#comicmarket
Discharge Demo 1978
Re: The Comics Market and the Closure of Atomic Comics
So, nerd culture has arisen from it's dark cellar grave and taken over the mainstream with a wealth of capital in an otherwise hard up time. People are flocking to the movies to see the spandexed and chain-mailed asses of heroes like, Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America and Iron Man. We've returned to the eighties action movie and thank god, my generation never had a chance to watch Tango & Cash in theaters. Beyond the obvious lack of diversity in characters' racial and sexual identity, the superhero/comicbook/comics market should be thriving, we should be celebrating ticker-tape parades in Hollywood, celebrating this GIGANTIC influx of commerce, symbology, heroism, and just plain inspiration. Yet I don't see any marked difference in our actions, our media consumption or our social consciousness. When I ride my bike through the streets of downtown San Jose, people still roll down their windows and drive out of their way to yell, “Faggot!” “Homo!” “Pussy!” “Queer!” or honk their horn in attempt to watch me falter and fall. Our alcohol-Red Bull infused culture is asleep at the wheel, careening around the future watching the GPS on our phones while texting our friends back a picture of the roadway in front of us saying, “Sorry, can't talk!”
Jerry Siegel wrote the story of Superman from his parent's attic in Cleveland, Ohio. What better comicbook origin could you fucking ask for. Unfortunately, that creation has come to color all interpretations of American comicbooks. Let's look at European (no, you are!) comics. “Over there” comics are digested en masse, Moebius, a guy with some fuckin' chops, is digested on commuter rails, under bedroom covers and in the waiting rooms of doctor's offices. A master of his own brand of science fiction and fantasy, his work excels through books like “Blueberry”, a comicbook about cowboys and indians! Why is Moebius drawing a comic about cowboys and indians when anyone who's read Arzach has glimpsed the ethereal, angelic realms the guy is capable of tapping into. Blueberry is what people like to read. If you want the comics market to thrive in this future world of eighty hours a week spent watching television, playing with our phones and putzing around on computers, we need to make comics beyond the pale of the “widescreen” format.
Not to say that I'm calling for comics to be an easy medium to digest or sell, putting comics shops at the danger of becoming comics franchises. Imagine “Farts and Goebbels” shops popping up all over the country selling discounted copies of whatever “TnA” comic the corporate meddlers have put out to maximize profits and minimize intellect. Comics need to continue to represent a wide range of comprehension levels for ultimate reader viability (there's a better word but I don't know much about marketing jargon). What was that comic about Afghanistan, “The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders”? My first interaction with this pioneering work of comics-journalism was in the back of a comics store where the high-priced, slip cover graphic novel intimidated me. My bookshelves had zero space for such an oddly formed book, my wallet stolen by moths, there were other needs I had to meet and so I passed. If a store manager hadn't pointed it out to me I wouldn't even have never considered the title and that was the wrong choice. If someone hadn't gone out of their way to show me this book I would have never known about it and that's the way comics work, we love the kinds of books that no one else has heard of. Every individual reading comicbooks today wants to be someone else's gatekeeper.
Comicbooks need to come to a consensus and just agree about how much we collectively love this medium. Furthermore, we need to define for ourselves what determines a comicbook, comic book, graphic novel, comix or comics, so that the un-intiated don't have to. The rivalry between DC and Marvel is cute when they jab at one another in the Bullpen pages of their own books, but not when it bleeds into the real world, where comic shop owners are bullied into tearing apart the competitions' similarly themed work so they can order a couple crappy variant covers. The two companies are competing but comics are considered an enlightened field by the many people who call this their profession, why would you choose to condescend on such a level? Fortunately, their adherence to the standard, “tried and true” format leaves a HUGE gap in the market for other publishers to experiment with the format, thus we have books like Scott Pilgrim, Beanworld, and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac that represent a smattering of modern counter-culture views of our society. These kinds of books have the truest fan base, the least amount of commercialization (profit for profit's sake) and the coolest fans. It's friggin' great that people like these books enough to buy them in droves but what's really important is that they speak to people, that they represent an otherwise unheard voice in this world, that people have someone or something that they can get behind.
The Adventures of Tintin is one of the world's most popular, widely read and recognized serialized graphic novel characters. You could show just about anyone a picture of Tintin and they would instantly recognize the character, perhaps citing a favorite adventure of theirs, the buddy-cop formula between Snowy and him or the atrociously over-the-top depictions of racial diversity. Would the average reader recognize this was a comic? Would anyone of these people admit to reading a supposed “children's” book? In American culture, it is still embarrassing to be seen reading comicbooks. Manga comes in every flavor virtually imaginable and is consumed with a fervor like unto mass hysteria. American comicbooks will never be taken seriously by our own people until we embrace and advertise a multi-faceted definition of the “art + words” story format. It seems like the producers of content are scared of introducing new varieties of comics in fear of ostracizing their core readership, the “basement dweller”. Why hold on to those fears when you're already losing money?
