Q and A(lex): Why are we tough on individual publishers?

Q: Why are we tough on individual publishers?

There has been a lot of talk lately about DC Comics still not upping their game in terms of the direction of their overall line. There has also been further debate as to whether there is an issue with the publisher at all. After all, comics are just comics right? We should be open to reading anything from any publisher. While I do believe that, I hold comics to a higher standard because I can see their inherent potential for greatness.

A: I hold comics to a higher standard because I can see their inherent potential for greatness.

DC and Marvel have both been in business for over half a century. After creating comics for that long, not every single period is going to be positive--especially now when we are in such an incredible time of transition for comics with new media and movies playing a massive role in the market. Putting all these pieces into perspective and understanding that both DC and Marvel function as a business first and foremost is absolutely necessary. The Marvel material in the 90s burnt off a lot of goodwill regarding the larger comics’ community--to the point where we are still trying to get some of those lapsed readers back into this great medium. That was the 90s, and this is now, and at the moment we are in a time where DC is or was definitely falling out of fan favor.

This is not the end of the world; it is just popular opinion amongst those who consume a heavy amount of comics every week. Marvel even had some issues in the 80s (which was generally a particularly strong time over at DC), and while Marvel did not necessarily even have an issue selling material, Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter was definitely a controversial figure among creators of that period.

I mean no disrespect to the barrel of creators that are doing the lord's work over at the company including guys like Charles Soule, Javier Pina, Jesus Saiz, and more with Swamp Thing. I love Action Comics by Aaron Kuder, Greg Pak, and friends. There will be a special place in my heart for this Wonder Woman run by Brian Azzarello, Cliff Chiang, and Goran Sudzuka. Grayson and Superman both had strong initial issues from their new creative teams including writers and artists Tim Seeley, Tom King, Mikel Janin, Geoff Johns, and John Romita Jr. respectively. There are also a handful of other books that I thoroughly enjoy, and a group of comics that I can’t wait for that is coming out soon. In fact, the company is starting to massively rebuild some of the groundwork that they have lost with readers after their big reboot. Some creators have mentioned that DC is doing one major thing that is primarily wrong with the mainstream comics industry--not letting fan favorite creators tell great stories.

This just happens to be a place where Marvel is currently excelling at the moment. With the massive success of the Hawkeye comic, which was a smaller book that featured a group of comics’ greats doing whatever they wanted with this high selling movie property that the team had been working on. They capitalized on that success by bringing in some of the talent that had fallings out with DC, and letting those talented writers and artists tell the stories that they wanted to.

Because of that, DC was in sort of a dark place, that being said, the company has just come off a time that was incredibly successful. Many faithful fans consider the hallmark 52 event in 2006 to be an extremely big highlight of the publisher, with stories that had massive connective tissue that built a cohesive universe incredibly well. With time, every single publisher has a natural sort of ebb and flow.

There is no greater example of this idea than Valiant Comics--a publisher that grew up with the 90s and died with the decade as well. Like all great comics’ stories, the comics’ history of Valiant rose up from the grave and lived. Now, they are following the general trend that comics as a whole are steadily approaching--selling just above the black and being higher in quality than ever before.

If the industry of comics can continue the slow upward trend while continuing to grab the media attention and general headlines, we will continue this positive growth, specially as comic books are floating back into mainstream consciousness again after the big 90s boom that killed so much of the industry off.

Another great instance of a publisher who was taking advantage of that massive 90s boom was the original Image Comics creators. They were shipping books late, spending and receiving way too much money, carelessly hiring artists directly off the street, and sullying their name until The Walking Dead pushed the company into a whole new direction in 2003. The 90s were the worst and best of times for Image Comics.

There are many similar stories like this. We are slowly and surely expanding the comics’ market to house some great new ideas from creators that have really interesting ideas. The problem is that there is several times where oversaturation, editorial interference, and general ego start to get in the way of really strong comics’ storytelling. As stated above, comics are first and foremost a business, and companies are sometimes for quality or health in the marketplace not worried about the overall direction. For instance, comics’ prices continue to rise higher and higher as Marvel and DC are starting to charge $4.99 for a single issue. Comics are so expensive right now that newer readers are not going to have the money to buy new books directly off the shelf. With a worried state of affairs regarding the financials in America, and more specifically—California, is this the right pricing structure for these books? Is there any chance that we are going to accommodate new readers at $5.00 an issue?

I sure as hell don’t think so.

It could be that we’re heading towards a dark time for both Marvel and DC at this point. The answers seem unclear, but I wish DC the best of luck in their continued attempts to win back fan favor. I would also like to echo some of the sentiments that have been coming from places like Multiversity Comics, and say that the Batgirl redesign is freaking stellar. That is a massive bedrock of potential for DC that will hopefully be mined for years to come.

We could be onto an age of renaissance for both publishers, or the bubble could burst and we could be at the end of the cycle. However, being critical on comics is necessary to really understanding them from a greater perspective. Anyone who truly loves the medium for all its merit should attempt to digest general consensus revolving different thoughts and feelings about the material being published. While comics ebb and flow in terms of quality, quantity, and market share--they will likely continue to exist until the end of time, as long as fans continue to embrace the market.