(There is also a significant difference between “stuck in a ‘weird science’ rut’” and “writing books that have other marks of Ellis.” How un-Ellis can he be? Especially with the volume of work he puts out.)

All that said, I’m not even interested in much of his current work Avatar work aside from Freakangels. I dropped Black Summer after two issues, and I haven’t bought a new Doktor Sleepless issue since the first one, but I’ll probably get the trade of that and Anna Mercury. But I always defend Ellis because he seems to be trying harder than any other mainstream writer (though is that a bit like being the fastest slug?).

So yes, I do wish other writers would be more diverse. I don’t mean to focus on Brubaker and Ellis. One of the reasons I’m a bit frustrated with Morrison is because he’s not more diverse.

“But let’s be honest – Ellis is stuck in a “weird science” rut, and Brubaker is stuck in a “pulp noir” rut. ”

But are we being honest? Maybe to feelings, but not to fact. Fell, Crecy, Wolfskin, Gravel and Nextwave aren’t really “weird science.” Freakangels might touch on it soon, but it isn’t about body modification yet.

What writers would you say, that are of Ellis’s caliber (and are as prolific as him), display the kind of diversity that you wish Brubaker and Ellis would? I don’t think Morrison has done anything non-”love letter to the wonder of superheroes” in four years.

Also, I think having tropes is something that comes along with, you know, a) have a writing voice and b)making up your own stuff, instead of writing in the newest adventures of 40-60 year old characters.

Well, it seems like you’re confident, Antony. Isn’t that what counts?

I have to say that Ed is dead-on accurate if he’s only talking about the market for Diamond-distributed comic book specialty shops, but he’s completely off-base if you take into account that the LCS market is only a portion of the comics-reading audience.

People are often disappointed with the lack of diversity in the marketplace, but their disappointment is based on a percentage of all comic book readers. Everyone crying for parity should check out the graphic novel section of a bookstore… sure, you’ll see a lot of DC and Marvel superhero books, but you’ll see far more manga and alternative choices. Ditto if you get your comics from the public library.

Simply put, there’s nothing wrong with the comic book industry that leaving the comics shop can’t solve. Comic book specialty shops cater to the superhero-only crowd and ghettoize the entire artform to such an extent that even the people who enjoy the movies based on comics feel alienated. Comics should be a more open artform and I mean that commercially as well as artistically. Comics that are sold on newsstands and subways (like in Japan) or bookstores or libraries ARE more diverse.

Industry professionals rely on the LCS scene for their bread and butter, so there’s a reluctance to criticize. I can understand this and I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to bite the hand that feeds. But at the end of the day, I feel like the comic book industry is marginalizing itself through DISTRIBUTION methods and THAT is having an adverse affect on the creativity of the books being produced. Every time comics come in contact with a secular market, good things happen and every time comics hide in the “superhero clubhouse” it results in alienation. It’s kind of like complaining that you don’t have any friends if you’re too shy to leave your bedroom.

I’m not going to whine on and on. I went on a rant about the topic HERE.

While I’m on the topic of leaving the local comics shop, Marvel, DC, and everyone else needs to figure out how to distribute comics on the internet. It’s not optional anymore, it’s vital to the future of the industry. I know Marvel’s made recent attempts in this direction and I completely applaud that. MORE. That’s how young people get their media and it’s cheap. I, for one, can barely afford ANY comics at this point and I’m not the only twenty-something in my situation. Talking about “branching out” and “experimenting” in my buying habits is a tough sell when every unproven quantity costs a lot of money.

Anyway, hope that’s some food for thought. I often see creators talk about diversifying the content of comics. That’s a noble quest and I agree, but I can’t help but notice that there is a lot of diversity in comics as soon as you leave the shop and the more the industry gets out, the more interesting things get. Why not kill the Diamond system that’s choking the artform to death?

Hahahahahaohchrist, if only you knew.

“know in the 1980s there were more high-profile diverse comics, and I wonder how and why that went away.”
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Image. Image became so popular and big that only superheroes comic books could survive.
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The Golden Age of comics is 12. The Golden Age of diversity of subject matter was the 80s. And the Golden Age of good writing of comic books is the early to mid 2000s, although I think the quality of writing has been slipping in the last 2 years, which is probably leading to the recently noticed sales declines.
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Over 60 titles came out this week and you only bought 6? Elitist.

I will say, for anyone who’s interested in reading it, that’s it’s excellent. And the use of black panels to show gaps in Teeg’s timeline is really nice, because it disorients us as much as Teeg. I don’t know if that’s your thing or Phillips’, but it was a cool touch.

