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Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
One of the conversations I find I have regularly at the comic store is the over use of gimmicks by publishers. The idea of trying something new or doing something special goes back to the very early days of comics when national Comics went from all reprints of newspaper strips to all new comic stories as a way to drive sales. It worked so well that, over 75 years later, they are still doing new stories instead of newspaper strip reprints. It doesn’t help that there are very few, if any, respectable modern newspaper strips. By this, I indicate the standard adventure strip. (To be fair, a lot of of the early comic books that reprinted newspaper strips were gag strips of the time, like today’s Garfield, but much better). The idea of gimmicks has never left the industry, ranging over the years from giant-sized comics with a lot more pages for a higher price (a whole quarter for nearly 40 years, until the price of comics started to skyrocket in the early 70s) to such things as variant covers, foil covers, 3D covers, and so lots of other tricks to drive sales that publishers discovered they could use with the development of the direct market.
Secret Wars
Unfortunately, publishers did not stop with sales tricks that involved the format or the paper stock of the book. They also started to have epic events that would tie the whole line of titles together, from secret Wars, crisis on limitless Earths, Invasion, etc. etc., to the current Infinity and forever Evil. The quality of these range from downright dreck to some really good stories that are worth reading (more in the prior category I am afraid). I have found a lot more and a lot more recently, publishers fall back on these “event” stories as an attempt to try and build sales and a reason to raise cover prices and, at worse, to deal with the speculator market. all of this aside, I have a request of publishers, all publishers, big and small: Take a whole year and drop variants and epic crossovers and take the time and money you put into them and tell good stories. Yes, just tell good stories that are entertaining, that leave you wanting more, and actually give us a reason to like the characters we are reading about in your comics. good art will help, but it all starts with the story.
I would argue the same thing could be said for television. There are 100s of hours of TV on every year. a lot of of it is not that great, but now and then a show does stand out. Why it that? because the show is well written and the characters are well drawn out so, as viewers, we care about the characters and what happens to them. It tends to be dramas that draw this upstanding reputation, even though there are also comedies that deserve, and do have, this acclaim. Such shows as The Wire, breaking Bad, or Babylon 5 are incredible fiction because they are well thought out stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Over the course of the series, we grow to like (or hate) the characters and when one of them dies we are genuinely saddened by it. We are delighted for their success. and we miss them when they are gone. I also think these television dramas work so well because when they are started, they have a predetermined time frame. normally this has been five seasons for dramas, but I am sure they could work longer or shorter seasons.
Daredevil
There are a few modern comics that I feel an investment with the characters and I care what happens to them. a lot of of them I have written about lots of times in this column. But, as a quick refresher I would highly recommend Daredevil and Indestructible Hulk by mark Waid, All star Western featuring Jonah Hex (I need to admit this title is very close to losing me though), Detective Comics, Massive, Saga, and some others. I like all of these titles because the characters are well thought out and are so well defined that you are drawn into their worlds. I also really like the all-new X-Men, and I would like to point out how satisfying I have found the battle of the Atom storyline. We are only four parts into the 10 part story, and it ties a lot of titles together, which I said earlier I dislike and think is over used, but this series by Brian Bendis and others is an exception to the rule. The dialogue just crackles and is so sharp that it makes me laugh out loud and, when I get to the last page, I want to read more, which is the utmost goal of any good book, motion picture or television show; you do not want it to end. If you are not familiar with the premise of battle of the Atom, the short story is the original X-Men from the 60s are brought to the present (2013) by Hank McCoy (yes, there are then two Beasts) and the X-Men from the future come back to the present day to get the original X-Men to go back to the 60s, iIn the process giving us three Beasts. I find the dialogue between the X-Men from the past, present, and future to be very entertaining and the story overall intriguing. It is easily the best crossover I have read in many, lots of years. Yes, there are variant covers and this is a multi–part book crossover but it is so well done I am ready to ignore the extra sales gimmick aspects of the series. here is a well told story that entertains and is well thought out.
From Hell
One writer I wanted to mention, and is the reason I chose this topic, is Alan Moore. I was talking with a friend about my favorite books over the years and he asked me why so lots of of them were written by Alan Moore. I had to stop and think about it and I think it is because he writes self-contained stories and while he respects the history of the characters he is writing, he is not confined by it. His stories may go on for some time, but there is nearly always a goal for the end of the story that pays off. It does not work every time, but I think his percentage is much higher than any other writer in comics. until we started talking about it, I don’t think I realized how much he has written and how much of it is great. Moore has written such classics as V For Vendetta, Watchmen, Whatever happened to the man of Tomorrow?, Swamp Thing, league of amazing Gentleman, From Hell, Tom Strong, top Ten, Promethea, lost Girls, and much more. all of these titles make up a library of great comics that would keep you entertained for years. Of all of his writing, what sticks out are the characters. He creates people you care about and his dialogue and storytelling ring true and are not so oblique that you have no idea what is going on (so critics think it need to be good because they do not understand it. There are a number of writers who do this that I will not name here). Moore also tells the stories he wants to tell, be it a silly supreme story (which he knocks out in 20 minutes) or From hell which took him months and months to write a single issue. I hold Alan up as an example of what comics can be and must be on a monthly basis. I also think part of Alan’s appeal is he did not come from the fanboy community (which is not saying he was not a fan of comics as a youth), so he is not clouded with the storytelling we all grew up and think that is the way comic must be done. He is a writer first and a comic book writer second, and I think this has genuinely allowed him a whole different path of creativity.
X-Men: battle of the Atom
With the exception of X-Men: battle of the Atom, I am really worn out of all of these massive epics that go nowhere and have no real effects on the lives of the characters. I fully understand the need for publishers to increase sales to keep their companies healthy, but I wish they would do it through good storytelling and not depend on crossovers or variants or special covers.
Next time I will look at a number of recent graphic novels and trades that I have really took pleasure in (once again, they are finite stories), and I pledge it will be far a lot more upbeat. As always, everything in this column is my opinion and in no way reflects the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome comments, and I do hope you will take to agree, or disagree with me, at MFBWAY@AOL.COM.
Thank you.