So I went to the comic book store in Silver Spring today (as I write this I am in the Borders in Silver Spring - and here’s the funny thing my choices are paid wifi or free wifi from the city - which do you think everyone is using?) and I have a feeling that the comic book industry is sucking wind. In the last ten years I have severely cut down on my comic book purchases - not because of maturity, I will always be 10 - but because it’s so darned expensive. $2.95 for a comic book buys you a short 24 pages, whereas a magazine would bring you 100 or so pages of content. I also preface my comments by saying my primary interest is in superhero comics. I read other stuff, but frankly most of the time if I want grand introspection on life I’ll read a novel. I read comics to see people who can pick up a bus (That’s also why I’m not wild about Batman and other costumed vigilantes. If you’re dumb enough to run around fighting crime in a ridiculous outfit you should at least be able to pick up a bus, and no smaller than a school bus at that).
That said, today’s comics feel like they have all the life sucked out of them. I don’t know if it’s the popularity of manga or what but so much of the artwork is flat and lifeless. The coloring, now done on computer cannot do the work on its own. While they suffered bad writing at least the comics of the ’90s had sweet art (I’m speaking of the Image era). Furthermore the stories just seem like they’re kind of flailing. Marvel just ended its Civil War thing where they killed off Captain America (he’ll be back) and I saw something where Spider-Man has gone through three different costumes in a two-month period (conveniently going back to the black costume mere months before the movie is released - synergy!).
Things aren’t much better in DC. There’s yet another relaunch of Justice League (I bought it but I’ve seen this story so many damn times), Batman is brooding over something, and in the Superman issues I bought I’m not expecting anything earth shattering and the art is very blah (where the heck did Ed McGuiness go?).
An outgrowth of this was the guy at the comic book store checkout desk. This is the second time I’ve shopped there and I almost think it’s everything screwy with the world of comics. Usually he’s chatting with his other comic book buddies about some movie or story arc and doesn’t say a word to me the entire time. I don’t expect more than a “hi” or “thanks” but don’t even get that. And that’s just it. While comic books are never going to be a mass medium, the advent of the comic book store - as great as that is - seems to have created an amazingly insular world. There were some demerits to writing comic books to be read by children as they mostly were from the ’30s - ’80s, but the upside of that was that comics created a world of wonder. But I feel as if today’s comics are just about making the comic book store guys chuckle and leaving everyone out, yet the box office receipts of the Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men and Superman franchises clearly show there’s an entire universe of people who even a sliver of them would give comics a chance.
But the comics have to be open too, and sadly they are not.
I hear ya, OW. This recovering “Marvel Zombie” was in and out of comics for years…ironically, it was the Death of Superman that drew me back in in ‘92. That was when Marvel was putting out 150+ books each month, soon to balloon to over 300!! The quality suffered, as anyone who managed to survive the Spidey clone saga could tell you. (And I barely touched the “mainstream” mutant books, except for special events such as “Age of Apocalypse”. I did get X-Men 2099 and the Ultimate series.)
My favorites were Spawn, Lady Death/Evil Ernie (yes, I have the original LD #1 foil cover), The Demon (before Garth Ennis took over), Lobo, and just about any Punisher series except the “supernatural” one. Batman had some great ones as well, such as “Hush” and “Cataclysm/No Man’s Land”.
But I was looking for any excuse to drop the whole lot of ‘em. I just couldn’t…inertia, I guess. The chance came a few years ago when Geppi’s in Catonsville closed its doors. I quit cold turkey. Got over it pretty quickly.
I think the problem is that comics try too much marketing (”deaths,” movies and other special events) at the expense of good writing. And that $2.95 ain’t worth it.
One thing I do like is the CD/DVD-ROM collections of back issues: decades of continuity for a relatively low price. I have the 2004 Topics CD box of “Amazing Spider-Man”. It’s great, but it DOESN’T INCLUDE THE ANNUALS!! No “Sinister Six” from Annual #1, one of the greatest Marvel stories ever.
