Cleaning out the notebook...again Article by aviewaskewed, 09:06 PM 19th Sep 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. Cleaning out the notebook this week, so cohesion of thought be damned! Erik Larsen had some interesting thoughts this week about the reasons the industry went down the crappy in the 90’s, and he said it wasn’t any one thing really. I beg to differ, it was two things if you ask me: greed and laziness. The greed of the speculator market, the greed of publishers to take advantage of the greed of the speculators, and the greed of the retailers who wanted to take advantage of speculator greed. Honestly, I think the two best examples of this are how the Return of Superman tanked, and drove many stores who bought too much of it out of business, and the whole Image boom (anybody got any early Image books? Pretty worthless these days ain’t they? My Spawn #1 has dropped almost 10 bucks or so from when I bought it). I’m sure there’s probably still warehouses out there full of these comics, and it’s actually a small wonder to me how all these overprinted books that are honestly STILL floating around in case loads, and car loads, out there didn’t just cripple the industry, and hey, maybe this is just me being an uninformed outsider, but if we survived that crash, I’m pretty sure the industry can take just about anything. Now let’s go to the laziness part, you got any of these 90’s books? Oh good, go crack one open and read through it quick. I’ll wait. Back? Ok. Book sucked didn’t it? If the answer is yes, congratulations! You just experienced the majority of books from this period. If the answer is no, wow, you got one of the rarities. Seriously, most books in the 90’s suffer from creative teams that to me seemed to just be cashing a check, waiting for the next stunt crossover to happen (and trying to be the guy picked to be the architect of it). Some were good (I personally liked Age of Apocalypse) most not so good (Onslaught, Heroes Reborn, the “Final Chapter” of Spider-Man), some were just god awful (Zero Hour, seriously, if you ever buy this book, and I find out you bought it? I will consider it a personal failure of myself, and this column that you would actually buy such mind numbing dreck, which has been getting retconned into almost irrelevance over the last five years or so). There is almost no 90’s book, or series that has survived into the present day, and been worth a crap, and the only one’s that are? 96 or later. The problem with early 90’s books is that they all rely on stunts, or swiping from more popular creator’s work (how many books in the mainstream can you look at and just see almost no difference between artists? Because just about everybody was trying to copy the Image guys). Thank God the medium is moving forward. Which takes me to Larson’s next point, he thinks the medium is evolving again (I agree) he thinks it’s going to end up being more towards Manga-esque influence ( I disagree). Let’s really fast separate the industry, from the medium. The medium is the pure art for art’s sake of comics, and the industry is the greedy art for a buck situation that permeates now. I don’t think either one is going to show an upsurge of Manga, the kids, they read the manga, that’s true, but I still feel like it’s a niche market, that, like regular comics, only a few companies dominate. The industry doesn’t really like Manga, least the power end of it, the big two don’t. They don’t because they’ve tried and failed to utilize it (which isn’t to say that’s a problem with the art form, but that has everything to do with the way they promoted and presented the work), American Manga is just that…American Manga, it’s doesn’t come off as anything other then a rip off of it’s Japanese father, and unless the Big Two or somebody like Dark Horse want to keep importing the artists to do new work (which I doubt they will because honestly they can make better money in a variety of ways if the work takes off at home). So I see it as a niche market, like super heroes, maybe some of the rules and tricks will come across, but I don’t see it redefining the way we do comics, like people were thinking when it first hit big. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Man, is anyone else ready for Infinite Crisis to get here? I honestly do not care if it’s any good or not anymore…I just want it done and over with. Day of Vengeance has really disappointed me, great concept, and I figured with all the magic folks, Willingham could knock one out of the park but…eh, he really hasn’t here. OMAC has been pretty good, but again, mostly works as a “holy F--- look at all the f----- killer robots that will f--- up the heroes!” Villians United has looked to have an actual plot from the issue I’ve read (and I thought that would honestly be the “holy f---” little plot type book) and…does anyone know or care what’s going on in Rann/Thanagar? Now it’s creeped into JSA. I mean, it’s one of the few books I get monthly, and they had two great stories this year…and now we’ve got two issues that to me? Are just moving the chess pieces where they need to go, and very little else happening. Sounds like next issue will get it back on track, but still, I realize Johns has a lot on his plate, but cede the damn book to someone else to work from a plot you made if you can’t get it going. JLA has been pretty good, though we all know this is just a countdown to the end of the “All-Star” League we’ve seen the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still looking forward to the overall story, I’ve just had my fill of the buildup, and the way it’s interrupted books that usually have such great story and flow to them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaking of stories with screwed up flow, I am officially signing off on trying to follow Batman anymore. Seriously, I mean it. It’s not that I have no interest in the character anymore, it’s just that the editorial on that book has screwed things up so badly that I honestly do not care to plunk my cash down on it anymore. Seriously, that book has averaged at least one crossover “event” with all the other books (which honestly? No friggin body reads! So just cancel them already! Cept Detective, that has the history, and a still decent hook), and we haven’t seen any real cohesion of plot or characterization since Rucka and Brubaker left, so we’re talking now the end of 02. First we have Hush (and I don’t care what they’re doing in Gotham Knights, don’t care that Catwoman just showed up and mentioned the events of that in the most current issue of JLA, it’s still a stunt), do you know how many copies of the “Absolute” edition of that story my retailer was able to sell? A whopping TWO, just TWO copies. Fact is, it was a stunt story, and DC has been pulling stunts and crossovers ever since (Azzarello/Risso, War Games, Jason Todd back from the dead, Aftermath). Fact is, it seems to me that editorial isn’t even trying to mask it’s need to try and use the popularity and saleability of the core Batman title to go out and sell the other books that don’t work by tying them all together in the same arc, never mind if there’s a story already going on. It’s disgusting to me, and I will no longer make any attempt to play a part in this garbage, and I’d advise anyone else that is fed up with these sorts of tactics to do the same. Just to show it’s not all negativity this week, I commend the industry for coming out and really showing it’s support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. A reminder that we at The Endless Crew are also trying to do our part, and I’d like to thank the folks who have ordered hats, and encourage anyone who hasn’t yet to please do so, our goal is 150 dollars, but I think with the user base we have here, we can totally exceed that number if you all pitch in, only 20 dollars. Until next week. Oh, and sorry about the lateness, my internet crapped out on me shortly before I finished this column, and several attempts to reconnect were unsuccessful. Thanks for your understanding. Back to Rants