Alright, folks, strap in and prepare yourself for an opinionated piece.
This weekend while sitting in a theater watching Star Trek Into Darkness (like many of you reading this, I assume), I had a stray thought: wow — this theater is packed. It didn’t really hit me as meaning anything until much later, after talking about the movie and thinking about the general cinema-going experience. Despite having a lot of negative movie experiences lately, attending Star Trek Into Darkness was perhaps one of the best times I’ve had in a while even if I didn’t particularly like the movie, with a riveted audience all silently anticipating the next (somewhat predictable) moment, everyone excited to be there and to be watching a movie with the words “Star” and “Trek” leading the title.
And that is not something that would’ve happened a decade ago.
For point of reference, Nemesis just barely made its budget back, but 2009’s Trek made more than double its own at the box office. Into Darkness isn’t quite there yet, but it’s already made more than double Nemesis in just one weekend — who knows how far it’ll get with overall box office returns? This is notable because all of these films are part of a franchise that was pretty much defined as non-accessible for anyone outside of its intended audience. For a long period of time, Star Trek and the Trekkies that loved it were just outsiders or easy targets for parody; now they are able to somewhat share their passion with a large group of people who were previously unfamiliar with it in any form of intimacy (even if not all of us Trek fans are too happy with what it is we’re currently sharing).
There’s this interesting shift that has been occurring. Everyone is slightly aware of it, even if it’s just something they acknowledge in the peripherals of their mind. Geek culture, nerd culture, whatever you want to call it? It’s in. It’s very in! The Avengers is one of the biggest movies of all time. A show like LOST is still actively debated and celebrated. Conceptually vapid projects like King of the Nerds actually make it to air and got renewed for a second season thanks to semi-decent ratings. Big Bang Theory, for as much ire as it receives from our side of the community is renewed for a seventh season! General fanboys and girls may have perceived problems with others getting into their subculture or how their subculture is viewed and/or respected, but it’s never the less true: it is so hip to be square. Geek is chic, baby.
So why does this matter? Easy: now that we’re in this place, comic companies can honestly stop pretending that new readers matter.
See, here’s the thing: with new media being used to create these casual fans of the properties that you and I love, it’s about time that the companies responsible for them realize that they can honestly go back to doing what they’re supposed to do — and that’s to tell new, memorable, enchanting stories of fictional characters with an elaborate mythology for us, the “regular” readers. Anyone reading comics today knows that one of the big ideas that Marvel and DC (as well as others) have is to create something that is new reader friendly, which is this somewhat inane branding that means very little, seeking the attention of a fictional potential fan who assuredly lives in Tralalaliland. To companies, this idea means that they can pretend they have a place to start fresh; for fans, it’s an annoyance because it most likely means that the book they grew up with is now going through an arbitrary and/or more marketable change as opposed to just making it good by normal objective terms.
But we don’t need it! Don’t you see? We don’t need any of it! We can totally get back to “the way things were” and no one will be any the wiser!
Let me explain.
The Problems of Being Friendly to New Readers
There is this idea that has become rampant today, and it’s entirely a false notion. The idea is that, to save comics, we need to bring new readers who have never read or been interested in comics into the stores by offering up easily accessible books for them to have upon arrival. But this idea isn’t accurate for one simple reason: nobody cares.
Continued belowThat’s a harsh truth to swallow, but it’s the unfiltered truth. Iron Man the movie will never be the same as “Iron Man” the comic — not anymore. There’s just too much lacking from one to the other; a comic doesn’t feature the cast, the special effects, the soundtrack, the visual feats, the self-contained two-hour run-time. The comic doesn’t feature anything that makes the movie popular outside of the character. The critics who give Iron Man positive reviews to get aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes aren’t going to be giving favorable reviews to last week’s “Iron Man” #10 (most of them, I assume, anyway), and the people who saw Iron Man 3 and adored the trilogy most likely aren’t going to start a pull list for all the obvious reasons. Some will, but most of the general public go to the movies not because they particularly care about the wealth of stories that await them outside of the movie but because they’re interested in the movie itself, and that’s not something that comics can capture in any truly feasible way, no matter how fancy the gimmick is.
At the movies, everyone’s a fanboy. Why not at the shop?
