What’s Wrong With Comic Books?
I’ve seen a lot of dissatisfaction online with Joe Straczynski’s Superman storyline, the one where he ambles across the nation. Well, that’s show business; I rather like it, at least thus far. I think if JMS were to have done this story as a
graphic novel, say around 120 pages, it would have gone over better with the
bloggers. The basic idea worked for Thornton Wilder in his play Our Town, and taking this energy into
the superhero myth is a clever idea. But watching it unfold in monthly
installments – with fill-ins – does not do this concept justice.
However, Joe’s story reveals the major, overwhelming problem with today’s mainstream comics. It simply takes too damn long to tell a story.
Whereas I enjoyed Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man, it’s convenient for me to point out that the initial origin story only took Stan Lee and Steve Ditko 11 pages to pull off and Brian and Mark took five full issues. Different times, different storytelling techniques, but still we’re talking about a ten-fold increase in story length.
For me, this makes most “Big Event” stunts unreadable. I liked Marvel’s Shadowland, but my interest waned with each successive tie-in and mini-series. Same thing with Marvel’s Civil War / Dark Reign stunt, only multiplied by Warp Factor Four.
DC iced me with their Crisis on Infinite Final Crises event. What did they publish, about four thousand issues there? As for Brightest Day, I got burned out early on during Blackest Night so I never sampled the sequel. I don’t know who these characters are; DC keeps on changing its mind with each Big Event.
Yes, I understand – these Big Events do “quite well” in the marketplace. I respond, “Oh yeah? Compared to what?” Big-name comics publishers with big-name characters with big-time movie support are selling only to a small circle of friends in numbers so inadequate that 1960s Marvel publisher Martin Goodman and 1960s DC publisher Irwin Donenfeld would drop dead at the sales reports, if they weren’t dead already. Several years ago, I told Donenfeld – whose office was about a mile from my house – what Superman was selling, and he refused to believe it. “It’s Superman!” he said, shaking his head.
The sad fact is, the American comic book medium is no longer a mass medium. Nor is the rest of the publishing world. Readers are part of an ever-shrinking elite.
Will the Internet change that? Maybe. Will tablet computers with auto-subscriptions change that? I sure hope so. Otherwise, we’re in the buggy whip business.
There’s a lot of exciting stuff going on in comics today.
There’s a lot of solid writing from publishers both mainstream and otherwise.
Some great art, although with so many titles the great stuff is buried beneath
a ton of crap. There’s some wonderful concepts and some illuminating, even
inspirational stories. Sadly, very little of that is coming from the two
publishers who dominate what little market we’ve got left; the so-called
independent publishers (traditionally defined as “not Marvel or DC”) have
limited promotional resources, and direct sales comics shops can’t afford to
take much of a risk. They’ve got to order the Big Events, and as these stunts
get even bigger and segue directly into other Big Events, retailers have very
little money left over to take a chance on these independents.
That’s a shame. I go to conventions and I see more hopeful
wannabes than ever. I see more new kids with real talent, proportionately
speaking, than ever before. The interesting stuff that goes on at the larger
conventions isn’t at the major publishers’ showbooths, it’s in Artists Alley
and people you have never heard of are producing it.
So I gaze at the rapidly encroaching new year and I hope. I’d rather read good comic books, but at least I have hope.
I used to read all the big event stuff, but the simple fact is that many of the one-shots and limiteds that tie into (at least Marvel’s) the main events have little to nothing to do with the main storyline sometimes and are generally not done by the A-list creators. So I just stopped buying them. I didn’t read Civil War at all beyond when it dipped into the regular series I was reading. I read the main Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Shadowland and now Chaos War stories and I’m leaving everything else on the rack.
Sidenote: you mentioned that LCS have to order the big events, sometimes at the expense of independent publishers, but the manager of my LCS told me once that they don’t sell many of the big event books after the initial issue so they started ordering much fewer of them.
I still read the big event books, and I’ll admit they are hit and miss. You have the good like Infinite Crisis with the bad of War of the Supermen. I go with a lot of them but I’m sliding into passing on them more and more often.I’ve made a point of going through artist alley and found some really promising books. Like the big two you will find a mountain of crap as well, but there is promise. The Uniques by Comfort Love, Lost by Derek Glascock and Lost Squad by Chris Kirby and Alan Robinson were all great books that I’ve found over the last 3 years.A big one was Honor Brigade by Tom Sitwell which was in artist alley years ago when I first bought it. Two years later I saw reprinted issues in a comic shop in another state. It’s nice to see people succeed without a publisher.
