Today's Mainstream Comic Books: New Reader Friendly?
I was an avid reader of mainstream super-hero comic books starting in the mid-80s, but my interest in them waned after a few years due to the combined factor of risings book prices, gimmick covers, unexciting “event” crossovers between books and a general feeling that the quality (both artwork and storytelling) was going downhill.
Even though I don’t read many mainstream comics these days, I still keep up on what’s happening by way of comic book news sites like Newsarama and Comic Book Resources.
Yesterday afternoon, after chowing down at a local Indian buffet, my good friend Brandon and I stopped by the local comic shop nearby. I haven’t been to a comic shop in a while, so I thought I’d try my luck to see if anything new would catch my fancy.
I purchased the three books above, “New Avengers 63”, “SHIELD #1”, and “X-Factor #204”. I spent a total of $11.00 for 3 books – two of which were priced at the $4.00 range.
Given the “expensiveness” of today’s comics, I wanted to choose carefully. I’d heard good things about Brian Bendis (writer of New Avengers) and I was familiar with Peter David (writer of X-Factor) by way of his 80’s run on The Incredible Hulk. I bought SHIELD, simply because of the 5 star review it received over on Comic Book Resources.
I approached these books from the standpoint of a new reader. Having read the books last night, I came away from the experience feeling thoroughly disappointed, particularly with X-Factor, and to a lesser degree The New Avengers. SHIELD, being a first issue, was easier to get into, but also disappointing (see my second complaint).
My first and foremost complaint about the New Avengers and X-Factor issues I picked up is that they are not really new reader friendly. Sure, there’s a page that provides a brief synopsis of the story so far, but unless one is already familiar with the characters, keeping track of who’s who was frustrating. Especially in the epic battle sequences in New Avengers. There was a lot of jumping around in time, with interludes shown as flashbacks, adding to my confusion.
My second problem with these mainstream comics is that there really isn’t much story-telling or characterization. I am not emotionally invested in these characters. Events happen, like super-hero battles, witty banter and assassinations and such, but there really wasn’t much of a story being told. If I can’t connect with the characters, I can’t connect with the story. In short: I didn’t care.
My third problem is that for my money, these comics read way too fast. I’m not getting a complete story, or a story arc that has a beginning, middle and end. Books are being written specifically for collection as a trade paperback, and that makes the monthly offerings seem very diluted in terms of content.
Perhaps these books are serving their core audiences well, but, in my opinion, they are not making serious overtures to people who may be discovering them for the first time.
And I think this is a HUGE problem.
Granted, I don’t read ALL mainstream books, so I am first to acknowledge that my complaints may be a generalization – but I picked these three books because of their reputation by fans at large. I just didn’t get any value out of my purchases. And I feel that other people who are getting introduced to mainstream comics may feel the same way.
I’d like to know what you think. Sound off in the comments below.
-Krishna
Update: Check out this well thoughtout article on why kids don’t read comics anymore.
These beautiful and intelligent people wrote
Tell me what you think!
Kevin Hayman
April 24, 2010 at 10:33 amI think you’re right about mainstream comics. They’re quick disposable entertainment with no characterization and are not friendly to new readers. Then again, that’s probably why some of us do web comics. “If you don’t like it, go do your own comic!!” “Why, I think I will at that!”
Brad C
April 24, 2010 at 10:54 amI had a similar experience last year. I collected comics in the early 90s as prices were really starting to go up. Once I got to college I ran out of money and stopped buying comics. Last year I picked up a Captain America comic and I was completely lost.
Javier Hernandez
April 24, 2010 at 11:02 amMost of your thoughts I can agree with. Of course, price affects even the self-published floppies, so I kind of take that one with a grain of salt. Prices on everything have gone up. Is a $4 b&w EL MUERTO comic (mine) a lesser value than a $4 full-color Marvel/DC floppy?
