We here at Castalia House have been following Diversity & Comics since July when they pointed out that comics were experiencing almost the exact same death of romance that science fiction suffered back in the nineteen fifties. Today…? Thanks to Geek Gab host Daddy Warpig and pulp revolutionary Rawle Nyanzi, you can see Castalia House Blog on Diversity & Comics…!
Check it out!
Also, don’t miss this followup on the nuts and bolts of how it can happen:
D&C is doing the Lord’s work. I wish him all the best.
Lemme ask the comic connaisseurs the following:
What needs to be done to rescuitate the popularity of English language comics?
I leave aside the obligation for story telling without overt messages
But what else is required?
xavier
Someone needs to figure out how to deliver them to casual consumers in an affordable way. For a long while now, comics have been sold primarily in a dwindling number of dedicated stores at ever-increasing prices. Probably the answer has something to do either with e-reading or publishing trade paperbacks and leaving the traditional comic “pamphlet” format behind.
Xavier
Something needs to happen.
It doesn’t need to be a fight, explosion or swooping in to save the locomotive flying off the rails. But something needs to happen, the story needs you to keep turning pages and read them, not skip them to get past posturing and info dumps that no-one cares about.
The traditional pamphlet style comic does not lend itself to long introspective stories, if the protagonist or antagonist needs to indulge in a moment of deep reflection get it over and done with quick or have something else happen at the same time.
If you read a story where there is info dump, posing and meaningless dialogue which doesn’t advance the story you won’t finish it. Personally I’d feel like I’d wasted my time and money.
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Andy and carreig
Thanks for your comments. Would the French BD format: a glossy hardcover of about 15-30 pages? Abd sold in bookstores? archambault.ca and Renaud-Bray have a section called bandes desinees
As for something needs to happen what other situations lead to plot advancement?
I’m thinking of say Largo Winch which has scenes that aren’t actions but still grip you.
French does a good job of info dumping that’s integral to the plot. Perhaps a look at how the good writers do it can be helpful.
I’m a casual reader so I’m trying to think of how to help comic book writers/illustrators do betterxavier
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Yeah, one of the pitfalls of the industry utilizing trade paperbacks more is that it’s allowed lazy writers *looks askance at Bendis and Warren Ellis* and artists to pad their stories to a ridiculous degree. Scenes that in the past would have covered maybe one or two pages of a single issue now literally take up the entire issue. That’s no way to give people their money’s worth, especially when they’re being asked to pay like $4 per issue.
I do think a bit more flamboyance in the storytelling would help, too. I remember Mike Mignola observing that as he flipped through some new comics, he kept seeing scenes of people getting in and out cars while talking on cell-phones. If you’re filling your sci-fi and superhero comics with scenes that would be easy to film for network television, you’re not doing it right.