Nick Costanzo
Oct 8, 2007, 10:41 pm
* * * Comixfan Forums THREAD * * *
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THREAD : ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Started at Apr 26, 2007 03:07 pm by Nick Costanzo
Visit at http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=41956
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[Post 1]
Author : Nick Costanzo
Date : Apr 26, 2007 03:07 pm
Title : ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/oneshots1.jpg" hspace=10 align=left border=0 alt="One-Shots logo">By Alan Lynch, shabbasnake@hotmail.com
Welcome to the Life
I’m the only person I know who reads comics. In my entire circle of friends, I’m the one comics fan. It’s the one thing which I can legitimately say is mine and mine alone. We’ve got a “music guy”, but that’s not because he’s the only music lover among us – it’s because he’s in a band. I’m the “comics guy” because nobody else is into comics. That simple: it’s just me, and comics are the one area where we can pick someone out like that. There isn’t a single one of my friends whom I would call a fan of comics. It’s not for lack of trying though. I’ve gotten people to read books I think they’d like in the past: Akira, Fables, and Steampunk have all gone down well with various people and my dad is currently enjoying Marvel’s Dark Tower mini. And it’s not like everyone I know treats my reading habits like they were a heroin addiction. However, getting anyone to see comics as more than a quick time killer is difficult.
Take the most recent instance, when I tried recommending the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to a fellow fan of the show (seasons 1-3 at least… don’t get me started). I told him that Joss Whedon wrote it, that other writers from the show would be taking turns, and that it’d be an official continuation of the Buffyverse. To say his response confused me is an understatement.
“It’ll not be as good as the TV show though, will it?”
My immediate reaction was to ask how he knew that. He shrugged, and just said he couldn’t get into comics. And so I left it, as I have done the various times I’ve had discussions about comics with friends and family, and once with a stranger. It’s confusing, this resistance to comics, especially given that I know there’s an interest from some people. They just seem unable to admit that yes, these things are alright. Obviously, the aforementioned friend has an interest in Buffy. He’s got all the boxsets, and is a Whedon fanatic. Now in this particular instance he gave a reason: it couldn’t match up to the TV show. Let’s think about that.
TV is probably the storytelling medium that closest resembles comics, due to the fact that they’re both episodic in nature, having to fit individual stories into a larger whole without isolating potential newcomers. Not to mention the fairly high chance that several different writers/artists/directors are going to want to showcase their own individual style. Given that, I don’t think it’s a stretch to think a comic could match up to a TV show. Better it in many cases – I mean there’s no explosion budget for a comic, or bad actors spoiling a scene. Ultimately, the goal in either medium is to effectively communicate a story. There might be some extras along the way, but without that central story the whole thing is meaningless. So when the writers of a TV show are paired with a talented artist (who I think Georges Jeanty is) the transition shouldn’t be an impossible one. So I’m left to think that my friend – the one who enjoyed Fables – has some issue with comics which isn’t entirely related to the books themselves.
The question I need to ask is what that problem might be; I need to see if that little nugget of interest, token though it might be, could actually develop into a genuine hobby. I could hassle him to read more trades – and he’d do it, because I own plenty that he’d like – but what would that achieve? He wouldn’t pick something off the rack next time he follows me into a store, and he definitely won’t pay a visit when I’m not around. I think that I – as a fan who wishes to support this industry I love – need to offer him a friendly hand through the door. And I want all of us to do the same.
Well, I want you to do it to your own friends, obviously.
Let’s be clear about this: I’m not for a second suggesting that anyone shove a comic under their flatmate’s nose while they’re having a beer. That would be counter-productive; I’m talking about making a real effort to get those new readers we all know are out there. All the big companies want them; new readers are like the Holy Grail. But every publisher out there is preaching to the converted when they send creators out to websites, or give their solicitations and interviews with Wizard (hell, I don’t even read that magazine). Buying an extra copy of Buffy and giving it away won’t do anything but lose me the price of a pint though. You can’t force this.
No, what you have to do is be patient, observant. What prose books do people read? What movies and TV shows do they watch? Do they have a preferred writer maybe? Fan of video games? You know people who would like comics, and a year like this is exactly when they’ll present themselves. Think back: I can’t be the only one who fielded innumerable Spider-Man questions when the first two movies came out. It doesn’t mean the curious party will read Spider-Man books – I don’t anymore – but it does mean that they’re interested in what goes on in a comic. There’s your nugget. But the only way to get anyone to follow up on that interest is to slowly pick away at their reasons for not actually reading comics by challenging them one at a time. I know I’ve heard a bunch of them, and you’ve just read how to answer one in particular.
Why do I want to do this, you might be asking (if not, tough, I’m telling you anyway)? More than that, you might be wondering why I’m encouraging people to surreptitiously influence their friends’ reading habits. It’s because I care. It’s because there are a lot of books out there I think deserve an audience, and it frustrates me when I spend time with that audience watching Will Ferrell fall on his arse wearing nothing but white underwear. There are books out there for them, and when I see them settle for something not quite right I get a little frustrated. Frustrated for them for missing out, frustrated for the comics left lying on shelves, and frustrated for me because I couldn’t get online to cuss Tony Stark out and I need to get it out of my system.
