Why are mainstream comic books almost always named after the main character/group of characters?

Of course there are a lot of mainstream movies, books and TV series that are named after the main character(s) as well, but it seems to be clearly more prevalent in comics. And it isn't just limited to American superhero comics, the most popular European comics (Asterix, Tintin, Lucky Luke, Spirou & Fantasio, etc) are the same way. Why do you think this is so?

I guess it's partly because most popular comic book characters are brands that have been alive for decades, and the brand is easier to maintain if the comic book has the same name as the character(s)? On the other hand, long-lived brands in other media, such as Star Wars or Star Trek, haven't needed this.

It's interesting that it's a relatively recent thing. Hardly any of the big superhero characters debuted in their own mag. It was Action, Detective, Sensation, All-American and later Showcase, Brave & the Bold, Amazing Fantasy, etc.

But in the infancy of comics, anthology titles with generic names were NPP/Timely/MJC's way of throwing everything at the wall. As soon as a character stuck, they got a title under their own name. I'm not sure I understand the point of the question -- there have been stories named after their heroes/protagonists for centuries. It's Beowulf, not Amazing Geatland Suspenstories, etc

But it's also War & Peace, not The Amazing Adventures of Count Pyotr. It has a lot to do with the type of story that's being told. Thematic titles lend themselves to ensemble character works, like Birds of Prey (i don't think the team ever officially had a name) or Watchmen.

there was that era were they were wearing bird logo badge communicators.. maybe after Infinite Crisis? And the group in Watchmen did have a name, just not actually the Watchmen... well, the first group

Thematic Titles of the last 25 years:
Watchmen
Birds of Prey (maybe)
Gotham Central
Queen & Country
Dark Knight Returns (has become retroactively eponymous, but at the time, etc)
Hellblazer
Punisher War Journal
Men of War

I think it's also that the brand-name comic titles are invariably written/drawn by so many different people over the years: the title character is all that they have in common. Whereas a non-mainstream book is more likely to be the work of one/two people, with their own vision

And that's a really short list, when you compare it to mainstream TV, for example. (TV being the best comparison point due to it's serial nature - it isn't as important for one-shot movies to emphasize the character(s) in the title, since the viewers won't return to the same character again and again.) So my main point is, why are character-name titles so ubiquitous in mainstream comics, compared to other serial media?

(x-post)

I think it's also that the brand-name comic titles are invariably written/drawn by so many different people over the years: the title character is all that they have in common. Whereas a non-mainstream book is more likely to be the work of one/two people, with their own vision

This isn't true with most TV series, though.

Because it makes sense for a comic book about Batman to be called Batman. Do you have a better title in mind for a comic about Batman, Tuomas?

"Hey, We're Vigilanteing!"

xp Detective Comics

not an exhaustive list, I should add, just off the top of my head.

TV series have the privilege of an undeniable reality principle (via photography) to carry them beyond whatever amorphous title may be attached to them.

The New Adventures of Old BATMAN
It's Always Sunny in KANDOR
Two Guys, a Girl and TWO-FACE
Who Wants to Be a LEGIONNAIRE?

If I were a TV exec, I'd definitely push for a non-character-specific series name on the chance an actor died or decided he had tiger blood or something.

"Hey, We're Vigilanteing!"

― sick yr finger up his butt (DJP), Sunday, September 18, 2011 2:37 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

lol

Scalped

The Joe Casey series VENGEANCE? Proper noun or thematically-related? Anyone know?

Is there a person or group named Vengeance in it?

I know in the older days, the comic companies liked to use those anthology title names as distribution and the post office would baulk or charge them extra when they carried a new title. That's why some of those older Marvel series would just take over the numbering of the existing title like Tales of Suspense becoming Captain America instead of having a new #1.

There's also the oft-repeated, but to me totally dubious, claim that early generations of comic readers didn't trust low numbers (the Silver Age Flash inherited the numbering from the Golden Age series).
What's really interesting* to me in this exact moment in comicbookdom (a moment with which this board is my most meaningful engagement) is that as the comic book titles and marketing put the character first, the actual characters have become increasing homogeneous, circling the orbit of Batman's gritted-teeth PTSD punch-therapy.
*ie, what's not interesting to me at all

Seinfeld vs Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Maltese Falcon vs Fletch
First Blood vs Rambo III

Dark Knight Returns (has become retroactively eponymous, but at the time, etc)

the series was called The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Returns was just the subtitle of the first issue.

really? regardless, at the time of its use, "Dark Knight" was not at all in wide use as a Batman epithet. Dark Knight Detective was used occasionally, but in 1986, Batman was still the Caped Crusader to Superman's Man of Steel. I'm sure that "Dark Knight" was intended as a thematic title, but the runaway success of the series & its rebranding turned DK into THE Batman sobriquet.