Starting a blog has me realizing something. After a while, I've changed. I am most assuredly not a better person than I was on the last journal I created; I would say my faults have been moved around, and my interests with them.
I didn't use to like acoustic guitar. I felt a little better about myself. I used to watch a lot of foreign film.
In changing, I have made hard and fast, life-altering decisions. Decisions a weaker person might never come to.
At some point, I decided that comics were stupid.
Please, the sword isn't needed. I don't need a shield, because this isn't a flame war. I'm not trolling, and there's more to the preceeding blanket statement than I'm letting on. If possible, remove the Marvel and/or DC buttons from your lapel, and end the trace program's machinations regarding ascertating my broadcasting position.
To clarify, something close to the ninety percent mark of comics are stupid. For the most part, I'm going to try and not focus on single artists or authors. There are better posts about who sins the most in the medium. There are entire diatribes dedicated to that sort of thing, and much of it merits the rage. I'm not talking about individual authors; To hold one accountable for all would be misguided and a poor indicator of my knowledge in the medium.
Comics, by and large, have a rich and storied history, but their timing couldn't have come at a worse time. Even as Hollywood was learning how to monetize each property into a series of powerful merchandising gimmicry, thanks largely to Lucas and Spielberg, comics had always been patroned by kids, and it shows. They started out as a youth market, and a youth remark they remain in many respects.
Consider: Film took the better part of a quarter century to progress technologically enough to be taken advantage of, and comics have had more than their fair share of that time.
Still, this isn't the reason I feel comics are a sub-par turnout, but I'm trying to make some sense of it. The example, at best, seems like an unfair assumption again: Comics have a root in penny dreadfuls and comic strips, the latter being a definitive spiritual predecessor if not outright parent. A technological leap forward wasn't required of them beyond printing press, either, which can't be said of videogames or film.
Maybe I feel like for all the possibilities the medium offers, a middleground between moving images and literature, they remain so dully fantastic. I want a boring, every-day story. I want a Falling Down of comics, or some vision of intense sadness that doesn't need powers, or philosophy, or magic, or the supernatural. I'm sick of ultraviolence and overwrought dialogue. To tell fantasy stories, you have to be able to tell any story or shit doesn't work. It's a similar problem videogames face, and that's a medium still struggling with its infancy.
But why do I feel like this? Not sure, realistically. I didn't grow up with comics the same way a lot of people did, but I've read more than I care to count. I remain an avid consumer of Batman bullshit day in and day out, a lot of times, and I sat down with Spider-Man six months ago for eight hours until my eyes burned and my head swam.
The male power fantasy bullshit just doesn't do it for me anymore, if it ever did. There's too many stories (good ones, bad ones, but a fairer balance) in other mediums to waste time reading McFarlane and hoping for Moore.
0 spake Zarathustra:
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