Plug- If you like discovering relatively unknown talent, may I be so bold as to suggest you check out http://www.reasonablypricedcomics.com ? It’s the publisher currently releasing my JACK HAMMER detective series. I also wrote the lead story in the first issue of their new anthology. If nothing else, I’m sure you’ll love the art by my partner-in-crime, Ionic. /endplug
I still read the big event books, and I’ll admit they are hit and miss. You have the good like Infinite Crisis with the bad of War of the Supermen. I go with a lot of them but I’m sliding into passing on them more and more often.
I’ve made a point of going through artist alley and found some really promising books. Like the big two you will find a mountain of crap as well, but there is promise. The Uniques by Comfort Love, Lost by Derek Glascock and Lost Squad by Chris Kirby and Alan Robinson were all great books that I’ve found over the last 3 years.
A big one was Honor Brigade by Tom Sitwell which was in artist alley years ago when I first bought it. Two years later I saw reprinted issues in a comic shop in another state. It’s nice to see people succeed without a publisher.
Plug- If you like discovering relatively unknown talent, may I be so bold as to suggest you check out http://www.reasonablypricedcomics.com ? It’s the publisher currently releasing my JACK HAMMER detective series. I also wrote the lead story in the first issue of their new anthology. If nothing else, I’m sure you’ll love the art by my partner-in-crime, Ionic. /endplug
Mike, sadly, has only hinted at the real problem.The eleven page origin story of Spider-Man was in a twelve cent comic book in 1962. The five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man cost $2.99 each in 2000. Even adjusting for inflation, that’s a 24-fold increase in cost to read a story.With that difference in pricing, no wonder sales and readership are down.Taken a different way: the viewership for the Spider-Man animated series compared to the latest animated series shows no drop that can’t be explained by industry-wide audience fragmentation.
“Even adjusting for inflation, that’s a 24-fold increase in cost to read a story.”
That’s not a fair comparison. That’s like comparing a candy bar to a full meal and only talking about how the meal costs more.
Yes, the 11 page version and the 5 issue version were both “a story.” However, that doesn’t negate the fact that one was an hour and a half of reading entertainment and the other was ten minutes of reading entertainment. So it’s not as easy as “no wonder sales and readership are down” because that’s not an apples to apples comparison.
An 11 page story today wouldn’t sell. It just wouldn’t. The audience is older and they want different things. So any comparison between the stories from then and the stories from now is broken to begin with. Plus, readers don’t *have* to but all five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man to decide if they like it or not. Like watching the first episode of a TV series, people look at the first episode and decide if they want to keep going, which is pretty what happened when the first issues of comics were self contained stories. They may not have a whole story in that one issue, but they have enough to decide of they like the comic or not.
Yes, comics are a bigger investment than they used to be. The fact that it is more money and more time for one story is definitely an issue with readership. I just don’t think it helps to play math games that break the problem down into something that’s too simplistic.
Mike, sadly, has only hinted at the real problem.
The eleven page origin story of Spider-Man was in a twelve cent comic book in 1962. The five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man cost $2.99 each in 2000. Even adjusting for inflation, that’s a 24-fold increase in cost to read a story.
With that difference in pricing, no wonder sales and readership are down.
Taken a different way: the viewership for the Spider-Man animated series compared to the latest animated series shows no drop that can’t be explained by industry-wide audience fragmentation.
I agree with Jason that the Stan and Steve story cannot be fairly compared to the Bendis/Bagley story. Aside from the “different times, different storytelling techniques” that Mike mentioned, the original Spider-Man origin was a shot in the dark, a what-have-we-got-to-lose gambit. They needed to get the origin out of the way and start telling stories. When Bendis and Bagley retold it the origin, it was a known quantity. Everyone knows where the story is going so a barebones approach would entertain no one.
That said, I hate the Big Events. I’ve been burned too many times. Crisis on Infinite Earths in the ’80s, which I enjoyed, has been completely undone. Civil War was powerful for all the ramifications the Spider-Man reveal had, but of course that has also been undone. Also painting Tony Stark and his faction as McCarthy-esque was lazy and inaccurate. If the Pro-Registration side was supposed to be conservative and reactionary why is registering firearms considered a liberal stance? Someone with super-powers or souped-up armor is analogous to a real-world citizen with an AK47 and I’m betting everyone would like that guy registered. Sorry to stray a little.
That being said, one of the best origin stories I’ve seen in years is the first page of All Star Superman. In four panels and eight words Grant Morrison told Superman’s origin and was able to start telling his story almost right away.