(The more recent Digital Comics DVD-ROM has the annuals. They’ve done other Marvel titles - mainly the Ultimates - and even a complete run of DC’s MAD Magazine!!)
Okay, quit dissin’ The Batman. He can’t pick up a bus, but as you pointed out, he’s got the crazy working for him.
Guys like Superman always had to have some stupid weakness to be interesting. Batman, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Captain America, Green Arrow, Daredevil, and even Wolverine, always got by on being CRAZY enough to wear the uniform and the will to fight the forces of evil.
Or did you not watch Justice League Unlimited.
Captain America, Daredevil and Wolverine all have some kind of powers (super soldier, super sonar, healing + admantium). And yes, the others are just crazy.
You’re looking for comics in the wrong place. leave the comic book store and enter a bookstore. The graphic novel despite the pretentiousness of the term is where the writting and art and raw talent is going. Want a good Marvel story pick up “Unstable Molecules” by New York Times best selling auther James Sturm. Read Paul Chadwick’s ground-breaking “Concrete.” Crack open a Chris Ware book or a Kevin Huzanga book. If their more down-to-earth stories aren’t your speed try Hellboy or Goon. The traditional comic book format is dying; the graphic novel is the laptop to the comic book’s PC.
In short comics are actually better drawn and better written then nearly any point in their history. They’re just not sold in most comic book shops.
The older and classic characters are drawing the wrong writers a lot of the time. Case in point is my childhood favorite: Spider-Man. I love most things Joe Straczynski does, but turning Pater Parker into a “mystical spider avatar” a few years ago was not one of his best ideas. Or they’ll tell a story and focus on the one-on-one stories - very important, sure - but leave huge unsatisfying holes in the overall story world. They’ve played with a couple of other characters’ backstories too, and it just doesn’t work most of the time. Too much ambition in the story to tell, not enough patience to tell it right.
The best work today seems to be in the smaller titles. Pick up “Fables” if you haven’t found it yet. It’s a DC/Vertigo comic. Find the first tradeback collection and see if you like it. And go back and pick up the “Planetary” tradebacks too. Warren Ellis is a writer worth searching for, most of the time. And the current “Conan” series. Find the hardbacks of the first two collections, they’re worth a look. The Flash and Green Arrow were doing well too, but the Green Arrow book is coming to an end again.
I don’t like paying $3.00 for a 36-page book with 12 pages of ads in it, either. I’ve left a few main-line comics on the shelf for that. Not worth it.
Concentrating comic sales and specialty titles in the direct-sale stores was an experiment in the 80s. Now it’s most of their business. It does seal most of the public away from finding titles unless they are looking specifically for comics, so the audience grows very slowly. The comic shop I go to closed its oldest store (out of eight) three years ago and moved into a brightly-lit and spacious store specifically to combat the “cave” comic store stereotype. It seems to work to an extent, but it’s still a get-out-the-map location. The regulars are the mainstay for the stores’ revenue.
Again - look for the smaller titles. You’ll find some better stories.
CS
It’s not a “classic” style superhero book, by any stretch, but, pick up Painkiller Jane. Besides, I can use the royalties.
“0″ issue’s out now…for only 25 cents! Better than a poke in the eye.
All-Star Superman is absolutely fantastic; you probably don’t need me to tell you to give it a look, but I am anyway. It’s probably my favorite right now.
And I’m guessing from your Batman comments that you’re either behind or have been reading the fill-in issues, because I honestly believe that the work Morrison’s putting out in Batman and Dini’s putting out in Detective is consistently the best work either book’s seen in twenty years. (I give the edge to Dini because his stuff’s so much easier just to pick up and read; Morrison’s working on arcs with a lot of complicated details to remember, whereas Dini’s focusing on that lost art, the single-issue story.)
Madman’s got a new monthly series too; if you’ve never read it, the new #1 is as good a place to start as any as it’s pretty much just a recap.
