Gutters Folk=-)
I've seen a lot of Marvel bashing lately, and want to stick in a
couple of words to see if we're all on the same page...
Yeah, Marvel had some crappy management in the past couple of years,
but lets give credit where credit is do. The first comic book I really
picked up and "read" (about 12 years ago) was not Concrete, or Bone, or
Appleseed, or one of the many other cool independant comics that are
floating around out there...it was Batman Part 4 of "Death in the Family".
I think a lot of us (not all of course) started out with characters likes
Batman, Superman, Ironman, Avengers, X-Men, or Spider-Man. Those are the
ones that catch comic book readers while they're young, and THAT (what
Marvel is doing) is just as important as keeping readers as they grow up.
Marvel just needs a little help and support to get the ball rolling.
Right now, they've got a lot of Baby Boomer fat cats sitting around a table
just thinking up ways to make more money per project, instead of putting the
"heart" and energy into their comics that they deserve. I sometimes wonder
if any of the Editors and Presidential staff ever sit back saying "...you
know what would be frickin' cool to do in this comic...", instead of
"...Statistics show that Wolverine and Blade are really hot items..." and
that is why their stories and business are dying.
I'm part of a lot of message boards on the internet just like
Gutters, and we all seem to have the same 20/20 vision about what should be
done. However, not too many Spawn issues ago, I read a response on the
letters page saying that they printed certain stupid peoples' letters
because they don't really have enough customer feedback to choose from! As
a comic book community, we all need to put the pen to paper (or burn up the
keyboard) and tell places like Marvel, DC, and Image what we want to see.
Tell them we're TIRED of multiple covers (unless they are included in the
back of one single issue), we DON'T think holograms are nifty for an extra
$1.50, we DON'T want 5 versions of the same titles, annuals ARE NOT for
up-and-coming artist/writer teams (make something important happen for
$3.50), and mini-series are GAY if you have to buy a seperate book to keep
the continuity in your title. If you want to see horror, western, sci-fi
comics, or WHATEVER, let THEM know. Don't just wine about it to a bunch of
people that are already on your wavelength.
I don't think anyone really benefits by Marvel's failure. Don't get
caught up in "Damn the Man" articles, and remember what comic books are
about... "Reading adventures in a treehouse with your best friend, chewing
Bazooka Joe, eating Slim Jims, and having the time of your life!"
Dan Cassity
daniel.cassity