Yeah, I suppose that last one is a little bit selfish. Best keep that to myself in future.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Alan Lynch has been reading comics for thirteen years, and bitching about
them for five. The carefree joy of those previous eight years was destroyed by the internet.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
One-Shots is an ongoing, revolving column, ready and willing for your contributions. Please read over our <a href="http http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=41895" target="_blank">guidelines</a> first, and then send your submissions to Nick Costanzo at winged.outlaw@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of Comixfan or its staff.
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[Post 2]
Author : Anthony Devlin
Date : Apr 26, 2007 03:34 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Ant, my apologies! I accidentally hit edit instead of "quote" and overwrote your post. :bag:
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[Post 3]
Author : T. Martin
Date : Apr 26, 2007 04:13 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I spend time with that audience watching Will Ferrell fall on his arse wearing nothing but white underwear. There are books out there for themWhich ones would those be, then? :LOL: Great column, though, Alan. :clap:
Part of the problem with comics is, of course, that so many are based in fantasy worlds. I remember expressing nostalgia once to mate of mine about roleplaying games and he said, 'Yeah, but now we're past spending time in Narnia.' And that's essentially what Paul Levitz calls 'the hobby market' is - time in Narnia. Even the preciousness and self-referencing of Gaiman and Moore fall into that category.
On the other hand, no one would dismiss Maus, Safe Area Gorazde or even Blankets and Jimmy Corrigan. But those books are unlikely to be identified with 'comics' and someone who reads them isn't going to be searching out more comics any more than a House fan is going to identify himself as 'into' episodic television drama.
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[Post 4]
Author : Marty P
Date : Apr 26, 2007 04:21 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Great One-Shot.
I have the same 'problem'. No one I know in my family/friends reads comics.
My wife reads books (yeah, the kind without pictures), a lot of books.
Before she met me, she only knew X-men from the Fox cartoon.
While she loved that show (especially Rogue), she just can't read the comics for some weird reason.
She tried Sandman, and while she found the story interesting, she just wasn't into the art.
And that I guess, is her personal block from reading comics; she just likes to picture the story in her own mind.
For me, it's the other way around: I can't read a book, I need pictures in em, lots of pictures! :)
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[Post 5]
Author : BritishSeaPower
Date : Apr 26, 2007 05:54 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I have quite the opposite problem. But then again, I am from New Jersey, home to the biggest of fan boys, Kevin Smith.
I started reading comics around 3-4. My mother owned a dancing school and after pre-school I had to go with her. The drugstore around the corner had a few coloring books, TMNT/He-Man/Transformers. Stuff of the late 80s. When they didn't restock them, she bought me comics so I could look at the pictures. I remember "reading" X-Men #1. I made up my own story because I couldn't really read! I read them for a few more years, the last comic I remember buying was when I was 9 and I bought the Zero Hour issue of Robin. Yeah. I got out at a good time!
When my Aunt passed away in 1999, I was a few days short of my 13th birthday. A coworker of hers gave me Spawn #1-25 to keep because he needed room. For the next years I squireled away money and slowly bought the complete series. (105 at the time, I believe.) But once I had all of Spawn, I wanted more. So I picked up an old faithful, X-Men #109. The christmas special right before Colossus died. Right before X-Treme X-Men and Grant Morrison. It was a whimsical time. The next title I bought was Green Arrow. When that ends in two months, it mark the end of the first series I collected every issue of while it was ongoing. I've since geeked out and get about 20+ titles a month.
That being said, in grammar school I was afraid to mention comics. It was "out-dated" and not cool. Sure we played X-Men and Batman and Robin but that was based on "Cartoons." I believe my friend said in 8th grade, "Comics are so 80s." But in High School I met some people who were Sci-Fi nerds. And one kid who hadn't read a comic in years, but was a Barry Allen fan. I leant them all books (Watchmen, God Loves, Man Kills; V for Vendetta, Stan Lee's Silver Surfer.) and they became part of the fold. When I joined the Drama company, there were many hours of wasted time when I didn't have much work to do, but had to be at practice. I brought my weekly haul with me. And soon the other kids took an issue that looked interesting and read it. Very soon there were 10 guys huddled around the newest issue of Grant Morrison's New X-Men!
In college I've met tons of comic nerds. My two closest friends here are so well verses in the lore that they wrote graduate school papers on them! Another friend worked as an intern at Marvel. Another, who goes to NYU, writes about comics in a "New Journalism course." We're all very open about. My roommate who is nuts about sports shows a vague interest. He even asked me about Captain America this past month.
