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Five Things to be Thankful for in Comics

No Fly Zone: Five Things to be Thankful for in Comics
© Mania

Greetings, Maniacs, and welcome to another edition of The No-Fly Zone. This is Mania.com’s alternative comics column, where we shoot down (most) superheroes mid-flight in favor of the many other wild and wonderful genres comics have to offer. Today, of course, is Thanksgiving. While there are plenty of Christmas stories in American comics—at least DC and Marvel always publish a special—we can’t recall many Thanksgiving stories to reflect on. Now, we here at the NFZ spend a lot of time complaining about the comics industry. Most editorials in any media spend more time raging than they do praising. Anger sells. We only write about things that annoy the hell out of us. But, it’s Thanksgiving. While we’re tolerating our family members, we’re supposed to reflect on things we’re grateful for. As such, we’re going to, well, give thanks for a few things we like about American comics these days—but just this once. We have a curmudgeonly reputation to maintain.

1. Mainstream Acceptance

The media and the literary world quit crapping on comics a few years ago, but true mainstream acceptance remains a work in progress. Entertainment Weekly might review graphic novels, but that doesn’t mean your parents or grandparents respect the medium. For the most part, comics aren’t mainstream. Television and Reader’s Digest are mainstream. Church and sports are mainstream. But, there’s this recent report from Simba Information. Apparently, one in 10 adult book buyers read comics. That may not sound like a whole lot, but it’s a whole lot more than we here at the NFZ would’ve thought. Ten percent is pretty fucking mainstream. That information doesn’t necessarily reflect bodies in the direct market comic shops. It means people reading graphic novels bought at bookstores as well. Local comic shops rule, to be sure. There are few places more comforting to fans. But, the market will dictate how people get comics based on consumer preference. And, we champion the comics medium above all else. If bookstores selling graphic novels alert more people to the glories of sequential art, then fabulous. And, if the Simba Information survey is any indication, that’s exactly what’s happening.

2. Omnibus Editions

There is nothing quite like sitting down for an evening with a graphic novel the size of a phone book. By their very nature, comics can be a page-heavy medium. Images can communicate varying levels of information. A story can be told in two pages or a thousand. When a series spans 70 22-page issues, it’s kind of a pain in the ass to read a bunch of magazines in a box that has to be pulled out from under five others. But, almost every mainstream publisher got the memo that fans—especially new and casual ones—prefer one or two fat books over a stack of pamphlets that have to be placed in a unique sequence like some kind of puzzle (we’re looking at you, Seven Soldiers). Now, Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, and most of the other mainstream contenders have started collecting runs and even entire series in volumes—some lavish and leather-bound, and others shrunk to digest size to save on printing costs. It might suck to have 500 pages of ‘90s Aliens comics shrunk down from their original size, but for $25 you can’t beat it. However, the really brilliant stuff often gets a Marvel Omnibus or a DC Absolute Edition—or the equivalent from other another publisher. That means an oversized volume worthy of any fan’s bookshelf, sometimes with a sewn binding, high quality paper, and a slipcase. They may be expensive, but for a medium long considered as disposable as the morning’s newspaper, it’s a great display of respect and preservation for comics both old and new. Jack Kirby would’ve been thrilled to see his Fourth World Saga collected into hardcover books, the way he wanted it to be read.

3. Suggested for Mature Readers

Virtually all mainstream comics are targeted at adults now. If they aren’t, they’re called something like Marvel Adventures or Johnny DC. Everything from G.I. Joe to Wolverine is rife with mature content. Yes, the violence and profanity are there, but better yet, the storytelling has grown more complex and interesting by leaps and bounds. During the creatively destitute 1990s, only Vertigo and Dark Horse really offered adult alternatives to the knee pads, big guns, anatomically impossible tits, endless crossovers, and other excesses of mainstream comics. Remember, that Image wasn’t always a place where creators could unleash their wildest and most original stories. At its inception, it looked like a paradise for Marvel knock-offs. Granted, Spawn, WildC.A.T.s, and even Youngblood have all gotten a lot better in the past several years, but they started out as a sort of superheroes-with-blood kind of thing. Now, virtually every mainstream comic reaches a level of adult storytelling that makes it at least readable. It doesn’t mean they’re all good, but you know that, at the very least, anything you read won’t be geared towards your kids. In the short history of the medium, it’s a pretty amazing achievement to go from the tyrannical Comics Code Authority to a creatively fertile environment where pretty much anything goes.

4. Print on Demand

Nothing’s ever really stopped anyone from making and publishing their own comics. But, frankly, the costs of printing on a traditional web press and distributing comics on a national scale was, for years, cost prohibitive for most would-be creators. The only real way to cheap-ass it was to print the book at somebody’s office copy machine and staple and fold it yourself. Say hello to a crappy looking comic. Now, print-on-demand services like Comixpress and Ka-Blam have made printing and distributing comics easier and cheaper than ever. Printing on demand essentially means using a glorified copy machine instead of a web press with regular ink on paper. It’s cheaper and easier to print small runs of comics. If you only want 300 copies, great. If you just want 50 to hand out at your church picnic, that’s cool. Just need one for mom? They’ve got you covered. And, both services will carry your book in their online stores and just print off one when someone orders it. Granted, that’s not as effective as having your book in a bunch of stores, but it’s a start. And with Diamond having implemented higher sales requirements, that probably won’t happen anyway unless someone sees your book in the Haven catalog. Ka-Blam even has its own retailer distribution service called Comics Monkey, so that’s another option. The world may not see your first few efforts, but you have to start somewhere. Your goal should just be to create comics, first and foremost. Everything else is just gratis.

5. Emphasis on Writing

Rarely has there been a time when comic writers were so valued. Artists and recognizable characters have been marketed over writers many times in the medium’s history. You bought the book because it had Wolverine in it, not because Chris Claremont wrote it. Now, fans seek out the work of Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, and Steve Niles by name—more so than any other time in the medium’s history. It doesn’t matter which characters they’re writing. Oftentimes, they have the leverage to simply create their own. Artists matter and will always matter in a visual medium. Some feel that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction, frankly. But, someone has to write the stories. Penning compelling tales and engaging dialogue are skills in and of themselves. The medium needs writers and artists working in synchronicity to succeed. Sure, you have guys like Dave Lapham and Craig Thompson who can do it all, but that’s rare. When two talents complement each other’s work, you have a real thing of beauty. That makes for a damn good comic. It’s a good time to write funnybooks.

Those are some things we’re thankful for, Maniacs. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and check us out again next week.

You are now exiting The No-Fly Zone.

Kurt Amacker is the writer of The No-Fly Zone, Mania’s weekly alternative comics column. He is also the author of the comic miniseries Dead Souls, published by Seraphemera Books. Dead Souls is available from the Seraphemera Books website, Amazon.com, and at comic shops everywhere. He can be reached at kurt_amacker@seraphemera.org.