I bought comics as a small child, but just a few here and there, and only as much as a 1970s-era dollar bill would buy me (along with a little bit of candy to seal the deal). It wasn't until around 1984 that I started collecting comics in earnest, an effort that would frequently drain my pittance of cash and whatever spare time I could afford for almost the next 20 years. Something pretty drastic has happened over the last 26 years, and it's something that is draining the lifeblood from the comic book industry I once adored.
Take, for example the following cover:
This was the first comic I bought on that fateful trip to the then-novel comic book shop across town. Notice the cover price? Just $0.75. Need another example? Ok, how about a copy of Amazing Spider-Man from roughly the same period?
Even cheaper, huh? Just $0.60. Now, let's take a look at a recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man for price comparison purposes:
Marvel's attempt at a joke only lands on decidedly nonplussed ears. Only $3.99??!!! This is a price increase of 565% over 26 years. Has any other monthly publication gone through this drastic a price adjustment over the same number of years?
Certainly there are mitigating factors such as the increasing quality of comics as publications. Except for black and white books, the public generally expects high-quality paper and sophisticated color separations, not to mention improved story and art. There are also sophisticated economic forces at work as well as an aging readership with (presumably) more disposable income than a child to spend on such things as comics. If you are interested in the economics of this price shift, I highly, highly recommend you read John Paul Konig's article, "The Amazing Spider-Man Battles the Inflation Monster." Konig handles these issues with aplomb, far better than I could hope to here.
So, what's the point other than rubbing comics fans' faces into the pile of money they unload for their favorite books every month? Simply this: comics are dying. It's a slow death, but it's death all the same unless some drastic measures are taken by executives more visionary than those currently running the big two. It's not the intellectual properties are dying. Far from it. Marvel Studios is a huge success, and DC has made some deft moves recently in its revived Batman franchise. Why aren't comic books moving like they used to? For me, it all comes back to price.
If demand isn't there, even in a collectibles market (and let's face it, comics aren't really held for lasting value anymore, so their collectibility is theoretical at best), prices should come down. But this hasn't happened. Overall quality has improved, yes, but prices have continued to push ever higher.
That's why it's time for the comic book publishing industry to FULLY embrace digital comics NOW – not at some unforeseen moment in the future. The recording industry may not have liked the shift to a purely digital format, but they have made much more off of iTunes and other similar vendors than they might have if those options hadn't come along.
There are certainly experiments with the format. Comixology's Comics app for the iPhone is one, Graphic.ly is another and the long-awaited Longbox is a third option.
Of these, only Comixology's app has moved beyond the development phase, and it has also gotten Marvel onboard – though no recent issues, just past story runs.
What consumers want is simply a slicker form of what they can (unethically) get via torrent sites – new comics available the day they are published, for a reasonable fee. The CEO of Longbox has gone on-record as saying the magic price point is $0.99, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Give me an iTunes-like experience where I can buy my comics every Wednesday, and I'll be there week-in and week-out. Right now I'm buying zero – ZERO – comics each week. They're too expensive and too much clutter. C'mon Marvel and DC – reel me back in. I'm dying to get hooked again.
Is there anything more frightening than an undead cannibal with a personal grudge come straight from Hell to devour you, body and soul? Ian Rankin thinks so…and his answer to that question is “Reality TV.” Before you think I’m going to act all smug and superior about how I don’t watch reality TV, a caveat: I am a reformed reality TV junkie. Thankfully, I’ve kicked the habit, but that doesn’t mean I still don’t see the appeal.
If Satre’s hell was other people, Rankin’s is an amended version of this same place – other people watching and participating in reality entertainment. What’s worse: to be stuck in a fabricated environment, chained to a dog-eat-dog competition against a group of celebrity-seeking strangers, or to be glued to the device that delivers this makeshift, ramshackle life-by-proxy straight to your home? If neither choice seems particularly appealing, you might just be willing to accept and gleefully celebrate Ian Rankin’s television-as-Faustian-bargain metaphor, Dark Entries.