Yeah, but you can’t always assume that the choir has heard the sermon before. I meet fans all the time who claim to be my biggest fan who have never heard of Criminal or read another book like it. But it wasn’t meant to be a thesis on the industry, anyway, just a little reminder in case anyone was paying attention. You spent more space on the topic than I did in your review.

In fact, if I may offer a criticism to you (hey, it’s the internet, everyone’s a critic, right?) — you kind of barely mention the comic in your review, and it seems like it was one of the issues you liked better, Greg. But you mostly complain about not liking Daredevil lately and rant about a paragraph on the text page. That’s not really much of a helpful review for your readers, is it?

>>I would still love to see a Brubaker romance comic! That would be awesome.

I have plans to do a Romance comic someday, too.

Criminal is awesome.

My local shop doesn’t always get a wide variety of indies. Most of what you’ve reviewed here are unfamiliar to me. I’d buy them online, however it’s very hard to pull the trigger on something like that sight-unseen. Comics be expensive. I do tend to sample an indy before I’ll sample yet another Marvel/DC.

As for why people buy titles they’re not enjoying that much any more. The very point you raise, that floppies outsell and support trades, should hint at why that it is. It’s a serial medium, for the most part. The basic logic of reading serials encourages people to stick with titles to see “what happens next”–particularly because many of us old-timers know that a long-running title can suddenly spring to life in unheralded ways, and then it’s a chore to track down the previous three or four or five issues that you missed. It’s the same reason I buy a certain number of speculative fiction paperbacks on “spec”, so to speak: because if I miss something that I really turn out to like later on, or that others recommend to me, it may be enormously difficult to find that title.

I really enjoy genre diversity in comics, I do, but I notice that most “alternate” genres that get championed by most writers aren’t really that alternate at all– they’re all stuff that’s within a stone’s throw of superheroes, usually from another action or crime oriented sub-genre. I enjoy Criminal (in trades), but there’s so much overlap in the way crime books and superhero books are written now, it doesn’t feel that different aside from being at a much higher level of craft than is possible in the superhero machine. Actually, it’s at an absurdly high level of craft, and that’s why I read it at all. The subject matter was really something I had to get over.

I’m not familiar with all the other titles Brubaker mentions, but from what little I do know it seems possible they would be suffering from the same syndrome. I bet a lot of readers who aren’t passionately devoted to seeking out indies or specific creators for their own sake just get their action jollies from superheroes, and if they look at similar indies, it will only be in retrospect when the series is completed. Certainly when I want something “different” from the usual punchy-flighty books in comics form, I usually end up reading Kim Deitch or newspaper strips or manga… something really different.

(There’s plenty of room to argue my experience isn’t possibly normative, since a woman of my age and income bracket is hardly the primary target demographic for any kind of action comic book. But this theory is based at least in part of observation of forums, which are dominated by the primary comics-buying audience, and I think this behavior pattern may not be a product of gender at all, but a product of the sheer saturation of the monthly market with varying sorts of action titles.)

When KG stopped by, Ed, I went back and thought about what you wrote, and I admit, I reacted a bit more harshly than it probably warranted, because of the fact that in Criminal, I think you’re preaching to the choir a bit. Maybe it’s because I don’t like The Goon and don’t want to buy it. I completely agree with you that people need to be more aggressive in finding good books and supporting them, because it looks as if the bigger companies are never going to get any better at marketing them.

I would still love to see a Brubaker romance comic! That would be awesome.

I know in the 1980s there were more high-profile diverse comics, and I wonder how and why that went away. Today, I think there are a lot of different kinds of comics, but they don’t get the publicity. I don’t know if it’s that big creators aren’t doing them (which is why I do appreciate Ellis and Brubaker and others like them, even if I don’t always like the comics they write), or if it’s just more expensive for an independent publisher to get the word out. Someone needs to crunch the numbers!

I guess I just don’t understand why ANYONE would buy comics they don’t like – I got over that mentality years ago …

Oh, come on. If you had to get over it, then at one point, surely you understood it. I often rant about that mindset and what it does to the sales picture myself, and especially how Marvel and DC are betting the FARM on that kind of reader these days; but at one point in the late 70′s, I WAS that reader. I have to admit, if I’m being honest, that I UNDERSTAND that weird collector’s OCD twitch that derives satisfaction from an unbroken run, even if it’s an unbroken run of crap.

The fact that so many comics readers suffer from that twitch is frustrating, absolutely. But I also think that a great many of us had to get over it ourselves.