There is a difference between the European and American comics.
US comics are more intricate and harder to follow, but it's potentionally more rewarding. This, in turn, creates more passionate and more religiously following fans.
On one hand, you can have a lot of customers; on the other hand, you can have smaller, but more loyal customers.
US comics have chosen the second path, in approximately 1980s. And I, as a European fan of US "Big 2" comics, don't really mind.
>US comics are more intricate and harder to follow, but it's potentionally more rewarding.
I'm not sure that this generalisation holds, I grew up with comics like Laureline and Valerian by Christin/Mezerieres, the work by Jean Giroud aka Moebius, and I'm sure there are many of other european made comics I read back in my youth which are quite advanced story-wise, there's more to european comics than Tintin and The Smurfs :)
On contrast I've often found the formulaic superhero style stories dominating US comics to be rather 'simple', but of course that's a generalisation as well.
If you oversimplify it's a bit like movie vs tv series. European comics have a full story with closure and not too much references to other episodes story wise. US comics are like tv series, never really ends and the stories are very intricate.
US comics are more intricate and harder to follow, but it's potentionally more rewarding. This, in turn, creates more passionate and more religiously following fans.
On one hand, you can have a lot of customers; on the other hand, you can have smaller, but more loyal customers.
US comics have chosen the second path, in approximately 1980s. And I, as a European fan of US "Big 2" comics, don't really mind.