Because we can’t expect them to be, realistically. Why should others to do something that we ourselves don’t? Ask yourself how often you go out and read a book after seeing a great film adaptation of it and you’ll find your answer right there.
Take, for instance, Game of Thrones. Brilliant show, right? But for every person that watches the HBO program — the most watched/pirated/acclaimed HBO program in years — how many then go and read the books? Not too many, I’m afraid. This stuff is pure geekery, as “A Song of Ice and Fire” is basically the modern equivalent of “Lord of the Rings” (no matter how much nudity and gore makes it into the show), but it implicitly doesn’t matter how much better the books are (and, come on, the books are always better than the adaptations, comics or otherwise); I and every other “book reader” know plenty of people who watch the show that aren’t interested in the novels, because it’s not the same and/or doesn’t matter to them. So how can we expect every person who watches the Walking Dead to want to pick up that comic too? At least “Walking Dead” has pictures; it’s way easier to read!
It just doesn’t matter, because what came before/what’s in the book is not what you or they are ostensibly interested in in this scenario. Just like you probably won’t re-read the Great Gatsby if you see that movie this weekend or Cloud Atlas if you buy that on Blu-ray today, Random Guy/Gal #7 probably isn’t going to pick up “Iron Man: Extremis” no matter how much they liked Iron Man 3.
The Shwarma Corollary
Think of it this way. When The Avengers came out and Tony made his now infamous reference to shwarma, what happened? Shwarma sales went up! Woo! Delicious, savory shwarma. But it was a fleeting moment, because it was essentially a silly fad. People didn’t actually want shwarma, they just wanted to participate in the moment, be part of the trend and a member of those who get the joke. Shwarma today is about as popular as it was before the film, and while the increase in sales probably helped a few local business it wasn’t a lasting thing. Ask yourself how soon after The Avengers it was that you had shwarma, and when the last time you had it was. Probably not too recently, right? And shwarma is way more delicious than a comic book.
And, lets be real: it was turned crassly commercial in a non-comics way real quick.
The reason I bring it up is, I can vividly remember someone (no honest idea who, unfortunately) on Twitter somewhere making the remark along the lines of “What if Tony had said ‘let’s go buy comics?'” or something. The idea here is that if Avengers had included a line to promote comics in anything more than a throwaway or disparaging reference (see: Iron Man 3′s admittedly humorous “Super Friends” knock), they would’ve sold comics — but that idea is inherently a fallacy. It would’ve been nice, but we know this wouldn’t be the case because you aren’t still buying shwarma. We also know this won’t be the case because every time Marvel or DC does something to bring people into stores — Marvel NOW!, The New 52 — they don’t keep people there. People come for the show, the spectacle of it all, just like they come to see a two-hour movie … but then they go home and life goes on. Sure, a few new fans are made, but DC isn’t in the same place they were when the New 52 started; they’ve already shifted back down to where they were before the New 52 was ever in play.
Continued belowWhen it comes down to it, all of this “new reader friendly” nonsense isn’t being targeted to the people who could help define the idea anyway. There are no widespread TV commercials advising people to come into shops on Wednesday (which begs the question — why not?) and check out the new “Batman” like there are commercials for Bob’s Discount Furniture Stores, and as big as those USA Today articles are due to the scale on which they’re delivered I doubt they’re truly reaching anyone who will think, “Oh, hey, “Suicide Squad?” Huh. That sounds neat. I don’t read comics, but why not, lets give it a go.” No offense to the “Suicide Squad” creative team or Brian Truitt intended, mind you, but let’s be real: those articles are intended for you and I, because we’re the ones who are going to buy “Suicide Squad” #20 and understand that it’s a jumping-on point.
And, let’s be even more real here: how many people do you think are going to go buy a comic with Angela in it after reading about her in Entertainment Weekly? Or rather, how many people are even going to have any idea who the heck Angela is enough to really think of caring? It is not the same as Robin dying or Batman dying or Captain America dying or Wolverine dying — those are spectacles with names people recognize, with something they can conceivably attach to. They’re still probably not going to pick up those comics, though.
