admin
22 December 2023
As most of you who read this know-- that is, if most of the people who read this don’t work for the paper or actually read comics-- this past month, Mark Millar released four comics all with the logo for his website on the cover.
While this publicity stunt is only fleetingly interesting and hardly innovative, there is another aspect to this that is far more important. All four of these different titles were released through different publishers: Wanted through Top Cow, Chosen through Dark Horse, The Unfunnies through Avatar Press, and four one-shots throughout the year from Image. While I haven’t yet had my hands on the content of the books, it’s the principles of this move that I really want to talk about today.
Millar took it upon himself to wrangle publicity control of his creations away from the companies that build their empires on the backs of the talent they abuse. If Millar had chosen to instead solely use Image to release his titles, the spin would have been that, “Image is giving you four new titles from Mark Millar.” Now, however, “Mark Millar is presenting us with four new books all labeled through Millarworld.biz.”
So the next questions I have are: Could this be the way to revolutionize the industry? Could this be how we create better comics? Would writers and artists be able to create better comics if they had complete creative control? Would more and more of the best comics in history rise to the top if titles were regarded more for their artistic and creative merit, rather than the company and title loyalty that plagues the business? And the only answer that I’ve been able to come up with is, “No.”
I have been consistently buying Spider-Man comics for thirteen years now. That’s right, since the summer of 1990 I have received every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, all of the sister titles, some of the annuals, many (many, many) of the one-shots, and quite a few of the mini-series. I am killing comics. And I’m sure that most of you are, too. “But I love Superman,” or “I’ve always thought that Batman was awesome,” or “No matter how many times they screw up Green Lantern, I’m always going to stick with him.” I know, I know,.. I feel the same way. But I guarantee you that if you look through the back issues of a title you’ve collected for an extended period of time, that at least 60-85% of the content of the issues you have are senseless drivel. Ask yourself, is the other 15-40% of the time really worth it?
“But come on,” you say, “haven’t you seen these awesome formerly-independent creators breathing new life into these has-beens?” Yes. And I call it “grasping at straws.” So a title will seem to be "new and innovative" for maybe 12 to 14 issues while still using recycled villains. And maybe the story will seem like it’s something that’s never been done before. But doesn’t every revamped X-Men story seem to have Magneto as the sinister “secret bad guy” at the end? Then everything is returned to the boring status quo by the end of the story arc. Ugh.
So, if we eliminated all of those tired, worn-out, rehashed titles that have been around for 60+ years, could we finally make room for fresher, newer, and more creative stuff? I really doubt it. Those old, tired, guilty pleasure books that you and I and everybody else collect for no other reason than they remind us of our “better times” youth, take up most of the entire comic book market, and bring in almost all of the revenue for the industry. If we didn’t have these books there wouldn’t be money to publish 100 Bullets or Planetary. Transmetropolitan would never have been published. And you can bet that the good version of The Authority would never have seen the light of day.
As it stands, the same books that are killing comics are the only things that allow the small amount of good comics to receive any press. If we didn’t have Superman or Batman, would there be any interest for someone to ever seek out Cerebus or Bone? Until the day where we have a flood of well-written and well-drawn creator-owned comics that can surpass the popularity and numbers of those redundant jerks in spandex, I think we’re doomed to overall comic mediocrity.
EMAIL J-MIL HERE.
PURCHASE THIS OR SIMILAR ITEMS
While this publicity stunt is only fleetingly interesting and hardly innovative, there is another aspect to this that is far more important. All four of these different titles were released through different publishers: Wanted through Top Cow, Chosen through Dark Horse, The Unfunnies through Avatar Press, and four one-shots throughout the year from Image. While I haven’t yet had my hands on the content of the books, it’s the principles of this move that I really want to talk about today.
Millar took it upon himself to wrangle publicity control of his creations away from the companies that build their empires on the backs of the talent they abuse. If Millar had chosen to instead solely use Image to release his titles, the spin would have been that, “Image is giving you four new titles from Mark Millar.” Now, however, “Mark Millar is presenting us with four new books all labeled through Millarworld.biz.”
So the next questions I have are: Could this be the way to revolutionize the industry? Could this be how we create better comics? Would writers and artists be able to create better comics if they had complete creative control? Would more and more of the best comics in history rise to the top if titles were regarded more for their artistic and creative merit, rather than the company and title loyalty that plagues the business? And the only answer that I’ve been able to come up with is, “No.”
I have been consistently buying Spider-Man comics for thirteen years now. That’s right, since the summer of 1990 I have received every issue of Amazing Spider-Man, all of the sister titles, some of the annuals, many (many, many) of the one-shots, and quite a few of the mini-series. I am killing comics. And I’m sure that most of you are, too. “But I love Superman,” or “I’ve always thought that Batman was awesome,” or “No matter how many times they screw up Green Lantern, I’m always going to stick with him.” I know, I know,.. I feel the same way. But I guarantee you that if you look through the back issues of a title you’ve collected for an extended period of time, that at least 60-85% of the content of the issues you have are senseless drivel. Ask yourself, is the other 15-40% of the time really worth it?
“But come on,” you say, “haven’t you seen these awesome formerly-independent creators breathing new life into these has-beens?” Yes. And I call it “grasping at straws.” So a title will seem to be "new and innovative" for maybe 12 to 14 issues while still using recycled villains. And maybe the story will seem like it’s something that’s never been done before. But doesn’t every revamped X-Men story seem to have Magneto as the sinister “secret bad guy” at the end? Then everything is returned to the boring status quo by the end of the story arc. Ugh.
So, if we eliminated all of those tired, worn-out, rehashed titles that have been around for 60+ years, could we finally make room for fresher, newer, and more creative stuff? I really doubt it. Those old, tired, guilty pleasure books that you and I and everybody else collect for no other reason than they remind us of our “better times” youth, take up most of the entire comic book market, and bring in almost all of the revenue for the industry. If we didn’t have these books there wouldn’t be money to publish 100 Bullets or Planetary. Transmetropolitan would never have been published. And you can bet that the good version of The Authority would never have seen the light of day.
As it stands, the same books that are killing comics are the only things that allow the small amount of good comics to receive any press. If we didn’t have Superman or Batman, would there be any interest for someone to ever seek out Cerebus or Bone? Until the day where we have a flood of well-written and well-drawn creator-owned comics that can surpass the popularity and numbers of those redundant jerks in spandex, I think we’re doomed to overall comic mediocrity.
EMAIL J-MIL HERE.
PURCHASE THIS OR SIMILAR ITEMS
artid
1959
Old Image
6_5_panels.jpg
issue
vol 6 - issue 05 (jan 2004)
section
entertainmental