This week’s edition of Dueling Review rekindled an old bone of contention between Stephen and I about Anthology Comics in the current American comics distribution model. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful format and I understand that they’ve been successful in other countries around the world, but for some reason the big publishers can’t ever pull it all together and get a solid anthology rolling anymore. Is it the nature of the characters? The nature of Diamond monopoly? American audiences? I dunno, but I can tell you this, it oughta make for some fun in today’s mixed-bag query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) wants to make it clear that the question isn’t about whether you LIKE a comic book with multiple features, because I love ’em all, even when they don’t work, asking: Do you think that Anthology Comics can be a workable model?
2 Comments
In current U.S. market environment? No. In anywhere else in the world yes, and they are.
If the content is properly and meticulously curated, sure. Potential readers would have to feel like there something cool & meaningful inside, and not just inconsequential throw-away shorts. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would be possible.
I think that the biggest barrier to success of American anthology comics is the difficulty of delivering satisfying stories or story chapters in the small page counts that you get in anthologies. In this post-Bendis era of deconstructed, plotted-for-the-trade comics, too many writers can’t even deliver that with a full-issue page count.