Baseball is a sport that I will freely admit I have absolutely no knowledge of or zero interest in. I’m a complete outsider on the game & while there are people that would no doubt tell me otherwise Baseball, to me, looks like Rounder’s for people with Roid Rage. I’m not saying that this is the case & no doubt with some research I could probably say otherwise, but my point, in short, is that I am a comics writer who knows as little about Baseball as Baseball writer Tim Marchman appears to know about comics in a piece he has recently written for the Wall Street Journal.
The piece in question (which you can read here) is a review of the book Leaping Tall Buildings by Christopher Irving & Seth Kushner. For the most part however the piece does not concern itself with actually reviewing the book & instead chooses to make a poorly researched attack on industry that inspired it. What’s more the piece has inspired my own ire against Marchman to such an extent that I have had to break it down into two separate parts. In the first of these two parts I’ll discuss Marchman’s assessment of superhero fans & in the second part I’ll discuss his opinions on the creators.
Marchman begins his piece by asking why comics are not as popular as they once were despite The Avengers movie making more money than it would cost to buy one of Tony Stark’s suits:
If no cultural barrier prevents a public that clearly loves its superheroes from picking up a new “Avengers” comic, why don’t more people do so? The main reasons are obvious: It is for sale not in a real bookstore but in a specialty shop, and it is clumsily drawn, poorly written and incomprehensible to anyone not steeped in years of arcane mythology.
While it can often seem that mainstream superhero comics & the mythology they are steeped in are impenetrable to the outsider saying that comics are only for sale in speciality shops & not a “real bookstore” is something of a blanket statement. My local bookstore has always sold collected editions of comics, usually with helpful written reviews & tips on where to start from the staff. Before it shut down my local Borders also sold a good selection of floppies alongside the British reprints of Marvel & DC books. I spent a long time picking up trades & floppies from those shelves before I actually moved onto buying books monthly from my local “speciality shop” – A term which, let’s be honest, makes collecting comics sound like a far more sordid a hobby than it actually is.
Marchman goes on to say that the people who produce these comics have given up on the mass market audience & it, in turn, has given up on them citing the Avengers vs. X-Men crossover as an example. While it is true that sales figures are at an all time low for comics, laying the blame for this entirely at the feet of their “arcane mythology” is like saying that in order to understand what is currently happening right now in Eastenders you need to watch every episode from the beginning. While I have many criticisms of the current AvX crossover I actually thought the first issue did a reasonably good job of providing all the information a new reader would need to get started. If said new reader wanted to know more then they’re in luck because the Dark Phoenix Saga has been re released twice this year already. What’s more “jumping on point” seems to be the current buzzword in comics right now with reboots & retcons happening left right & centre. There are also a slew of “Year One” trades available for pretty much any major character in an effort to welcome the fans who have just strolled out of the multiplex & into the comic book store as well as All Star & Ultimate lines & if you missed all that then there will no doubt be a .1 issue right around the corner.
While I understand Marchman’s point, his opinion is actually quite insulting to both old & new fans alike. It perpetuates the Big Bang-esque stigma that all long time comic book fans are socially inept geek-savant’s, while assuming in equal measure that any new fan who wanders into a comic book shop is incapable of reading a blurb, performing a Google search or simply asking a member of staff for help. While the words ”local comic shop ” may instantly conjure up the image of a dark pokey shop run by the guy from The Simpsons, the truth is that most retailers will be more than happy to help any possible convert to the four colour faithful. What’s more the characters themselves are as ingrained into the popular subconscious as Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse & Jesus Christ. While I can appreciate that anyone walking into a comic shop may well never have read the books chances are they aren’t picking up a Superman comic without some prior knowledge of the character or who he is. I know I shouldn’t assume that but Marchman seems to assume that anyone who is new to comics is also new to television & the internet & books & education in general. Which is stupid because as everyone knows, those people are busy writing about Baseball. Right Tim?
So that’s the first part done. Join me here in a couple of days when I share my thought on Marchman’s views on comic book creators.
[...] characters and concepts into heretofore unexplored realms.” Jonathan Shepherd also has a lengthy response at his [...]
Forget all of the factual errors in Tim Marchman’s article; we can plainly see that he isn’t well versed with the genre. Forget that instead of writing a review of the book, Leaping Tall Buildings, he has chosen to write an opinion piece. You can forget all of that because he does make one very important point; the comic book industry has failed to capitalize on the enormous exposure their characters have been given through film.
