Where are the new comic book fans?
Are they functionally illiterate?
The perennial question of the industry for the last years: why aren't there more new comic book readers?
Answer: Maybe because young people don't know how to read
The growing ranks of the functionally illiterate– Hilarius Book Binder
Most of our students are functionally illiterate. This is not a joke. By "functionally illiterate" I mean "unable to read and comprehend adult novels by people like Barbara Kingsolver, Colson Whitehead, and Richard Powers." I picked those three authors because they are all recent Pulitzer Prize winners, an objective standard of "serious adult novel." Furthermore, I’ve read them all and can testify that they are brilliant, captivating writers; we’re not talking about Finnegans Wake here. But at the same time they aren’t YA, romantasy, or Harry Potter either. I’m not saying our students just prefer genre books or graphic novels or whatever. No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it. They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read, and most certainly not the attention span to finish...."
Some Key Statistics
Functional Illiteracy: The number of adults in the USA considered functionally illiterate is 18%. This is understood to mean that this 18% lack the reading and writing skills necessary for daily living and employment except at a low level of competency.
Low Literacy Proficiency: Some 54% of adults in the USA, about 130 million people, are able to read at below a sixth-grade level. This diminished literacy level is considered limiting in employment opportunity and hindering the ability to fully utilize the 21st century world..
Not getting better: The Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies ("PIAAC Assessment") states that 28% of adults in the USA score at Level 1 or below in literacy in 2023, an increase from 19% in 2017.
For Help:
Comprehensive resource for locating adult literacy programs across all 50 U.S. states – National Literacy Directory – lists some 11,443 literacy centers nationwide.
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Original Page May 6, 2025