A tale of Two Industries Article by aviewaskewed, 06:09 PM 22nd Feb 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. It’s not been a fun week, hence why stuff is late…that and laziness and what not. So I’m going to make an interesting comparison study this week, we’re going to compare the comics industry to the wrestling industry a bit (again, just with more analysis of the current system), specifically, how the top mainstream of comics (Marvel and DC to my mind) compares to the top of the wrestling business, Vince Mcmahon’s WWE and Total Nonstop Action. Then I’m going to check in with a fairly quickie recommendation of whether or not to see Ghost Rider. So a pretty good plate with a little something for everybody I think. I often find it interesting to compare the comics and wrestling businesses a lot because it seems to me there’s a lot in common in terms of how they do business. Both rely upon a built in, hardcore audience that will support them through the highs and the lows. Both have a very rigidly defined political structure, and management type folks who have clear vision of how they want things to be perceived and viewed by the public. Finally, both rely upon the fans they create to enter into their business and replenish their need for talent and/or product. Both also have “boom” and “bust” cycles which I believe boil down to a few factors that I’d like to rap with you all about today, and how these pitfalls can potentially be avoided, and maybe what we can do as fans to help “steer” them in the right direction. Pitfall #1: Rigidity of vision. Everyone has a vision of how they believe things should happen creatively in both the comics and wrestling business. You have to, if you have no real plan or clue how characters should be treated, or the direction of your product should be going get out of the game now because you’re sunk before you even begin. But the problem I see a lot of time in both businesses is that people seem to fall into two categories: the people who just want to glorify and push what they like as fans, and the people who are trying to be all things to all people and wind up being nothing to anyone. Granted, you have to push the things you understand, but you also have to be open to having what you understand be rejected, and then going with something new. I mean, if I ran say, DC for example, you’d be seeing the JSA promoted as the biggest super team, almost all the members would probably have solo series, and everything would revolve around that. For some fans, what I’m proposing is paradise, but for the vast majority of you, that would probably not be something your interested in. My business would consequently suffer because I’m giving you what I want and not what you want. Which takes us to pitfall 2. Pitfall #2: Not listening to the fan base: Let me preface this by saying you shouldn’t always let the fans control you. Fans are a great and they are the lifeblood of your endeavors if you’re in a fan driven business like the two we’re discussing, but sometimes they can hold you back as well. You’re core audience usually comes with certain expectations and prejudices and many of them tend to like things “as they are” or worse “the way they used to be” (this is the hallmark of comics fandom too often it seems). That’s a niche market that while it’s important to nurture it, it’s also important to realize a lot of these people are lifers for your product so they are probably going to stick around as you try to find your new audience, still, it’s important not to alienate them, and to remember what it is that drew them to you. Chances are the core concepts of what worked to hook them will be what hooks in new fans. There is a slight bit of crossover here for both industries. Wrestling, like super hero comics, has storylines which hinge on the conflict of good vs. evil. But super hero comics being a dramatic concept that while it does yes require action and usually a fight gives the writer and artist more latitude to pack in additional elements of story, after all, they’re trying to as realistically as possible portray outrageous stuff. But wrestling is different, even though it admits to being a fictionalized sport, it is nonetheless, a sports based performance. The illusion of competition must be met, and that means all storylines must lead to a sporting performance between two or more participants, it’s pretty rigidly defined that way, though it’s seeming more and more that creative personnel are trying to get more cute and creative, and focusing more on the stories then the actual matches. It’s an interesting parallel to what a lot of super hero comics, specifically a lot of the events, have done recently. It seems like so much ink is spilled in the hype for a big event that the expectations becomes ridiculously high to start with, but the event itself is exceedingly poor. Look at something like House of M, and even Infinite Crisis in some respects. You have all this hype and buildup for how these events will “shatter the universe!” and all that, and what did we really get? House of M was a temporary altering of the Marvel U quickly undone by a little girl waking a hero up from the alteration each issue wanting to kick Magneto’s ass because they were positive he did it. The ending is a bunch of talking and recrimination and virtually zero action, and it winds up only really altering the X-Universe, and even at that it’s seeming like Marvel is starting to undo the work of it, so in the end? Nothing much really changed. Infinite Crisis did change some things, but as an overall story I think it’s patchy because it’s got such a huge agenda going in terms of all the characters that must be killed, maimed, or what have you so that DC can get things to where they want them. It feels to me like the sizzle of these things is outweighing the steak, but that at least isn’t true of most individual titles. Comics though are definitely doing better at keeping the fan base then wrestling. Sales are good, but in wrestling ratings are mostly down. But both are still to my mind marketing at a limited audience an not trying enough experimentally to bring in that casual fan that I think would want to like those entertainment mediums, but isn’t being given a reason to care, or a feeling like they can dive in and enjoy. Part of that though in comics is the crappy and insular fan culture we’ve created, and hold so highly, I’ve wretched about that before. Pitfall #3: Just because it’s worked before, doesn’t mean it’s going to work forever. New ideas are the lifeblood of creative mediums, but recycling is inevitable. There’s only so many ways to reinvent the wheel, and sometimes a formula that proved successful previously can be successful again. Both businesses have a great history of being able to retread a concept and prove to make very good money with it, but they’ve also found spectacular failure in it too. Comics is far exceeding wrestling right now in terms of new, or at least better packaged old ideas. I think this comes down to comics being more open lately to trying new voices, and the ones that are currently at the top of the heap being at the top of their game creatively. Wrestling right now has the same old people who have been around since the last boom and before it in creative control with their own biases and ideas fueling everything they do, regardless of what it does to their profits. It’s all they know, and rather then hand the reigns to someone new and let them see what they can do, they cling to power and want to relive old glories. When you don’t have it, hang it up people! Business is business, and sometimes you have to make an allowance for the fact that you may no longer be good for your business at the helm of it. It’s also about being open to new things as well, playing it safe may keep you afloat, but calculated risk and the ability to do something new (and the mainstream of both industries certainly have money enough to take some more risks) and different is the best way to find new audience members, and therefore new dollars. That’s something all of us fans want to see, we want to give you our money people! Give us the reasons to do it. Saw Ghost Rider on Friday and thought it’s one of the best super hero adaptations they’ve done in awhile. All the actor’s do a pretty good job I think, and Mark Steven Johnson redeems himself from the disaster that was DD by doing what all these movies should be doing: Finding the core essence of the characters and then telling a new story with them that works for the film medium. I don’t think you can call this one of the best adaptations ever, but it is certainly an enjoyable film that is worth spending the 9.50 on to get the full experience of in the theaters. It’s a thumbs up in my book. Next time: I’ll try and check in with a look at Frank Miller’s 300, and a bit of a rant on Funimation’s new DBZ season transfers and what the fall out of that is likely to be for those of us who got the original DVD’s and may be looking to trade up (it’s not fun people). Also, working on a new word to replace “fan boy” with someone at work…hopefully with less geekiness, will be posting that one up when it gets coined. Back to Rants