Here’s my upbeat message for you today - Comics are great:

“I just don’t get these woe-is-me threads about how terrible the comics scene is. I’ve been reading comics since the late seventies, and from this fan’s perspective, things have never been so fucking good.Five to ten years ago, you’d maybe see a handful of at-least-passable graphic novels published in a year. Publishers were pulling their hair trying to woo the comics fan base to try something, anything besides superheroes. Today, the likes of ‘Fun Home’, ‘La Perdida’, ‘Fate of the Artist’, ‘Billy Hazelnuts’, ‘Castle Waiting’, ‘Ego & Hubris: The Michael Malice Story’, not to mention ‘My Most Secret Desire’ are reaching the shelves every month - to say nothing of the fact that newspapers, magazines, museum curators, librarians and mainstream book publishers are more and more recognizing the medium’s value. From where I’m sitting, comics are hitting their stride. What’s with all the negativity?”

The rest of The Comics Journal board are willing to suggest some possibilities, after the jump:

“Production costs are getting more prohibitive, the distibution environment is getting more exclusive, the small-press shows seem to be declining in attendance (except probably MoCCa.) In my opinion there is a stylistic tunnel-vision developing within the indie ranks as well. There is alot of systemic flaws in the comics business. I think we catch alot of ill repercussions from the nature of the mainstream industry. I’m not screaming that the sky is falling, but we can’t rest on our laurels for a second. We need some kind of media breakthrough for the indie scene that can transcend the current box we are in. There is no reason that what is ‘indie’ today can not be mainstream (at least to the extent that comparable work in Europe is mainstream.) I think we need to get on the magazine racks.”

“You could say we’re in a transition period where the dominant sensibility of higher-profile comics are leaving some people behind, which might cause a few to throw in the towel. However, this has been going on forever.It’s a matter of scale. I also don’t think it’s an over-riding sentiment from readers. If it indicates anything, I think the ubiquity of comics in chain-stores and other high-profile deals has made it easier to take or leave certain comics… That is to say, it’s no longer an obsessive hobby for some readers and they are able to view comics just like any other form of art/entertainment. A comic doesn’t get any points for being of this little world we indulge in… I do think the “comics suck” sentiment on this board specifically is derived from what Ian mentioned about a sense of greater homogeny in sensibilities among alternative comics. It’s the dominant sensibility on this board, and, like any other dominant sensibility, it will come under attack. This is good too. I don’t buy MOME, for instance, because , in part, I don’t want to support it as some kind of flagship for the future of alternative comics. It’s not where I want to see stuff go, even if I like a few of the creators. My point being that when I think of MOME, my initial reaction is ‘Comics suck’. Comics do not suck, it’s just a knee-jerk reaction. It’s an umbrella for other complaints.”

“what sucks about comics, and the impossibility of making a living at them, is it’s not just out relatively obscure up and coming artists who aren’t making money. Gary Panter and Jim Woodring and Julie Doucet are proven talented creators, they are our big shots and they can’t pay the bills off of what comics brings in. it’s something seriously unsettling about comics.I don’t have any answer. yet the public remains ever more interested comics as something to read. I think it’ll just take time, we need more comics creators who are as good as our best creators, creating great comic stories at a consistent enough rate that their stories get finished… if we are working more with comics as reading material, working in the book store market, instead of our own private market we created like the direct market. then to satisfy the readers used to the book market, we some how need to get our great books finished sometime near how long it takes a good contemporary author to finish their book.”

“I’m one who has said ‘comics suck,’ and I have to admit that, compared with some past times, this is definitely not the worst of times, and there is some outstanding work being done. I think my own complaint is really just a reflection of my own loss of interest in comics as a form. Why have I lost this interest? I don’t know…there’s too much stuff coming out to keep up with…most of what I look at doesn’t intrigue me from a technical standpoint and doesn’t speak to me as a reader. Most comics are coming from younger creators and their interests do not intersect with mine, possibly… We change as we age; perhaps it’s no more than my preferring the deeper immersion in information–whether imaginative or reportorial–that a book provides, as opposed to the generally more superficial pleasure that comics provide. Or perhaps it’s just seems like I’ve seen it all, and little new stuff really seems original enough to bother.”

Despite all of the above points - and there are many others in the thread itself - to ponder, Aaron Dumin gets it right in one sentence:

“It’s not that ‘comics suck,’ but rather, the ‘comics industry’ sucks.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 11:10 am and is filed under Comic Books, Independent, Industry, Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.