One thing about modern comics (superhero, at least) for me is purely aesthetic. I much prefer cartooning in a comic, a more expressive style of art. What I see over and over again is ‘realistic’ style art, with the overly rendered coloring. What can be stupider than trying to make a guy in a costume ‘realistic’.
Superheroes running around in jeans and t-shirts? Really? Today’s readers, many of them, don’t seem to want to be reading ‘superhero’ books, yet paradoxically, they are buying up all these ‘superhero’ books! Oh, I’m sorry, don’t they call them ‘metahumans’ or some imbecilic name now?
When I look at the racks at the comic shops, and even peek in some of the ‘superhero’ comics, I see subdued colors, lots of browns and blues and blacks. It’s like they’re keeping the lights dimmed so things don’t get to ‘superhero-y’. For crissakes, Marvel has to force their entire line into a new ‘Heroic Age’, as opposed to the what, the recent decade of ‘angst and too-cool-for-fun-comics’ age? And DC is now promising us a Brighter Day? Yay.
I thought we all went through a Dark Age back in the 90s? These writers and editors (since the artist don’t contribute anything supposedly in terms of story anymore) love dumping their drab and dreary anti-heroes on the medium. Of course, when the fans themselves are too ‘sophisticated and mature’ for ‘corny superheroes’, what do you expect? I think everyone in the mainstream comics field is getting what they deserve (except for the creators of yesteryear getting the shaft as far as fair compensation for their long-term contributions). Of course, I’m at the age where I’m sure I’m not anywhere near the target audience for the new books. So younger readers, feel free to dismiss my rants!
(You notice that some of these mainstream comics are looking interchangeable from action movies and video games? Hi tech/SFX/digital rendering? Comics look best, imo, when they have art that you only find in a comic, which comes from expressive cartooning, dictated by an artist’s personal flourishes. Otherwise, just buy a video game, as you’re gonna get much more value and play time out of it than a 15 minute read with a bunch of talking heads.)
kaiki
April 24, 2010 at 12:13 pmMy problem with mainstream comics, the last time I tried to read them, is the terrible writing. I got Batman: No Man’s Land and couldn’t enjoy it. It seemed like a writer that had only wrote super-hero stories was trying to tell a story about surviving in a post-natural disaster environment. I had just red Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco and on every other page the dialog of B:NML came off as phony and not having any connection to the environment that the characters found themselves in. In every aspect of writing, creating characters to care about, emotionally engaging, suspenseful story, Joe Sacco blew the pants off DC. So I asked myself, why buy DC comics if I know of other comics that are superior? I never bought a mainstream comic again.
Jose Gonzalez
April 24, 2010 at 12:33 pmOK… I stand behind my statement that you guys are authorities on the subject. I’m not one to judge, but is sure sounds like you (Krishna, Javier, and Jerzy) – recent twitter interchange related to this post… Are authorities on the subject…. more so than you will accept.
—
In a related episode, I just “met” a Heavy Metal magazine contributor (online). Great artist. He made me want to pick up reading that mag again, which I haven’t read since the 80s, when Moebius ruled it. One parting comment in the conversation remarked on my HM experienced on being “a very long time ago”, which it was. It made me feel old, something I’m used to by now, but it also made me think of this comics situation. Now I’m expecting to get that same feeling from the stories in the new Heavy Metal magazine… but I’ll try not to prejudice myself. I’ve always focused on the art, but the story is more important… it is what holds up the art. I’m looking forward to my sampling of HM. This gives me ground to compare something I followed somehow avidly in the 80’s with today’s trends. Thanks for giving me this idea. I need to sail those seas again.
Shawn Robare
April 24, 2010 at 1:33 pmTo be honest, aside from the price and the characterization bit you more or less just described my first experience reading comics back in the mid 80s. When I fist picked up an issue of Uncanny X-Men I didn’t know what the hell was going on even after reading it a couple of times. There were a ton of characters laden with in-jokes and back story I wasn’t privy to. It didn’t help that I picked up an issue of the Inferno crossover so there were X-Factor characters thrown in as well.
