"…Often poorly written, with undeveloped, unchanging characters and predictable plots."
“Comic books can be enjoyed on paper too”
I swear the opening lines of this article don’t refer to me; for one, I don’t wear my Swamp Thing t-shirt at the store:
“When is the last time you went into a comic book shop? Was is [sic] yesterday, or maybe last Wednesday? Or was it a month ago to pick up the back-issues that the friendly middle-aged clerk with the Swamp Thing shirt has been saving in your file for you?”
The article, however, is mostly about this:
“So why do comic book movies draw in the masses but comic books themselves are largely neglected? People accept the action and characters in the movies as suitable and entertaining for adults, but this same action and these same characters in print form are relegated to the realm of children’s amusement.”
No answers to be had, just further statements that, yes indeed, people would rather watch movies about superheroes than read comics about superheroes. The writer makes the point that, since “comic books themselves are often poorly written, with undeveloped, unchanging characters and predictable plots,” they make effective inspiration for dumbed-down flicks for the masses.
Just thought y’all would enjoy that.
In other news…well, not “news,” but a couple things that popped up at the store:
- Why is Dr. Strange/Dr. Doom: Triumph & Torment out of print? It’s drawn by Mike Mignola, bit of a name artist at the moment as I understand, which is reason enough right there; plus the fact that everyone enjoys a good Dr. Doom story, which this is. A nice, prestige-format comic book sized reprint of this graphic novel would make a good sales item. It’d be racked with Mignola’s Hellboys, natch.
- I’ve talked about this before, but I got it again this week and wanted to note it: I had a customer, a fairly regular one in fact, surprised by the very idea of multiple covers. “So are they same on the inside, or does the story continue from one comic to the other?” “No, no, it’s the exact same comic, just with different covers.” “Different covers…so they’re different comics?”
If this were just a comics thing, I’d be less surprised by this. But T.V. Guide, of all mags, has done multiple covers…it’s common enough in the “real” world that people still being confused by the concept comes as bit of a minor shock to me.
Other unfair judgement of customer questions: “Hey, what’s an ‘annual?'” “It’s a special issue of a comic book that comes out once a year. The term ‘annual’ is more or less its definition.” No, I don’t say that exact thing to them…I’m a little nicer than that. Not much nicer. And I realize it’s been a while since comic book annuals were commonplace…I should cut folks some slack.
- On Thursday: “Hey, I can’t afford to buy any of your comics. Is it okay if I take a pile of them, sit in an out-of-the-way part of your store, and read them all for free?”
“Uh, no, but thank you for at least asking first.”