The obvious answer is, it's difficult to change people's minds. The environmentally conscious & healthier choice would be to shift from bulky, methane-producing, vast quantities of water-consuming, enormous plots of land requiring, beef to “more protein per pound” insects. Who will ever choose to order a compressed burger with grasshopper legs sticking out when they could have a juicy flank of steak? Well, I would, but that's because I'm thirteen. More to the point, I represent a very small contingent of socially aware persons. I read, have read and will read superhero comics always and forever. (I also ride a bicycle and get called a “pussy-fart” so take that how you will) I love comics shops and I love that they are, hypothetically, a central location for weirdos, outcasts, mice of men, and flag waving freaks to congregate and embrace one another. (“I say in the spiritual sense...”) Apparently, libraries aren't a sustainable government practice, so we need to ensure that there will always be a place in this world for people to read interesting books, outside of the internet (remember that thing about libraries and sustainability). Comics shops fill a very specific niche in our culture that wouldn't exist if there wasn't a need for them. What we, as a collective comics-fanbase, must do is diversify the/our definition of comics, evaluate the needs of the average non-comics buying public and grow beyond the comics market niche we've spent fifty years trimming to it's current, narrow, definitions.
If you want to prevent the closure of other fine establishments, like the great things I hear about Atomic Comics, then three things must be done,
1.) Support local comics shops
- Buy your comics locally, from a store you respect (or at least, supports its local "outsider culture" constituents)
- Get off the internet
2.) Broaden our definition of comics
- Superheroes are fine, but they're colored the image of comicbooks for contemporary, American adults. They're "embarrassing"
- Embrace a definition of comicbooks outside of the spandexed "Big Two"
- Mature the comics format
- Diversify the definition of a comicbook
3.) Keep trying.
- Comics will always exist. They're just too easy to read.
[ed: there's something more insightful I could put here, but this will do for now.]
UPDATE: Posted at the same time as the Virginia 5.8 earthquake...correlation?
Re: The Comics Market and the Closure of Atomic Comics
So, nerd culture has arisen from it's dark cellar grave and taken over the mainstream with a wealth of capital in an otherwise hard up time. People are flocking to the movies to see the spandexed and chain-mailed asses of heroes like, Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America and Iron Man. We've returned to the eighties action movie and thank god, my generation never had a chance to watch Tango & Cash in theaters. Beyond the obvious lack of diversity in characters' racial and sexual identity, the superhero/comicbook/comics market should be thriving, we should be celebrating ticker-tape parades in Hollywood, celebrating this GIGANTIC influx of commerce, symbology, heroism, and just plain inspiration. Yet I don't see any marked difference in our actions, our media consumption or our social consciousness. When I ride my bike through the streets of downtown San Jose, people still roll down their windows and drive out of their way to yell, “Faggot!” “Homo!” “Pussy!” “Queer!” or honk their horn in attempt to watch me falter and fall. Our alcohol-Red Bull infused culture is asleep at the wheel, careening around the future watching the GPS on our phones while texting our friends back a picture of the roadway in front of us saying, “Sorry, can't talk!”
Jerry Siegel wrote the story of Superman from his parent's attic in Cleveland, Ohio. What better comicbook origin could you fucking ask for. Unfortunately, that creation has come to color all interpretations of American comicbooks. Let's look at European (no, you are!) comics. “Over there” comics are digested en masse, Moebius, a guy with some fuckin' chops, is digested on commuter rails, under bedroom covers and in the waiting rooms of doctor's offices. A master of his own brand of science fiction and fantasy, his work excels through books like “Blueberry”, a comicbook about cowboys and indians! Why is Moebius drawing a comic about cowboys and indians when anyone who's read Arzach has glimpsed the ethereal, angelic realms the guy is capable of tapping into. Blueberry is what people like to read. If you want the comics market to thrive in this future world of eighty hours a week spent watching television, playing with our phones and putzing around on computers, we need to make comics beyond the pale of the “widescreen” format.
