The iFanboy Letter Column – 07.29.2011

Friday means many things to many people. For some, Friday is all about shaving your head and blowing stuff up. For others, they want to avoid that guy, which is the correct choice.

At iFanboy, Friday means it’s letter column time.

You write. We answer. Very simple.

As always, if you want to have your e-mail read on the any of our shows or answered here, keep them coming — contact@ifanboy.com

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I’m a long time listener, first time writer, and I figured I’d write in with my thoughts on the DC reboot because I have a few that I don’t think have been expressed.

I have no real problem with the reboot itself. I understand that it is mostly a business decision, and that no one who’s against it has given DC any viable alternative suggestions that haven’t already been tried. Sure, I don’t love that they’re killing Superman’s parents and making him forget that he was ever married to Lois, and I think it’s strange that for the most part, the only way they can ever think of to make Superman interesting is to retell his origins – the 1986 reboot, Birthright, the Geoff Johns origin story, Smallville, every Superman Elseworlds story EVER – even the whole Electric Blue thing was a way to have him discover and figure out how to use a new set of powers.

I don’t have the problem that a lot of people have about past stories “not counting”, especially since they’re going to give an in-continuity reason for the changes anyway. The way I see it, this is the same as killing off a character. If they kill, say, Dick Grayson, and the other characters were so upset that they agreed never to talk about him again, does that mean that none of the Dick Grayson stories you’ve ever read count? This is not really different.

My main issue with the reboot, and obviously this applies only to *some* of the books, is that it might become a crutch for been-there done-that writing. One of the things Didio mentioned was that “bringing these characters to early in their careers means that they’re not as experienced and that they haven’t fought each villain numerous times already.” That’s what worries me.

For example, let’s take an electricity-based villain like Live Wire or the Electrocutioner (and no, I don’t know why I’m not coming up with better examples). The first time the heroes fought these villains, how did they ultimately defeat them? That’s right – water. And the next time they fought, the villains were smarter and tried to stay away from water, and the heroes had to come up with a better plan. This ultimately made for a better stories and climax resolutions that I hadn’t read before.

So what happens now? They’re going to be reintroducing several villains, and saying that this is the first time they’ve gone up against the heroes. We’re going to buy a story for six months, spend our hard-earned cash — let’s say enjoying the new changes and tweaks — and then, at the climax of the story — the moment that the whole thing was building to and that will make it or break it in our heads when we’re ultimately deciding whether to reread it or recommend it to others, and — what do you know? Water!

Obviously we’re going to have to wait and see, and I know there are several stories where this won’t happen — for example, those featuring relatively untapped characters such as Frankenstein. But from the fact that the writing pool features mostly names that — even though I’ve been reading comics for 16 years and have back issues going back further — I either haven’t heard of or haven’t read any really good stories that they wrote, I worry if one way that DC is saving money on this deal is by having writer pull climaxes and resolutions from stories that have come before.

Mike S. from Passaic, New Jersey

There is clearly a lot of anxiety around the upcoming DC Reboot. People were talking a lot about it in San Diego and, Mike, even though you say that you are okay with the DC Reboot, your email is permeated with anxiety.

And here’s the thing, you answered all of your concerns yourself: we have to wait and see. We just don’t know what’s going to happen and what’s not going to happen. We just don’t know which characters will change and which will remain the same. We just don’t know if the stories are going to be good or not. Many people out there are working themselves up into a lather about things we just don’t know about right now. Will there be retread stories? Yes, of course. But then there were retread stories before the reboot too. That’s the nature of decades long serialized stories: not only do you have to tell the same stories over and over if you ever hope to capture new readers, but there are really only so many stories to tell and after 70+ years you’re going to get a few repeats.

DC has stated that they are compressing the timeline from what we are used to and making the characters younger and newer at their jobs. (Are they jobs?) That is, inevitably, going to lead to a lot of stories about heroes meeting heroes for the first time and heroes meeting villains for the first time. So, yes, it’s possible that you’ll get a story about Superman learning to defeat Live Wire (although I hope not because she’s annoying) and hopefully it will be good and entertaining and couch the scenario in a way you haven’t seen it before.

I have no problem with repeated stories as long as they are good. You mentioned all of those Superman origins — I love them all (well, not Birthright). I can’t get enough of them. As long as the different versions of the same story are handled in an interesting way then keep ’em coming. How many times have I seen Batman’s origin dealt with between comics, movies, and cartoons? Too many to count! But they’re all great because they all bring their own unique thing to the table. I’d rather read the same story over and over again if it’s good than a new story that’s mediocre or uninteresting.

To bring it back around to the beginning, the point is: don’t worry about it. Read the books. Don’t make up problems with the books before they exist. What good does it do to worry about things that have not happened yet, and may not happen at all? There will probably be actual real problems to deal with once the books come out (they’re not perfect, after all). There will be actual things you don’t like about them. Let DC have their shot and if they don’t deliver for you, then worry about it.

(And just on a side note: if I’m understanding things correctly, they’re not making Superman forget he was married to Lois, he just never was married to Lois. And it’s about damn time they fixed that mistake.)

Conor Kilpatrick

 

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There’s a lot of hype for digital comics right now. I’ve yet to see strong evidence that it will draw in waves of new readers. Instead it seems that existing comic buyers are the biggest group that will be taking advantage of digital. That’s money leaving the comic book shop (if digital takes off as some hope). Since the comics industry is far from a lucrative business, do you see digital possibly hurting the smaller market comic shops therefore making print books harder for get for some of us who prefer them?