Not only that, but look at the comics that are being produced today. They’re being made for the regular readers regardless, it’s just that some major titles have lost sight of this or try to pretend otherwise. I think Marvel’s “Uncanny Avengers” is a pretty great example of this: that first arc was rather unlike the stories we’d expect from Remender based on “Uncanny X-Force” or “Punisher” or his career in general, but once you get past that first arc? The book improves ten-fold and is suddenly recognizable towards Remender’s writing habits. Suddenly it reads less like a book aping a Hollywood summer blockbuster punch-fest but like a book with some character; the initial burst is done for the “new readers” and it quickly reverts to what it was always meant to be. So why play games?
But worst of all, Marvel and DC both make basically nothing “for kids” because there is no money in it. If we actually are actively interested in New Readers, then what we should actively be interested in is the Next Generation of Readers — kids. That’s where we all came from, essentially; you may have realized that comics can be complex, introspective and beautiful later in life, but your initial experiences with comics are superhero fantasies when you’re a child. But the all-ages comics currently being produced are more geared towards adults than they are the children who could buy it, because a child can’t afford “Superman Family Adventures” without their parents. And since adults probably aren’t buying it too often, the books just get cancelled — the path we’d created for an actual potential new reader has been severed and replaced with dead Robins.
The creator-owned world is largely the same in the bigger, more well-known indie publishers, because those publishers and creators want to hit the modern audience, not the next generation. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but generally speaking these books are done for adult audiences because adults are reading comics more. There are maybe two ongoing serialized books I can name off the top of my head that are great for all-ages in the creator-owned world (“Mouse Guard,” “Stuff of Legend”), but it confuses me generally speaking that I can’t name more.
And I don’t care how many times “New Reader Friendly!” or “Fresh Jumping-On Point” is delivered or branded on a cover — it’s always a selling point to the average reader, not someone bright-eyed and bushy tailed to our subculture. The only exception to the rule is when you get a celebrity writer like Max Bemis bringing in Say Anything fans, but they’re probably only really here for his book.
My point being: no one is being fooled here.
Continued belowThe Disappointing Reality of the Situation
I was in a shop this weekend hunting for some back issues, and during this time I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation between a customer and the shop clerk. The customer was inquiring about comics for his young son (I want to say eight-years-old?), but was having some difficulty; his son really liked Robin from cartoons, so he wanted to know where to start reading “Batman and Robin” so that his son could get what he wanted.
Uhm. Bad time for that, lamented the clerk. How about something else?
The father was insistent though, which brought up further difficulties — he only wanted to buy the comics if he could get from #1 through the most recent issue (we’re at, what, #20 now?), and he wanted to sign up for a pull to get all the future comics. But the clerk couldn’t help him, because there was this weird breakdown in communication when it came to explaining why he couldn’t sell the customer a #1 as well as what signing up for a pull entailed. What probably would’ve made “sense” to a regular shop goer just didn’t register with this new potential customer, because he didn’t understand what all these words and arbitrary ideas of continuity had to do with anything. He just wanted to get his kid the book he wanted. And when trade collections were brought up, the customer asked why he couldn’t buy Grant Morrison’s “Batman and Robin” volume 1 and the clerk had to explain that you can’t read that without also reading this book here — but it’s not appropriate for children anyway.
And there I was, sitting on the floor next to long boxes, pulling out random issues of “Power Man and Iron Fist” and “ROM Spaceknight” to fill gaps in my collection, frowning and shaking my head for the poor guy.
I’m sure — no, no, I know for a fact — that there are excellent retailers out there who are great with customers and probably could’ve handled this situation better. It is known. But in this case, the father and son left to seek their fortune elsewhere, and that’s the world we live in when we simply expect (insert movie/franchise title here) to do the work for us when making comics accessible to neophytes. If we’re reliant on franchise pseudo-promotion and arbitrary taglines being the key to success while the rest falls into place without having any sort of real system in place for the off-chance that a new reader does arrive, we’re going to have a bad time.
So when people are upset because some Big, Fancy Thing doesn’t promote comics well enough or some “celebrity” tweets a photo of a comic without the title so his or her readers don’t know what to go out and buy — any of that — I just shrug. I shrug because it’s not their responsibility, it’s ours. If we ourselves are doing nothing to bring in the next generation to the level that we ourselves sit at, why should we expect anyone else to do the job for us?
