mrf326

August 22, 2008 2:23 am

   I think a very interesting piece Ron, but I disagree somewhat.  The comic market has radically changed and it is because of the Fanboys... the ORIGINAL Fanboys, like me.  I was just a kid in the 70's who enjoyed comics now and again.  Back then, you could pick up a comic for anywhere between 15 and 35 cents, dive in and read an entertaining, self-contained story.  That's the way comics had been since the 40's. 

   As I got older, my tastes matured and I think the BIG 2 recognized that.  Suddenly, there was the scantily glad Jean grey and VavaVOOM!, Starfire of the New Teen Titans and let me tell you there were no complaints coming from me.  I loved the eye-candy and also appreciated the more sophisticated storylines that played out over a few issues.  Yet, if you missed an issue or two, you weren't lost and still had a good read.  Throw in Frank Miller's Daredevil (Yowza! Elektra and Ninjas!!!) and the first Wolverine limited series and you were at dawn of the first age of the Fanboys.  Now, I paid attention to who was writing and drawing the comics I read.  I looked for Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, George Perez & John Byrne's names on the covers.  Suddenly, I wasn't throwing my comics on the floor, but keeping them in a neat stack in a box.  (Polybags, backing boards & comic boxes came later, when I realized that comics were considered collectibles and an investment.)  The 80's was an awesome time for comics and writers and artists were experimenting with new and creative ways to push the medium to tell bigger & better stories and reach out to their maturing readers.  That's what drove the Direct Market aspect of the industry, the kids of the 60's & 70's now had the ability and the cash to go to OhMyGod!!! A COMIC SHOP!!! filled with comics and with people who loved comics and wanted to talk about them!!!  A far cry from the "funny books" as my Grandfather called them, when he started me down this path and a completely different experience from grabbing them off the spinner rack at the corner store. 

   We all know where it went from there, a boom in readership, which led to pushing the envelope further both content-wise and materials-wise.  Watchmen & Dark Knight Returns, which begat a heavy-duty Punisher, onto Morrison's Doom Patrol and then Ennis' Preacher and so forth and so on - and we just ate it up!!!  This uber-violence appealed to our testosterone fueled adolescence and young adulthood!  We liked the death, blood and gore and we demanded it on glossy paper, so we could marvel at it in every detail.  But, this continued in blitzkrieg-style throughout the entire comics industry, until my boyhood heroes eventually succumbed to this ultra-destructiveness with Batman's back broken and Superman dead.  That is when I knew the industry had changed.  In my youth, when reading one of my prized four-color wonders, I always knew Superman would triumph in the end and if Batman appeared to be dead, it was only just a ruse to defeat the Joker.  Where had the innocence and nobility of those earlier comics gone?  Why had those fantastic cosmic tales, intriguing mysteries and magical adventures become so bloodied and filled with death?

   My point is this.  I agree with Kirkman in this regard:  We have abandoned a certain elegant simplicity in today's comics.  And it is we, the Fanboys that drove it.  By spending our hard-earned dollars for each and every increasingly more expensive issue.  Truthfully, the buck stops right here.

   We as comic readers and as (hopefully) mature adults have engaged in a scorched earth policy, leaving nothing to the next generations of comic readers.  Sure, we are loving life, in terms of sophisticated graphic story-telling... Bendis writes a mean Captain America, but maybe that's just it, Captain America is now a roughneck.  But, wasn't he also created to inspire?  (What happened to his confronting Batroc the Leaper? ) I, like many of you mature readers, appreciate and thrive on these storylines and don't mind shelling out bucks to read these fabulously illustrated and well-told extended tales.  But, I also mourn for the kid that had some change from shoveling driveways or delivering newspapers and could swing by the newsstand to pick up a fully self-contained story (no "the story thus far" pages) and marvel at the wondrous worlds spread out across the staples and fold - engaging the imagination without embroiling him in sex, violence and the subtleties of morality that lie in the grey spectrum.  The industry has anchored itself to this fanboy generation of comic readers and gambled the entire industry on it.  There aren't any comics that are both appropriate to younger readers AND truly well-written without pandering to them -  and there definitely aren't any that a spirited 7 year old can afford!

   So, the call goes out to you, the Fanboys, to demand some comics that harkens to those earlier times, yet show the growth in storytelling and art that has developed while, telling marvelous and imaginative tales without sex, blood and gore - all at a price we can afford, in the hope that we can share the tradition of great comics and graphic novels with future generations.  Lord knows, we all would love to share comics with our kids, but there is no way in hell, even though I love Morrison and his work, that I am going to let my kids get their hands on The Invisibles until they're in college!

   I don't think Kirkman's solution is necessarily the answer, but I do believe it warrants discussion.  Let's share the best of what we love about comics with an audience that truly does believe in the magic and majesty of superheroes.  Because, in the end, what is childhood without comics?

August 19, 2008 10:01 am Let's be frank here.  The US economy is tanking.  Comics, while not the most expensive luxury in our pampered lives can ultimately add up to one dpending on the number you buy.  One reason why comic sales dropped in the 90s is that cover prices started to rocket up.  Sure the quality of the writer, artists and materials improved, but it was seriously putting a dent in our collective wallet.  Now, with the economy in jeopardy, the comic companies need to make comics economical for everyone - adults and more importantly, KIDS.  Then, the comic book readership and overall market would increase.  Comics, whether we like it or not, are a luxury item.  When we have to tighten our belts, they are the first things to go.  Granpas can no longer just spend a paltry sum to buy a small stack of entertainment for their grandshildren.  I use to get 4-5 comics for a buck when I was a kid!  Want to expand the audience and increase sales, then the comic bigwigs have to re-asses what they make people pay for this item... or else it will go by the wayside... or bittorrent will thrive and kill it anyways.  'Nuff said!