Never let other people's actions or words upset you. Because that means that they've just - intentionally or not - manipulated and controlled your emotions.
You should always look to dictate rather than react to others. Be a master of how you think and react, and never let another person's bad actions change that.
But the current state of comics, and its relevance in the past, present, and future is a big subject, and for this writing, I will merely provide a glossary on its current state. So, first up; why comics suck.
Yes, I said it. Comics suck. And no, it’s not because the art is bad or the stories are cheesy. It’s because of the reputation comics have etched for themselves over the past 40 years, and the unfortunate reality that has followed.
40 years ago, comics where everywhere. Supermarkets, drugstores, they were part of the culture, and part of life for kids all across the country. Even my mom will warmly talk about reading Betty and Veronica years ago. Now to buy a single issue, most people have to drive miles from their home to some disheveled comic books store owned by some poor fanboy who struggles to make ends meet.
Readership is dropping lower and lower as comic book stores disappear, and comic prices rise seemingly every year. In a nation where 30,000,000 people log onto Facebook in a day, barely 20,000 find it worthwhile to buy some comics that are rated as the best works of comic fiction to date. Don’t you see a problem here?
The problem is, the comic book industry has let its inaccurate reputation turn into a stark and unfortunate reality. The general public thinks of comics as antiquated children’s stories that are all but extinct. Read only by a select demographic of bloated male adolescents with poor social skills and overactive hormones.
Now maybe that’s true for some of you fellas – I won’t speak for all of us – but comic fans are more than that. They SHOULD be more than that. They’re boys and girls, men and women who have a great love for literature, art, and fantasy. They’re readers of a diverse and wonderful medium that while known for superheroes, can branch out as far as taunt political dramas and steamy pan-Japanese homosexual romances (ew! ...sorry).
It’s a diverse, colorful melting pot of thoughts and ideas that can be childish in its humor, and wise in its philosophy, all in the span of a 22-page issue. And that’s the perception that the comic book industry – the publishers, and EICs, writers and artists – should all be championing as they branch out into other mediums and address the public.
So how do we fix it? How do we get comics out there? Spread the word, preach the gospel, and change that nasty perception? Well, it isn’t easy, that’s for sure. But if the comic industry wants to prosper and wants to exist period, it’s going to need to embrace some methods its never even thought of trying before.
Joe Quesada’s recent stints on CNN and shows like the Colbert Report are great examples of getting what’s going on in comics out to the populace. Making it appear important and relevant in our every day lives. And, while quite campy, that’s a good method of good publicity.
But let’s look at some subtle ways to get some good publicity. Despite comics being a very taboo subject to many, the characters and writers who craft comics on a monthly basis, are all the rage. The success of countless comic book movies, shows like Smallville and Lost that feature the innovative writing and producing of some of comics’ greatest creators all show that the fantasy of comics is still very interesting to people.
My question is, why not use those movies and shows to help pull those millions of viewers into the world of the comics themselves? When the cast and crew are doing publicity tours, talk up comics and they great things they are doing for fantasy literature. Have advertisements for comic stories and arcs before those movies or after those shows. The comic industry should be using these outlets to do whatever they can to spread their work and their world of comics.
But that’s only half of the picture isn’t it? You can advertise all you want, if you don’t get comics out and available to people, you’ll never get sales up. I think it’s safe to say, the area of the neighborhood comic book shop is over. And while comic book companies continue to preach its impracticality, I still say there needs to be a union of comic book publishers, and the newsstands of our local supermarkets and drugstores, and Targets and Wal-Marts of our world. Comics need to be placed in the most easily accessible spots possible to survive. Even if it’s a tester, even if it’s merely a taste of the comic industry’s larger picture, you need to have issues in the stores, right next to mom’s foodstuffs, and dad’s DVDs. It needs to be shown that it’s just as integral a part of our entertainment as movies or video games. And with both major comic book companies now owned by multifaceted gigantic conglomerates, it should be an easy thing to accomplish. Why it hasn’t happened yet is simply due to a lack of effort.
But there’s good news too. Even if those corporations don’t want to make the effort to get hard copies of comics out to the masses, through the digital revolution of the iPhones, and iPods, and now, the iPad, comics have a chance to regain a large portion of its popularity simply due to being made digital. iTunes and places like Amazon’s digital marketplace are as big and popular, if not moreso, than our local Targets and Wal-Marts, and by making comics available through those online marketplaces, the comics industry has a great chance to save its self from the brink of a slow and forgotten death.
The question now is, will they do it? Will they embrace the digital medium as wholeheartedly as they need to to survive? While comic’s biggest giant Marvel, showed quite a bit of hesitance with the release of the iPod, DC seems to have chosen a more progressive route with Jim Lee’s recent promotion to Co-Publisher. Lee, a long time veteran of comics, seems quite intent on leading the charge into a new digital era of comics, and hopefully within a few months of this writing, DC will have a budding library of titles available to purchase for the iPad. But time will only tell. And right now, unfortunately, we’re not only faced with the question of whether hard copy comics will survive with the rise of the digital era…but if comics themselves will be able to survive without any iota of publicity, marketing, or major availability. Time will tell.
