The Renaissance Age

There has been a lot of talk in the last year of the future of the comic book as we know it. More and more complaints have risen about various factors of the market be it advertisement count, content or price. Inspired by episode 75 of Indie Spinner Rack (ISR), I thought I\’d take a moment or two to wax on about the changing face of comics.

There is no denying that we are currently in what I like to call the Renaissance age of comics. The industry has come out of the dark age of comics (1986 Watchmen to about 2000, Joe Quesada named EiC of Marvel) a new found focus has been placed on the holistic view of the comic. There hasn\’t been a time that I can remember when there has been such a plentiful amount of strong collaborations across multiple publishers. In the big two, Marvel and DC are both consitently offering strong teams on their franchise titles, and are experimenting with new content. Most notably is Marvel\’s deal with the Daeble Brother line, and the pending launch of DC\’s Minx line. In addition to this, strong inroads have been made into the traditional brick and motar book stores. I remember six years ago, being pleasently surprised to find a graphic novel or trade paper back on the shelf in the local Chapters. Now, every time I go, I\’m shocked (and to be honest a bit appalled) at the size of the graphic novel section. Sure most of it is Manga, but other books, mainly with current indie cred are present (American Born Chinesse, Fun Home, Wimbledon Green). We are truly seeing a Renaissance in comics.

The Boys of ISR concluded in their discussion that this newly found quality is the first real response to the 1986 creative boom of Watchmen, DKR and other books now in comic book cannon. These early thirty year old creators are the first generation to grow up with these works. They are not making knee-jerk reactions based on their success, but instead are making works inspired, or attempting to reach what they feel is the next plateau of greatness.

There is definitely a lot of good in the industry, but as Poison crooned into our hearts, “Every tose has its thorn”. We may be firmly out of the Dark Age, but its shadow still lingers. Consider the following…

1986 was a boom in comics, but it also herald the event book with the publication of Crisis On Infinite Earths. This period (to my estimates) lasted about ten years and ended with the Onslaught mega-crossover at Marvel. Sure crossovers, and long story lines were still present, but they were mainly kept to their respective franchises. In the last year though, the rules have changed, we\’ve started to see signs that the Big Event craze is returning and being milked for all its worth (52 leads to Countdown, Civil War leads to Civil War: The Initiative to the Civil War chronicles reprint plan). Despite the press these stories are getting in all forms of media, they are failing to create new long-term readers. Books spike then within six months are selling where they were before the event. The people working on these events were the tweens and teens who were reading comics in 1986, contrast this with what I said above about the indie market and 1986.

The American cover price is finally starting to strain readers (while books are pushing 3 dollars in the states, other parts of the world, books have been 3.50 to 4.50 for sometime), advertiser dollars are becoming more important, and an increase add count (and inserts) are starting to bother readers.

With the new aggressive reprint/collection policies that Marvel, and to a lesser account DC and others are implementing, a strong argument can be made that books are being published for the trade, and thus cannibalizing the direct market in the process.

Like all forms of entertainment, piracy is a growing issue. With the rash of multiple printings, covers and the aforementioned event book, the ghost of the \’Speculator\’ is once again looming. And worst of all, somewhere along the way, we lost a sense of our cultural history.

Yes we are in a Renaissance, but its the events of the next year(s) that will determine if the next age will be a return to the dark ages, or the start of the next age.

—
This was the first in a series of articles that will discuss some of the topics above in more detail, review books, look at previews and anything else related to the world of comic books. If you have any comments, or questions about comics, I encourage you to contact me at martin@geekscape.net . I will try to incorporate your ideas and comments into future articles, and heck if enough people write, maybe we\’ll have a mail bag edition.