That’s different. When he only spends 4 pages on it, that’s not really the story. That’s just a little prologue before the real story that the reader bought the comic for.
I used to read all the big event stuff, but the simple fact is that many of the one-shots and limiteds that tie into (at least Marvel's) the main events have little to nothing to do with the main storyline sometimes and are generally not done by the A-list creators. So I just stopped buying them. I didn't read Civil War at all beyond when it dipped into the regular series I was reading. I read the main Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, Shadowland and now Chaos War stories and I'm leaving everything else on the rack.Sidenote: you mentioned that LCS have to order the big events, sometimes at the expense of independent publishers, but the manager of my LCS told me once that they don't sell many of the big event books after the initial issue so they started ordering much fewer of them.
I still read the big event books, and I'll admit they are hit and miss. You have the good like Infinite Crisis with the bad of War of the Supermen. I go with a lot of them but I'm sliding into passing on them more and more often.I've made a point of going through artist alley and found some really promising books. Like the big two you will find a mountain of crap as well, but there is promise. The Uniques by Comfort Love, Lost by Derek Glascock and Lost Squad by Chris Kirby and Alan Robinson were all great books that I've found over the last 3 years.A big one was Honor Brigade by Tom Sitwell which was in artist alley years ago when I first bought it. Two years later I saw reprinted issues in a comic shop in another state. It's nice to see people succeed without a publisher.
Plug- If you like discovering relatively unknown talent, may I be so bold as to suggest you check out http://www.reasonablypricedcomics.com ? It's the publisher currently releasing my JACK HAMMER detective series. I also wrote the lead story in the first issue of their new anthology. If nothing else, I'm sure you'll love the art by my partner-in-crime, Ionic. /endplug
Mike, sadly, has only hinted at the real problem.The eleven page origin story of Spider-Man was in a twelve cent comic book in 1962. The five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man cost $2.99 each in 2000. Even adjusting for inflation, that's a 24-fold increase in cost to read a story.With that difference in pricing, no wonder sales and readership are down.Taken a different way: the viewership for the Spider-Man animated series compared to the latest animated series shows no drop that can't be explained by industry-wide audience fragmentation.
"Even adjusting for inflation, that's a 24-fold increase in cost to read a story."That's not a fair comparison. That's like comparing a candy bar to a full meal and only talking about how the meal costs more.Yes, the 11 page version and the 5 issue version were both "a story." However, that doesn't negate the fact that one was an hour and a half of reading entertainment and the other was ten minutes of reading entertainment. So it's not as easy as "no wonder sales and readership are down" because that's not an apples to apples comparison.An 11 page story today wouldn't sell. It just wouldn't. The audience is older and they want different things. So any comparison between the stories from then and the stories from now is broken to begin with. Plus, readers don't *have* to but all five issues of Ultimate Spider-Man to decide if they like it or not. Like watching the first episode of a TV series, people look at the first episode and decide if they want to keep going, which is pretty what happened when the first issues of comics were self contained stories. They may not have a whole story in that one issue, but they have enough to decide of they like the comic or not.Yes, comics are a bigger investment than they used to be. The fact that it is more money and more time for one story is definitely an issue with readership. I just don't think it helps to play math games that break the problem down into something that's too simplistic.
I agree with Jason that the Stan and Steve story cannot be fairly compared to the Bendis/Bagley story. Aside from the "different times, different storytelling techniques" that Mike mentioned, the original Spider-Man origin was a shot in the dark, a what-have-we-got-to-lose gambit. They needed to get the origin out of the way and start telling stories. When Bendis and Bagley retold it the origin, it was a known quantity. Everyone knows where the story is going so a barebones approach would entertain no one. That said, I hate the Big Events. I've been burned too many times. Crisis on Infinite Earths in the '80s, which I enjoyed, has been completely undone. Civil War was powerful for all the ramifications the Spider-Man reveal had, but of course that has also been undone. Also painting Tony Stark and his faction as McCarthy-esque was lazy and inaccurate. If the Pro-Registration side was supposed to be conservative and reactionary why is registering firearms considered a liberal stance? Someone with super-powers or souped-up armor is analogous to a real-world citizen with an AK47 and I'm betting everyone would like that guy registered. Sorry to stray a little.
That being said, one of the best origin stories I've seen in years is the first page of All Star Superman. In four panels and eight words Grant Morrison told Superman's origin and was able to start telling his story almost right away.
That's different. When he only spends 4 pages on it, that's not really the story. That's just a little prologue before the real story that the reader bought the comic for.
