Kirkman's Cruise to Save Comics

I realize this was a while ago, and most people have already read this, but I wanted to weigh in my opinions on Kirkman's controversial claims about creator-owned work in the industry. Not necessarily because he's wrong, but because his argument is very very scatter-brained and he misses the mark on some issues.

If you haven't seen his editorial, watch it here.

First, being the feisty guy I am, I'm going to pick his argument apart, piece by piece.

"If you give people the option of Spider-Man or your creator-owned book... they'll choose Spider-Man, that's something time-tested versus something new. New has to be the only option."

I'm not really sure about this. Walk into your average comic book store.

And when I say average, I mean AVERAGE. Not the hip trendy store downtown where all the employees are cute girls that like indie rock or the stores with couches and lounges in them and have every Top Shelf book on display.

I mean the ones that have giant statues of Spider-Man and don't even a trade paperback section yet.

In most of these stores, most people don't even follow the creative teams involved. They just buy books with their favorite characters in them. I highly doubt sales of Matt Fraction's CASANOVA would be at all affected by him dropping his Marvel duties on INVINCIBLE IRON MAN or UNCANNY X-MEN. Even if you wrote "From the writer of all your favorite Marvel books!" on the cover.

"If that results in a mass exodus of creators leaving Marvel and DC, don't panic guys, I love their books as much as everyone else -- nobody wants to hurt them in the process. Look at it like an opportunity, that's the time for Marvel and DC to step up the plate and make their comics viable for a whole new generation. Less continuity, more accessible stories -- not made for kids, but appropriate for kids. Books that would appeal to everyone still reading comics, but would also appeal to the average 13 year old too. "

Would this really result in a creative resurgence at Marvel or DC? Let's look at some historical examples.

Let's roll back five years. Ed Brubaker was introducing new readers to Selina Kyle in his reboot of CATWOMAN and at the same time, along with Greg Rucka, was giving us a gritty detective drama very much akin to TV shows like NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues on GOTHAM CENTRAL.

Mark Millar made a Superman fan out of me (and many others) in SUPERMAN: RED SON.

Brubaker, Millar, AND Warren Ellis were all doing incredibly provocative work at DC's child, Wildstorm.

Then they all left to do work at Marvel. And what happened to the DC Universe?

INFINITE CRISIS, COUNTDOWN, DEATH OF THE NEW GODS, and now FINAL CRISIS. Heavily continuity-driven books that were very unfriendly to new readers.

Let's go back even further, to the entrance into the 90's. Nearly every major name creator, from Jim Lee to Alan Moore, had all left the big two to do work at Image, Dark Horse, or other independent companies.

What happened to the books at the Big Two?

The Death of Superman happened, along with a billion other superhero deaths. And crossovers.

I think Kirkman is way wrong on this point. I think most of history has shown us the opposite - that when the good creators leave, quality and accessibility of the books goes way down.

In some ways he's correct, in that some of the books that really appealed to all ages were ones in which DC or Marvel were taking big chances on new talent. Bendis was a no-name indie guy when he was given ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and now, everybody in the last 6 years swears it's what got them reading comics again.

But there's two points that need to be considered with that: 1) That all-ages accessibility is really a prerogative of the editors more than anything. DC editors don't seem to care much for that at the moment. 2) It usually takes several years for the company to get desperate enough to take chances with no-name talent.

"A comic industry where there are more original comics, so there's more new ideas, more creator-owned books by totally awesome guys that are selling a ton of books. Those books are mature and complex and appeal to our aging audience that I count myself among who are keeping this business alive. And we also have a revitalized Marvel and DC who are selling comics to a much wider audience than ever before. And that audience, as they age, may get turned on to some awesome creator-owned work eventually. So everyone is happy."

Kirkman envisions a kind of creative renaissance in comics due to an exodus. I think what's more likely to happen is that many of the creators would flop like fish out of water. Most comic readers don't take chances on buying new creator-owned books until at least a trade is put out, so many of them would suffer financially almost immediately. Most of them would just go back to working at the Big Two right away. Marvel and DC can hold their breath much longer than the creators can, and it would take a long time to erode the market to the point where buyers HAVE to buy creator-owned work in order to read something good.

--

It seems like I'm being really negative about creators in this. I really don't want to appear that way at all. I love creator-owned work and actually prefer reading it much more to the usual monthly titles on Marvel or DC.

I will even agree on the point that most writers at Marvel and DC should be doing much more creator-owned work. I would love to see awesome writers like Matt Fraction, Grant Morrison, Jason Aaron, Brian Bendis, and Peter David have AT LEAST as much creator-owned work being published as corporate work.

And Kirkman pointed out one thing that's really critical and misrepresented - while most creator-owned work isn't profitable, it has the potential to be INCREDIBLY profitable, more lucrative than any high paying job at Marvel.