I really only in grammar school felt this need to hide my hobby. I go to Midtown Comics or Forbidden Planet and here I find businessmen in suits on their lunchbreak picking up comics. I very rarely see little kids. Sure, they're there. And Midtown has a great Free Comic Book Day deal for kids. But mostly it's a 20 and over crowd. Indeed, just yesterday a 50 year old man took the last copy of Outsider's Annual of the shelf just as I was reaching for it! I proudly walk out of Midtown Comics with their bags with logos. Indeed, you can see people wlaking with them in Times Square and Grand Central. Forbidden Planet has great foot traffic from casual fans or "I remember Flash from when I was 4!" fans.
Perhaps it's a different experience in the UK, but I have heard friends from other places say it's like coming out about your sexual preference to your parents.
But for me, I've never had this experience.
Great one-shot by the way and a great insight into our culture!
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[Post 6]
Author : russbrett77
Date : Apr 26, 2007 08:44 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Comics, like most niche hobbies, are a passion that develops over time. By the time people reach adulthood, if they haven't already started to read comics, they're not going to.
Just as surely as I'm not going to start collecting stamps, or building model airplanes, or watching soap operas, others will not read comics.
It really doesn't even matter if people are interested in similar entertainment. Comics are specific (just like people who read certain genres; a horror fiend isn't going to pick up a romance novel).
If you want more people to read comics, then you need to give comics to younger people.
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[Post 7]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 12:33 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Great column, Alan! I could feel that it was written by none other than you. :)
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[Post 8]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:26 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Why thank you all for the kind words.
Considering the vast majority of the major league creators in the comics arena originate from the UK, most Brits wouldn’t have a clue who Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, or Neil Gaiman are... madness, i know!
This is true. I think Moore gets a look-in because of the number of movies made of his stuff, and Gaiman has recognition for his writing away from comics. But you won't see people recognising these guys in the same way they would a Charles Dickens, say.
I have quite the opposite problem. But then again, I am from New Jersey, home to the biggest of fan boys, Kevin Smith.
Perhaps it's a different experience in the UK, but I have heard friends from other places say it's like coming out about your sexual preference to your parents.
I think there's a different mindset in Britain because of how most of us got started. Comic stores were rarer when folks my age were growing up, and the only titles avaliable in newsagents and the like were the childish stuff, 2000 AD and Marvel reprints. They were all lumped into the same section - surrounded by kids' stuff - and so anyone passing by gets the impression that it's all childish. Even if you bought comics you were limited in what you could read, until such time as you discovered a comic store. And then you've got this huge range of material but without a starting point.
It'll change though; we're getting DC stuff reprinted for mainstream sale, and the internet has reached the point where finding out what's there is much easier.
Great column, Alan! I could feel that it was written by none other than you. :)
And I feel that this compliment could be given by none other than you :P
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[Post 9]
Author : Anthony Devlin
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:48 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
2000 AD and Marvel reprints.
And Eagle. I loved Dan Dare, Doom-lord, 13th floor.. I cant remember any more, but there was more stories in that comic I loved.
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[Post 10]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 05:03 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And Eagle. I loved Dan Dare, Doom-lord, 13th floor.. I cant remember any more, but there was more stories in that comic I loved.
Actually now I think about it, my local WH Smith still has those little Commando comics in. I'm sure of it. I never read them, but those things have been around since I was tiny.
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[Post 11]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 10:56 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And I feel that this compliment could be given by none other than you :P
Because no one else knows you better than me? ;)
I keed, I keed. :LOL:
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
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[Post 12]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 11:29 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Because no one else knows you better than me? ;)
Mr Pietikainen! That's how rumours start.
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
I might propose to the first reasonably attractive girl I meet in a comic store. No kidding.
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
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[Post 13]
Author : bigveney
Date : Apr 27, 2007 01:54 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
For me, it's the other way around: I can't read a book, I need pictures in em, lots of pictures!
I need pictures too, a story ain't the same without a visual!
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[Post 14]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:08 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Mr Pietikainen! That's how rumours start.
:mwahaha:
I might propose to the first reasonably attractive girl I meet in a comic store. No kidding.
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
Sure, I try to convert as many as I can, but it doesn't help that the nearest reasonable comic shop is about 500 kilometres away.
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[Post 15]
Author : Michael Regan
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:11 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
You are not alone... but I still say you look silly.
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[Post 16]
Author : charm
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:33 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Perhaps it's a Scottish thing. I don't know anyone else that buys comics either & I sometimes get my hubby to go in & get my comics for me.......
I've tried to get him to read some but meh.... altho' he did like Neil Gaiman's books.
Charm
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[Post 17]
Author : T. Martin
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:53 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I think Moore gets a look-in because of the number of movies made of his stuff, and Gaiman has recognition for his writing away from comics. But you won't see people recognising these guys in the same way they would a Charles Dickens, say.Well, neither of them is as good as Dickens.
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[Post 18]
Author : M-Angel
Date : Apr 28, 2007 01:50 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Well let me share a bit of my little personal history with the forum.
