If you've been paying attention to Twitter this past week, you've seen Image co-founder, and Savage Dragon auteur Erik Larsen on a tear. He's been talking about everything from late books, Image United, the state of the industry, and more, all the while responding to questions and criticisms directly on issues that most people in the industry skirt around. It's worth a read through his feed if you missed it.
Some highlights*:
The future is inevitable. I don't want everything digital–can't imagine Acme Novelty Library that way–but Spider-Man? Okay.
Eventually most comics will be downloaded and comic book stores will be book stores specializing in comic book trades
Tip for breaking into comics: Send your samples to everybody. Everybody may be annoyed but everybody can lead to work so carpet bomb 'em all
Yeah–a real Action #1 would look better–but most of us will never have a spare million to plunk down on a copy.
Seriously–the reason that artist you think is total crap is getting work and you're not is simple–he gets it done–and you talk about it
Tip for breaking into comics: Send your samples to everybody. Everybody may be annoyed but everybody can lead to work so carpet bomb 'em all
Kids will read comic when there are comics kids want to read,they buy Bone, Scott Pilgrim and manga but few buy superheroes
Strangely enough–one of the most popular comic strips EVER was about a depressed kid who never caught a break–Charlie Brown in Peanuts
Now that Schulz is dead, I can't wait for the live-action Peanuts movie where Charlie Brown kicks the football and nails the red-haired girl
If everybody changed what they did in a reaction to what we did that's their doing, not ours.
Are we all going to point fingers at Alan Moore ruining comics because he did realistic heroes in Watchmen and a lot of crap followed?
It's very difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube. In the '50s comics were self-contained and there was zero character progression
Now readers feel ripped off if the status quo of a book doesn't change. They feel a book is spinning its wheels.
That kind of continuity comes with a price–it makes books very inaccessible. But our audience demands that.
Do we dare buck that trend and do more accessible books at the risk of alienating the few readers that are left?
I always thought of Image as the stepping stone between Marvel and Vertigo. Edgier than Marvel–less "mature" than Vertigo
There really aren't comics like the comics I read as a kid. My kids don't read comics at all. Few do.
My kids just never got the bug–and I read them comics as bedtime stories. I really did try to hook them
DK2 #1 was the last comic book I read in the parking lot.
I'm the guy who liked DK2 –it was rough but Miller still has the ability to pull off those moments.
*I removed some of the @replies in these, but didn't change the wording.
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I didn’t think DK2 was that bad either.
He seems to "get" how digital comics fit and will evolve. I agree.
The main reason why I never gave Savage Dragon a shot was because I don’t agree with a lot of what Larsen says. He’s a very outspoken individual, especially on his forum, and that put me off to wanting to read and support anything he did. I met the guy a few years ago and he’s genuinely nice, but I just choose not to support his work.
All that being said, he put out some very interesting ideas this week and I’m thankful for the honesty and insight.
@ Drake – I started reading Savage Dragon when I was 11 and over the last 15 years since then I have found myself disagreeing with more and more of his rants and stances, so I know how you feel. Still, what comes through most of his comments is his love for comics and the production of comics, and Savage Dragon is hiw best megaphone for that love. In the mid 90’s his letter column was a showcase forone long fight with Peter David, where each would compose loooong letters, back and forth, ripping each other and saying why the other was bad at comic-ing. Boy, was it awkward to read. I would say most of my love forJack Kirby can be traced back to Erik Larsen, and for that I am thankful.
He’s like an angrier version of Stan Lee, randomly unleashing a torrent of words, though in Larsen’s case they are typically pretty harsh and less tongue-in-cheek.
Larsen and even Liefeld has been very entertaining on twitter lately. Especially since it looks like Image United is imploding in front of their eyes.
Not a fan of either’s work now, but still interesting dudes.
After I added Larsen to my follow list, I went from having about 20 tweets to read at the end of the day to about 60. This guy sure does like to post. Most of them were interesting and worth reading.