COMICS PORTAL: The Tyranny of NOW!

We don’t want to find out what’s coming next or especially what worked before—we want what’s important NOW!

I have to say that I really feel sorry for comic creators who “have been” popular. Their time is likely glorious when it’s happening, but what takes place after that has gone by? It sure seems like they are relegated to the “has been” pile.

If memory serves, I think it was Buffy in her famous “Vampire Slayer” show who uttered one of my favorite phrases: “That was so five minutes ago!” Not months or years previously, but just a few minutes since that was popular!

When I have the chance to see some creators’ latest work, I can’t help but think how much we as a fandom are missing out because it is often some of their best creations ever! And yet, because it is a person who “used to be popular,” well, so many of us don’t care.

I won’t name names here, but you know who I could be talking about. I’ve seen some comic creators treat even their own fans really rudely at comic conventions, and then they are surprised when those people eventually turn away and find someone else to “idolize,” as it were.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve had literally decades of being a comics fan under my belt, but I actually get excited when I hear a creator’s name invoked that I haven’t seen on a comics page for a while. I want to support them more than ever at that point!

Tastes change, and expectations rise and fall, but I always say that great storytelling will continue to garner support from the true fans.

I’ve told this story before, but it bears repeating. A friend of mine had acquired a Batman comic from the 1940s, and he even let me read it!

I oh-so-carefully removed it from the package, and laid it on a clean surface so it wouldn’t be damaged. I barely touched one corner so I could turn the now-yellowed pages and read their contents. I discovered how different things were back in that era.

For instance, there were four, count ‘em, four stories in the issue, not just one (and not one part of a continued story). And each was a complete tale in its own right, so they all had a beginning, a middle, and an end! It stunned me to see that taking place in a comic! These days, I’m so very used to stories that go on and on and on, from issue to issue to issue. To see short stories was indeed a pleasure for me.

As my twin brother used to call it, today’s comics are infected with a disease called “trade paperback-itis,” stories intended from conception through execution to fit into a collected edition, commonly referred to as a trade paperback.

And today’s tales often do NOT end! The idea is to keep us coming back again and again to get the next issues to see what happens to “our” characters.

In some ways, that helps keep some fans returning regularly to our local comic shops. However, it also makes each issue a “dropping off” point for fans who, for whatever reason,” leave the industry behind. Be it finances or distractions or whatever, these people move on to gaming or TV shows or movies or whatever else they can afford or fits into their increasingly busy schedule.

Then, too, some characters are aging while others remain the same from year to year. In the Batman family, Dick Grayson became an adult who left the “Boy Wonder” identity of Robin behind to become Nightwing. Yet Batman and the rest of that family don’t seem to age at all, being the same person from issue to issue.

It’s hard to keep track of all this, for sure!

Granted, I’m not one who imbibes alcohol at all, but I’m reminded of the phrase of how “wine improves with age.” It supposedly tastes better and goes down into the stomach better, some friends tell me.

Again, like that, I think some creators are only improving over time.

As I always point out in this column, it’s the story that matters! Yes, characterization and character growth help make a tale engrossing, but when it all blends together into a story that transports one from “our” world into “their” world even for just a few minutes, that’s when a comic book works best for me.

I’m always grateful when comics creators are granted booths at comic conventions because we can see what they are up to lately as well as talk with them about their various accomplishments.

I’ll tell one story here because I don’t think he’ll mind. I was helping out at a booth as an Ohio convention, and we were given a booth that had received a cancellation from the creator originally intended to be there. It might give you a clue just who that was when I tell you who was in the booth next to us—J. M. DeMatteis.

Of course, I was a HUGE fan of his works, particularly his Justice League runs with Keith Giffen and several artists. I still chuckle when I think of several of the sequences they provided us.

I was a good boy and didn’t pester him until near the end of the weekend. I approached him and said, “Are you getting tired of people telling you how much they enjoyed your Justice League comics?” He responded, “I NEVER get tired of that!” I proceeded to tell him several of my experiences with his works, including how a group of us used to gather and repeat word for word the dialogue in certain issues, like the seventh one in that initial run. He laughed and said I wasn’t the first to tell him that. I also brought up the time the Leaguers were sent to another dimension and were reduced in size, then had to run a robot of a person of color. That set up a sequence that, to this day, makes me laugh out loud. I told him that I indeed had to wait five minutes so I could stop laughing to finish reading the book.

The interesting thing is that he is still writing engaging comics, and I told him I hope he’ll get back to the Ben Reilly Spider-Man clone because I particularly liked it when he writes that character! He said he’d see what he could do, but he couldn’t make any promises.

I still follow his work, and I think he’s only gotten better over time! I hope we have many, many more years of enjoying his storytelling!

The point I’d like to make is this: Just because we haven’t seen a creator’s name around in a while, that doesn’t mean the issues is, in some folks’ words, “going to SUCK!” If you enjoyed their work in the past, I bet that, if you give it a chance, you will enjoy it today, possibly even more! Don’t give in to the tyranny of NOW! There are many great stories that have already been told that are just waiting for you to enjoy them and even more coming our way from creators we haven’t heard of yet! Give them all a chance!

What do you think? Are there some creators you will always enjoy reading their work? Are there others who you might have forgotten or not seen their stuff in a while? Would you give all of those creators a chance to receive your hard-earned shekels? Whatever your opinion, feel free to share it in the space below!

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