What We Do Next
Often times with opinionated editorials like this, the writer will simply illustrate an issue and leave the solution to the problem open-ended with some esoteric ideas to wrap it all up. Screw that — I’m going to tell you exactly what we need to do next.
It’s simple: we make the comics we want to read, we get the comics we want to read, and then we talk about it.
The world for geeks and nerds and all that these words encompass isn’t perfect. We have our own problems we need to deal with in this pseudo-Boy’s Club of in-fighting, “fake geek” witch hunts, comment sections and accidentally racist/sexist company actions meant to titillate one audience while ostracizing another. But on the positive side, it’s an easier place now more than ever for us to actively share the stuff we love. What people seem to not understand is that word of mouth is powerful; not just that, but personal word of mouth is the most powerful thing of all.
There may be a few people in your life who don’t read comics but who saw the Avengers or the Walking Dead and are wondering what the fuss is all about — all you need to do is actually show them. Get those books in those hands literally; be their guide, walk them into our world and help them find their place in it. It’s a pie in the sky idea, sure, but it’s pretty easy to accomplish when someone is willing to listen to you for a bit. Don’t just disparage came comics if they’re not for you, but find the ones that are right for your friends and help them their way to the type of books you like as well.
Continued belowAnd if we’re going to start handing random people our comics, then what we need is to just create good content. That’s the most important piece of all: once the good content is there the rest will follow, because then We the People will want to share it.
Ask yourself — what is easier to recommend right now: a creator-owned book like “Morning Glories” and “Chew” and “Manhattan Projects,” or the five books you should read from Marvel to understand “Infinity” this summer? Or the eight Batman-titles you need to truly understand what’s going on in Gotham? It’s not a hard question to answer, but it’s a silly question to exist; we should be able to get people into Marvel or DC in the same way we can get people into Dark Horse or Image, and Marvel and DC should feel a responsibility to deliver that kind of accessible content simply by a) getting rid of the constant reboots/re-brands and b) getting talented creators and allowing them to tell good stories. It doesn’t have to be new reader friendly (because it’s not going to hurt anyone to whet their beak a little and dive into back issues) and there should always be something available that the average person who doesn’t read comics can just pick-up, continuity-free and easy to grasp.
This, pure and simple, is the reason “Hawkeye” works: you can hand it to anyone, no fuss and no muss. Once you get into “Hawkeye” and you want books like it, you check out “Captain Marvel.” “Captain Marvel” brings you to “Avengers Assemble,” which brings you to other “Avengers” titles and eventually to “Infinity.” But that’s just one path — we need more things like “Hawkeye” to create other paths that trick people into reading more comics. Comics are a hell of a drug and we need more gateway books to push the heavy stuff, not the other way around.
Not only that, but if we just have good content overall, something we’re all excited about sharing, then resulting dominos will follow. If things are re-launching every few months when situations seem dire, it just gets confusing; who the heck knows what Point One means on a comic? If comics are simply allowed to run their course, then gaining new fans will be as easy as it is on TV when a good show finishes airing and people check out Season One based on the ardent fervor of fan clamoring. That same mentality needs to be taken into consideration here, because you don’t see serialized dramas on television re-starting their entire concepts for a new season; they just catch people up quickly and BOOM!, suddenly Breaking Bad has a thousand new fans between seasons and, holy shit, Arrested Development season 4 is arriving on Netflix this weekend.
Fans did that. Fans did that because they adore the content. Fans saved Community and got it a fifth season, and if given enough confidence, fans can do the same to help comics.
When the companies create the content that we love and we don’t actively disparage it for nonsensical behavior in their release, then we will do the work for them — whether it be on blogs, in shops, to our friends or wherever. And once we bring in the new fans, we will teach them our strange ways of waiting for trade, back issue diving and pull lists. We will guide our new brothers and sisters into the world of message boards and websites, what “matters” and what continuity is all about (Wiki searches, mostly). We will literally do all the work, if we truly believe that it’s worthwhile to do so.
How does the proverb go? “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Well, it’s the same thing here: give potential comic fans new-reader friendly material and they’ll read for a day. Teach a potential comic fan what comics are all about and they’ll read for a lifetime.
That’s the only way this will work: if we create an even playing field and invite others to learn the rule of the game with us, not against us. Anything else is just too utopian to work.