Not to say that I'm calling for comics to be an easy medium to digest or sell, putting comics shops at the danger of becoming comics franchises. Imagine “Farts and Goebbels” shops popping up all over the country selling discounted copies of whatever “TnA” comic the corporate meddlers have put out to maximize profits and minimize intellect. Comics need to continue to represent a wide range of comprehension levels for ultimate reader viability (there's a better word but I don't know much about marketing jargon). What was that comic about Afghanistan, “The Photographer: Into War-torn Afghanistan with Doctors Without Borders”? My first interaction with this pioneering work of comics-journalism was in the back of a comics store where the high-priced, slip cover graphic novel intimidated me. My bookshelves had zero space for such an oddly formed book, my wallet stolen by moths, there were other needs I had to meet and so I passed. If a store manager hadn't pointed it out to me I wouldn't even have never considered the title and that was the wrong choice. If someone hadn't gone out of their way to show me this book I would have never known about it and that's the way comics work, we love the kinds of books that no one else has heard of. Every individual reading comicbooks today wants to be someone else's gatekeeper.
Comicbooks need to come to a consensus and just agree about how much we collectively love this medium. Furthermore, we need to define for ourselves what determines a comicbook, comic book, graphic novel, comix or comics, so that the un-intiated don't have to. The rivalry between DC and Marvel is cute when they jab at one another in the Bullpen pages of their own books, but not when it bleeds into the real world, where comic shop owners are bullied into tearing apart the competitions' similarly themed work so they can order a couple crappy variant covers. The two companies are competing but comics are considered an enlightened field by the many people who call this their profession, why would you choose to condescend on such a level? Fortunately, their adherence to the standard, “tried and true” format leaves a HUGE gap in the market for other publishers to experiment with the format, thus we have books like Scott Pilgrim, Beanworld, and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac that represent a smattering of modern counter-culture views of our society. These kinds of books have the truest fan base, the least amount of commercialization (profit for profit's sake) and the coolest fans. It's friggin' great that people like these books enough to buy them in droves but what's really important is that they speak to people, that they represent an otherwise unheard voice in this world, that people have someone or something that they can get behind.
The Adventures of Tintin is one of the world's most popular, widely read and recognized serialized graphic novel characters. You could show just about anyone a picture of Tintin and they would instantly recognize the character, perhaps citing a favorite adventure of theirs, the buddy-cop formula between Snowy and him or the atrociously over-the-top depictions of racial diversity. Would the average reader recognize this was a comic? Would anyone of these people admit to reading a supposed “children's” book? In American culture, it is still embarrassing to be seen reading comicbooks. Manga comes in every flavor virtually imaginable and is consumed with a fervor like unto mass hysteria. American comicbooks will never be taken seriously by our own people until we embrace and advertise a multi-faceted definition of the “art + words” story format. It seems like the producers of content are scared of introducing new varieties of comics in fear of ostracizing their core readership, the “basement dweller”. Why hold on to those fears when you're already losing money?
The obvious answer is, it's difficult to change people's minds. The environmentally conscious & healthier choice would be to shift from bulky, methane-producing, vast quantities of water-consuming, enormous plots of land requiring, beef to “more protein per pound” insects. Who will ever choose to order a compressed burger with grasshopper legs sticking out when they could have a juicy flank of steak? Well, I would, but that's because I'm thirteen. More to the point, I represent a very small contingent of socially aware persons. I read, have read and will read superhero comics always and forever. (I also ride a bicycle and get called a “pussy-fart” so take that how you will) I love comics shops and I love that they are, hypothetically, a central location for weirdos, outcasts, mice of men, and flag waving freaks to congregate and embrace one another. (“I say in the spiritual sense...”) Apparently, libraries aren't a sustainable government practice, so we need to ensure that there will always be a place in this world for people to read interesting books, outside of the internet (remember that thing about libraries and sustainability). Comics shops fill a very specific niche in our culture that wouldn't exist if there wasn't a need for them. What we, as a collective comics-fanbase, must do is diversify the/our definition of comics, evaluate the needs of the average non-comics buying public and grow beyond the comics market niche we've spent fifty years trimming to it's current, narrow, definitions.
If you want to prevent the closure of other fine establishments, like the great things I hear about Atomic Comics, then three things must be done,
1.) Support local comics shops
- Buy your comics locally, from a store you respect (or at least, supports its local "outsider culture" constituents)
- Get off the internet
2.) Broaden our definition of comics
- Superheroes are fine, but they're colored the image of comicbooks for contemporary, American adults. They're "embarrassing"
- Embrace a definition of comicbooks outside of the spandexed "Big Two"
- Mature the comics format
- Diversify the definition of a comicbook
3.) Keep trying.
- Comics will always exist. They're just too easy to read.
[ed: there's something more insightful I could put here, but this will do for now.]
UPDATE: Posted at the same time as the Virginia 5.8 earthquake...correlation?