Writing for BuddyTV.com, Oscar Dahl says comics have grown stagnant … despite the fact that he hasn’t read one in ten years:
I raise this question because the comic book industry is a breeding ground for the “knock-off”. I’m no comic book expert; I dabbled when I was younger, have enjpyed a couple graphic novels, but haven’t read or owned an actual comic book in over a decade. Comic books, to the best of my knowledge, have grown stagnant. What was the last new comic to achieve any modicum of mainstream success? Spawn? Those blockbuster comic book film adaptations we watch every summer are almost completely taken from the classics of the genre: your Supermans, Spidermans, and Batmans. It seemed that ideas for comics had run out and that fans were only getting slightly different versions of tired characters. That was, until Heroes came around.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I assume he’s just talking about superhero comics and not any other genre of comics.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Poor fool doesnt even realize comic people are responsible for Heroes. Never once mentions it.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Just another person who wants to be an expert about something but has never bothered to learn about it.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
But…he’s got a point. He’s not talking about every facet of the industry. He’s talking about what has broken out into the mainstream. He’s talking about the big properties that become a huge part of pop culture. When Spawn broke out and had a movie and cartoons and whatnot, it showed you that some concepts just explode (even if most of it was pretty crappy — quality doesn’t matter here). Comics are a little more buried than TV, so it’s easier for Heroes to hit that pop explosion, but still…most of today’s super-hero properties are rehashes of some form of pre-existing property.
I would also argue that prior to The Matrix was the first Next Gen Super-hero, and that was done as a film.
February 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
What’s his definition of “mainstream success”? Is it being recognized by mainstream media, because books like Fun Home, American Born Chinese, and even Civil War have all been recently covered by mainstream media. Is it sales? Sandman Endless Nights and, more recently, the 9-11 Report, made it to onto the NY Times Bestsellers List. If monthlies could be considered for the Bestseller’s List, surely there would be a few titles on that list every week.
This is just another example of an idiot commentator that doesn’t do any research before running his mouth. Because he’s seen a few comic movies and Heroes he thinks he’s an authority.
February 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
If I wrote an article with “I haven’t watched TV in a decade, but here’s what I think about this season’s shows” would anyone do anything but point and laugh?
February 6th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
In the interests of fairness, perhaps people should review his article without reading it, as this is what he’s been doing to comics.
So, on that vein, he appears not to have noticed books such as Jimmy Corrigan and Persepolis, or to have been aware of the fact that Men in Black, Road to Perdition, Ghostworld and History of Violence were comic book movies. And what were Buffy and the Matrix if not comics material?
February 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
So maybe I’m the only one defending this guy, but again…he doesn’t HAVE to know the comics industry because that’s not his point.
I can judge break-through hiphop artists without following that industry because when they actually come into my radar, it means they’ve broken through.
He’s also clearly talking about super-hero properties, so you have to take it in that context. This all relates to Heroes, so he’s talking about genre-based super-hero material. He’s not talking about American Born Chinese or Ghostworld.
And, by the way? I can ask a dozen people on the street if they’ve read American Born Chinese, and I guarantee you they will have no idea what I’m talking about. But I ask those same people about Spider-man, and they’ll have an opinion based on the movies.
And that’s the point…what pop culture phenomenon has exploded out of comics in the past decade?
February 6th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
BAH.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
“Comic books, to the best of my knowledge, have grown stagnant. What was the last new comic to achieve any modicum of mainstream success?”
Isn’t there a faulty premise in this? The reason he is judging the comics industry as stagnant is because no “new comics” have achieved mainstream success (by which he appears to mean film and/or television). But that assumes the only measure of the comic industry’s success is its translation into other mediums.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
What a moron.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
The problem here is that he uses “Comic Book” when he means “Super-hero genre”.
As much as the comic book industry would love to take bows for “Heroes”, it’s got little to do with it. It’s a TV show.
Otherwise the Comic industry would have to take the blame for “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”.
February 6th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
He’s heard of Sin City, right?
But of course, that’s not a superhero book, so it doesn’t count.
February 6th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Promethea? Planetary? Seven Soldiers? The American Way? The Authority?
J’accuse! Someone’s overgeneralising. Brian Bendis’ Daredevil books, anyone? All within the last 10 years.
February 6th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Promethea, Planetary and the others haven’t broken thru into pop mainstream, so the writer wouldn’t have heard of it.
Yes, the premise is that “they are stagnant because I haven’t heard of it.” But there’s a point there. Why haven’t things broken through the way Spawn did? Was Spawn just good marketing? Right time, right place? Is there a reason why The Hulk, Spider-man, Superman, and Batman consistently stay in the mainstream while new creations do not? Is it because new creations are not as good, or is it simply because they’re too buried. Or is it because the previous mentioned heroes have had generations to engrain themselves in pop culture?
While I agree that his argument has a lot of holes, the fact that he raises the question says a lot about the industry.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
To assume that Comics have grown stagnant because, from his point-of-view, no new comics have achieved “any modicum of mainstream success” is absurd.
Why in the world would that the be the measure of success? The measure oughta be can creators get their work into the hands of the public? Can they make a living while they do so? Can the retailer? Does the public have a wide and varied choice of books?
You wanna’ talk about influence? San Deigo Comicon. That’s influence, baby!
I’ve been reading since the funny books since 1976. From my perspective, there is more being published now that I am interested in reading than there’s been in years.
Hang it in your ear, Oscar Dahl.