I had a girlfriend a while back who said she didnt like comics at all and was bothered by the fact that I liked them then she saw "Superman: Red Son" on my bookshelf read it and loved it. after that we went to the movies and we saw "V is for Vendetta" and she loved it. One day she was looking through my bookshelf and found "The Dark Knight Returns" and she took it home with her, the next day I got it back and she said that she was reminded of how childish comic books were and starting loathing the medium with a passion (What's so childish about DKR I'll never know).
I bet we all have a similar story. Comic books have an uphill battle against and ill conceived social perception of the medium. In other words we get no respect.
Because people cant look past a stereotype that tells them that comic books are for kids. and even when a book like "The Authority" challenges people's morals and values with "heroes" with questionable values. a gay couple, a woman that traded her blood for technology (and spends most of the series naked) all this wrapped in a package that involves large amounts of social criticism and a lot more sociophilosophical content and depth than 90% of the movies out there. as long as people see guys wearing spandex on the cover comic books will be perceived as something that's "for kids"
And that's because we leave in a shallow society that only sees the upper layer of thing. they fail to see the agenda's of politicians the same way they fail to see the intriguing family dinamics of your average Fantastic Four issue.
They fail to see the complex psychological structure of a guy like Batman because they can only see a man wearing his underwear on the outside.
And no matter how many times some people get into comic books their social role as respectable professionals, family men or college students will pull them back out of it because the social role of comic books is that of something childish.
even if in every Spiderman vs Green Goblin battle there's a complex analogy to the fight inside everyone of us against our insecurities and other inner demons.
I'll close my comment by saying that the basic principle behind most comic books is not good vs evil. it's someone's right to express his opinion in a way that he enjoys vs an oppresive society that fails to see that somethings are more than meets the eye.
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[Post 19]
Author : Ann Nichols
Date : Apr 29, 2007 01:58 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
Nice advice, Al, but I lack the money. I have a couple of pre-internet friends who still collects comics. One and his wife (also a fan) have a collection of about 50,000 -- pity for me that they live in Canada. My best friend doesn't read any Marvel comics any more that I recall, but still reads manga and Dark Horse. A third doesn't read comics anymore but likes to have me e-mail my recaps to him.
Translated manga volumes are in the childrens' and young adults' section of my local library, except for the ones that are in the adult section along with the reprint volumes of American comics -- which are in their own bookcase at the end of the SF section, even Marvel and DC superhero stuff.
Janne, your remark about the girls made me laugh because I so often heard, "I never met a girl comic fan before!" back in the late 1960s and during the 1970s. :LOL:
Things may change. I had to live through years of cartoons being assumed to be just for children (and reruns of older cartoons being shown cut because they were too violent :rolleyes:), before the success of "The Simpsons" helped make adults realize that cartoons were NOT just for kids again.
When I was a child, "The Flintstones" and "Jonny Quest" were prime-time fare that my family watched. I got to see old theatrical cartoons ("Popeye", Bugs Bunny, etc.) uncut on TV. Perhaps the public perception of comics will change as we more teens who know better become adults. :hope:
If you can spare the cash, why not buy and give out the comics geared toward the younger set to children you know? Those Power Pack mini-series trades would make a nice present for a child (and don't forget to read them yourselves -- they're funny!).
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[Post 20]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 29, 2007 02:19 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And that's because we leave in a shallow society that only sees the upper layer of thing. they fail to see the agenda's of politicians the same way they fail to see the intriguing family dinamics of your average Fantastic Four issue.
They fail to see the complex psychological structure of a guy like Batman because they can only see a man wearing his underwear on the outside.
You're right. A lot of great stories go unnoticed because of the genre or meduim they're presented in. Comics and sci-fi are obvious ones, but intelligent, thoughtful stories in something like The Shield can get overlooked because it's "just a cop show". This is where us as fans need to step in.
When I was a child, "The Flintstones" and "Jonny Quest" were prime-time fare that my family watched. I got to see old theatrical cartoons ("Popeye", Bugs Bunny, etc.) uncut on TV. Perhaps the public perception of comics will change as we more teens who know better become adults. :hope:
Hopefully; animation is probably the closest analogy you could get in terms of adult/mainstream acceptance. I'm not sure where comic's Simpsons will come from though. All the big names have mainstream recognition which hasn't quite filtered through as we might hope.
If you can spare the cash, why not buy and give out the comics geared toward the younger set to children you know? Those Power Pack mini-series trades would make a nice present for a child (and don't forget to read them yourselves -- they're funny!).
Getting kids into reading early doors is a great start, but the difficulty comes when they get older and encounter the stigmas which put so many adults off. Hopefully as the internet becomes more and more prevalent in people's life we'll see the "nerd" sterotypes associated with these pastimes break down.
