10 Most Harmful Trends In Comics Today
Don't even get us started on the movies...
Comics are in trouble. It seems weird to be writing this, as more and more emphasis seems to be being placed on comic book characters by the mainstream media than ever before, but it is the truth.
Despite being the perfect art form for our fast-paced 21st century lives, the quality of comic book storytelling has fluctuated more violently in the last decade or so than it has at any other point in its long history.
However, some genuinely great comics are being produced right now. The indies and the indie-net where many of these great comics live, is swarming with talented young upstarts and venerated veterans that produce beautiful, pitch perfect stories, across a host of genres (comics arent just about super heroes, you know), every single week. In addition, mainstream publishers are still putting out some very high quality books, but, it must be said, not nearly enough of them.
So whats the difference? Why are indie comics doing so well, but their mainstream equivalents doing so badly? Whats going wrong?
The answer, friends, comes down to these 10 points. Here, then, are the 10 most harmful trends in comic books today...
10. Fill-In Artists...
When was the last time you read a comic that had one artist working all the way through it? If you are a DC fan, it might have been so long that you might need reminding that comics are only supposed to have one artist at a time.
The artist is a big reason we fans buy the book. In most instances, the art is what draws you to a book in the first place.
Publishers: if you absolutely must replace an artist mid story, then at least choose an artist of a similar style. Jarring art changes, no matter how good the artwork, remove you completely from the story. It is annoying in the extreme.
Today, so many superstar artists (with their meticulous, highly detailed styles) suffer under tighter and tighter deadlines to the point that nobody actually expects them to finish an issue. Put simply, this is wrong. Most fans would far sooner wait for a book to be drawn entirely by the artist they paid to see, than read a book drawn by two, four, or even six (!) different artists.