As someone who works adjacent to the industry (bookseller in a store that also sells comic books), I can tell you exactly where, in the industry, Gen Z is putting their money: manga.
Our back issue boxes are stuffed to the brim with Spider-Man, The X-Men, Captain America, Batman, Superman, and all the other big-name books. Our graphic novel shelves runneth over with trade paperbacks from Marvel, DC, Image, Vertigo, and Dark Horse. They sell well enough -- a lot of those Marvel Epic Collections and Omnibus Editions are worth a pretty penny -- but the people buying them are usually people my age or a little older: mid-to-late Gen X and early Millennial.
Gen Z's money goes to manga. They cannot get enough of it. My Hero Academia, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Attack on Titan, Komi Can't Communicate, Fruits Basket, Re:Zer0, Sword Art Online, and every other isekai book out there goes out almost as quickly as we can price it and stock it. We have sixteen shelves' worth of space for manga at my store, and we never have enough of it to be full to capacity for long.
Japanese creators are telling the stories Gen Z wants to read. The kids know what they want, and they're more than willing to spend their money on it. And right now, US comics don't seem to be it for that demographic.
Loved the blog, loved the insight, and I hope for the industry's sake that more companies start letting the fresh blood take the risks they want to take to tell the stories they feel compelled to tell. Otherwise, yeah, the comic industry's in for a rough next few decades.
Thanks for your perspective! I've noticed that as well ( their appreciation of manga). Could be the method of storytelling, the visual look, the simple fact that it's not full of premises developed for 6 year olds in 1960...or all of that. There are U.S. books that appeal to GenZ, but they are few and they have nothing to do with what Marvel and DC continue to plague the shelves with.
What we can observe, scientifically, is that they very well do enjoy comics...just not the same tired old crap.