The biggest selling blockbuster comic at Marvel is usually a crossover issue, and that usually hits about 250,000 copies. The average #1 during a non-summer crossover month is around 110,000 copies. And even if you had a big seller like this, most of the profit goes to Marvel, the real owner of all of the characters.

But did you know that there are still comics that sell in the MILLIONS? They're not making it on the Diamond lists, but that doesn't mean they don't fly off of bookstore shelves. Comics like Jeff Smith's BONE, Chris Ware's JIMMY CORRIGAN, Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS, and Craig Thompson's BLANKETS are all huge worldwide sellers, with some of these selling multiple million copies.

So it's possible to sell ten times the copies of a hit Marvel comic, while at the same time, getting a much bigger profit share. Ever since launching the Millarworld comics, Mark Millar has probably been driving Ferraris.

Do the math. All the wealthiest in the industry own their own creations. So while Kirkman may be wrong about EVERY creator, he's right in that there are a few more that would be able to launch a book that critics adore and at the same time puts a Ferrari in the garage.

Comics I Read This Week 3: 9/17/08

I totally skipped last week.

Yeah, I'm totally lazy.

Coming in a couple of days will be the first ever "Comics I Read Last Week". Hopefully that will make amends to you viewers. All two of you.

I bought several things this week, though I wasn't totally pleased with the results. Here's what we got. I'm listening to Torche's Meanderthal as I write this, so expect my sentences to punctuate in concordance with their totally awesome heavy metal rhythms.

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1. ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #12
   Writer: Grant Morrison
   Artist: Frank Quitely
   
   The final issue of the Morrison/Quitely run of the series!
   
   Was I excited! Hell yes! However, I must add that that excitement was mixed with sort of a melancholic longing for the book to continue on. Even though it's been, what, 4 years for these 12 issues to come out, the three or months between the sharply written and drawn, mostly done-in-one stories is part of what made seeing it on the stands such a thrill.
   
   Unfortunately, as much as I was looking forward to this one, this closer was kind of a letdown.
   
   Maybe my expectations were just absurdly high. Maybe I thought it would close with a Quitely-stylized Superman bursting from the pages into my living room, telling me all the things deceased friends had wanted to tell me while they were alive, and smiling as he departed into the sunlit sky.
   
   You know what, I take it back. I don't feel that bad about expecting that. Morrison is (or at least he alleges he is) a chaos magician after all, in addition to being a wonderful writer, so why can't he combine his magic with his wit and imagination and make something like this happen? If he can't, then what's the point of the whole magic business in the first place? It's certainly not making him grow any hair.
   
   Anyhoo - this issue had some smart moments and some surprises. Superman using a gravity gun isn't just "Wouldn't it be cool if Superman used a gun? LOL" fangasming, but actually has a purpose (I expect nothing less from Morrison). The dialogue was smart, the end of Lex Luthor's plan was actually satisfying (unlike most Superman stories in which his overconfidence provides a gaping weakness), but I still felt like it could have been so much more.
   
   Take the ending to issue #10 for example, in which the world that Superman created eventually came to mirror our own world more than the one contained within the pages and closed with Siegel and Shuster's creation of the character. Can't you imagine Morrison ending the book with Superman dying, but his existence as a fictional character in the world he created ending up saving more lifes and providing more inspiration than his own life ever could have?
   
   Wouldn't that have been neat? Or would that have been too obvious, too wannabe Animal Man?
   
   In an interview at the NY Comic Con in the spring of '08, Morrison mentioned he loved writing this book so much that he wouldn't mind continuing with another artist. I can't wait for that.
   
   
2. THE WALKING DEAD #52
   Writer: Robert Kirkman
   Aritst: Charlie Adlard
   
   This is a stark contrast to All-Star Superman. Why? Because here's a book in which I can't stand how long it often takes to come out. It's so addictive, that I want it weekly, dammit. It can't be that hard to pull off. Kirkman could make it his full time job and hire a few extra artists.
   
   This book is pure comic book heroin. And like heroin, usage doesn't so much make you feel good or satisfied as it merely temporarily lulls your addiction. Actually, I've never used heroin before, but that's my best guess as to what it's like.
   
   My take on this book is constantly changing. One month, I'm saying it's the best comic out right now that's coming out in issues, with each issue having a solid kick to the gut punchline. Another month I'll be saying that nothing happens in the comic, wondering why I read it in the first place, and threatening to cancel my subscription if it goes on like this for another few issues.
   
   This month's issue fell more into the latter. Not much advanced the story, not much that was terribly original happened that you can't already guess from the cover. To boot, the thing took less than 5 minutes to read. Kirkman's down to using an average of like 2 panels per page now, perhaps under the mistaken impression that most people that read comics need reading glasses and can't make out the small panels of a 6 to 9 panel grid.
   