Outside of some oblique name recognition, I was almost completely unfamiliar with Ian Rankin before reading Dark Entries. So I was more than a little surprised that this book caught my attention while perusing my local bookstore. Ok, so the grinning, smoking, trenchcoat-wearing skeleton on the cover might have been the catalyst of my regard for the book, but I was equally suprised to see that this was billed as a “John Constantine” novel and that it was published by a new DC Comics imprint called Vertigo Crime.
Those unfamiliar with John Constantine need only know that he’s a paranormal investigator, of a sort, with a shady past and a virtually savant-level skill to irritate anyone and everyone. Oh that – and maybe the fact that he was created by comic book virtuoso Alan Moore as a foil for Swamp Thing and that he most closely resembles Sting (put all thoughts – ALL THOUGHTS – out of your head of Keanu Reeves playing him in the abysmal movie).
This time, Constantine (down on his luck and isolated as noir conventions would have him) is offered the opportunity to investigate a reality television show called Dark Entries that has somehow gone wrong. The premise of the show is a hybrid of Big Brother and Scare Tactics – place a group of beautiful people in an isolated, artificial environment, attempt to scare the living hell out of them, then rake in the money as the television viewers are given their vicarious thrills. The problem that Constantine has to address is why the participants in the show are visibly haunted and terrorized by variables not introduced by the television producers. Is there something truly supernatural happening within the Dark Entries house, or is it just the “normal” psychological terror created by artificial isolation?
What seems cut and dry, from a paranormal perspective at least, turns out to be nothing of the sort, and Constantine must unravel mysteries within mysteries if he is ever able to escape the job he has accepted. To say any more about the plot would give way too much away, so I’ll leave the basic story outline right there and instead evaluate the novel manner in which this work is marketed.
The new Vertigo Crime imprint is unlike most other graphic novels on the market today. In fact, at first I wasn’t sure it even was a graphic novel. The only tell is a small logo in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover that states, “A Graphic Mystery.” Otherwise, it’s published in hardback in a much smaller form factor than traditional comics. It’s an eye-catching throwback to the pulp roots of mystery fiction, and one that DC is already exploiting with a number of other artists and writers. Based on this one work alone it’s hard to tell if it will be a successful venture for the company, but I certainly appreciate the experiment.
It’s also odd that Ian Rankin gets HUGE billing as the author on the cover, while the artist, Werther Dell’edera gets only a third of the font size for his name in spite of his monumental contribution to the work as a whole. Certainly I realize Rankin’s name is more marketable, but downplaying the artist in a work of graphic fiction speaks of disrespect for the content and the creator.
Considering Rankin’s inexperience in the field of conventional comics, he does an admirable job of staying consistent with the Constantine character within this stand-alone story. Likewise, Dell’edera is strongest when depicting Constantine’s menagerie of a British-noir life. Where both writer and artist lose focus is when the supernatural elements become the crux of the plot. Dell’edera is quite good at depicting the mean streets of London, but his Hell is amorphous, at best. Likewise, Rankin’s plot goes off the rails when he twists the story more towards gore than grime.
Vertigo Crime has a long way to go to firmly establish its imprint. Is it primarily crime comics, mystery comics, horror comics, or some unknown hybrid of the three? Still, it’s welcome to see DC trying so many new ways to deliver graphic literature into the hands of those unfamiliar with it, and attracting readers with known writing talent is a good start.
Review cross-posted on GuysLitWire
Confusion. That was my first reaction after reading David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp. Normally, an experience like that would be endlessly frustrating. I mean, who wants to finish reading a book only to be left dazed and confused by the process? This time, however, I found the perplexity exhilarating, like a well-designed puzzle that must be savored and relished before it is solved.
Intrigued yet? You should be.