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The messages has been download from Comixfan Forums at http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums at 05.10.2007 10:55:25
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THREAD : ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Started at Apr 26, 2007 03:07 pm by Nick Costanzo
Visit at http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=41956
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[Post 1]
Author : Nick Costanzo
Date : Apr 26, 2007 03:07 pm
Title : ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
<img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/columns/oneshots1.jpg" hspace=10 align=left border=0 alt="One-Shots logo">By Alan Lynch, shabbasnake@hotmail.com
Welcome to the Life
I’m the only person I know who reads comics. In my entire circle of friends, I’m the one comics fan. It’s the one thing which I can legitimately say is mine and mine alone. We’ve got a “music guy”, but that’s not because he’s the only music lover among us – it’s because he’s in a band. I’m the “comics guy” because nobody else is into comics. That simple: it’s just me, and comics are the one area where we can pick someone out like that. There isn’t a single one of my friends whom I would call a fan of comics. It’s not for lack of trying though. I’ve gotten people to read books I think they’d like in the past: Akira, Fables, and Steampunk have all gone down well with various people and my dad is currently enjoying Marvel’s Dark Tower mini. And it’s not like everyone I know treats my reading habits like they were a heroin addiction. However, getting anyone to see comics as more than a quick time killer is difficult.
Take the most recent instance, when I tried recommending the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to a fellow fan of the show (seasons 1-3 at least… don’t get me started). I told him that Joss Whedon wrote it, that other writers from the show would be taking turns, and that it’d be an official continuation of the Buffyverse. To say his response confused me is an understatement.
“It’ll not be as good as the TV show though, will it?”
My immediate reaction was to ask how he knew that. He shrugged, and just said he couldn’t get into comics. And so I left it, as I have done the various times I’ve had discussions about comics with friends and family, and once with a stranger. It’s confusing, this resistance to comics, especially given that I know there’s an interest from some people. They just seem unable to admit that yes, these things are alright. Obviously, the aforementioned friend has an interest in Buffy. He’s got all the boxsets, and is a Whedon fanatic. Now in this particular instance he gave a reason: it couldn’t match up to the TV show. Let’s think about that.
TV is probably the storytelling medium that closest resembles comics, due to the fact that they’re both episodic in nature, having to fit individual stories into a larger whole without isolating potential newcomers. Not to mention the fairly high chance that several different writers/artists/directors are going to want to showcase their own individual style. Given that, I don’t think it’s a stretch to think a comic could match up to a TV show. Better it in many cases – I mean there’s no explosion budget for a comic, or bad actors spoiling a scene. Ultimately, the goal in either medium is to effectively communicate a story. There might be some extras along the way, but without that central story the whole thing is meaningless. So when the writers of a TV show are paired with a talented artist (who I think Georges Jeanty is) the transition shouldn’t be an impossible one. So I’m left to think that my friend – the one who enjoyed Fables – has some issue with comics which isn’t entirely related to the books themselves.
The question I need to ask is what that problem might be; I need to see if that little nugget of interest, token though it might be, could actually develop into a genuine hobby. I could hassle him to read more trades – and he’d do it, because I own plenty that he’d like – but what would that achieve? He wouldn’t pick something off the rack next time he follows me into a store, and he definitely won’t pay a visit when I’m not around. I think that I – as a fan who wishes to support this industry I love – need to offer him a friendly hand through the door. And I want all of us to do the same.
Well, I want you to do it to your own friends, obviously.
Let’s be clear about this: I’m not for a second suggesting that anyone shove a comic under their flatmate’s nose while they’re having a beer. That would be counter-productive; I’m talking about making a real effort to get those new readers we all know are out there. All the big companies want them; new readers are like the Holy Grail. But every publisher out there is preaching to the converted when they send creators out to websites, or give their solicitations and interviews with Wizard (hell, I don’t even read that magazine). Buying an extra copy of Buffy and giving it away won’t do anything but lose me the price of a pint though. You can’t force this.
No, what you have to do is be patient, observant. What prose books do people read? What movies and TV shows do they watch? Do they have a preferred writer maybe? Fan of video games? You know people who would like comics, and a year like this is exactly when they’ll present themselves. Think back: I can’t be the only one who fielded innumerable Spider-Man questions when the first two movies came out. It doesn’t mean the curious party will read Spider-Man books – I don’t anymore – but it does mean that they’re interested in what goes on in a comic. There’s your nugget. But the only way to get anyone to follow up on that interest is to slowly pick away at their reasons for not actually reading comics by challenging them one at a time. I know I’ve heard a bunch of them, and you’ve just read how to answer one in particular.
Why do I want to do this, you might be asking (if not, tough, I’m telling you anyway)? More than that, you might be wondering why I’m encouraging people to surreptitiously influence their friends’ reading habits. It’s because I care. It’s because there are a lot of books out there I think deserve an audience, and it frustrates me when I spend time with that audience watching Will Ferrell fall on his arse wearing nothing but white underwear. There are books out there for them, and when I see them settle for something not quite right I get a little frustrated. Frustrated for them for missing out, frustrated for the comics left lying on shelves, and frustrated for me because I couldn’t get online to cuss Tony Stark out and I need to get it out of my system.
Yeah, I suppose that last one is a little bit selfish. Best keep that to myself in future.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
Alan Lynch has been reading comics for thirteen years, and bitching about
them for five. The carefree joy of those previous eight years was destroyed by the internet.
