lie is ridiculous and needless. It's like lying about your shoe size. Who cares? Just accept the truth and move on.
Now, feel free to continue with the revisionist history, already in progress.