The last “Big Event” that i followed at all was 52.Before that, i guess the original “Crisis” – though, come to think, the DC/Marvel/Amalgam crossovers probably count, too…
The last “Big Event” that i followed at all was 52.
Before that, i guess the original “Crisis” – though, come to think, the DC/Marvel/Amalgam crossovers probably count, too…
“and direct sales comics shops can’t afford to take much of a risk. They’ve got to order the Big Events”
Is that really a given? I’ve been in a few shops that were not dominated by superhero books, one of which they were actually relegated to a very small section of the store, and they seem to be doing okay.
I expect if “comics” shops marketed themselves less as “superhero comics” shops they’d find they could broaden their customer base without losing any of the Marve/DC fans. Folks who want to read Infinite Secret Brightest Crisis Wars Night will find a comic shop. They don’t need posters of Superman covering the windows (blocking a view of the interior and further keeping new customers at bay) to find the shop.
The last "Big Event" that i followed at all was 52.Before that, i guess the original "Crisis" – though, come to think, the DC/Marvel/Amalgam crossovers probably count, too…
"and direct sales comics shops can't afford to take much of a risk. They've got to order the Big Events"Is that really a given? I've been in a few shops that were not dominated by superhero books, one of which they were actually relegated to a very small section of the store, and they seem to be doing okay.I expect if "comics" shops marketed themselves less as "superhero comics" shops they'd find they could broaden their customer base without losing any of the Marve/DC fans. Folks who want to read Infinite Secret Brightest Crisis Wars Night will find a comic shop. They don't need posters of Superman covering the windows (blocking a view of the interior and further keeping new customers at bay) to find the shop.
jason is right about the time and expectations of todays’ readers. that 11 page origin story took hours to read and to digest and talk about with fellow collectors. the 5 issues took 10 minutes and no one talked about it. collectors today expect pretty pictures( and not a lot if they are big pictures) and don’t seem to understand sequential art forms.
mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom “90% of everything is crap”.
about 4yrs ago i told maggie that i had come to the conclusion that we would in our lifetime see the end of the 32 page format.
mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom “90% of everything is crap”.Nope – which is why i generally read rather less than ten percent of what’s out there.My favourite comment on Big Event Syndrome in the comic “Hitman”, the year that DC’s Big Event was the Sun going out – “Things get weird every summer about this time, remember?” … and then the characters proceed to completely ignore the Big Event…
Oops.
that was supposed to begin;
mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom “90% of everything is crap”.
Mike, I haven’t forgotten Sturgeon’s Law. I just wish the majors wouldn’t work so hard to enforce it.
I was quoting the earlier comment.
Also – it’s not “Sturgeon’s Law” (according to the man himself – Sturgron’s Law is something else entirely.
It’s properly “Sturgeon’s Revelation”.
And i happened to be present when Robert Bloch, in response to a remark by David Gerrold, proposed Bloch’s Corollary: “…and your agent gets the other 10%.”
jason is right about the time and expectations of todays' readers. that 11 page origin story took hours to read and to digest and talk about with fellow collectors. the 5 issues took 10 minutes and no one talked about it. collectors today expect pretty pictures( and not a lot if they are big pictures) and don't seem to understand sequential art forms. mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom "90% of everything is crap". about 4yrs ago i told maggie that i had come to the conclusion that we would in our lifetime see the end of the 32 page format.
mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom "90% of everything is crap".Nope – which is why i generally read rather less than ten percent of what's out there.My favourite comment on Big Event Syndrome in the comic "Hitman", the year that DC's Big Event was the Sun going out – "Things get weird every summer about this time, remember?" … and then the characters proceed to completely ignore the Big Event…
Oops.that was supposed to begin;mike you seem to have forgotten the s-f axiom "90% of everything is crap".
Mike, I haven't forgotten Sturgeon's Law. I just wish the majors wouldn't work so hard to enforce it.
I was quoting the earlier comment.Also – it's not "Sturgeon's Law" (according to the man himself – Sturgron's Law is something else entirely.It's properly "Sturgeon's Revelation".And i happened to be present when Robert Bloch, in response to a remark by David Gerrold, proposed Bloch's Corollary: "…and your agent gets the other 10%."
Despite the big ideas floated around, I think publishers have realized the days where one Spider-Man book will sell 300,000 copies are over. So they put out ten Spider-Man books every month that sell 30,000 copies (maybe) and call it a success.
Somewhat off-topic, but why are comments repeated several times?
(I swear to God I’m only going to click on the Post Comment once; let’s see what happens)
Some of it is because of hiccups in the migration between systems. We\’re trying to clean them out.