Like many comic book fans, I first encountered David Mazzucchelli through his
work on Marvel’s Daredevil, first with writer Denny O’Neil and then with Frank Miller. To be honest, the work with O’Neil was interesting, but ultimately forgettable – pretty standard comic book fare for the time. It was Mazzucchelli’s collaboration with Miller on Daredevil: Born Again that really made me aware of what untapped talent he had. Many were initially upset that Miller himself was not pencilling his triumphant return to the character that made him famous. After reading the first issue with Mazzucchelli, all fears and doubts were put away. Mazzucchelli’s work on Daredevil was quickly followed by another collaboration with Miller – the oft-mentioned (and inspiration for the film Batman Begins) Batman: Year One.
None of this work, as great and spectacular as it is, can possibly prepare you for the monumental evolution of Mazzucchelli’s work that is represented by Asterios Polyp. Gone are the pulp heroes, the realistic character depictions and the melodramatic storytelling techniques. These are replaced by philosophical musings wrapped in the tale of one man’s undoing and redemption, conveyed by a loose-lined, cartoonish art style. If it sounds heavy and depressing, it is surprisingly not. In fact, it is both ebullient and contemplative, a delicate balance that is deftly handled throughout the work.
The title character of Asterios Polyp is a college professor and architect of some renown, though he is a “paper architect” – his designs are theoretical and thus are never actually built. The story begins at what we think is the end of a rather pathetic and paltry existence (and through a series of flashbacks we learn just how much goodness Polyp has thrown away or wasted in his life), but turns out to be the beginning of self-revelation for this intensely inward-looking man. Along the way, the graphic novel covers territory as diverse as: love, duality, rivalry, design, aesthetics, religion, auto mechanics and (perhaps most importantly) the illusion of male power.
If it sounds as though I completely understand this work, well, remember that confusion I mentioned at the start of this review? Yeah. I’m in the dark still about much of what Mazzucchelli is trying to say. But I’m ok with that. Even if I grapple with one-tenth of the subject matter of Asterios Polyp I think I’m doing pretty well. If this graphic novel teaches nothing else, it’s that the the experience of life is more important than the knowledge gained, catalogued and hoarded. Confusion is just another part of the ride.
Cross-Posted at Guyslitwire.
DC Comics has a love affair with experimental formats and with bridging the past with the present. Some of their experiments have worked wondrously (most notably the Morrison/Rucka/Waid/Johns/Giffen weekly comics joint 52), some have failed miserably (the 52 follow-up Countdown to Final Crisis), and some have died of attrition and neglect (the seldom-remembered Action Comics Weekly, published WAY back in the 80s).
Fortunately, the powers that be at DC still hope to reignite the passion and wonder that kids and former kids used to have when seeing their favorite comics characters in print. It is that spirit of yesteryear that fuels the publication of Wednesday Comics, and the series looks to be a phenomenal success.
A throwback to simpler times in every way, DC’s Wednesday Comics is published on full-sized, 14”x20” newsprint and features weekly installments of 15 famous (and not so famous) DC characters. Each character has his/her own creative team in charge of producing one full page of story per week for the full 12 week run of the series. While this limits the amount of story that can be told each week, it broadens the horizons for the artists, who are free to create large, flashy splash pages using a variety of layout techniques. The art, in spite of the low quality paper, is spectacular and will immediately remind older readers of mornings spent poring over the exploits of such characters as Prince Valiant and Dick Tracy in the Sunday funnies.
Since this is only the first issue, it remains to be seen which of the 15 serialized stories will rise above the others, but early favorites include Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Metamorpho: The Element Man strip, Paul Pope’s Strange Adventures featuring pulp hero Adam Strange, and artist extraordinaire Kyle Baker’s Hawkman.
As is fitting for any DC publication, Superman and Batman each have a dedicated page (the latter nearly stealing the show with its noir-inspired artwork courtesy of Eduardo Risso), and well-known characters such as Wonder Woman, Supergirl, the Flash, the Teen Titans and Green Lantern also have their own features.