<center><hr width=75%></center>
One-Shots is an ongoing, revolving column, ready and willing for your contributions. Please read over our <a href="http http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums/showthread.php?t=41895" target="_blank">guidelines</a> first, and then send your submissions to Nick Costanzo at winged.outlaw@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and are not reflective of Comixfan or its staff.
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[Post 2]
Author : Anthony Devlin
Date : Apr 26, 2007 03:34 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Ant, my apologies! I accidentally hit edit instead of "quote" and overwrote your post. :bag:
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[Post 3]
Author : T. Martin
Date : Apr 26, 2007 04:13 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I spend time with that audience watching Will Ferrell fall on his arse wearing nothing but white underwear. There are books out there for themWhich ones would those be, then? :LOL: Great column, though, Alan. :clap:
Part of the problem with comics is, of course, that so many are based in fantasy worlds. I remember expressing nostalgia once to mate of mine about roleplaying games and he said, 'Yeah, but now we're past spending time in Narnia.' And that's essentially what Paul Levitz calls 'the hobby market' is - time in Narnia. Even the preciousness and self-referencing of Gaiman and Moore fall into that category.
On the other hand, no one would dismiss Maus, Safe Area Gorazde or even Blankets and Jimmy Corrigan. But those books are unlikely to be identified with 'comics' and someone who reads them isn't going to be searching out more comics any more than a House fan is going to identify himself as 'into' episodic television drama.
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[Post 4]
Author : Marty P
Date : Apr 26, 2007 04:21 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Great One-Shot.
I have the same 'problem'. No one I know in my family/friends reads comics.
My wife reads books (yeah, the kind without pictures), a lot of books.
Before she met me, she only knew X-men from the Fox cartoon.
While she loved that show (especially Rogue), she just can't read the comics for some weird reason.
She tried Sandman, and while she found the story interesting, she just wasn't into the art.
And that I guess, is her personal block from reading comics; she just likes to picture the story in her own mind.
For me, it's the other way around: I can't read a book, I need pictures in em, lots of pictures! :)
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[Post 5]
Author : BritishSeaPower
Date : Apr 26, 2007 05:54 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I have quite the opposite problem. But then again, I am from New Jersey, home to the biggest of fan boys, Kevin Smith.
I started reading comics around 3-4. My mother owned a dancing school and after pre-school I had to go with her. The drugstore around the corner had a few coloring books, TMNT/He-Man/Transformers. Stuff of the late 80s. When they didn't restock them, she bought me comics so I could look at the pictures. I remember "reading" X-Men #1. I made up my own story because I couldn't really read! I read them for a few more years, the last comic I remember buying was when I was 9 and I bought the Zero Hour issue of Robin. Yeah. I got out at a good time!
When my Aunt passed away in 1999, I was a few days short of my 13th birthday. A coworker of hers gave me Spawn #1-25 to keep because he needed room. For the next years I squireled away money and slowly bought the complete series. (105 at the time, I believe.) But once I had all of Spawn, I wanted more. So I picked up an old faithful, X-Men #109. The christmas special right before Colossus died. Right before X-Treme X-Men and Grant Morrison. It was a whimsical time. The next title I bought was Green Arrow. When that ends in two months, it mark the end of the first series I collected every issue of while it was ongoing. I've since geeked out and get about 20+ titles a month.
That being said, in grammar school I was afraid to mention comics. It was "out-dated" and not cool. Sure we played X-Men and Batman and Robin but that was based on "Cartoons." I believe my friend said in 8th grade, "Comics are so 80s." But in High School I met some people who were Sci-Fi nerds. And one kid who hadn't read a comic in years, but was a Barry Allen fan. I leant them all books (Watchmen, God Loves, Man Kills; V for Vendetta, Stan Lee's Silver Surfer.) and they became part of the fold. When I joined the Drama company, there were many hours of wasted time when I didn't have much work to do, but had to be at practice. I brought my weekly haul with me. And soon the other kids took an issue that looked interesting and read it. Very soon there were 10 guys huddled around the newest issue of Grant Morrison's New X-Men!
In college I've met tons of comic nerds. My two closest friends here are so well verses in the lore that they wrote graduate school papers on them! Another friend worked as an intern at Marvel. Another, who goes to NYU, writes about comics in a "New Journalism course." We're all very open about. My roommate who is nuts about sports shows a vague interest. He even asked me about Captain America this past month.
I really only in grammar school felt this need to hide my hobby. I go to Midtown Comics or Forbidden Planet and here I find businessmen in suits on their lunchbreak picking up comics. I very rarely see little kids. Sure, they're there. And Midtown has a great Free Comic Book Day deal for kids. But mostly it's a 20 and over crowd. Indeed, just yesterday a 50 year old man took the last copy of Outsider's Annual of the shelf just as I was reaching for it! I proudly walk out of Midtown Comics with their bags with logos. Indeed, you can see people wlaking with them in Times Square and Grand Central. Forbidden Planet has great foot traffic from casual fans or "I remember Flash from when I was 4!" fans.