   Give me my three bucks worth.
   
   
3. WAR HEROES #2
   Writer: Mark Millar
   Art: Tony Harris
   
   It's picking up. The last issue was pretty dull, mostly giving kind of a retrospective look at the last few years in a world in which the military decided to start giving superpowers to ordinary soldiers in order to increase enlistment and give an edge to the soldiers on the ground in Iraq. There was only a slight introduction to the main characters and what would be the main story, and so now we're getting to see more of it.
   
   However, while it is picking up, it's still not completely there yet. There were a lot of fangasm splash page moments of soldiers doing ridiculous things like lifting up tanks or shooting fire and ice, in addition to there being a Mark Millar shock value moment, but aside from that, I still don't feel like the meat of the story has really been hit yet.
   
   It's funny - in an interview for Fresh Ink, Millar mentioned that if the U.S. Governemnt really did give out superpowers, he would happily enlist and fight in some Middle Eastern country. He is in fact, totally horny for soldiers lifting up tanks and using super speed, and seemed to imply that he sincerely intended this book to be more of a "Wouldn't it be awesome?" idea than a hypothetical, what-Big-Government-will-do-to-win-a-war book. Which in my opinion, is kind of a breath of fresh air, because the latter take is very heavy handed and obvious.
   
   
4. UNCANNY X-MEN #502
   Writer: Matt Fraction & Ed Brubaker
   Artist: Greg Land
   
   Uncanny X-Men has turned out to be a pretty solid book ever since the end of Messiah Complex, way back in issue #495. Basically, all of the characters from Astonishing X-Men got bored of only seeing the light every four months, so they invaded the pages of Uncanny and kicked out a lot of the characters that weren't as popular. Star power always wins out, and the mutant world is no exception. Though I don't really feel all that bad for that douchebag Havok.
   
   The X-Men have been living in San Francisco, taking it easy, and now are fighting a reincarnation of the Hellfire Club. The last issue was pretty cool, though this issue felt a little more standard to me. There's a brawl, there's Cyclops acting tough and decisive, and an enemy telepath. Mostly, it felt like a transitionary issue.
   
   As much as I have a crush on Matt Fraction's writing, I'm a little disappointed with his wit in this book. He kept mentioning in interviews that he was really excited about writing Cyclops, and my response was "Yeah! We'll get to see him exhibit at least two dimensions... possibly three!" But so far, it seems like we've mostly just seen the tough decisions, hard-ass leader Cyclops, and less of the conflicted and emotionally isolated side of him that makes him interesting.
   
   Fuck - talking about how Cyclops can be interesting just makes me really really want to read Joss Whedon's run of Astonishing X-Men again. Then again, maybe my standards are unfair - I certainly wasn't that impressed three issues into his run.
   
   
5. ACTION COMICS #869
   Writer: Geoff Johns
   Artist: Gary Frank
   
   I've actually been digging Geoff Johns' run on the big blue guy. You'd think I'd be an artsy fartsy snob and say that nobody but Grant Morrison should write the character, but nuh-uh. I've been picking up the book since Escape From Bizarro World debuted, and honestly, I thought at the time that storyline came out, the book was better than All-Star.
   
   In retrospect, it's clear that Escape has really been the strongest part of the run. The combination of the storytelling talents of Eric Powell and Richard Donner obviously aided the book tremendously... but even the aesthetic of that story was really strong. It was a mostly standalone story; a graphic novel that just happened to be released in three issues in one of the main Superman books. You didn't have to do know what was going on in the book, and it certainly wasn't contrived to lead into anything else. What made it so strong, in addition to the wonderful storytelling, was a sentimentalism that most Superman writers lack when they write the character. It wasn't just referencing Superman's small-town Americana upbringing, it was retelling it and feeding it to you in a way that made you understand why his small-town perceptions of the people and the big world surrounding really defined his charity.
   
   Since then, the stories have been more typical of DCU books - they're big big stories with lots of characters and big sci-fi elements. This Brainiac story that has been going has been okay. The main twist to it is that all the Brainiac robots we've seen in the past weren't Brainiac himself, but merely drones sent out from the original Brainiac. We finally see the original Brainiac - a big green alien guy. Lots of continuity buffs are really bummed about this revelation. Not having read any in-continuity Superman stories, I don't really care too much and kind of appreciate the twist. Gary Frank's artwork is also seriously awesome. When I look at his depiction of Superman, I literally see Christopher Reeve.
   
   I'm still kind of confused as to what is going on. Apparently Brainiac can physically overpower Big Blue and his similarly overpowered cousin with ease, and I'm not really sure as to why. Also, the cover is incredibly misleading. Nowhere in the issue is Superman taking it easy with Pa Kent in Smallville, and nowhere is there a Brainiac moon that looks like a level from Starfox.