Finding Our Audience II: Elitism

By Tim Hartnett

Don't these people make you sick? They're on the message boards, they're in the comic shops, they're looking over the creators' shoulders every last second. They're quite possibly the reason why the popular comics industry has suffered so much in recent years. They are…the elitists!

These self-proclaimed (hardly) Messiahs of the comic book industry are everywhere to be found these days. Their very presence scares many would-be fans from the comic racks. Their walls are plastered with posters of the works of Alan Moore and Frank Miller; John Byrne and Walter Simonson are on their dartboards. Everything they read is dark, dreary, scary, and sophisticated…at least to them. Everything has to be "mature." "Adult." "Unconventional." And if God forbid anyone say anything against Grant Morrison, The Dark Knight Returns, or the writing style of Mark Millar, they will tear you apart.

These are my worst enemies.

Now first, let me say the one thing these guys have in common with me: we both think comics are a form of art. No doubt about that. But that's pretty much where we leave off.

With the collapse of the mega-industry we had in the early-90s, there came new avenues to search for an audience. Obviously, adults and long-time fans became the target as evidenced in recent years, and the push is to make comics geared more towards them. Unfortunately, these "adults" think that "mature" means masturbating super heroes and lots of naked women with guns. Nothing wrong with that, but that doesn't seem to make a necessarily mature, adult comic.

Marvel's the best example of this trend. Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Scott Lobdell and Dan Jurgens were four of the most instrumental, innovative people at Marvel between 1998 and 2000. They took the marketing disaster that was Heroes Reborn, and replaced it with a fun, refreshing, swift take on the heroes; some of the best I've ever read. But enter Joe Quesada and Marvel Knights, and clearly, we get a different picture. Marvel Knights crated a sometimes clever, but mostly dark, slow-moving take on superheroes, one that eventually migrated to the main line when Quesada became EIC.

Since the dawn of the Quemas Era and now into the 2000s, virtually every comic book has been polluted with this sense of "elitism." Almost everything is written in Alan Moore's way (Joe Quesada even said this was his intention), everything is a deconstruction of superheroes, everything is controversial, everything is "artsy."

And God, does it suck.

The reality of the situation is pretty much the opposite of what it seems. These "mature" and "sophisticated" takes are far more juvenile than what they're trying to replace. And this "accessible-to-new-readers-" bullshit is really just an appeal to longtime fans. When was the last time you spent your hard-earned $2.99 (or whatever you pay), and felt you got your money's worth? Personally, I have a problem when I pay $2.99 for a one-sided, linear plot, that takes six issues to resolve. I don't care how "mature" it is. The only exception I've gotten recently is She-Hulk. Imagine $2.99 for a single story. And even that's pushing it.

Now granted, not everything on the market is like that, especially at DC, but I have the feeling that it's one of the Things That Are Wrong With The Industry®™.

We don't want comics to be an exclusive club of arrogant artistic bureaucrats. Despite their wishes, comics is a business, and writing comics that appeal to their taste detracts the average reader from the mass market stands.

I don't know where these guys came from. You'd think that for every one of them, there'd be someone who actually respects the characters and would like to see some more traditional undertakings. But no, their dominance continues.

The best titles on the stands today are the animated books, like Justice League Adventures, Batman Adventures, Looney Toons, Simpsons, Archie, Sonic, etc. They join Birds of Prey, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, and John Byrne's JLA, among others in the "non-animated" crowd.

The reason?

Simple. These stories are just as sophisticated and intelligent as the others, and most of the time, they're cheaper. They don't play too heavily on derivatives---the characters are "as is", basics, and heavily influenced by comic greats, not movie greats. And what more!? They're consistent. These writers understand what made everyone love comics in the Silver Age, and they have the utmost respect for the characters they write. No bold new directions or gimmicks.

Now am I saying that darker, "mature" takes are bad? Hell, no. I just think it's pretty sad that they dominate the industry. Especially with superheroes, which aren't exactly realistic to begin with? I mean really, would you rather read a classic superhero story and at least know it's supposed to be ridiculous, than read another deconstructionist take on why superheroes are ridiculous. As if we didn't know that already.

Forget these hot, new, creative teams, and their bold, new directions. Give John Byrne, Walter Simonson, Bob Layton et al back the reigns of the characters they helped shape in the Bronze Age and the 80s.

And most of all, tell the elitists to shut the fuck up.

Or maybe I should? I don't know, you tell me. As usual, I'm very easy to get a hold of. If you don't want your letter printed in the column, please mark, "UNFIT TO PRINT." If you ever need anything about anything, feel free to reach me at the following: timh@silverbulletcomicbooks.com.


Elitism Clarification

All right, all right, don't get your trousers in a knot...

Unfortunately, after a few colleagues of mine read my work, it was concluded that perhaps my article was a very example of the "elitism", I was preaching against. And they're right - in a way.

You see, I do not think there's nothing wrong at all with only liking the "darker", "mature" takes on comic book characters. Hell, I tend to like those a lot too. But it's when people place themselves above the rest of comicdom because of their self-realized "enlightened" opinion, and feel that their way is the only way, that I start to get pissed off. This is very prevalent message boards where intelligent conversation and debate is swept aside in favor of personal attacks and that which I wrote about. Hell, I do it too sometimes.

Now could it be the other way around? Could we have Walter Simonson and John Byrne (or "traditional comics", if such a word exists) lovers who hate the "darker" stuff, and want it swept out? Sure! And they'd be just as much loathed by me as the other guys. I was merely preaching against elitism, but unfortunately, I turned out to be an elitist myself.

There's nothing worse than being told that I'm too immature to know why a work I like is bad, and how I can't understand the "literary geniuses" that I don't care for.

Again, I apologize for being so polar; a middle ground was certainly more desirable, but it's the only way a writer can learn, right?

So maybe we ALL can learn something from my last column, myself included.


Oh, and here's some things I've been reading!

Alpha Flight

I really knew this book was gonna take off after #1. It's just Lobdell's style. This one really has great potential, with the comedic antics, and Scott's love comics. Clayton Henry's art is relatively sophisticated for the cartoony nature, and adds a unique flair to the book. I'm not sure it's worth $2.99, but hey, no one's perfect.

My score:

JLA

Again, if this were marketed properly, maybe people wouldn't hate it so much, although I must say, Claremont's dialogue is a bit inconsistent to be properly "ridiculous" regards to campy superheroics. John Byrne hasn't looked this good in years; many thanks to Jerry Ordway for that. All in all, a very different approach from what we're used to, and a welcome one at that. Six issues might be a bit too much though…

My score:

She-Hulk

A wonderful pastiche of superheroes as characters. Dan Slott gives us a complete, wonderful in each issue so far. Wow, that's nice. In fact, it's almost worth $2.99; there's few comics that come close to such a hefty price. Juan Bobillo's artwork is toned down from some of his previous work; and it looks like something out of a children's book at times. Despite that, this is really well done, but I wouldn't expect anything less from Mr. Slott.

My score:


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