At the end of the day I think this has been an aspect of reading comics since the late 70s. I think it the form, at least how the 2 big companies treat it, and have been treating it for over 30 years, requires a new reader to jump into the fray and then keep buying (back issues and new stuff) to get acquainted. It’s just part of their 50-odd year continuity. Sure, there are some books that are easier to get into because they focus on one main character or might tell one and done stories, but I think that wasn’t the mainstream even as far back as the 80s.
Now as for the price, that’s a new element that really kills the new reader experience. At the end of the day, if a story is written to be a six issue trade that’ll probably be priced in the $15 range when it’s completed, I think it’s totally unfair to expect the monthly installments to sell for $4 a piece. That’s a a huge premium to have to pay to get the floppies. And here’s the thing. Why do the floppies have to be printed as lavishly as they are? Isn’t that more of the realm of the final trade? At these prices, why wouldn’t people just wait for the trade? It’s cheaper and you get a fuller story as it was intended to be read.
Ted S
April 24, 2010 at 2:07 pmFunny, I was just thinking how cool the latest DEATHLOK comic was. It’s a reimagined version of the original Buckler Deathlok, Great take on the character and the art is good and the lame modern colors work for the desolate cold atmosphere of the miniseries. It works for me too because this story is out of Marvel contunity and the original Deathlok was out of the Marvel continuity to begin with too.
Yeah, floppies are super expensive and way too fancy. I never liked the shift from cheap newsprint to premium stuff even back in the 80s
The pacing for the most part IS way too slow, writing for graphic novels they tend to pad the stories with “empty carbs” so to speak.
Style wise… there are super realistic stuff, (reminicent of Neal Adams) but there’s lots of other indie stuff too.
Coloring does suck in general tho…
I find myself being very passionate about comics, and grateful that I can make stuff that I like, MY way. I also try to remember that my tastes are mine alone, and no one is obligated to share those tastes. That’s why I can get a GREAT issue of Capt America drawn by Trimpe and inked by Abel for 99c ! Who cares what the big guns are making, we’ve got our own game and it’s a Winner!(not money wise, but you can’t have everything!)
Luis Escobar
April 25, 2010 at 12:57 amI LOVE modern mainstream comics and I’m hooked on A LOT of the stories I’ve read. I only buy trades and the floppies I read are ones I get at work for free from a DC artist I know. (I agree, floppies are too expensive).
I love the artwork. Realistic, cartoony, is irrelevant. Drawing well and consistent is hard. Why all the whining? If a guy draws realistic, admire it. The hero still looks cool. I’m one of does people that didn’t stop reading comics ever. I didn’t get out of it. I found something to read even in the 90s.
Next time you go to the comic shop, do yourself a favor and pick up a trade. You get a full story and you get what you pay for. You also get caught up with what’s going on, to some extent. Comics are fun reads. I love comics. They’ve evolved and changed and everyone want them NOT too. WHY? Every other type of art form changes too. Look at music for one example.
If you don’t like one storyline in one comic that doesn’t mean that every story line in every comic sucks. It means that one story didn’t grab you. That one writer isn’t very good or maybe he just had a bad arch. Go to the library and read as many trades as you can, find the one that speaks to you and collect those. Thinking your going to love a book by coming into it in the middle, isn’t going to help.
Comics have changed. So has media. Catch up on the comics you want to read by going to the hundreds of sites that give you synopsis of the hundreds of issues that you’ve missed and then continue from there. Where not living int he 80s anymore.
Comics now are better reads than they were when I was growing up.
Not only that but there is almost something for everyone. Kids, adult, women, men, boys, girls. Even in the mainstream comics. Stop hating because you’re truly missing out.
krishna
April 25, 2010 at 7:59 amTo add to Luis’s comment, I think the artwork on most Marvel books has actually improved. I also agree that there is a lot of variety (not just super-hero comics) on the market now. Those are both GOOD things about modern comics. And I hope they continue…
I occasionally read trade paperbacks because our public library has a good stock of them. I found Captain America to be particularly entertaining as a trade paperback. I also enjoyed the new Iron Fist series that came out a few years ago.