Perhaps it's a different experience in the UK, but I have heard friends from other places say it's like coming out about your sexual preference to your parents.
But for me, I've never had this experience.
Great one-shot by the way and a great insight into our culture!
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[Post 6]
Author : russbrett77
Date : Apr 26, 2007 08:44 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Comics, like most niche hobbies, are a passion that develops over time. By the time people reach adulthood, if they haven't already started to read comics, they're not going to.
Just as surely as I'm not going to start collecting stamps, or building model airplanes, or watching soap operas, others will not read comics.
It really doesn't even matter if people are interested in similar entertainment. Comics are specific (just like people who read certain genres; a horror fiend isn't going to pick up a romance novel).
If you want more people to read comics, then you need to give comics to younger people.
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[Post 7]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 12:33 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Great column, Alan! I could feel that it was written by none other than you. :)
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[Post 8]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:26 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Why thank you all for the kind words.
Considering the vast majority of the major league creators in the comics arena originate from the UK, most Brits wouldn’t have a clue who Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, or Neil Gaiman are... madness, i know!
This is true. I think Moore gets a look-in because of the number of movies made of his stuff, and Gaiman has recognition for his writing away from comics. But you won't see people recognising these guys in the same way they would a Charles Dickens, say.
I have quite the opposite problem. But then again, I am from New Jersey, home to the biggest of fan boys, Kevin Smith.
Perhaps it's a different experience in the UK, but I have heard friends from other places say it's like coming out about your sexual preference to your parents.
I think there's a different mindset in Britain because of how most of us got started. Comic stores were rarer when folks my age were growing up, and the only titles avaliable in newsagents and the like were the childish stuff, 2000 AD and Marvel reprints. They were all lumped into the same section - surrounded by kids' stuff - and so anyone passing by gets the impression that it's all childish. Even if you bought comics you were limited in what you could read, until such time as you discovered a comic store. And then you've got this huge range of material but without a starting point.
It'll change though; we're getting DC stuff reprinted for mainstream sale, and the internet has reached the point where finding out what's there is much easier.
Great column, Alan! I could feel that it was written by none other than you. :)
And I feel that this compliment could be given by none other than you :P
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[Post 9]
Author : Anthony Devlin
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:48 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
2000 AD and Marvel reprints.
And Eagle. I loved Dan Dare, Doom-lord, 13th floor.. I cant remember any more, but there was more stories in that comic I loved.
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[Post 10]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 05:03 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And Eagle. I loved Dan Dare, Doom-lord, 13th floor.. I cant remember any more, but there was more stories in that comic I loved.
Actually now I think about it, my local WH Smith still has those little Commando comics in. I'm sure of it. I never read them, but those things have been around since I was tiny.
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[Post 11]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 10:56 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And I feel that this compliment could be given by none other than you :P
Because no one else knows you better than me? ;)
I keed, I keed. :LOL:
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
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[Post 12]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 27, 2007 11:29 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Because no one else knows you better than me? ;)
Mr Pietikainen! That's how rumours start.
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
I might propose to the first reasonably attractive girl I meet in a comic store. No kidding.
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
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[Post 13]
Author : bigveney
Date : Apr 27, 2007 01:54 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
For me, it's the other way around: I can't read a book, I need pictures in em, lots of pictures!
I need pictures too, a story ain't the same without a visual!
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[Post 14]
Author : Janne Pietikainen
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:08 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Mr Pietikainen! That's how rumours start.
:mwahaha:
I might propose to the first reasonably attractive girl I meet in a comic store. No kidding.
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
Sure, I try to convert as many as I can, but it doesn't help that the nearest reasonable comic shop is about 500 kilometres away.
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[Post 15]
Author : Michael Regan
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:11 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I'm starting to think I might be the only person on here not speaking to people offline who buy comics. Which is quite surprising. You should all still do what I say and get others buying though, otherwise I'll just look silly ;)
You are not alone... but I still say you look silly.
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[Post 16]
Author : charm
Date : Apr 27, 2007 02:33 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Perhaps it's a Scottish thing. I don't know anyone else that buys comics either & I sometimes get my hubby to go in & get my comics for me.......
I've tried to get him to read some but meh.... altho' he did like Neil Gaiman's books.
Charm
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[Post 17]
Author : T. Martin
Date : Apr 27, 2007 04:53 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
I think Moore gets a look-in because of the number of movies made of his stuff, and Gaiman has recognition for his writing away from comics. But you won't see people recognising these guys in the same way they would a Charles Dickens, say.Well, neither of them is as good as Dickens.
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[Post 18]
Author : M-Angel
Date : Apr 28, 2007 01:50 am
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
Well let me share a bit of my little personal history with the forum.
