Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 222
LAST VOYAGE OF THE LIMITED IDEA
Was IDW ‘right’ to drop the creator-owned books they did last week?
Well, financially, yes. Sure. But there is something sad to me when the limited-scope, story-told-in-five-issues, elevator-pitch-of-an-idea style of comic disappears. Mostly because this is where new talent is likely to debut, but also because there should be a space for ‘crap.’
Yes, I know calling something crap is not a positive, typically. But I’d like you get a handle on what I mean before you judge. Genre fiction (even ‘elevated’ genre fiction) that has to express itself in a tiny burst is almost always crap as I would define it.
And I love it. I’ve made a lot of it.
I saw Last Voyage of the Demeter this week. And it was an undeniably consumable piece of crap. It was fun, not-very-dumb, and what it chose to say about the world was… small. Because, I think, it understood that what ultimately amounts to ‘Alien on a wooden ship’ DOES NOT NEED TO SAY ANYTHING LARGE.
With comic publishers potentially tightening their belts, or at least going super-curation-mode with their lines, I will miss the smorgasbord of “well, why not?” opportunities to try new creative teams. Teams unified around a big idea they had to make small or a tiny idea they had to make slightly larger. Some that result in messy finished products and many that don’t payoff. But still, ideas.
I believe editor friends when they say the market needs successful ongoing series. And this is what I want for myself. But I also think that small, contained, bits of crap orbiting those ongoing series on the shelves is equilibrium.
TWO OBNOXIOUS BRILLIANT TURDS
This was a great conversation between two guys who really needed to be picked on more as kids.
THIS WEEK IN CHAYKIN
Last week I speculated on how Howard Chaykin’s HEY KIDS! COMICS! would handle the letters Jerry Siegel sent to DC. I didn’t get an answer on that, but we did get some gems of an unrelated sort. I missed Chaykin’s original Facebook post where he, apparently, had some dad advice for the #comicsbrokeme people on Twitter. The newsletter I just linked you to is his response to their response.
The problem, if I can use the word problem, with Chaykin -who is really the only person in comics worth listening to- is that he’s wounded. A few years ago he got destroyed by hysterics for doing edgy work, a frequent occurrence in his career. But this time it was from his ‘side.’ He was murdered not by conservatives twisted up about his depictions of sex, but progressives twisted up over his depiction of a trans person.
It hurts more to be butchered by the people you thought were ‘yours.’ And he believed himself to be part of that club. So Chaykin brings it up. A lot. And it undermines his often-salient messages by revealing something: he cares what morons think.
He can shoot venom at them, but he’s still taking the time to shoot. These people don’t matter. The colleagues he feels betrayed by are parasites, full stop. Even if they felt he crossed some imaginary line in terms of content, the adult response isn’t to denounce or blackball. So, fuck’m. Can’t act like a professional? Don’t get regarded as one. But, of course, easier said than done and Chaykin’s advice feels slightly too informed by that late-career injury.
At any rate, the newsletter reads true to me. You can toil your ass off and still hit no sales home runs. You can hone your craft to a razor sharp point and still be ignored by critics. There is nothing guaranteed here.
A vocation is different than a job. And a very wide, burning, chasm separates a calling from a job. And none of the above are hobbies.
That’s Chaykin’s point and I hope the pushback he received from the Facebook post was limited. Just because I hate to believe the world is chock full of people who can’t differentiate these things.
THE MARVEL MALAISE
People are remarking on comics media, SKTCHD and ComicsBeat in this case, taking a cold inventory of Marvel. When I say they’re remarking on it, I mean they are forwarding the articles to each other and saying, “duh.”
I read the Beat article and I thought there was a cognitive issue with one of the conclusions.
“It’s not a knock on the material. We’ve had so many great comics for so long that we take it for granted how much good stuff is out there.”
Do we really think that’s what it is? That we’re spoiled for great books and that’s why nobody can muster a shit about an entire publisher?
Counterpoint: If the books were good, people would read them.
Is there an industry-wide (maybe medium-wide if we’re referring to American-style periodical comics) attrition that’s been in effect for decades? Sure. And if we’re being dishonest we can use that fact as our Get Out Of Jail Free card for why sales only spike upward rather than trend upward. But there’s still the small matter of this being the biggest company in the space with the most recognizable characters in the western world.
There is no excuse.
Let me amend my earlier statement:
If books were good, FANS would read them.
Maybe we wouldn’t see an upward trend, but fans are goddamn addicts and we’d at least reach a homeostasis that doesn’t consider variant cover flippers the backbone of the industry.
Everybody knows these are bad books. Creators working on them will tell you. Everybody knows. There’s no point in feigning ignorance.
Those of us who don’t care about getting Marvel work are still suffering with this. The more comic readers who check out entirely from the medium, the more difficult becomes to sell a book. For everyone. If comics had more avenues to reach readers than just the direct market, we may be able to lose readers and cycle in new ones. But that’s just not the case. We need every existing reader to continue reading while we fight for every new reader we can.
Very few of the credible creators I know ‘care’ about Marvel as a brand, but everyone who sells in comic book stores needs to care about them as an anchor. And I know it seems like I’m playing the hits bringing this up again, but I’m just seizing on a rare moment where comic book news isn’t leaning into rah-rah nonsense.
Ideal scenario:
Marvel/DC right their ships and bring lapsed readers back to the shops. [Many of these former readers still consume comic media, like comics Youtube, and I believe they can be won back.]
The economy stabilizes. [Hard to prioritize comics when you’re struggling to keep your house.]
The indies manage some organic hits from creators people can be excited about.
Creators don’t see the Big Two as the destination but just another work opportunity. [Additionally, I don’t want to see the indie-to-Marvel-to-Image pipeline anymore. Happy for everyone it worked for, but treating the Big Two like a certificate program is tired and I hope we can find a better career arc than “prostituted myself making material that would appeal to Big Two editors, got that job and humbled myself to interrupt my story with line-wide crossovers I hated, then (and only then) bet on myself.”]
Even second-tier titles run 30 issues. [I recognize this may run counter to conventional wisdom, and I fully expect an email about this, but I want thicker trades. I believe (creator-owned) comics can compete with manga in bookstores but not in our current thinner trade paperback format.]
Please. A better world is possible.
NO ‘THIS WEEK IN MEDIA CONSUMPTION’
I’VE GOT TOO MUCH WORK TO DO.
THIS WEEK IN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT
So in my Legends Of the Dark Knight read-through, I’ve arrived at one of the “let’s support the old-timers” arcs. This is Howard Chaykin writing and Gil Kane on art. Chaykin mentored under Kane and I don’t know if this was at all a sentimental moment for these rough, been-through-it-and-lived-to-tell comic creators, but it’s weirdly heartwarming to see.
Not a heartwarming script, however. Chaykin’s issues with his mother are maybe a bit close to the surface here.
This arc is very human, but not necessarily in a way you’ll feel good about. And I imagine Kane read as dated to many readers then and many more readers now. But it’s a worthy arc if you’re into tragic stories where Batman isn’t the real drama.
THAT’S ALL, MAN
I’ve got a meeting to get to. I hope everyone is happy and doing something to better their lives this week. I’m home for four months starting today. That’s rare for me and I’m gonna make the most of it. Updates soon. Do for self.