While I like comic books/strips, I'd have to agree the modern DC animated shows are largely better than most of their actual current day comics (*especially* so for Batman----I'd much sooner watch B:TAS or "Brave and the Bold" than any Bat-book put out in the past 20 years).
As for why kids don't read comic books, my guesses:
- Hard to find comic books in drugstores, supermarkets, and other places kids (or their parents) might actually shop at. Comic book shops aren't as widespread as, say, Walgreens or Wal-Mart.
- A drop in reading rates in general in recent years.
- Comic book shops still have a "boys' club" or "geek" stigma to them (with some of them actually *having* the former as an atmosphere), versus a Borders bookstore.
- Specific to DC and Marvel, endless massive crossovers at $4 an issue? Kids aren't going to go for *that* when magazines aren't much more expensive (or the manga I've seen on sale at Barnes and Noble), especially since they can see Batman and Superman on TV at anytime (or *be* Batman/Superman thanks to video games).
- The content of too many modern superhero comics not being kid-friendly. Long as they keep showing the Joker trying to one-up Freddy Krueger's gore/Idi Amin's death toll, don't think I'd buy a (mainstream DCU) Batman comic for my niece...
- Competition from other forms of entertainment (video games, DVDs, cable TV, the Internet) that weren't there 25 years ago when I was a kid... *and* competition from Japanese manga, which seems to be attracting plenty of kids (including girls), judging from what I've seen in the comics aisle at Barnes and Noble (more readers of the manga stuff than the superhero stuff, which also takes up more shelf space and is probably more cost-effective entertainment-wise than "Infinite Crossover part 2 of 6!").
- The monolithic superheroes-only nature of modern DC and Marvel comics. Not all kids want to read just about superheroes---they might want to read funny animals, Westerns, romance, teen humor, adventure, etc, stories.... all genres that DC and Marvel *used* to publish but largely don't anymore (focusing narrowly on superheroes and "mature readers" imprints). Manga however does apparently publish such genres---which might explain some of manga's popularity.
-B.