And Jeff Smith (of Bone fame) is doing a really excellent Shazam mini.
…As for the big crossovers…yeah, I’m sick of ‘em too, but I think I’m going to have to read Countdown because it’s Dini and it’s New Gods. As for Civil War, I thought the art was really impressive but the story jumped the tracks by issue #2. Which is a pity, because I really am a Mark Millar fan. (I assume you’ve read Red Son as it’s essential Superman reading.) I’m finding myself reading more and more DC and less and less Marvel, though Nextwave was a great silly book and the Ellis/Deodato Thunderbolts run is interesting if a little slow (and while I like Deodato’s art, I’m disappointed by how he drew Phoenix — the city, not the character — in the latest issue; how hard is it to get reference photos of the sixth-largest city in the country? Dude, we don’t have skyscrapers or loft-style apartments.).
Getting off the superhero list, Brian Wood’s putting out a couple good books in Local and DMZ. The former is, to the best of my knowledge, the only comic book in history ever to feature a full-page illustration of my high school.
And Walking Dead was my favorite for awhile, but I think it’s lost something in the last arc or two. Still, I highly recommend the first few trades, even if you’re not a zombie fan (I’m not generally either).
Ed’s now exclusive to Marvel. Can’t remember what projects he’s on now.
I’m enjoying 52, a lot of the Justice League books, and pretty much everything Bill Willingham writes for DC.
I’m very psyched for the next return of Manhunter, which not only helps pay half our rent but will be getting more — well, I’m not at liberty to divulge storylines but I definitely think it’ll be more up your alley, Oliver.
There were some demerits to writing comic books to be read by children as they mostly were from the ’30s - ’80s, but the upside of that was that comics created a world of wonder.
Yup. Now its hardcore reality.
The turn off for me in today’s comics is the artwork. The stories are generally more acceptable, but I was always of the view that great artwork elevates a weak story far more than a great story elevates bad art. If I want to avoid visually suffering, I’ll just read a good old fashioned book. For example, I found the Phil Hestor Green Arrow work completely unreadable, because to me Hestor’s art is blotchy and hideous.
I used to be a big fan of Mad Magazine, particularly Mort Drucker’s art in the movie spoofs. By the mid-80s, age was obviously weighing in on Drucker and his once meticulously crafted drawings became ones that seemed to be drawn in haste. Whatever the reason, they lacked the juciy detail and creativity characteristic of his early work. Today I find almost *every* artist to be exuding this “working in haste” quality. I don’t know if that reflects a lack of talent, or doing too many things under the pressure of too many deadlines, or whatever, but I really don’t see a single Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Barry Smith, Jack Kirby, Marshall Rogers, George Perez, or anyone like that on the scene these days. Do these artists lack vision? Are they incapable of drawing with any photorealistic detail (yes, I admit I prefer that sort of style)?
Compare the covers of those great DC and Marvel books from the 1960s and 1970s to those of today. Back in the good old days, the covers seemed much more creative, showing the hero (or villain) in a variety of different situations shown from a variety of vantage points. I think often of Spiderman covers (i.e. Spiderman 96) showing spidey creeping up a building as seen from a distance of 50 feet, as if you’re the observer on the street. Or Spiderman #48 showing spidey and the vulture going at it, with a nice view of the distant street below. Another great cover is Neal Adams’s Batman 244, showing Ras Al Ghul glowering over a battered and defeated Batman with the top of his costume torn off, with the red hot Arabian sun and arabs on camels in the background. Just beautiful, creative work. How about those Jim Steranko covers on Nick Fury? I could rattle off hundreds more.
I just don’t see much of that creativity in the artwork these days. It seems that far, far too often today’s artist is inclined to show overly muscular heroes in some sort of action pose, bursting through the page, devoid of context of their situation. Yawwwwnnnn….boring!
Joe
i love the old school comics. i grew up in the bronze age. The art seemed more vibrant and the coloring of the pages was great. now all the coloring is done on computers and i personally think it sucks.