For readers who already love comics, this series is a must-read. For those who have limited exposure to comic books, Wednesday Comics’ short-burst storytelling style is the perfect way to introduce the DC pantheon of characters. DC’s Wednesday Comics pushes comics forwards by looking backwards.
Cross-posted on GuysLitWire
I hate to be a part of an ever-growing, and ever-annoying trend, but yes – I blog, therefore I tweet. All is not lost, however, since many, many comics writers and artists have found their way onto the Twitter highway. Have I missed any? Drop me a line to let me know. Click any of the links below to follow any of these writers/artists:
Agent M (Ryan Penagos, Marvel.com editor/writer)
I’m a Mark Bagley snob. I admit it. I just don’t care for the man’s art unless it’s on one specific book – Ultimate Spider-Man. This is strange, considering I didn’t think much of his work when he pencilled Amazing Spider-Man in the early 90s. There is something that happened to his pencils when he teamed up with Brian Michael Bendis that helped them transcend their overwhelming mediocrity and sameness. I think it has much to do with the quality of Bendis’ scripts and the fact that the cast of characters is primarily made up of teenagers. Bagley is able to capture youth extremely well, so his teen versions of Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, etc, were exceptional. He has since moved on from Ultimate Spidey, and that’s a crying shame. As a result of his move, DC Comics has editorially decided that Bagley is the “it” penciller of the moment. I assume this is as a result of his recent work on Trinity, a series I gave up within the first ten issues. Trinity’s scripts were more problematic than the art (what has happened to Kurt Buseik???), but Bagley’s takes on DC’s big three left me distinctly underwhelmed.
Now, Mark Bagley has been handed one of DC’s flagship titles – the JLA. There’s a good side and a bad side to this move. The good side is that Bagley has been teamed with one of my favorite writers, James Robinson, so there’s the possibility that a new version of that old Bendis/Bagley chemistry can be ignited. The bad side is that I didn’t care for Bagley’s versions of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman in Trinity, and I have no reason to believe they will significantly change for the JLA. I’ll give it a shot, at least to see what Robinson can do with the JLA. Maybe DC’s editors won’t handcuff his ideas like they did with Dwayne McDuffie.
As an iPhone user and a huge comic book fan, I can never resist the opportunity to cross-promote both simultaneously. So, when I came across the ad for this contest, I knew I had to post something about it. If you’ve got the right artistic skills (which I don’t – but I’m happy to pass this on to those who do), put something together in the next month and send it out to latino.kyle@gmail.com.
A lot of fans out there have been campaigning for genre superstar Nathan Fillion to fill the emerald boots of Green Lantern.
Well, Youtube wunderkind Jaron Pitts has taken one step further, with a truly awesome fan trailer, incorporating the Firefly alumnus as well as Kilowog, Tomar-Re, and the Guardians of Oa:
Now according to Pitts’ notes, he’s used clips from more than two dozen propertes, ranging from the Fountain to Iron Man to G.I. Joe, to make this awesome trailer. Talk about some awesome work, right? If you dig it, click the link above and rank him high!
[Link found at Loyal K*N*G]
[From Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern? Not as crazy as you’d think]
I’m stuck in the middle as far as this one is concerned. Once again, DC Comics is reaching out to their band of outcasts/misfits/freaks (just don’t call them MUTANTS!), The Doom Patrol. This time, writer Keith Giffen and artist Matthew Clark are taking a stab at the team that has proven difficult for many creative powers over the years. I’m inclined to give Giffen the benefit of the doubt, but so many have tried to twist this team around their collective fingers to no avail, it is certainly not an easy road he’s chosen to travel. On top of the many failures, anyone attempting a DP book has to contend with the ominous shadow of Grant Morrison looming over them, as Morrison’s take on the book can only be described as a masterwork.
So, here’s to the return of the Doom Patrol. May John Byrne never get near this book again.