Whenever one of the Big Two companies announce yet another crossover, or make an editorial decision that is controversial, if you take to the message boards you will always find a certain type of complaint from what I call the “Last Straw” fan.
The Last Straw fan believes in a bygone era – according to him, there was a time when comic books were perfect and ever since then it’s been a steady slide into mediocrity. Usually, the Last Straw fan is easily dismissed, coming across like an outdated relic, but maybe he has a point. Maybe comics have steadily slid into the toilet without us noticing it.
The Silver Age of Comics, a period of time roughly taking place between 1956 and 1970, saw the revitalization of superhero comics, which arguably saved the medium, and gave us many of our most beloved characters. It can be held up and considered the “lost” age that the Last Straw fan craves. In reviewing some classic titles, we can see some glaringly obvious differences between what’s come before and what comes now.
Comics Used to be Fun
In the good old days, comics were written with kids in mind. In fact, creators felt they had a turnaround period of about five years – meaning that five years after telling a story, it would be safe to tell it again because all of your readership would have “aged out” of comic books, replaced with impressionable new tikes who could be sold the same product all over again.
Nobody was expecting these stories to be collected in hardbound volumes and hailed as “classic.” They were just trying to entertain kids. This kept the subject matter not only light but fast paced and exciting. There were no issues devoted to a conversation between two characters – that would be ridiculous.
The bottom line is that comic creators were trying to be as entertaining as possible. They weren’t trying to make a monumental storyline that would earn them a place in the history books; they weren’t purposely darkening events and killing off characters to make things feel more “epic.” They were just trying to be entertaining, which is something today’s writers and artists could benefit from remembering.
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5 Comments
Excellent article! You pretty much summarized why I’m starting to lose faith in the industry. But c’mon, you’ve got to see these kind of problems emerging. The industry itself had a very flimsy foundation:Comics were originally a way to cover illegally smuggled alcohol. And Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigel, the two young men whom created Superman were fooled into selling the rights of their popular creation to D.C comics (National comic at the time)for only about $120!Today, the only western comics that are remotely original are the old indie comics that surfaced in the 80′s and 90′s. Alan Moore, the man who revolutionized the way people looked at comics even said: “I have lost faith in a weak-foundation industry ( as in the big two) that hasn’t done anything changed significantly in the past few decades.”
Good article. I have to admit that I have recently called it a day with DC comics (& comic books in general). I can understand DC as a company needing to change with the times to survive in a dying industry, but everything the company seems to be doing of late, comes across like one publicity stunt after another one.
I can understand to a degree that a company like DC needs to adapt & change to keep with the times, but the whole reboot of the titles in 2011 (some full, most partial) plays as one great big publicity stunt. Yes, the sales spiked for a few months & they got a lot of the publicity that they aimed for, but what next? The crossovers have already started, titles have been cancelled and the issue numbers are now in double digits, it’s only a matter of months before they are back to where they were pre-reboot.
Digital comics sound all well and good, but isn’t this an industry fuelled by collectors? I do not know anybody who buys digital comics, although I know a few people who read downloaded pirated copies. Another great ploy by DC has been replacing their world famous logo with a terrible unrecognisable one. The previous logo was a re-stylised 2005 version of the old DC Bullet from the 70s but it was still recognisable as a brand. Especially when the logo is on the front of box office behemoths like ‘The Dark Knight’.
I’ll finish my rant, with the current “news” that Alan Scott the original Green Lantern has been re-imagined as a gay character. Why? I ask?? You take a fairly popular senior DC character for many, many years, both a father & a Grandfather and re-write him as gay? What purpose does this serve other than a cheap headline?.
I felt like I was writing this article as I read it! That makes little sense and yet makes perfect sense as I’m sure you know. So in agreement! Keep it up colleague!
Totally disagree with the “serial killing” point. Its called conflict. Without it you get a “character” issue which is talking head lamenting something pointless or telling their love interest that they love them eternally, which they’ve already done about umpteen million times.
Now THAT’S boring!
Great article. Doesnt end so well though. Asking EVERYONE to not criticize their favorite things is like asking facbookers not to post every embarassing pic they can find; it will not happen, ever.
As long time followers of anything, you come to have expectations. Where those expectations are tossed around in favour of urine-quality concepts, you cant help but want to smash.
When writers ignore their fanbase, they ignore their followers. Tell me when that has ever worked out well in history.