CREATORS FRONT FOR DIVERSITY IN COMICS

[Random]

People speak with their wallets. And a business only stays in business if it makes money. Sounds like it's time to find another line of work.

 

Hooray for the demise of creativity!

 

It has nothing to do with creativity. When you are interested in letting me spend your money let me know. There are some things I would like to buy.

[comix4fun]

People speak with their wallets. And a business only stays in business if it makes money. Sounds like it's time to find another line of work.

 

 

And business can stay in business if people talk to other people and let them know when they consume a quality product. They can also stay in business when people are informed that there is a choice, that accepting the same stale pap and recycled stories is not their only option. He's not saying buy these books even if they are , he's saying give them a chance and you might see what you've been missing and find a better place to pay your $3 than on the 1st appearance of Deadpool's Poodle.

 

It doesn't just happen in comics, it's happening across this country. The "Wal-Mart" phenomenon is driving mom & pop and locally owned businesses out, and NOT to the benefit of those communities. A low quality product regardless of price is still a low quality product.

 

When all the "mom & pop" comics are gone and all we are left with is the latest wave of foil enhanced covers with blank content between those covers you can point to moments like these when it could have been avoided and we could have had a choice for our entertainment dollars.

[MedicAR]

People speak with their wallets. And a business only stays in business if it makes money. Sounds like it's time to find another line of work.

 

Have you read The Goon? Some of the best stuff published in the last 10 years. Good art. Good Story. It's just fun and funny. The trouble is it gets pushed to the side by this month's 14 Deadpool variants and the latest Earth shattering crossover that changes nothing.

 

If buyers cant find the alternatives, they can't "speak" for them with their wallets.

[Random]

When I purchase art, I buy direct from the artist. When I go to a show, I make it a point to spend at the indy tables. The only Marvel book I have bought off the rack in 10 + years is because of Milo Manara. I make it a point to support those, who I believe, do this because they truly enjoy it.

 

If you don't want to work for the big two, then don't. If you can self publish and be successful, then great. Sometimes it comes down to paying the bills. I refuse to begrudge people because they do what they must to make a living.

[Lebowski]

I refuse to begrudge people because they do what they must to make a living.

 

Disney and Warner Bros. are just doing what they must to make a living?

[seanfingh]

People speak with their wallets. And a business only stays in business if it makes money. Sounds like it's time to find another line of work.

 

Hooray for the demise of creativity!

 

But the small press/ big idea concerns have to find out ways to get into non-traditional and (previously) non-comic buying markets. They have to become more like independent film, where there is a sustainable market for films that will never make the money that Transformers 2 makes, but are still made because they are sustainable and enjoyable in their own right.

 

I have loved Goon, Bone, Leave It to Chance, WD etc. etc, but I was raised on 70's comics. For the genre to continue past the digicomicapalypse there does have to be new blood.

[Stronguy]

 

Big business is killing creativity. What a '.

 

People buy superhero comic for one reason... they like superhero comics. If, on occasion, people find something that is non-super hero that they like they buy it. If the momentum builds the creator makes a dent in the market.

 

Unfortunately, the problem with most creator-owned stuff is it only appeals to a small segment of the market. And independent creators... they never get so one-sided that they think their stuff is the greatest thing out there.

 

Bottom line, if people didn't like super hero books they wouldn't buy them. If the same percentage liked non-super hero stuff it would be successful.

 

So, Mr. Powell, I hate to be the bearer of reality for you but no one owes you a living. If your hobby appeals to enough people to afford you the opportunity to do it for a living then bravo. But, if like everyone else in the world, you want to make a decent living, you need to either step up your game and appeal to a broader market or get used to doing things you don't 100% love doing.

 

'!

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

You know, Rand addressed this very same issue in The Fountainhead...

 

 

[comix4fun]

 

Big business is killing creativity. What a '.

 

People buy superhero comic for one reason... they like superhero comics. If, on occasion, people find something that is non-super hero that they like they buy it. If the momentum builds the creator makes a dent in the market.

 

Unfortunately, the problem with most creator-owned stuff is it only appeals to a small segment of the market. And independent creators... they never get so one-sided that they think their stuff is the greatest thing out there.

 

Bottom line, if people didn't like super hero books they wouldn't buy them. If the same percentage liked non-super hero stuff it would be successful.

 

So, Mr. Powell, I hate to be the bearer of reality for you but no one owes you a living. If your hobby appeals to enough people to afford you the opportunity to do it for a living then bravo. But, if like everyone else in the world, you want to make a decent living, you need to either step up your game and appeal to a broader market or get used to doing things you don't 100% love doing.

 

'!

 

 

Good Lord,

 

So many misconceptions all packed into a single post.

 

Eric Powell is not asking you for ANYTHING. "Step up his game?" Eric Powell's books are wildly successful. Not just award winning but commercially successful. He has merchandised his creator owner characters into toys, cards, posters, apparel, and every manner of new media merch. That's not even talking about the major motion picture of his characters being created by Frank Darabont and David Fincher.

 

He's speaking for all the wildly talented folks creating some of the greatest books you've never read that, if anyone ever took the time to look at them, would see exactly what they are missing and exactly how they have been flim flammed by the big 2 into accepting garbage in place of a well done product.

 

Take a minute and find out who the person is that is talking, what they are saying and why before you knee jerk yourself too hard and find your boot heel sticking out of your mouth.

 

 

 

 

As an aside and in response to you comment deriding the thought that big business attempts to kill creativity....