I still stand by my thesis, though – comics are not particularly accessible to new readers.
Luis Escobar
April 25, 2010 at 12:42 pmMy brother got my sister-in-law into reading comics through reading trades and watching comic book cartoons and movies. She loves them now.
Angelo
April 26, 2010 at 2:21 pmIn defense of New Avengers and X-Factor, they’re both in the middle of an event crossovers right now. To set up a new status quo to make the book more accessible in the coming months, post-events.
New Avengers is (currently) actually a complimentary book to what’s happening in the Marvel series “Siege”. So it’s a small side story in the midst of a chaotic larger story. So I agree it’s not new reader accessible, but that’s because if it were, the story wouldn’t progress due to the continual retreading over points that have already been established.
If you really want a real jumping off point, you should look at Marvel’s “World Greatest Comics”. These are reprints of perfect jumping on points for new readers and are sold for only $1. Also, I think they’re giving away free digital copies of these comics as well in the Ipad app. So it’s all about knowing where to start, which the shop owners, if they’re good, should be able to point you in the right direction.
Don’t pick up random “New Avengers #107 Siege Tie-In” and expect everything to make sense.
It’s like you jumped into the show Lost, half way through season 6, watched one episode, then got upset because you didn’t get what was happening.
Marvel has checklists, of which books to read on the back page for their crossovers, they released a Free Marvel Chronology book to guide readers, new and old alike, through each of their major properties, they have the “Worlds Greatest Comics” which are jumping on points, and recap pages in front of almost every book. I honestly don’t know that else they can do to make it more accessible without alienating the hardcore target market. There has to be a balance.
Come back in about a month or so, where Marvel’s “Heroic Age” begins. Marvel is going to be renumbering a huge number of books, and they should all be new reader accessible, and the stories will be self-contained within their respective books. No more crossovers, (Thank God).
As far as DC goes… I can’t help ya.
Scott!
April 26, 2010 at 5:19 pmYou should try Atomic Robo. But I’m only saying that because I co-created the book. Haha!
The issues that you speak to here are ones that frustrate my creative partner and me to no end. There is a core audience for mainstream comics, such a Luis here, (Hello Louis), but for new people looking to get into the hobby it’s one barrier after another. It’s something we try to address with our own book, though I will say right up front I’d be happier ditching the floppies and going straight to TPB where you have enough pages to tell a self-contained story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Marvel does try to get new readership via it’s Adventure and Ultimate imprints. I think that in the main they are making a good effort in those areas. It’s enver their “A-List” writers, but since the stories aren’t tied to the continuity or the current “Event”, they tend to be much better books IMO.
If you’ve got an iPhone, iPad, PsP, or Droid-type devise you can check out a lot of these books for free. Like Atomic Robo! (and some Marvel stuff also . . .I guess.)
;D
krishna
April 26, 2010 at 5:22 pmCool, Scott! Thanks for the added perspective. I’ll definitely be checking out Atomic Robo. I believe I picked up an issue on Free Comic Book Day last year (but my memory is hazy).
Scott!
April 26, 2010 at 5:24 pmIf it involved a talking dinosaur chewing on a stout robot then yeah, you got it.
Luis Escobar
April 26, 2010 at 5:56 pmHi Scott,
Dude, I LOVE you’re book. Great fun comic.
I told Krishna already but I’m planning to write on the opposite view point on my blog next Thursday. Why is easier than ever to get into mainstream comics, so stay tuned.
Luis Escobar
April 29, 2010 at 11:00 amMy argument as to why mainstream comics are easier to get into than ever, is up on my blog: http://www.luisescobarblog.com/?p=584