I had a girlfriend a while back who said she didnt like comics at all and was bothered by the fact that I liked them then she saw "Superman: Red Son" on my bookshelf read it and loved it. after that we went to the movies and we saw "V is for Vendetta" and she loved it. One day she was looking through my bookshelf and found "The Dark Knight Returns" and she took it home with her, the next day I got it back and she said that she was reminded of how childish comic books were and starting loathing the medium with a passion (What's so childish about DKR I'll never know).
I bet we all have a similar story. Comic books have an uphill battle against and ill conceived social perception of the medium. In other words we get no respect.
Because people cant look past a stereotype that tells them that comic books are for kids. and even when a book like "The Authority" challenges people's morals and values with "heroes" with questionable values. a gay couple, a woman that traded her blood for technology (and spends most of the series naked) all this wrapped in a package that involves large amounts of social criticism and a lot more sociophilosophical content and depth than 90% of the movies out there. as long as people see guys wearing spandex on the cover comic books will be perceived as something that's "for kids"
And that's because we leave in a shallow society that only sees the upper layer of thing. they fail to see the agenda's of politicians the same way they fail to see the intriguing family dinamics of your average Fantastic Four issue.
They fail to see the complex psychological structure of a guy like Batman because they can only see a man wearing his underwear on the outside.
And no matter how many times some people get into comic books their social role as respectable professionals, family men or college students will pull them back out of it because the social role of comic books is that of something childish.
even if in every Spiderman vs Green Goblin battle there's a complex analogy to the fight inside everyone of us against our insecurities and other inner demons.
I'll close my comment by saying that the basic principle behind most comic books is not good vs evil. it's someone's right to express his opinion in a way that he enjoys vs an oppresive society that fails to see that somethings are more than meets the eye.
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[Post 19]
Author : Ann Nichols
Date : Apr 29, 2007 01:58 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
But seriously, about your column. Sure, I mostly have the same problem, but I do know some other people who buy comics. Most of those few are girls.
Nice advice, Al, but I lack the money. I have a couple of pre-internet friends who still collects comics. One and his wife (also a fan) have a collection of about 50,000 -- pity for me that they live in Canada. My best friend doesn't read any Marvel comics any more that I recall, but still reads manga and Dark Horse. A third doesn't read comics anymore but likes to have me e-mail my recaps to him.
Translated manga volumes are in the childrens' and young adults' section of my local library, except for the ones that are in the adult section along with the reprint volumes of American comics -- which are in their own bookcase at the end of the SF section, even Marvel and DC superhero stuff.
Janne, your remark about the girls made me laugh because I so often heard, "I never met a girl comic fan before!" back in the late 1960s and during the 1970s. :LOL:
Things may change. I had to live through years of cartoons being assumed to be just for children (and reruns of older cartoons being shown cut because they were too violent :rolleyes:), before the success of "The Simpsons" helped make adults realize that cartoons were NOT just for kids again.
When I was a child, "The Flintstones" and "Jonny Quest" were prime-time fare that my family watched. I got to see old theatrical cartoons ("Popeye", Bugs Bunny, etc.) uncut on TV. Perhaps the public perception of comics will change as we more teens who know better become adults. :hope:
If you can spare the cash, why not buy and give out the comics geared toward the younger set to children you know? Those Power Pack mini-series trades would make a nice present for a child (and don't forget to read them yourselves -- they're funny!).
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[Post 20]
Author : Alan Lynch
Date : Apr 29, 2007 02:19 pm
Title : Re: ONE SHOTS V.2 #1: WELCOME TO THE LIFE
And that's because we leave in a shallow society that only sees the upper layer of thing. they fail to see the agenda's of politicians the same way they fail to see the intriguing family dinamics of your average Fantastic Four issue.
They fail to see the complex psychological structure of a guy like Batman because they can only see a man wearing his underwear on the outside.
You're right. A lot of great stories go unnoticed because of the genre or meduim they're presented in. Comics and sci-fi are obvious ones, but intelligent, thoughtful stories in something like The Shield can get overlooked because it's "just a cop show". This is where us as fans need to step in.
When I was a child, "The Flintstones" and "Jonny Quest" were prime-time fare that my family watched. I got to see old theatrical cartoons ("Popeye", Bugs Bunny, etc.) uncut on TV. Perhaps the public perception of comics will change as we more teens who know better become adults. :hope:
Hopefully; animation is probably the closest analogy you could get in terms of adult/mainstream acceptance. I'm not sure where comic's Simpsons will come from though. All the big names have mainstream recognition which hasn't quite filtered through as we might hope.
If you can spare the cash, why not buy and give out the comics geared toward the younger set to children you know? Those Power Pack mini-series trades would make a nice present for a child (and don't forget to read them yourselves -- they're funny!).
Getting kids into reading early doors is a great start, but the difficulty comes when they get older and encounter the stigmas which put so many adults off. Hopefully as the internet becomes more and more prevalent in people's life we'll see the "nerd" sterotypes associated with these pastimes break down.
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The messages has been download from Comixfan Forums at http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/forums at 05.10.2007 10:55:25