 

Big business has done everything they can to kill creativity on every level since the dawn of the industrial revolution. It's no secret that cars that will run on water or get 70 miles to the gallon, or last for 20 years without replacement have been invented, but we will never see them until competition forces big business to innovate. The big money isn't in "the cure" it's in "the treatment". Have you seen the film "Tucker" ever watched documentaries on Microsoft or Wal-Mart. The amount of innovations, inventions, and improvements on automobiles that the big 3 have bought and then locked away are incredible.

 

Why would automakers want to create a car that lasts for 20 years or make something perfect right now when they can create something just good enough to make you have to buy another in 5 years? One is the best job they could do and the other is the job that keeps them in a job.

 

Or why create a perfect comic series that runs for 3 issues, if you can dilute the product and make it 12 issues? Or why do one solid series with a character or set of characters if you can dilute the product and crossover 5 series using those same characters and stories? One way you get a quality product and the other you get a lot of money with a watered down version of the same old thing.

 

Big business' goal is to keep Big Business on top. They will be just creative enough to keep going and crush everyone else that gets in their way. That's a simple fact whether you are talking about comic books or talking about hammers, or DVD players.

 

As well you mention: "if people didn't like super hero books they wouldn't buy them. If the same percentage liked non-super hero stuff it would be successful."

 

People buy super hero comics, if you really talk to people, out of HABIT. They want good stories they want the characters they like to be part of good stories but the good super hero books are few and far between and buried in between the 15th crossover of Deadpool this month and the 17th reimagining of Wolverine's origin.

 

It's the hope that there's a good story out there somewhere with these characters, a familiarity with these characters, and HABIT that drives them into the arms of the big 2. The big 2 know that and that's why when something pops up that people actually respond to you can be sure you will be BURIED up to your neck in it within 6 months until they have beaten (what could have been a good concept) to absolute and utter death.

 

Don't equate massive amounts of marketing and hype driving people to purchase books with actual desire and satisfaction of the fans as the reason for the book's "success". Just read this board and see all the folks calling for an editor's, writer's, artist's head on some mainstream hero book but all the while it's still selling at the top of the charts for the folks that have been buying for years and DON'T KNOW HOW TO STOP.

 

You are completely entitled to your opinion, I just wish you'd know who you were ripping down and if those reasons were valid before forming that opinion.

 

 

 

 

[comix4fun]

For the genre to continue past the digicomicapalypse there does have to be new blood.

 

 

Paypal license fee invoice sent. (thumbs u

[KTerrell]

Isn't everybody getting overheated. I think we should remember what Mr. Powell referred to in his video,they are FUNNY BOOKS for peoples enjoyment. To each his own. Not everybody will like the same thing, we are all individuals. Which I think makes the comic industry so great, there is something for everybody.

[Bosco685]

Which I think makes the comic industry so great, there is something for everybody.

 

[comix4fun]

Isn't everybody getting overheated. I think we should remember what Mr. Powell referred to in his video,they are FUNNY BOOKS for peoples enjoyment. To each his own. Not everybody will like the same thing, we are all individuals. Which I think makes the comic industry so great, there is something for everybody.

 

 

I think that's exactly what he's saying. He's stating it from a position that, although he's attained great personal success in the field, there is a real danger that the "something for everybody" can disappear forever if it's not supported by fans, the creators themselves and the publishers.

 

It sounds to me like a call to arms, in a funny way, for all those creators with great ideas to band together to keep those ideas flowing and to not be forced to give in and give away the creative fire that drove them into the arts in the first place.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with calling attention to great work that might not be getting the attention it deserves because it's not owned by a mega-globogym-powerhouse-multi-media entity like Disney or Warners.

 

I certainly would not call one of the finest creators our field has seen in the last 2 decades a "" for standing up for an area of this hobby that is valuable and deserves the attention.

[KTerrell]

I hope nobody thinks I am calling anybody a "*spoon*" My wife calls me that enough I don't need to spread that negativity around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just trying to give this thread some love.

[Stronguy]

I certainly would not call one of the finest creators our field has seen in the last 2 decades a "" for standing up for an area of this hobby that is valuable and deserves the attention.

 

I called him a because he keeps on beating the same line that just because some make something (good or bad) they are owed the same level of success as something they think is not as good. He, himself, is living proof that if you put out the goods you CAN make it. What he seems to not grasp (based on this ending commentary) is the world is full of great ideas than never get beyond the drawing board for one reason or another. If this is his call to arms for independent creators to unite then it's lost in his rant against the very system that created the means by which he wants to succeed.

[Bosco685]

I certainly would not call one of the finest creators our field has seen in the last 2 decades a "" for standing up for an area of this hobby that is valuable and deserves the attention.

 

Eric Powell is amazing. Fantastic art - super stories - wonderful sense of humor in each story. A creative win all-around!

[comix4fun]

I hope nobody thinks I am calling anybody a "*spoon*" My wife calls me that enough I don't need to spread that negativity around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just trying to give this thread some love.

 

 

No not you, the person I responded to called him that.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

DC Comics was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Marvel Comics was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Dark Horse Comics was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Valiant Comics was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Wal-Mart was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

AT&T was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Columbia Pictures was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

Microsoft was a tiny company with almost no market presence once.

 

What, then, do all these companies have in common?

 

[seanfingh]

 

They have never been in my kitchen?

[RockMyAmadeus]

For the genre to continue past the digicomicapalypse there does have to be new blood.

 

 

Paypal license fee invoice sent. (thumbs u

 

Shouldn't it be digicomicocalypse...?