Yes, yes, and Ask Jeeves, I know.
Hi pals…I have another early morning medical thing again, so as I write this the night before, I’m gonna keep it short. Sorry, that’s been happening a bit too often lately, but this should be the last one for about a month or so. Thanks for your patience.
So, I’m going to try to tackle another question, such as this one from Rob S. who asks
I’ll piggyback onto Daniel T’s question by asking another. Assuming the ‘every comic is someone’s first comic’ maxim is true — do readers want the same thing in their first comic today than they did 40 years ago? Does clarity of action & characters in an ongoing storyline matter to new readers now? Did it, in actuality, matter then? Or was/is the dazzling incomprehensibilty of it part of the attraction?
Of course I get to a question that has no really easy answer.
It almost doesn’t matter what readers want as comics storytelling has changed significantly in the last few decades. I touched on this a bit in my response to Daniel T linked above, but I feel like most comics (by which I mean the Marvel/DC/Image/etc. superhero comics that dominate the direct market) today are not necessarily written to be completely accessible for a new reader. If it’s part four of six parts and that’s where you’re jumping in, well, hang on and figure it out as you go, effendi.
But the flipside of that is…most regular comic book readers don’t really need their first issue of whatever comic to be new reader friendly. If you’ve read enough comics, you know how things go, you can figure out what’s going on. If you’re really confused about a point or two, there’s always Google or Bing or, I don’t know, Alta Vista, I guess? Is that still a thing?
I think it’s just as likely a person trying out a comic for the first time is more sampling the creative teams involved, rather than trying to get in at a good starting position with the ongoing plot. Modern readers probably work under the assumption that getting in on the ground floor of something isn’t as easy as it used to be, unless there’s a “#1” on the cover…and maybe not even then.
As long as an issue demonstrates what the series is generally like, with the regular creative teams involved, with the storytelling on display, a reader can decide if this is the book for them without knowing all the character’s names and motivations and whatnot. I think. Given pagecounts and prices spending less time on exposition and more time on moving the story forward seems to be the priority, and I’m pretty sure most readers get that.
I realize that’s all about folks who already read comics. For people brand new to comics, it’s not too much different. By and large anyone coming to comics now are familiar with the characters from TV and movies…I don’t know that they expect to know exactly everything that’s going on with whatever comic they pick up. It’s an interest in seeing a character in its original medium, which may not be in an entirely self-explanatory story but will hopefully demonstrate Comics In Action in a sufficiently entertaining way.
And if it’s a little kid…ah, they’ll be fine. They can figure it out.
Okay, thanks for reading, and hopefully I’ll have more of a post on Wednesday. And, maybe, juuuuuust maybe…a special post on Thursday? You’ll just have to wait and see!
I’m from the era where you picked up a random issue and worked back from there… but even today I think it works as a sampler. I got given issue seven of The Nice House on the Lake last year and while I had no idea what was going on I was impressed enough by the art, the writing, the style of it all to want to read more.
Thanks for answering my kind-of unanswerable question, Mike! And Tom, it’s good to see that sort of thing working out in practice, and not just in theory.
I guess I’ve been practicing it a little myself, as I’ve been reading digital versions of 2000AD these last few years, and earlier this year began subscribing to the anthology. And with a book like that, you can’t help but be tossed into the deep end with a lot of the features involved. I read some earlyish Dredd when I was in high school and college, but fell away from it when the Eagle reprints dried up… but at least with Dredd, I had the basic concept. But Dredd’s only one of five features in most issues, and with a few others that have connections to Dredd continuity (Psi Judge Anderson, for example, and Chimpsky’s Law), while others stand completely on their own (like Brink, which is absolutely amazing). Most times, I just pick things up with the new volume of the story and piece previous events together slowly as they become pertinent, but a few times (as with Brink), I’ve loved it so much as to seek out the earlier volumes. Some individual progs are more accommodating than others, but I have to admit that I’m well and truly hooked on the book — even though it occasionally prints stories I don’t think I’ll ever appreciate.
I guess I wonder if it even matters anymore. There are so many ways to figure out what’s going on. Besides Google, etc, there are the various company apps where, if you can’t track down the back issues, you could still get caught up in an afternoon with a minimum of effort.
Which sort of begs the question to me, what percentage of todays new comic buyers are in it for the reading vs the raw collectibility?
“I realize that’s all about folks who already read comics”
As I’ve mentioned before, I understood Earth Prime, Earth 1, Earth 2 when I was a kid. And I think most comics material is understandable, unless it’s being made NEEDLESLY incoherent through inept writing.
“Dredd when I was in high school and college, but fell away from it when the Eagle”
The Eagle ones were the best Dredd, for some reason.
As an old reader, I wish most comics came with a recap page. I don’t remember events from month to month (or every 3 months) clearly across the (too many) comics I read a month. I appreciate storytelling clarity.
However, if a writer, artist, or other creative personnel wants to try something experimental, I’m for it. I would much rather read something that tries hard than safe, predictable fare. Not exclusively- I’m enjoying Mark Waid’s recent DC output, in large part because he works really well with top-shelf artists like Dan Mora and Chris Samnee- but I don’t want to be reading retreads of ‘80s comics.
I think there’s really something to be said for *not* understanding everything right away. I remember the time when I didn’t understand the difference between Earth-1, Earth-2, etc., and that was pretty exciting.
Wait, there’s another Robin? And he’s an adult? Who’s this Huntress person who claims to be Batman’s daughter? That curiosity drew me further into comic book reading and collecting. It didn’t put me off. I eventually figured it all out, but without that initial confusion I don’t think I’d be as emotionally invested in buying more comics.
I feel the same. As a kid, I waded hip-deep in the complexity of the DC universe. Two of my favorite books were the Legion of Superheroes and All-Star Comics, featuring the 70s JSA. One was full of entirely new characters and planets and situations, and the other was full of Earth-2 doppelgangers of the heroes I was really just starting to get to know. I was captivated.
That said — and despite my recent experiences with 2000AD — whenever I’ve been given the opportunity to jump into a manga with that kind of history and complexity, I’ve almost always balked. Getting in at the ground floor sometimes works for me (such as the reprints of Lone Wolf & Cub), but often there’s not quite enough there of the stuff people love about the property to keep me going (in the last few years, I’ve tried digging into One Piece, for example, and didn’t get far. Same with the anime of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures).
@ Robert Staeger
I totally agree with you regarding ’70s (and early ’80s) JSA in All-Star Comics (and later Adventure Comics, and the adjacent retroactive continuity stories in All-Star Squadron, and legacy stories in Infinity Inc.) and LOSH. Both teams are great and some of their best stories were created in the ’70s (and early ’80s). But Crisis on Infinite Earths really messed up the continuities on both teams, what with no more Golden Age Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman (and Green Arrow and Speedy from Seven Soldiers of Victory), and the bizarre creation of “Pocket Universe” Superboy, DC just really messed up.