DC, Alloy Team Up: Comics for Girls Return

By Neal 

There was a time when comics weren’t just about superheroes; in fact, caped crusaders had to compete in a marketplace crowded with westerns, horror, war stories, and romance. Over time, comics explicitly aimed at young adult women slowly vanished from the American scene, with intermittent attempts at revival, but the rise in popularity of Japanese manga in recent years has convinced publishers that they can sell to teenage girls. The most significant move in that direction, as NYT staffer George Gene Gustines reported over the weekend, is DC Comics‘ launch of a female-focused graphic novel imprint and turning to Alloy Marketing + Media for help in getting the books into readers’ hands. The marketing budget for Minx, as the new line is called, is reported at $125,000 for the first year alone—”the largest thing we’ve done in at least three decades,” according to DC publisher Paul Levitz.