Todd Allen at Publisher's Weekly does a good job of summing up the recent Cross-Over Craziness that is happening at Marvel and DC, and pointing out just how difficult it is to actually find something that isn't part of being tied in to 7 other titles.
This is exactly how I, as the doting father of two girls, who has spent a great deal of time and money over the last 6 years trying to get my children addicted to comics, see the market place. And it sucks.
i hate the idea that my 9 year old will say to me, "What is actually happening in Wonder Woman?" because she can't just pick it up and read a single great storyline. I've started to not pick up the books if they're so convoluted that i can't understand them. And if I can't, there's no way that she can.
Sadly, the Green Lantern series has long since descended into zombie nihilism and i'm not going to subject my kids to the over the top nastiness of Blackest Night. Is it any wonder that they've moved into reading Simpsons Comics over DC in the last 7 months? I was actually buying Superman for a while, enjoying Robinson's run onthe series with Guedes' art. I dropped that when the cross destroyed whatever interest i had in the storyline.
And that sucks again. I would like to love comics again on a regular basis, but almost none of the series will give me a fun reason to show up in the store month after month. As my hands stay covered with small black ink stains as i finish up the Gulacy pencilled pages for TIMEBOMB, I would love to relax with a small stack of enjoyable comics.
And they keep letting me down. And they're letting my kids down. And its pissing me off.
4 comments:
Charles,
Glad to hear that TIMEBOMB is going well, but sorry to hear you are a bit ticked off about the cross-overs. I think I remember hearign that when Jim Shooter was Editor-in-Chief at Marvel his policy was that every issue could be "someone's first issue" and I think it makes a lot of sense...it also makes it very challenging for writers to come-up with original storylines that allow for so much flashback. But I must say, I got hooked on Marvels back in the day, exactly because of that.
It started with an ever-increasing number of comics creators dropping collecting comics and not wanting to work on these kinds of books, wanting instead a return to "Fun" books for all-ages.
It then went to folks creating their own books and self-publishing them.
Now I am seeing an ever-increasing amount of collectors/fans call them whatever feeling the same way.
I have said this here before, I think we are at the edge of a precipice, or on the crest of a wave...exciting times lie ahead with light at the end of the darkness.
I hear ya! I just can't keep up with it all! Here's to hoping that 2010 brings at least a couple new books that your daughters can thoroughly enjoy!
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