Avie Rants about the Industry part 1: Fans Article by aviewaskewed, 03:18 PM 10th Jan Disclaimer: The following column is entirely the opinions of the author (even at that we aren‘t sure), any similarity to the opinions of any other staff or affiliate of theendlesscrew.com is entirely coincidental and unintentional. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all creator comments have been gleaned from other sources and no creators have actually endorsed any aspect of this column. And is anybody still reading after that? Dedications and acknowledgements (in other words, the author is not only wasting your valuable time by expecting you to read this, but now he wants you to read all the parts where he kisses ass, you can either skip down, or read this if you like): Firstly, I want to thank my wonderful staff for all the hard work they’ve put into getting this place ready to go, and thus bringing us here. I want to thank the wonderful crew members for believing in this project probably more then I have, thanks guys, you kept us on track. I want to thank Jorge, Jesse, Nena, Laurie, and Val. Without them, I know I surely would not be here today, your love and support is more then I deserve. Right, now, unto the column, swear to god this’ll be the last time I do this. Hi, welcome to the first edition of Avie Rants, a weekly essay by me about whatever topic I find most interesting in the industry. It’ll be a sometimes good, sometimes bad look at one of the strangest industries around, opinionated, and uncensored, I have no inside track, I’m just calling it like I see it. I wanted to start this off by taking a multi-part look at things I think are going right and wrong within the industry, a topic at a time, a week at a time. This week I wanted to talk about fans (partially because I have this column from WAAAAY back a year or so ago where I was voicing my opinions on this topic and decided that it would fit here, and fuck it, I’m lazy, so sue me!). So sit back, relax, and please keep all body parts inside the car while the column is in motion. So, I’m reading the comics columns I check out every week, checking the news all that stuff…and I hear Marvel fired Mark Waid off the Fantastic Four. I had heard good things about Waid’s run, but in the end, this is a pretty routine editorial decision, no creator is ever really married to the book they’re working on in the mainstream. Here’s the thing though…everybody, and I mean like EVERYBODY over at the Newsarama message boards go bat shit, screaming all kinds of profanities about Joe Quesada (Marvel’s Editor and Chief) and Bill Jemas (Marvel’s President). Oh they’re killing the book! Oh I hear Jemas is going to write it! Fuck these fuckers who are trying to fuck up the characters and wipe their asses with the fans. My response: DO YOU SMOKE FUCKING CRACK? Calm the fuck down! See this is what I hate about this hobby…these people who get on a message board, and whine and complain about any kind of change, they hear somebody’s leaving a book, and suddenly any thing bad the rumor mill can crank out on the story, they believe as gospel. Why? Because if it‘s on the internet it must be true? I mean, what the HELL do you people want? I read Marvel, not a lot, I read DD faithfully and currently, I haven’t read much of the retooled X-Line, pick up a Spidey book here and there. Read the first two arcs of the Elektra series, picked up Kingpin #1, and am trying to get into this new Venom series, and with the exception of the Venom book…everything I’ve read I really think is solid and I’m digging. Does that sound like they’re trying to scare people off? Oh people want to whine about them telling Wolverine’s origin, why? Huh? Why? Oh it was boring you say…what the FUCK do you want? Huh? The mother fucker is a mutant! He’s goddamn born with these powers, he isn’t Spider-Man, he isn’t Daredevil, he isn’t going to have this super cool radioactive whatever bite/hit/explode/implanted in his anus kind of origin. I liked the story, I really did, it wasn’t a standard super hero comic, and I don’t think Wolverine is a standard super hero anyway. I mean, people are acting like they told his whole story, they didn’t, for all you mother fuckers that want all these goddamn secret enemies to pop up, you can still get it…and for all you assholes moaning that the character’s essential essence is the search for his past…well, we must be reading different books. Because to me, Wolverine is about a man trying to control the animal within himself, and attempting to make peace with the fact that he can’t always do that…that stuff with his past…side story. Side story for you spandex junkies who can’t sit around and be bothered to read a story like the one I just described. I don’t hate all fans, I just hate this bitchy minority of old fans that think comics peaked in the 80’s or something, and think the whole industry is on a downward spiral into hell…I don’t think it is, I just don’t buy it…some of the Indy company’s are, no fucking doubt, but the mainstream is having a little bit of a boom thanks to all these movies that have come out. There is a new fan base coming in, and the medium is trying to evolve to accommodate them, which is what it SHOULD do. Honestly, people bitch up and down about needing to find new readers, to expand the fan base, well how the FUCK is that going to happen if nobody takes risks? If nobody tells taboo stories…if month after month it’s the same type of story, and if somebody asks why don’t we talk about subjects like Wolverine’s origin, and the response is always “because we just don’t” you know what happens to that fan base, they say “Bullshit, I’m out of here!” That is the majority right now. I’m sick of the MINORITY having the voice, I’m sick of them looking over the professionals shoulders telling them how to do their jobs. I’m sick of groups like HEAT trying to replace the Kyle Rayner character with Hal Jordan (and it looks like they got their wish there), I‘m sick of the overall obsession I see people having with the past, and the fear of change, I see people who will read a bad book for years, SAY it‘s a bad book, and then when somebody comes in to make it good, all they can do is complain, and they drop it because they didn‘t like the change. I think it paints a poor ass picture of the industry, and an even poorer ass picture of fans in general. So to those people I say, take a chill pill, if you don’t like what they’re giving you, don’t buy it, and that’s not some “we have the power” kind of shit…because it isn’t, hell if Marvel and DC, or any other company wanted to prints comics solely to take into the corporate bathroom and wipe their asses with, they can do that…it’ll put them out of business sure but, what the fuck really stops them? Us? The fans? Get real, Marvel and everybody else is going to make money, that’s what you do in a capitalist nation. You make money. The die hard wants to believe their whining makes a difference, sometimes it does, but I honestly have to ask myself if the right people are speaking up. In my opinion? They’re not for the most part, I think the people who are taking the most time to make their voice heard are the people who I describe as a section of the fan base I really don’t like, the perpetually bitchy and self-important who think comics are all about them, and that comics should be pleasing them first, and trying to move forward second. So if you don’t like the way the books are, stop fucking reading, and maybe in a year or so, it’ll cycle around to a place where you’re comfortable reading. Stop pitching fits on the net like it’s going to accomplish something, it’s bullshit posturing for the most part, most of you know you’re going back to the book you’re bitching about the very next time it comes out…and to those of you that are, you are the type of fan I absolutely loathe, cause you’re full of shit, you’re a hypocrite, and you’re vocal about it, and you just propagate a horrible stereotype about the rest of us. You make yourselves into marks for the company, you encourage middle of the road story telling, and do nothing to help evoke creative change…but it’s not all the fault of fans…the people WITHIN the industry have more culpability I think…which seems a perfect way to close this out, and plug next weeks edition where I take a look at the creative end of the industry, writers, artists, editors, etc. Stay tuned. Back to Rants