Genre comics & superheroes

"Why can't we have more non-superhero work from Marvel and DC?"


That's a common refrain that you'll see on any comic book message board.  The Big 2 make a living on superhero comics, but why can't we get more material like war comics or westerns or crime comics?

A few months ago, it seemed like the publishers might be listening.  One of the comics I was looking forward to most among the new DC52 was Men of War and they had a sexy sounding western title called All-Star Western.  Marvel got in on the act with the recently released Six Guns, which seemed to be a modern-day western.

But, all of these new series have fallen very flat for me because they are still tied to their respective superhero universes.  Men of War tells the story of what it's like to be a solider in a world with superheroes.  All-Star Western puts Jonah Hex in fricking Gotham City.  And Six Guns features bikers and bounty hunters dealing with D-list Marvel heroes and villains.

All of these comics are well written and well drawn, but I lost interest the second I saw that they contained superheroes.

Granted, once you get away from the Big 2, the world is your oyster if you want a non-superhero comic book, but why can't the Big 2 use their financial muscle and access to talent to make it a little better.

How about you?  Do you like having a helping of superhero in your genre comics?

- Dean Stell

Things To Not Worry About: Creators' Social & Political Opinions

Over the past week or so, there have been a lot of forceful, and occasionally angry, opinions posted across the internet about the thoughts and opinions that comic creators choose to espouse. Frankly, I found the initial outrage ridiculous and hardly worthy of much attention at all. The outrage I’m speaking of, of course, is the response to Frank Miller’s blog post regarding the Occupy Movement; a movement that is sweeping the country and bringing all kinds of like-minded folks to the streets to protest and attempt to stand against what they feel is political, social, and economic injustice. My views on the movement are a bit complicated and absolutely not worth discussing here—particularly as they are irrelevant to this discussion. What encouraged this post is a point that was raised on the 11 O’Clock Comics message board. On the board the following question was posed: Can you separate artists from their art? That is, does your personal opinion of an artist affect whether or not you are able enjoy his or her work?

So here’s my position: I don’t care. Not even a little bit. If I got all flibbity gibbet every time someone famous espoused a political, economic, social, or religious view that was different from me, I wouldn’t be able to watch TV, read books, watch any movies, or listen to nearly any music ever…except for maybe Rush…and that's a big maybe.

What is difference of opinion and what is "wrong"?

Interesting things happen when you interact with the public, especially when you interact with the comic book public and talk about things like art in comic books.

As some followers know, I write reviews for 7-8 current comics every week at www.weeklycomicbookreview.com.  It's a fun thing to do and I think it has made me a better comic reader because I'm constantly trying to think of ways to put into words what a comic makes me feel.

But, you see some interesting things in the comment thread....  And, I LOVE our comment thread.  There's no better feeling that knowing that something you wrote caused someone to spend some of their time interacting back, so I always try to respond to everyone on our threads.

Ordinarily, I think comics should be a no arguing zone.  I mean....when I think of the people who get into fist-shaking rages over comic book arguments, I feel kinda the way Allen Iverson used to feel about "practice".  My attitude is usually, "C'mon....we're arguing about comic books!  Are you fricking kidding me??"

And, you'll see that attitude on most of the "feel good" internet comic forums: Hey! We're all entitled to our opinions!

But....what if their opinion is legitimately dumb?