"Ra's!"
Seeing Batman "rise from the dead" in the "Demon Lives Again" qualifies as my all-time biggest OMFG moment as a comic book reader. That scene was so exciting and gripping and raw, I almost peed myself. That shirtless Batman looked so shatteringly angry, I thought he would leap off the page (I was scared more of him than I was of Ra's Al Ghul). Far more exciting than a handful of summer blockbusters, in my opinion.
Who wouldn't pay $4.00 to read a comic like that new off the stands the Wednesday it came out, to watch Batman and Ra's Al Ghul fight with swords? It is a must-have, the way "LOST" is a must-watch. It's an event, but not in the way we have been taught to think of events.
It surpasses expectations, surpasses the staticness of paper. It will drive us, like a love-crazed suitor, to the shops every week.
The Fan Who Got Away
I recently spoke to an old friend of mine, who was one of the world's all-time big comic book collectors. He had been collecting comics for the last seventeen years, but suddenly stopped a few weeks ago. His reason? "I just can't justify $3.99 for ten minutes worth of story."
But if the comics he had to chose from were exciting, I'll bet he could have justified the cost. You remember exciting comics, don't you? Those gripping stories you can't put down. Dynamic art that bursts off the page. And heroes whose exploits you breathlessly follow month after month.
Almost sounds like hyperbole, doesn't it; some idealized version of what a comic should be? "That's too high an expectation," you might say, "that's the type of stuff they might save for an annual, or other special edition. But not a regular monthly comic book."
But I submit to you that every comic book should be gripping and thrilling and exciting. You've just been taught, by repetition and lack of choices, not to expect too much from comics. That is the real reason readership has dropped to such historically low numbers. Not even video games and the switch to digital could have hurt Comics the way Comics has hurt itself by not being exciting.
Understand, I'm not talking about every comic on the stands; I'm just talking in general. If a comic book truly gripped the mind and heart and soul and zeitgeist of the nation(s), it would be a million-seller.
When The Hard-Core Base Gets Bored (or Poor, or Both)
Instead, we play largely within our comfort-zone, to a fanbase who have proven their loyalty time and time again. But as the old saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt." The industry subtly mocks and is ashamed of the Fanboy at the same time that it plays to him nearly exclusively. Like a long-time married couple who long ago lost their spark, the parties simply don't try anymore. They take each other for granted: "He will always be there for me" and, "He's not much, but I guess this is as good as it gets."
But what happens when a long-time fan like my friend, who faithfully dropped $60 a week on comics and used longboxes as furniture, stops buying cold?
It is this movement, which I call "The Fanboy Revolt," that, along with the switch to digital and the recession, could spell the end of the comic book as we know it. And I am being dead serious. This triumvirate of reader dissatisfaction, format change, and poverty packs a triple-punch that could spell the end not just of an era, but of what we have always assumed was a way of life.
We ignore the rising tide of the Fanboy Revolt at our peril. They are there on the message boards: not so much the brash commentators as the the ones with the calm, steady prose, explaining how they are dropping this book or that, or why they only buy reprints. We used to be able to write off these fans as "curmudgeons" and perhaps older people who want to hearken back to an age when Curt Swan was illustrating Superman.
Seeking not Nostalgia, But an Indelible Feeling
But the Fanboy Revolt involves both old and young alike. And don't kid yourself thinking these fans are only interested in nostalgia. It's not about the nostalgia, folks. THEY WANT EXCITING COMICS!!! When they refer to comics from their youth, they are not doing so because they want to see Geo-Force come back. They are simply relating a time in their lives when they found comics to be exciting.
Exciting. Engaging. Pulse-pounding. All those fancy Stan Lee adjectives.
And if a comic book can't deliver that, it's not worth $3.99, or $2.99. Or 99 cents. You can't pay me to read a "meh" comic book. I don't have the time to waste, not even ten minutes. Not even if it's my favorite character from back when I was in footie pajamas. And I wouldn't download a "meh" comic for free, legally or illegally.
If three of the comics your company puts out, totaling around $10, can't provide the amount of entertainment found on a new DVD at the same price – you have a
big problem. And nowadays, they don't even need to buy the DVD. They don't even need to leave their house to acquire the movie. They might not even need to pay to see the movie.
It's time to get the excitement back or die. It's come to that. And maybe you need to find new talent. Maybe you need to get another pair of eyes in on the comic-producing process to point out what's not working. Maybe you need to make some hard decisions. Maybe you need to start taking more chances. Whatever it is, you need to do it soon.
Because a lot of your fanbase is struggling economically, and you know what they say: financial concerns are the biggest cause of divorce.
AND THIS HAS BEEN...
The fifth edition of Comics-Op!
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Valerie D'Orazio is a former editor at DC Comics, is presently president of the Friends of Lulu and is probably best known as the Occasional Superheroine
Comics-Op is ©2009 Valerie D'Orazio