Comic book sales should be off the charts, but they’re not, and years of catering to the fanboy audience has ruined comics. THEY ARE “incomprehensible to anyone not steeped in years of arcane mythology.” Even DC’s new 52 relaunch assumes that you know the basic background of numerous characters. There has to be a way of reaching the masses and still publish the Grant Morrison books that only the most diehard fans will understand. Stan Lee said that he wrote each comic as if it were being read by the reader for the first time.
The real problem is marketing and accessibility. Comics are marketed to the aforementioned fan boy audience and the comics that are made for the masses are not accessible. They’re not accessible because they ARE in these “speciality shops”. Just try and imagine what it is like for a non fan to walk into a comic book store. It’s a little overwhelming. If I pick up the latest issue of Spider-man will I be able to understand the story from that one issue? How many issues do I need to buy before I can figure out what’s going on? What’s the difference between “Amazing Spider-man and Ultimate Spider-man?” How much will that cost?
Most retailers will be more than happy to help, but in the end, it’s all too confusing and expensive. I wish that simply putting trade paperbacks of comics in regular book stores had worked, but it hasn’t. Barnes & Nobles has cut back on the number of trades it sells and is inconsistent with the books they do stock.
I’m really not sure what the answer is, but superhero movies have made BILLIONS, and in comparison, comic book sales are really pitiful. If sales of the Hunger Games novels can in increase 55% after the release of the movie, then why can’t we expect similar results for comics. Tim Marchman may have had his facts wrong, but he is right about the industry’s failure to sell more comics.
I love comics and I am a diehard fan. I just wish they were more successful.
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the commenting first off. You raise an interesting point that should be addressed. I came to the conclusion towards the end of writing my piece that Marchman is actually very well versed in the genre & this allowed him to choose his words very carefully so they would make the greatest impact. Much as I hate to admit it though he (& you) have a point. The companies haven’t capitalised on the success of their movies as well as they could have.
The thing is you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. I sometimes can’t help but wonder did the fan boys do this to themselves? The huge sprawling mythologies are what drew them to comics in the first place & as comics moved off the newsstands & into their own dedicated stores it gave the fans a sense of entitlement that eventually found its voice on the internet. But it’s this same sense of entitlement that keeps the newer fans away as they watch flame wars ignite online over the colour schemes between different printing’s of Watchmen (I’m not slating fan boys here BTW – I think we all sometimes get a little over entitled
. The thing is there was a time when I was new to this & I was in my early 20’s when it happened & I found the easiest way to deal with it was to dive straight in. An issue 1 here or a new arc there was occasionally useful but jumping in isn’t as hard as people seem to think. If I’m entirely honest I think that’s easier with Marvel than it is with DC but if people want to jump in then they will. That said I agree there has to be a way to satisfy the hardcore fan boys – because they stuck with it so they’re entitled to something – & also the newcomers. If you go back to The Dark Phoenix Saga where everybody introduces themselves & their powers every issue you can see that Stan Lee’s ideas still held up then & they should still hold up today.
The Question is how?
Well times are tough & comics are expensive & when you have 70 years of history to get through it can seem intimidating & confusing – but people need to realise that not all of it is important but the bits that are are the ones that are on the shelf & they have numbers on the spine.
I often wish Marvel would go back to releasing digest trades like they did for a short while a few years back. The lower price points were far more inviting & throw in a bit of back matter & a few movie pictures to tie it all together & they could find that it gets more people simply buying, & talking about, the books. Comixology have a range of 101 books about characters that tell you who they are & what they can do & what the best books are to read about them. & best of all these books are free.
For me personally my comic book buying experience has mostly been based in a chain store that has outlets all over the country. The staff are friendly & knowledgeable & the shop is inviting rather than intimidating. That, combined with a book shop that has a very good selection as well as knowledgable engaging staff, means that for me the process of getting into comics was actually pretty painless – Maybe I’m just lucky. But for me it was never about knowing the whole history of these characters, just about the key points & I sort of picked up the rest as I went along. My local Library was also a really good resource. They had loads of books & it didn’t cost me anything to read them. The thing is I was in my local comic book store on free comic book day & the amount of people flooding in asking about the free comics was HUGE. The interest is there & it should be capitalised on but I think the key to comics is starting off small & working your own way up. The problem is we talk so much about how intimidating it is for new fans to get into comics that the new fans start believing that & take up another hobby instead.
In the end I’m right there with you. I’m a die hard fan too & i wish comics were more successful if only so I had more people to talk to about them.