What Happened To Non-Action Comics?

As an avid comic reader, I have had to admit that sometimes I grow tired of reading the same titles and the same genres. What I mean is, I grew up reading action comics, more specifically superhero comics, and I’ve only recently asked myself, “What Happened To Non-Action Comics?”.

Non-action comics are books that don’t rely heavily on action scenes to engage the reader or drive a story forward.

These are your romance, mystery, and horror, and philosophy comics (and so much more). That’s not to say that you can’t include some elements of action in these genres, but the story doesn’t necessarily depend on there being some form of violence.

I would also like to mention that I would like to take out superhero comics from this list.

Only in the last couple of years have I actually gotten the chance to thoroughly enjoy a variety of different non-action genres presented in our favorite medium.

I’ve read my fair share of romance, romantic comedy, horror, noir-like mystery, and philosophy comics! And I must admit, they have been quite a good read! These are actually genres that I don’t usually enjoy or seek out in traditional books. But when presented in comics I loved them.

For romance and romantic comedy, I’ve enjoyed the rebooted Archie comics.

For my non-action horror comics, I got my fix from A Walk Through Hell.

For some noir-like mystery, I’ve recently discovered and enjoyed Spencer and Locke. This one can be debated as to whether it’s focusing away from the superhero/action genres.

For philosophical comics, I’ve actually found myself quite enticed by the work depicted in Scarlet. Again, whether you can judge this as non-action or not is up to you (I like to compare it to V for Vendetta), it’s at least not about superheroes. It also has a female lead which is a nice change of pace for my mostly male-centered reading material.

I’ve read and enjoyed comics in all of these different genres and they have all been published by a variety of different publishers.

The short answer is yes. You can do it the same way you go looking for non-action focused genres in other media. Go look for them!

The long answer can be a little more helpful.

Other major publishers besides Marvel and DC comics do produce quite a variety of different non-action comics.

Google major comic publishers and check out their websites. See what comics they have published in the past.

You can even use Comixology for this! Although, I haven’t actually checked out their services yet. I am not sure how helpful their search features are when it comes to searching for non-Marvel and non-DC comics.

With the rise of new and affordable services, being a very creative independently published comic creator is easier than ever.

These creators aren’t constrained by the demands of a publisher and can instead produce any works that they want (and can afford to make). It’s going to be here where you might find a higher concentration of non-action comics.

I recommend searching through your social media platform of choice (pick your poison) for indie comic creators and adding whatever hashtag or tag for the genre you’d like to try out. See what sticks out!

If going through social media isn’t really your thing, check out sites that specifically cater to indie comic creators like ComixCentral and Alterna Comics. These are two sites are dedicated to helping independently published comic creators with a variety of different tools and services.

There is quite a variety of different genres out there for comics. Genres that don’t have to include superheroes or be too heavy on the action (yes, Spencer and Locke and Scarlet have action, but that’s not all it’s about). It just takes a bit of determination to go looking for them, but boy are they something worth finding.

Don’t forget to encourage the creators of the comics that you like. These people work very hard to make comics that statistically, don’t have a huge chance of selling well. Be sure to support them on whatever crowdfunding platform they use. If you’re not able to do so, consider giving them a shoutout and letting them know how much you loved their work and recommend it to your friends!

Let me know in the comment section below if you’d like me to write articles that focus on outlining various aspects of the different genres. Maybe go through the effort of finding a few great comics and listing them for you to enjoy.