I know that print would still be available via online shops and subscription services. But they are more expensive (shipping charges) and you have to deal will delays in getting your books.

I know I’m jumping the gun on this but it is a concern. I’m 40 years old and have seen shops open and close here in Arkansas. We certainly don’t have a Midtown, Lone Star, or Mile High Comics type business anywhere in this state. So it’s a concern.

Keith G. from Arkansas

Before I get started, right off from that first sentence, and the use of the word “hype”, I can tell where you’re coming from. “Hype” connotes a lot of noise and excitement, but ultimately little of substance. Digital comics are an alternate or additional business model for existing comics. It’s a real thing, and it exists. I can’t for the life of me figure out what people would possibly have against them, but we see it all the time.

The answer is, of course, that some think that the existence of a digital comics solution for some customers will take over for all, and they’ll no longer be able to get good ol’ paper comics. In a perfect world, that wouldn’t happen, and you’d have the choice. However, you might have some reason to fear, if I’m honest. But it’s not the fault of digital comics.

Will your comic shop be forced out of business? Maybe. Will it be the fault of digital comics? Probably not. The thing is this, comic shops are having a hard time all over from what I hear. As publisher sales are down, it must follow that comic shop sales are down. At this point, that has nothing to do with legitimate digital comics, because their market share, while growing, isn’t significant enough to make a big dent in retail sales yet. It might be later, but it’s more likely that pirated comics are taking a bigger bite out of these sales than anything. Of course, there’s not much hard evidence to that score, but anecdotally, it seems to be a possibility. But paying audiences for comics are shrinking at the moment. What’s causing that? Probably all sorts of stuff, from video games to TV to a generally tough economy to bad business practices by everyone involved. But will it be the fault of digital comics? Probably not.

Here’s the other side of things. In addition to sales being down all over, Borders is all done now too. This represents a significant revenue stream for many publishers, and without that revenue, they’re going to be having an even tougher time. While it is absolutely true that Amazon is taking a bite from local comic shop revenue, it is also true that Amazon provides a lot of revenue for comic publishers, who have to take whatever revenue they can get. This is the reason for digital comics. They were trying to make more money. I can’t tell you if it’s working to get new readers in yet, but the possibility is certainly there, where they’ve been trying to get new people to come into comic shops after a decade of mega blockbuster comic book movies, and that’s not working out so well.

How can comic shops compete? They have to be excellent. I live in a pretty rural area, and I found an excellent comic shop. However, if they just do business as usual, there’s a very good chance they’ll be having a hard time in the future. It’s hard work to make any business run today. It’s way more hard to have a successful comic shop. You’ve got to have passion and drive and even a bit of luck. I work in comics. I like digital comics. I like my local shop. I like the guy who runs it. I also work for a digital comics company, and I also order comics from Amazon. I’m not a bad guy, and it’s not all up to me. Maybe digital comics are bad for some shops, but they’re also very good for some creators. Who do I favor? And where do my preferences come into play? If I like to read comics on an iPad or the web, should I feel guilty about that? Because I don’t, and I’m not going to. Someone who goes into business and starts a comic shop should be very aware of the current climate. This might sound harsh, but neither you nor I are responsible for them. Digital consumption is not a bad choice. It’s just a choice, and it’s happening across all forms of media. And we don’t know what the future will hold.

Josh Flanagan

 

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So, there’s no way that I am going to be able to afford to purchase a cover or a page of art from a comic book that I like, but I would still like to look at some of the pages and covers that I particularly like. So my question is, is it completely pathetic to buy a TPB and carefully take it apart and frame a cover or page from within and hang it on your wall? Or is it ‘just not done’?

Joshua H.

My initial reaction to reading this e-mail was, “Hey man, do whatever makes you happy!” If you want to take the art from a trade paperback, or hell, even from an issue itself and use it to decorate your house, then by all means, go for it!  The only thing that would possibly give anyone pause would be the destruction of the item you’re pulling the art from. But if don’t value an old back issue or you don’t mind spending $10 or $20 to be able to cut art from a trade paperback (which honestly, isn’t a bad deal since it’s going to decorating your walls and giving you enjoyment for a long time presumably), then get your craft on and start cutting away and use that art to decorate! Then you should take pics and send it to HGTV, I bet they’d eat that up.

Now, if you don’t want to take apart a trade or a comic book, there are other options. There’s a company that sells a wall-stick mural of old comic book covers. Plus there are all sorts of companies that sell cool comic book related art like a Shadow Boxed cover of Spider-Man or things like that. So if you want to get some comic book art enjoyment on your walls, there are alternatives to destroying your comics.  But if you do use your comics, there’s tons of interesting ideas and possibilities that home decor blogs and sites love to highlight, like these.

Finally, I want to address your assumption about never being able to afford original comic book art. Now I agree with you that cover art is some of the most expensive art out there. But don’t underestimate the possibilities of buying affordable original art. Recently, I purchased a page of Stuart Immonen art from The New Avengers that you would think would be ridiculously expensive, but in fact it was oddly affordable. There are deals to be had our there, you just need to find them. A great resource is this post on our friends forum at 11 O’Clock Comics, which lays out all the places online to buy original art. Now while I’ve paid hundreds and thousands of dollars on original art, it’s important to note that my very first original art purchase was only $45 and I got it off eBay. Numerous other pages in my collection have cost under $100. So getting a page of original art that is affordable is quite possible.

Good luck!

Ron Richards