Manga versus comics
When I look around on the comic blogosphere. I see a great deal of hyperbole in the ranks of superhero comic fans at times.
DARKNESS OMG!
VIOLENCE OMG!
ENTITLEMENT OMG!
HOMOPHOBIA OMG!
SEXISM OMG!
REVERSE SEXISM 180 OMG!
REVISIONIST OMG!
OLD PEOPLE BITCHING OMG!
DIDO OMG!
QUESADA OMG!
These are fascinating explorations. When done in moderation and insight. But while you are digging around in the past to complain about offensive slights, reliving our former glories as fans, accusing each other of various degrees of insult.... You miss what is happening to you with your head in the sand.
Comics are passing you by.
Sorry to tell you this. The kids like the manga now. They get the superheroes from toys, television, and movies. In a few decades, there will be even less of you. Sitting in your dark corners, accusing everyone else of what killed "comics". You won't get your heads out of your ass enough to realize that you never owned comics, you just inbred yourselves according to a genre. One that is dying. Like Westerns, Horror, Romance, and Science Fiction comics did at one time or another (ironic to consider that 3 of those genres are still fairly viable in manga and European comics still) .
So feminist blogger, go ahead and break down every slight against your gender in superhero comics from the golden age up.
Go Spider Man fan! Piss and moan about how sick you are of Quesada's abuse to your favorite hero. Continue to stay emotionally addicted to the idea of a character long after it has stopped providing you with pleasure.
DC fan... if you beat on the walls of reality enough.. nothing will happen.
And all your experience, all you passions, will one day blow away like dust. Then what have you left behind? poison, vitrol, and venom? Something for the next generation to strive for?
Fandom, particularly the modern internet fandom. It reminds me a bit of the Retromancers in Phonogram. You bastards. This is what you are becoming.
I just hope I can keep from getting my own little magical realm torn down, shredded, and scattered to the winds with you. Because I am still tied to you people and that scares me.
Well that and the fact that you are not learning about this newer generation and helping them learn the language.
"Feminist" and some self described "fangirl" comic blogging can do the worst job at this as of late. Posting about the damage some 20 year old book written for grownups might do to imaginary kids. While real young girls are getting massive mega doses of sexism direct from Japan. Why are you not protecting them, or at least giving them perspective and knowledge, against the assaults of fanservice?
Something to chew on.
(P.S. Chances are if some part of this offended you, it might be talking about you. If you don't see yourself in the general statements I made. Then it probably wasn't about you. Much thanks to those out there that actually not part of the problem.)
DARKNESS OMG!
VIOLENCE OMG!
ENTITLEMENT OMG!
HOMOPHOBIA OMG!
SEXISM OMG!
REVERSE SEXISM 180 OMG!
REVISIONIST OMG!
OLD PEOPLE BITCHING OMG!
DIDO OMG!
QUESADA OMG!
These are fascinating explorations. When done in moderation and insight. But while you are digging around in the past to complain about offensive slights, reliving our former glories as fans, accusing each other of various degrees of insult.... You miss what is happening to you with your head in the sand.
Comics are passing you by.
Sorry to tell you this. The kids like the manga now. They get the superheroes from toys, television, and movies. In a few decades, there will be even less of you. Sitting in your dark corners, accusing everyone else of what killed "comics". You won't get your heads out of your ass enough to realize that you never owned comics, you just inbred yourselves according to a genre. One that is dying. Like Westerns, Horror, Romance, and Science Fiction comics did at one time or another (ironic to consider that 3 of those genres are still fairly viable in manga and European comics still) .
So feminist blogger, go ahead and break down every slight against your gender in superhero comics from the golden age up.
Go Spider Man fan! Piss and moan about how sick you are of Quesada's abuse to your favorite hero. Continue to stay emotionally addicted to the idea of a character long after it has stopped providing you with pleasure.
DC fan... if you beat on the walls of reality enough.. nothing will happen.
And all your experience, all you passions, will one day blow away like dust. Then what have you left behind? poison, vitrol, and venom? Something for the next generation to strive for?
Fandom, particularly the modern internet fandom. It reminds me a bit of the Retromancers in Phonogram. You bastards. This is what you are becoming.
I just hope I can keep from getting my own little magical realm torn down, shredded, and scattered to the winds with you. Because I am still tied to you people and that scares me.
Well that and the fact that you are not learning about this newer generation and helping them learn the language.
"Feminist" and some self described "fangirl" comic blogging can do the worst job at this as of late. Posting about the damage some 20 year old book written for grownups might do to imaginary kids. While real young girls are getting massive mega doses of sexism direct from Japan. Why are you not protecting them, or at least giving them perspective and knowledge, against the assaults of fanservice?
Something to chew on.
(P.S. Chances are if some part of this offended you, it might be talking about you. If you don't see yourself in the general statements I made. Then it probably wasn't about you. Much thanks to those out there that actually not part of the problem.)